4th & 5th December – Doncaster & London area

 4^th December – Doncaster Area

The idea of this trip came to me at the start of November when I randomly put in London to Doncaster to find out the cost of the fares for a day where East Coast services were going via Lincoln, solely for the novelty factor of an Azuma on the line via Lincoln (also to tick off the northbound track on the Sleaford avoider, as I’ve only done it southbound, as technically that is passenger track with a late night EMR train to Lincoln from Peterborough which bypasses Sleaford due to the signal boxes being closed). [Yes I was bored when travelling towards Bradford on that GC!]

 

I got some decent priced fares with the 08:30 service from London, returning on a Hull Trains service, and after a quick search of hotel websites booked myself a room for the night in the Easy Hotel in Croydon as it was the best value option (and easy enough to reach from Kings Cross).  The day began with the 05:24 service which I took to Clapham Junction, changing over to a triple 377 for the short run to Victoria.   A long walk later took me to the Victoria line platforms where a Victoria line train took me to Finsbury Park for a little time wasting move before my booked train to Doncaster.

 

A low mileage 717 was given a small boost with the run to Alexandra Palace, where I turned down the first Kings Cross bound 717 getting given another low mileage 717 which was cleared for ten miles with the run into Kings Cross (the Moorgate route was closed for works).  A quick visit to the nearby Tesco and I was back at the station when the 08:30 towards Aberdeen had just been announced, so headed straight towards my seat in the quiet coach on this 9 coach 800.  I would say my coach was reasonably quiet and until Peterborough I had a private table (before getting joined by a group of loud kickball fans who were already on the cheap mass produced lager).

 

The route via Lincoln was uneventful, with some time spent south of Lincoln station before carrying on towards Gainsborough Lea Road and finally towards Doncaster itself, where the train sat south of the station for 20-odd minutes waiting for the correct arrival time.  Sadly for me the weather forecast was wrong and it was raining (forecast was for overcast with light showers from 4pm), also I noticed the next stopper towards Sheffield had been cancelled so I quickly came with an alternative plan (for my original plan was to take the train to Conisbrough and walk back towards Doncaster along the Transpennie Trail.

 

With my revised route roughly set out in my head I set out of Doncaster station, via the shopping centre to reach the North Bridge, via an industrial estate to reach a footpath which ran alongside the River Don, getting out into open countryside with the river to one side, meadows to the other side with the path high up on an embankment.  Not the best place to be when the rain started for there was very little cover until I reached the railway viaducts over the river.  Even the viaduct which carried the Doncaster avoiding line gave little protection due to the wind blowing the rain at an angle.  Eventually I reached the second viaduct which I believed carried the former “Hull and Barnsley and Great Central Joint Railway” route.

 

Railway viaducts over River Don near Warmsworth

 

I climbed the steps leading to the former railway line route, now turned into a shared use path, pretending to be a train (as you do), and walked along the former route, passing through the settlements of Cusworth, Bentley Rise & Scawthorpe before the path came to an end, and I joined the road network in Scawthorpe, heading towards what was signposted as the “Doncaster Greenway”, which was another shared use path, making use of the former trackbed of the Brodsworth Colliery branch (I believe).  This path came into the Highfields Country Park running in a cutting near “Hanging Wood” and eventually came to an end when it reached an old Roman Road (marked up as “Roman Ridge” on my OS Map).

 

Trackbed of former Brodsworth Colliery Line

 

 

My walk took me on this old Roman Road to head back towards Doncaster, getting quite wet as the rain had started again as I reached the settlement of Scawsby, joining the road (which wasn’t much fun in the pouring rain).  I re-joined the trackbed of the Hull and Barnsley and Great Central Joint Railway route, this time taking the chord which headed towards the former Doncaster York Road station.  Once more I joined the road network and headed back towards Doncaster town centre, where I ended my walk going into a burger chain in the shopping centre for something nice and hot to eat, before going back to the station with some new clothes purchased from Sports Direct (mainly a new pair of socks and a new tee-shirt).

 

Doncaster Avoiding Line bridge in Doncaster (yes it was that wet!)

 

I ended up in the waiting room on platform 4-8 at Doncaster, trying to dry off a bit, and spent the time before my booked southbound Hull Train was due to roll in.  Sadly it wasn’t one of my last couple Hull 802s I needed, but I found my seat, and relaxed as departure time came and went.  The driver was waiting for a route conductor for the Lincoln route and the route conductor was running late, eventually the train departed over an hour late and lost a bit more time north of Lincoln (where a Northern Lincoln service was put ahead at Gainsborough).  Eventually the train arrived into Kings Cross 80-odd minutes late, and I made my way across to St Pancras to take a 700 for the run to East Croydon, the final service which went via London Bridge rather than the crawl via Tulse Hill.

 

Needless to say when I got to the hotel room, the first thing I did was a nice warm shower and hung my clothes up to try and get them to dry a bit more (trousers, jumper).  It was a nice walk, varied scenery, and as for the delay coming back to London I was thankful to have booked a hotel in Croydon as it would have been a bit on the tight side getting to Waterloo for the final Salisbury train (35 minutes).

 

5^th December – London

 

A Travelcard was the name of the day, with an early morning 700 taken to London Bridge (where it terminated into the Southern bays) followed by the Northern line to Kings Cross St Pancras, where I headed towards the remote outpost of the MML platforms at St Pancras to catch a 700 towards Cricklewood, solely for the slight oddity of ticking off the connecting line from the MML platforms at St Pancras towards platform 3 at Kentish Town (previously when I’ve done a Thameslink out of the high platforms, they have bypassed Kentish Town).  Also this move ticked off the connection from platform 3 heading north from Kentish Town, something I might have done on an old railtour but couldn’t be sure.

 

EMUs at St Pancras

 

At Cricklewood it was a short wait for a low mileage 700 back to St Pancras, again going via platform 3 at Kentish Town, and a short walk across to Kings Cross to board another 700 which was low mileage and pushed over 10 miles with the run to Finsbury Park.  I spent the next few hours with the 717s, pushing several over 10 miles and having a couple runs to the zone 6 station of Hadley Wood.  After returning to Kings Cross it was a Met line service to Liverpool Street with a required 720 taken for the run to Cheshunt, returning to Hackney Downs on another 720, where I had noticed the Overground was running pairs (which I assume was down to the kickball at White Hart Lane).

 

700044 disappearing into a tunnel south of Hadley Wood

I took advantage of the pairs to tick off some required 710s; although I mistimed my last train as it was full when it rolled into Seven Sisters (thankfully it did empty out a bit there for passengers to use the underground).  Busy trains followed me with a very busy Central Line service to Bond Street and a busy Jubilee line train to Waterloo, but thankfully my train home was a triple 159 which was lightly loaded.

 

It was a good way to spend the Sunday, with my little red pen, the 717s is better on AC than the crawl on DC within the Moorgate tunnels.  Sorry about the lack of more detail, just that writing up details of trips for my red pen to tick off units for rideage isn't the most exciting

The new order at Hackney Downs