15 - 18th March – Long weekend exploring Derbyshire & Yorkshire
Making use of my last day of annual leave before my holiday year resets at the start of April, I booked a 3-night stay in my usual shared house in Crewe with several ideas in my head of what to do for both days.
15th March – Onwards to Crewe
The trip began with the 17:59 service from Grateley towards London Waterloo, a busy 159013 which got caught up with some delays at the London end due to congestion, nothing major. At Waterloo as I had over an hour to reach Euston and the weather wasn’t wet, I did my usual underground avoidance walk over Waterloo Bridge then via Holborn to reach Euston station, saves some money and wastes some time along the way. Euston was in its usual state of chaos with late running/cancelled Avanti services causing a large crowd on the concourse, thankfully I was using RTT to bypass the crowd to board the 350s on the 20:46 service to Crewe before it got announced.
Lady luck was on my side with Desiro Roulette this evening as the 20:46 was formed of 350112 & 350105 and I took up my usual seat at the front of the train on the extra legroom table seat (allowing me to relax and watch some videos). This was a very quiet train in terms of loadings at the front, I went back after departure to make use of the toilets and there was 5 other passengers in the front coach and hardly anybody in the 2nd coach. No doubt the rear coach would be full & standing due to the wisdom of the norm rule which states there is only one set of doors. I even had a ticket check between London & Milton Keynes.
Nothing out of the ordinary along the way with the train arriving at Crewe a couple minutes ahead of schedule allowing me to walk to the shared house and making myself comfortable (by turning the heating off as the room was quite hot). After visiting the kitchen to put a sandwich in the fridge I sorted my bag out ready for an early start on the Saturday.
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| 350112 at London Euston |
16th March – Walking the Cloud Trail
The Cloud Trail Greenway is a mixed used path along part of the disused railway route from Derby towards Ashby de la Zouch (known as the Melbourne Line). The southern starting point is in the village of Worthington in Leicestershire which isn’t blessed with many buses (2 buses each way on a Saturday on a Leicester – Castle Donington service). I did some planning and times worked out with a potential backup option if things went wrong on the first leg (for its always good to have a back-up plan when it comes to the railways).
My day started with the 06:XX EMR service from Crewe to Newark Castle with 170505, before I boarded a 68 rolled through with a freight service as well as a top & tail 37 hauled inspection train for some early morning noise. Once on board the 170 I managed to find a seat which wasn’t completely collapsed and settled down for the trip towards Derby where the 170 rolled into 170509 to form a 4-coach formation, losing some time during the reversal. This is the morning train which calls at the underserved Peartree and there didn’t seem to be any boarders this morning. I alighted at Long Eaton, sadly couldn’t get a picture due to the angle of the sun and headed towards the little Sainsburys local to grab some items for lunch.
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| 68003 at Crewe Station |
After a supply raid (and a mental challenge trying to remember my Pin for my card as contactless wasn’t working) I headed to the bus stop for a Coalville bound “Skylink Nottingham” service with Trent Barton’s bus 122 (an Enviro 200 with broken USB sockets). This was an interesting bus route which headed towards Castle Donington before going into East Midlands Airport running round the freight side before going into the passenger terminal. All the road signs saying “if you stop you will be charged £100” made the airport seem very unwelcoming and hostile in my eyes.
There was a good turnover of passengers at the airport as the bus continued towards Coalville going via Diseworth, Long Whatton, Shepshed & Thringstone, some nice little settlements in terms of buildings & some nice Leicestershire scenery. Soon the bus arrived at Coalville and with 40-odd minutes to wait before the route 125 from Leicester I had a little walk along a mixed used path along an old colliery line (Snibston Colliery) which has been turned into a museum featuring some of the old track & trucks, an unexpected surprise. Anyhow I returned to the bus stops near Memorial Square to wait for the next route 125 service to roll in from Leicester. Run by Diamond Bus East Midlands bus 30991 (an Optare MetroCity). It rolled in with 2 passengers on, both alighted in Coalville leaving just myself for the trip into the countryside Sinope, Coleorton & Newbold before reaching the village of Worthington where I alighted near the church. Passing a group of walkers, it was a short walk along a lane before picking up the access road leading to a small car park near the former Worthington station.
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| Snibston Mineral Colliery Railway Depot, Coalville |
After a couple of photos and brief stop to try sorting my bag out (as my bottle of water was digging into my back) I continued onto the mixed used path which is part of cycle route 6. A busy path at the start as there was a running club out and about on a run. The quality was a bit rough at the start before it turned more tarmac but with some areas of mud from recent rain, nothing major. The path itself was quite rural in places (one of those walks where the only sound was from nature) as it ran close to the Cloud Hill quarry. There was one section where the track bed has been lost under modern development (the A42 dual carriageway) forcing a little detour along a pavement on Doctor's Lane to join the route of the railway after the dual carriageway. I carried on, passing the remains of Tonge station as the countryside continued passing into Derbyshire with a marked boundary post (near Wilson).
I continued along the path as it reached Melbourne, although not much evidence remains of the former station of this Derbyshire town. Soon I reached the point the runners were turning back on themselves, roughly 5 miles from the start of the trail as the railway line crossed over the River Trent and Trent & Mersey Canal (where the cycle route splits to running onto the canal towpath & carrying on). The last section went via some woodland which was quite scenic and joins onto Swarkestone Road near the railway bridge of the Castle Donington freight route. This marked the end of the first section of my walk as beyond this point the railway towards Sinfin has been mostly lost.
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| Path along the former Derby - Melbourne - Ashby Railway line (Cloud Trail) in Melbourne |
Next up was a short section of walking along the road before accessing a footpath towards the Trent & Mersey canal to join the towpath (much safer) towards Swarkestone Lock where I left the canal towpath and onto the towpath running alongside the closed Derby Canal. I went underneath the Derby Bypass (A50) and into the suburbs of Derby starting with Chellaston before reaching Shelton Lock. This section wasn't the most interesting in parts as it was quite urban (and does anybody in Derby know how a bin works?)
The weather changed from being sunny to raining as I passed an Aldi reaching an industrial area (passing a place which had the plastic front sections of a 222 attached to a building). I soon reached Alvaston Park where the route of the old canal has been lost underneath Pride Park and I headed towards the banks of the Derwent near the railway bridge carrying the Derby - Long Eaton railway. I arrived at this area at a bad time due to football traffic coming in the opposite direction (had I had time I was considering heading across the river and towards Spondon station, but time wasn't on my side due to the slightly limited service that station was receiving today (roughly 2 hourly)
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| Derby Canal Path (Cloud Trail) in Chellaston (Derby) |
I continued along, passing the kickball fans heading to the kickball ground at Derby, most were pleasant enough, but some were singing rude songs whilst drinking cheap supermarket branded lager (clearly not understanding a concept of a bin either considering how much rubbish was left behind). That was quite an experience, and I was glad when I reached Derby station to finish the walk. I had a couple of options, first was to head towards Nottingham to intercept 170422 which was working on the Robin Hood line before a short tram hunt with the 19:16 service to Crewe (I didn’t want a late night as I didn’t sleep that well due to some idiotic youths playing with an off-road motorbike in the early hours). However, there was the chance to do the novelty of a detour via the Barrow Hill line to approach Sheffield from the Woodhouse direction (due to engineering works with the Dore re-modelling) (plus the novelty of doing a 222 to Crewe on a football extra). I decided to do the random track around Sheffield as sadly the timings didn’t work out to intercept that 170 and get back to Derby in time for the 222.
Turning down a 222 on a Sheffield terminator I waited a few minutes before a busy 221141 rolled in on an Edinburgh service, getting lucky to grab a seat on this 4-coach unit (XC lottery). Nonstop to Sheffield but soon lost time as it caught up with the EMR in front as it ran via the Barrow Hill line and then towards Woodhouse and Sheffield where it lost some time standing outside the station with congestion. With the limited time I had available I decided to take 150005 to Meadowhall, returning to Sheffield on 150276, had I had a bit more time I would have taken a tram to Rotherham Central to tick off both the Parkgate bound tram platform & Sheffield bound NR platform.
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| 221141 at Sheffield Station |
Back at Sheffield and I decided to board 158774 & 158864 on the next Sheffield – Norwich service for the novelty of a 158 via Barrow Hill. This took me to Chesterfield using platform 3 and a short wait before 222012 rolled in to take me back to Derby running a few minutes late due to congestion caused by a late running XC getting given the route out of Sheffield first. At Derby I arrived before 222013 rolled in from the depot and once the doors got released, I headed towards declassified first class near the kitchen (my theory is that it would have been a quieter journey). I had never noticed before at how bad the window to seat alignment is in 1st class with seats facing towards the cab having a decent view from the window but those facing away from the cab-end having a view of plastic.
I settled down and relaxed before the rest of the 1st class area started to fill with (mostly) Bolton football supporters and departure was around 15 minutes late. This service had the novelty of running nonstop to Stoke, passing a massive crowd at Uttoxeter from the races (not helped with a 2-hour gap in Stoke bound trains due to the missing diagram). The delay had been made up by Kidsgrove with an on-time arrival into Crewe. For lack of a better idea, I decided to turn in for the night, heading towards my accommodation swinging via the big Tesco to get some supplies and one of the many (many) takeaways in Crewe for a meaty pizza. It was a good day, the weather behaved until the end on my walk with the novelty of a 222 to Crewe and passenger services via Barrow Hill.
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| 222013 at Crewe Station |
17th March – Exploring the Monsal Trail
I was a bit worried when I checked the weather forecast on the Saturday evening when eating my pizza that the forecast for Bakewell was showing as “Heavy Rain” until 2pm then ‘thunder showers’, so worried that I came up with an alternative idea just in case. However, checking the forecast again in the morning (after a night of heavy rain) found the Met Office was suggesting dry after 11am with sunny spells. Good enough for me considering I wouldn’t be arriving to that area until after 11am due to the timetables. The Monsal Trail is a mixed used path which makes use of the former Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midland Junction Railway route between the town of Bakewell & Topley Pike, with a limited bus service at the Topley Pike end (roughly 2 hourly).
The day started with a loco hauled set on the 08:35 to Manchester with DVT 82201 leading and 67014 pushing the set on the Sunday morning detour via Styal. At Piccadilly I had some time to kill so popped to a shop to get lunch items before returning to the station and taking a seat on the Buxton service with 156406 leading 150104 relaxing before it departed to head towards Buxton, a line I hadn’t been along in a while (might have been early 2020 when Northern had 2tph before the world went crazy). Quite a few passengers (looked like a school group) alighted at Disley and at New Mills as the train continued into Derbyshire arriving at Buxton near enough on time. I headed towards the bus stop at Sylvan Park in the town centre where the route 65 service picked up from. This is a bus route very much on my list to do in full as it looks like it gives some beautiful scenic views of the Peak District. Anyhow Stagecoach’s 37186 rolled in (in ‘North Western Road Car’ colours) for a brief stop before carrying on to the Market Square where there was a short break.
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| Stagecoach (Yorkshire) bus 37186 (YY64 GUA) in Buxton on a route 65 for Sheffield |
After the bus does a loop of Buxton town centre it went onto the A6 and I was the only passenger to alight at the Topley Pike bus stop, near the Wyedale Car Park, where my walk began. The first section was along a woodland road running alongside the river Wye going underneath the Buxton – Peak Forest freight line a couple of times before picking up the disused railway line at Blackwell Mill (with some steep steps leading to a fenced off viaduct) and onto the path. I carried on enjoying the views and the construction with some steep cliffs and a couple of short tunnels before reaching the platforms at Millers Dale station, the former junction station.
One thing I will say is just how busy the Monsal Trail is in places, with walkers, cyclists and even some joggers/runners. The path surface was quite reasonable with some areas of puddles from the recent rain. I continued along the path, going via some more tunnels (choo choo!) and over a couple of viaducts with the river Wye running close by before that disappeared in the Longstone area. Soon the path started to head south heading towards Bakewell, passing the remains of Bakewell station (only the buildings survive, nothing remains of the platforms), and I carried on to the end of the trail at the Coombs Road viaduct where the old railway continued towards Rowsley. An enjoyable walk with some beautiful countryside, I was sad when I reached the end.
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| Inside Chee Tor Tunnel on the Monsal Trail (Former Midland Railway) between Blackwell Mill & Miller's Dale |
At the end of the trail is a steep hill leading to road level, which was the worse section due to mud. I was now onto the minor Coombs Road Lane walking towards Bakewell town centre, swinging via a couple of shops before heading towards the bus stop on Buxton Road where the Transpeak bus stopped. Bakewell itself looked very pretty and was busy, a place I will need to return to one day. Anyhow it was onto the next Buxton bound service with bus 806 (a Buxton Buzz Citaro) on the "TransPeak" service from Derby. A busy bus as it went via the countryside serving Ashford, Taddington & Burlow before dropping to Buxton where I alighted at the bus stop outside the railway station. This is another bus route on my list to try and do in full, although I suspect I've done the most scenic section.
Back to the trains and onto 156461 with 150109 up front on the next Manchester train, my phone going straight on charge as I grabbed a decent seat for the run towards Stockport. I was a bit tempted to bail at New Mills to walk the short railway line to Hayfield, but I decided that could wait for another day (where I can bolt it onto a walk along the Peak Forest Canal). I was originally going to bail at Stockport but due to a delay (caused by a late running XC) the unofficial connection to a southbound TfW was missed and with Avanti in melt-down (caused by signalling issues at Watford) the next couple of London trains were cancelled, so I stayed on the 156 to Manchester Piccadilly where I had a fast walk to platform 14 to jump onto 197109 on the next Chester train to take me to Warrington Bank Quay.
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| 390156 at Warrington Bank Quay Station |
Next up was 390040 on a London train for my first example of a refurbished 9 coach Pendo for the short journey to Crewe where I had a short wait before 197011 rolled in from Chester. Annoyingly RTT was showing this service as another 2 coach 197 but during the day it seems it had swapped over and headed to Manchester, ah well. I took this 197 to Chester as it continued towards Holyhead where I noticed another set swap with the next Crewe train (was meant to be 005 but turned out to be 006). Merseyrail was in a state of chaos due to cancellations so the only thing I could do was sit and wait 15 minutes for winner 197110 to roll in from Holyhead where it emptied out and took me to Crewe where I decided to end the day. The crowd on platform 5 was massive as well as a crowd on platform 11 for a Holyhead bound voyager, so I exited the station swinging via Tiger Bite for a burger meal deal and headed to the shared house where I munched on said burger and relaxed for the remainder of the evening. I would recommend the Monsal Trail, but for those with public transport starting at the Topley Pike end due to the more limited bus service (and at least at the Bakewell end, you can waste some time looking around the town, rather than waiting in a basic bus shelter on the side of the A6!)
18th March – Back to London via North Yorkshire
Back in October time when heading home from West Yorkshire I got delayed for over an hour due to Grand Central cancelling a service, giving me the option of either getting some money back or getting a free single ticket. I went for the free ticket option as I felt like it could be of more benefit (I was originally going to use it last month but was hit with the engineering works at Peterborough with no GC running). I also had a few old Northern freebie singles from a few years ago which I wanted to get some use out of (rather than Crewe – Manchester – Bradford with a walk along the Rochdale Canal) so after playing with RTT I came up with a plan to go to Bradford via North Yorkshire.
It was an early start with the 06:46 service from Crewe to Manchester Piccadilly with 323225 calling at all the stations, the train only getting busy after Stockport in terms of people standing (rather than taking a seat next to someone else). At Piccadilly I had a short walk to board 195117 on the next Barrow service, a busier service compared to the 323 but also quite slow going via Bolton as I think it caught up with a Blackpool bound stopper. I remained on this 195 to Lancaster where I had a 45-minute wait for the next train so I popped out of the station heading towards a large Sainsburys in order to grab supplies for lunch, out via the roads (passing the bus station which will be useful for future reference) and returning via a path next to the river then the old railway line path.
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| Stagecoach Bus 10030 (PX12 DNU) in Lancaste |
At Lancaster station once more and it was onto 158787 working the next Leeds service, going via the “Little Northwestern” line, with my good friend Stu boarding at Carnforth for a little catch-up along the way as well as looking out of the scenery at a very under-rated line. We alighted from the train at Gargrave to start a short walk. First, we headed into Gargrave itself and reached the Leeds & Liverpool canal, turning east to walk the towpath into the beautiful North Yorkshire countryside (only downside was a busy road running close to the canal so not peaceful bliss). The towpath was decent quality other than one short section which is shared with a farm access track (and was a bit muddy due to the recent rain).
We walked along the towpath reaching Skipton, staying on the canal passing the station and entrance to the short Spring Branch canal to exit the towpath at a footbridge near Gas Street, near the bus station. I said my farewell to Stu who was going to head towards Spoons, and I headed towards Skipton station via the “Black Walk”, a footpath next to a Morrisons which annoyingly no access due to a fence. I arrived at Skipton station arriving earlier than expected and managed to board 158789 on a service from Carlisle (which emptied out at Skipton).
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| Leeds & Liverpool Canal between Gargrave & Skipton |
This afternoon, it was 221143 on the London train, and I boarded coach D, ignoring my seat reservation because it was crap and managed to grab one of the unreserved tables (before heading to remove my seat reservation label to tell people it was available). The voyager departed on time and headed towards Brighouse (bringing back memories of “I walked that canal last month” when it crossed over the canal a few times. Mirfield was a worksite due to the various upgrade works and the train waited time at Wakefield Kirkgate, it would normally continue towards Pontefract, but that line was closed to a landslip, so it was diverted via Fitzwilliam (which benefited me as it was a bit of new track for voyager coverage lol).
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| 221143 at Bradford Interchange |
It wasn’t the fastest of runs towards Doncaster due to following a freight service but the train had another planned dwell at Doncaster to get it back onto the correct path on the ECML (as going via Fitzwilliam rather than Pontefract is faster). As usual for Grand Central the train got busy at Doncaster for the nice fast run to Peterborough where it had another 5-minute dwell, getting even busier before running to London Kings Cross, arriving near enough on time. As I had just over an hour before the 19:20 service from Waterloo, I had a gentle walk towards Waterloo (saves paying TfL for a peak-time Zone 1 journey on the underground).
40 minutes later, I arrived at Waterloo, grabbing something to eat from Tesco before heading to the platforms, heading to board the 19:20 service which was formed of 159017 & 159101, and I settled down for the run to Grateley to end the long weekend. From memory the train was delayed due to congestion caused by earlier delays but nothing too major. It was an enjoyable weekend with a couple old railway line paths walked as well as another section of the Leeds & Liverpool canal (for I have far too much on my list of things to do, not enough time).
Anyhow, thanks for reading, a lot more photos can be found on my Flickr, Here, back to a couple weeks of day trips (including the Easter weekend) before a busy looking April
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