25th – 28th April, Long weekend based in Crewe.

 25th – 28th April, Long weekend based in Crewe.

Another long weekend in the shared house in Crewe with a focus on some old railway lines having swapped a planned Shropshire Union canal walk for another trip.

25th April – Onwards to Crewe

The trip began with a very tight connection with the 17:37 from Andover driving there after work and after swinging home, only as the 17:59 from Grateley was showing as cancelled for some unknown reason.  I was glad to have picked up my tickets the day before as otherwise I wouldn’t have made it as the train formed of 159008, 159103 & 159107 was rolling into the station at Andover just as I went underneath the subway.  Far too close for comfort, but I managed to get a spare table seat near the rear of the train and settled down to relax with some videos.

Nothing unusual happened along the way and the train arrived at London Waterloo near enough on time, the rain seemingly ended when I headed out of the station (at first to waste some time before 19:00 where I would get a discount fare for the underground) but decided to walk to Euston, dodging the various puddles and theatre goers.  At Euston I arrived in good time, making my way towards the platform the 19:46 to Crewe was departing from, and as soon as an Avanti service departed from the opposite platform the barrier was opened and passengers were allowed onto the train.  350372 & 350252 was on this service, made busier as the 18:46 service got spun at Milton Keynes.

350372 at London Euston

The 350s departed quite busy, even at the front of the train (I was in the extra legroom table seat) slowly emptying out as time went on, but including myself there was at least 4 passengers in the front coach doing the service end to end.  Arrival into Crewe was around 5 minutes late due to congestion at the London end, so not the biggest delays I’ve had on London Northwestern.  I made my way to the shared house (via the Tesco Express at the Esso garage to grab some breakfast items and dodging various idiotic cyclists riding on pavements with no lights and in dark clothing, they will only blame others if they dash out in front of a car/lorry without looking at junctions and the driver doesn’t see them).

Anyhow at the shared house, I made use of the fridge, turning down the offer for food from one of the other residents and sorted my rucksack out in the single room, getting ready for a long day on the Friday.

26th April – Churnet Valley & Great Northern Rail walks.

The Churnet Valley line once ran from Uttoxeter to North Rode (in Cheshire) and was a victim of cuts in the early 60s with part of the line preserved by the Churnet Valley Railway.  The part of the line which has been turned into a mixed used path runs for around 5 miles between the village of Oakamoor to the village of Denstone via Alton.  It is one of those old railway line walks which takes some thinking on how to reach as Denstone gets an hourly bus service between Derby & Uttoxeter (the Swift) Oakamoor is limited to 1 weekday only bus between Stoke/Hanley to Uttoxeter with a handful of additional bus services ran to serve Alton Towers when the theme park is open.  Oddly this bus route (the D&G operated 32A doesn’t show on Google Maps which I felt was a bit strange considering it serves Alton Towers.

Anyhow the day for me began with an early morning stroll towards Crewe bus station, a lot has changed since my last visit a year ago with a new multi storey carpark being built (although not like there is a shortage of car parking spaces in Crewe) with the new bus station looking nearly complete.  Anyhow it was onto the First operated route 3 service to Hanley Bus Station (with bus 63117) on this service via Alsager, Kidsgrove & the northern towns making up the city of Stoke on Trent.  At the bus station I headed to a nearby large Tesco Extra to buy some lunch items and to make use of the toilet.  I returned to the bus station at Hanley with various colourful buses floating around (both from First and D&G, sadly the sun was in an annoying angle which limited my photo taking chances.

D&G Bus 173 (YJ59 GHH) near Hanley bus station on a route 24

The 08:45 service to Uttoxeter arrived a few minutes late, in the hands of an Enviro200 fleet 781 and departed around 10 minutes late due to a large passenger flow with nearly every seat taken.  A few alighted along the way as it headed away from Stoke on Trent towards the pretty looking town of Cheadle before heading towards Oakamoor via some narrow country roads which some steep hills & corners.  I was the only person to alight in Oakamoor (I suspect most of the passengers on the bus were for Alton Towers, making use of the £2 single fares on this route), and my walk began.

I headed away from the village centre into a park area near the river Churnet, taking a photo of the old bridge over the river before picking up the route of the old railway line, doing a small double back towards the portal of the sealed-up tunnel before picking up the railway route passing the remains of the platforms at Oakamoor station.  The path quality was quite reasonable, a bit muddy in places but nothing that major and soon I reached nirvana, an area where if I paused the only sound, I could hear was the birds singing and the sound of the river running close-by.  Some beautiful woodland as well, I was in a happy place.  I continued to reach the former Alton (Towers) station (renamed in the 1950s when the theme park opened) where the station building is now a holiday let.

Alton Towers Station on Churnet Valley Line

After Alton the path turned a bit more muddy due to being shared with a farm, but that only lasted a few minutes before returning to reasonable as I put my foot down as I made a mistake with the bus times at Denstone as I misread the timetable and had 15 minutes past the hour in my head which is the time for the buses towards Uttoxeter, towards Derby it was on the hour.  Mixed up with being 15 minutes late to start the walk meant I was in risk of missing the bus screwing up my plans.  Thankfully I made it to Denstone with time to spare after pausing for some more photos of this lovely peaceful area, passing the remains of Denstone station and onto the road towards the bus stop used by Derby bound buses.  Although I could have hung back a bit more as the next bus was running around 5 minutes late.

The next Trentbarton operated "Swift" route rolled in with a Wright Eclipse (fleet 736) as I took a seat near the rear as the bus headed away from Denstone towards Ashbourne (with a good turnover of passengers and a place I plan to return to when I walk the old railway line from Pomeroy.  After Ashbourne the bus picked up the A52 road heading towards Derby via some smaller villages and I alighted at the entrance to Markeaton Park (just before the bus reached the A38) to begin my second walk.

Bus Shelter near the Tavern in Denstone

The first section of this walk was alongside the A38 "Kingsway" road before picking up cycle route 54 towards Mackworth Park and Mickleover Meadows.  A short section of walking on the road of a housing estate before picking up the start of the Great Northern Greenway near the former Mickleover Railway Station (the buildings remain in private arms, no idea if anything remains of the platforms as that’s private land).  This path runs along part of the former Great Northern Railway’s Derbyshire and Staffordshire extension (running from Burton towards Derby (Friargate) then Nottingham (via the Bennerley Viaduct)).

Onto the old railway line path which was quite busy with other users for the first mile or so, the path headed into the countryside leaving the Mickleover area of Derby behind and turning quite nice with the bird song and views. The cycle path split just before the bridge underneath the A516 with route 68 heading away from the old railway line (signposted for Ashbourne) with route 54 heading under the bridge and back to the old railway line (the original line being lost for the road development).  The old railway line passed the settlement of Etwall with no evidence of the former station (other than a simple sign).

The path continued away from Etwall, going underneath the busy A50 (Derby Bypass) coming to an end on the outskirts of Hilton, near to where the railway used to join with the Derby – Stoke line near Egginton Junction (where a manual level crossing is located).  The railway path at an end, I headed along the “Hilton Greenway” path towards the village, picking a bus stop near Nene Way, a bus stop which annoyingly had poor mobile data signal so I didn’t see that the bus was running 20-odd minutes late (had I known I would have continued a bit further).  Eventually the “Villager” bus rolled up with Trent Barton’s 740 as I took a seat on board (making use of the USB sockets for a quick charge) with the bus heading away from Hilton towards Hatton, crossing the railway line and into Tutbury before heading towards Rolleston on Dove which is where I alighted.

Former Great Northern Railway line between Mickleover & Etwall (Great Northern Greenway)

My 3rd and final walk originally was only going to be a short walk along a section of the old Great Northern line.  This is branded as the Jinny Nature Trail, passing the remains of Rolleston on Dove station (which has been turned into a flower garden).  The old railway line path here is only just over a mile long as it reached Stretton, passing the remains of Stretton and Claymills station (although nothing really remains other than signs).  The rest of the Great Northern line has been lost to modern developments and in hindsight I ought to have finished it in Stretton and caught the Villager bus towards Derby (where another section of the old Great Northern route is available to explore in the Breadsall area of the city but that can wait for another day.

For some reason I decided to continue a bit further going underneath the A38 and onto the Trent & Mersey Canal, and after checking timings decided to walk towards Burton along a recently upgraded section of towpath (all the gravel) reaching the Shobnall area of Burton before heading back towards Stretton via the “Kingfisher Trail”, a cycle path running parallel to the canal so a bit different than just doubling back along the gravel path.

Trent & Mersey Canal between Burton Upon Trent & Willington

Back at Stretton I rejoined the canal towpath which changed from gravel to a more solid surface, heading away from Burton with the towpath upgrade works in process as I reached an area where the soil had been dug out ready for the hard surface to be installed as the towpath headed underneath the A5121.  This section of canal was quite noisy as it ran close to the A38 road (which was quite busy with traffic).  The towpath soon turned to grass & a bit of mud (nothing that serious) as my legs were starting to feel the pain (at this point I would say I was over 20 miles for the day).  The final push towards the village of Willington where after swinging via the little Co-Op I headed to the limited served station to collapse on the bench, being thankful it wasn’t raining as the waiting shelters had disappeared.

The walk along the canal was quite good nearer the end (once it moved away from the main road), and is another section of the Trent & Mersey covered, as a busy 170636 rolled in from the Birmingham direction to take me one stop to Derby for a reasonable connection to 170530 on the next Crewe service which I took to Uttoxeter to meet up with a dear old friend for a meal & brief catchup in the Spoons.  I returned to Uttoxeter station an hour later to catch 170501 to Crewe, arriving at just after 9pm which was late enough for me.  After swinging via the Tesco at the garage (noticing the bar area in the former Best Western hotel was open, since finding out that hotel has reopened).  Back to the shared house, bumping into everybody else staying there that evening (quite unusual to bump into people from the other 3 rooms at the same time) as I put my sandwich in the fridge, having a quick shower and relaxing my sore legs.

170639 arriving at Willington Station

27th April – Railways in Newark & High Marnham

Another early start (yay!) with the 06:07(odd) EMR service from Crewe my ride towards Nottingham with 170502 and featuring a very proactive & friendly guard (I’ve been on some EMR services where the guard has basically hidden away in the back cab).  My first idea for today was to take this 170 all the way to Newark to change for a bus towards Sutton on Trent for another bus, until I noticed the timetable on the Marshalls (of Sutton on Trent) website saying it was a guaranteed connection from the bus an hour later (on the likes of Google Maps it has both buses departing at the same time so doesn’t show up as a connection).  However, along the way from Crewe I had another idea and booked a bus on the Nottsbus Connect service from Newark Castle around 09:30.

With this in mind I changed at Nottingham heading to the little Tesco near to the station to grab some lunch items before taking 222011 to East Midlands Parkway returning towards Nottingham with 158862 with 170513 on the rear locked out of use, which detached at Nottingham.  The 158 was quite busy as it headed to Newark Castle and I was glad to have alighted before the Newark massive boarded.  I headed towards the bus stop near to the station which is where the app was suggesting the minibus was due to arrive for today, I was sampling my first ever “Demand Responsive Transport” service.

My taxi for Cotham, Nottsbus on Demand minibus RX71 TNN near Newark Castle Station

The Nottsbus Connect had recently expanded to cover the area to the south of Newark replacing a couple of limited-service bus routes, and hence making things a lot easier to reach the village of Cotham (which previously had a bus service running twice a week).  This is where a short (5 mile) path starts which makes use of the former Great Northern (it’s that company again!) route from Newark to Bottesford, the section south of Cotham not being available for public access with the cycle route which makes use of it (64) going via country roads towards Bingham.  Anyhow I had a private minibus (RX71 TNN) for the journey to Cotham with the driver only having one more booking for the day so far, still for me at least it was free as there is an offer on the website giving the first booking for free.

Anyhow the minibus dropped me in the small village centre (near the old bus shelter & disused phone box) as I headed along the road to the old railway bridge, picking up the route of the railway as it headed in a northern direction towards Newark.  It was surprisingly busy with other users including a running club (I presume making use of it being traffic free as a way to doing timed practise runs).  Some beautiful peaceful countryside before I reached the outskirts of Newark with Balderton, passing a lake (used for fishing) and towards the ECML where for the last half a mile the path runs alongside the ECML coming to an end with a disused platform at Newark Northgate station.  An enjoyable walk in the countryside, certainly made a lot easier with that demand bus service at the southern end to avoid doubling back or walking along country-roads/footpaths to reach Bottesford.

800209 passing Newark Northgate Station

I headed towards the centre of Newark, getting lost looking for the Morrisons (to make use of the toilets and to grab some supplies) before making my way to the modern looking bus station for the next route 37 service for Retford, run by Marshalls of Sutton on Trent so a new operator for me with an Optare Versa running (OP86) running late as the 37s interwork with a route 77 Newark town bus and traffic was awful.  Took 10 minutes from the bus station to the railway station but thankfully the connection in North Muskham to the 2 hourly “Nottsbus Connect” 339 service (with a little Optare Solo OP128) being my private bus going via some little villages (Cromwell, Carlton on Trent, Suton on Trent) to Low Marnham alighting at the bus stop on Gracefield Lane.

Rear of Marshalls of Sutton-on-Trent Bus YJ60 LRX near Low Marnham on a route 339

The first section of my second walk was a mile walking along the road towards Fledborough, thankfully not the busiest of roads, as I picked up the route of the former “Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway” route which ran from Lincoln towards Sheffield & Chesterfield.  This section is close to the end of the High Marnham Test Track running from Shirebrook to the former High Marnham power station.  Another one of those cycle paths which seemingly end in a random place this being route 647 (leading into route 64 near Harby).

I left the road dropping onto the route of the old railway line, passing the overgrown remains of Fledborough railway station and reaching the long Fledborough Viaduct which crosses the Trent (and many fields).  This area was another peaceful line with some nice views of the countryside passing the remains of Clifton railway station (one platform & the buildings now a private house).  This line heading near enough straight east the first main settlement reached was Skellingthorpe where the path does move away from the old railway line in parts.  No evidence of the former station remains other than a sign saying “station was here” as I headed on the final section leading towards a path running alongside the busy A46 over the railway [Lincoln – Gainsborough line] and Foss Navigation before dropping down onto the towpath alongside this small canal.

Side View of Fledborough Viaduct

Had timings been better I was toying with heading towards Saxilby along the canal but the connection at Lincoln is a bit rubbish between trains from Saxilby to trains for Nottingham so instead headed towards Lincoln along a bit of a disappointment as the path was at the bottom of a bank so there was hardly any decent views of the Foss Navigation.  Ah well, as I moved a bit faster on seeing the timings with the potential of making an earlier train from Lincoln (which had the big advantage of starting at Lincoln rather than Grimsby).  Anyhow I reached Brayford Pool with many (many) tourists out enjoying the weather as I reached Lincoln station just after the train arrived from Nottingham.  Another enjoyable old railway line path, lots of countryside fresh air and a place to think clearly.

The footbridge to platform 4/5 at Lincoln is very narrow and unsuitable for the passenger loadings at this city centre station, as I took a seat on a very busy 158846 with a rough plan at the Nottingham end to intercept my last 170 needed for mileage at Bingham.  However, that plan went into the bin as the 158 departed 5 minutes late and only got later, reaching Newark 10 minutes late forcing a rethink as I bailed out and headed to Waitrose to have a nosey to see if they had anything of interest (other than a bottle of pop as I was thirsty)

158846 at Newark Castle Station

For lack of a better plan, I decided to ditch the 170 for another day and instead take a seat on 170506 (with 170516 on the rear locked out of use until Nottingham due to short platforms) for the long and slow journey towards Crewe.  Something I won’t be doing again in a hurry!  Anyhow at Crewe I boarded winner 197005 for the spin out to Wem, returning to Crewe on a late running 158821 & 158819 on the stopper (local door only due to short platforms and lack of SDO).  I left the station, swinging via Tiger Bite to grab a burger meal box (as I didn’t fancy a pizza and was quite hungry), eating the food in the lounge area of the house (which unlike the previous night was quiet, with only a contractor whom is staying there for 3 weeks when on a job hanging around).  A good day with two different old railway line walks covered, part of me was tempted to leave the Lincoln walk for another day and head towards Bingham to try and cover the “Bingham Linear Park” but that can wait for another trip (after-all that isn’t going anywhere soon and doesn’t require buses).  Weather wise I got lucky as heavy rain was forecasted for Lincoln around lunchtime but I think that stayed mostly to the south as I only had a couple of short drizzles at times along the walk but nothing that major nor long lasting.

28th April – An ever-changing plan for ever changing weather.

My original idea for today was going to take the first London bound LNR service to Northampton to change for a bus towards Weedon Bec to walk the Grand Union canal towards Daventry (following off with a short disused railway line in the Daventry area) before taking a bus to Northampton.  Or taking that first train to Milton Keynes for a bus to Newport Pagnell to walk the old railway line path to Wolverton for another train to Leighton Buzzard for the canal walk to Tring.  However, both ideas soon were put aside due to forecast heavy rain in that general area.  At one point I was considering doing a little day return towards Liverpool to see if any winning 777s were out and about but when I woke up on Sunday morning, I couldn’t drum up the energy to head to Liverpool.

I eventually made it out of bed, checking out of the shared house and headed to the station via the Tesco garage for breakfast (and lunch), as based on the forecast the rain would clear up around Lichfield later that morning with most of the wet stuff staying to the south (using the predicted weather map on the Met Office website).  I boarded a triple 350 formed of 350252, 350372 & 350246 taking a seat in the 350/3 looking up a couple of options, deciding to bail at Lichfield Trent Valley and making a reasonably fast paced walk to the bus stop on the A5127 for a Diamond operated route 12E service for Burton on Trent (with bus 31417, an Enviro200) being my private ride to the village of Fradley where my walk began.  Thankfully the rain had mostly ceased at this point with only a couple shorter showers.  As far as I could tell the 12E service is the stopper for Burton with a faster X12 service running in front of it (which runs fast along the A38).

350246 departing Lichfield Trent Valley Station

The first section of my walk took me along the Coventry Canal towards Fradley Junction where this canal joins up with the Trent & Mersey Canal and I was still trying to decide to turn right to head towards Burton or to turn left to head towards Rugeley, for both were about the same sort of distance however the trip towards Burton involved a couple of miles where the canal runs near enough parallel to the A38 dual carriageway (which wouldn’t be that much fun) so I decided to head towards Rugeley, passing a small marina with a decent quality towpath heading towards a rural area.  The decent towpath lasted a couple of miles before turning more rural on this beautiful woodland canal as it headed towards Bromley Hayes then towards Handsacre where the countryside element became more urban.  I went underneath the WCML near Armitage (a bridge I dread to think how many times I’ve crossed over it) and carried on as the canal returned to more rural, although not as quiet as the section near Fradley.

Soon I reached the outskirts of Rugeley and the hard surface towpath returned, although a case of dodging the odd puddle due to the recent rain.  I paused for a few minutes near the railway bridge carrying the Chase line over the canal for a photo of a train between the Rugeley stations before carrying on ending my walk along the canal at Station Road, and headed towards Rugeley Trent Valley station.  Another section of the Trent & Mersey canal walked but it was time to sit on a bench, have my late lunch and rest my feet whilst watching passing trains.

350374 crossing the Trent & Mersey Canal in Rugeley

Time for me to play Desiro Roulette with the next London bound service, getting lucky with 350105 leading 350262, I even got a decent table seat in the /1 as my phone went on charge and I settled down to relax for the trip to London.  Nothing unusual happening along the way other than a short delay caused by late running Avanti services getting put ahead near Rugby.  Arrival into Euston gave me around an hour to get to Waterloo for the next Andover service, so I set off on foot with some beautiful sunshine (and evidence of some serious rain with the mild flooding near Euston Road).

At Waterloo, it was onto 159002 & 159022 to form the next Andover service as it was replacement buses in the Salisbury area today.  A busy service this and soon I was at Andover and into an organised system where passengers for Gillingham were directed towards one coach, passengers for Salisbury for another coach and passengers for Grateley & Tisbury told to wait in the middle.  I was expecting a single decker bus from Newbury & District or South West Coaches to roll in to form the ‘stopper’ but it turned out to be a Transit Minibus (HN16 VDO) where I didn’t manage to catch the operator.  Departed Andover with 5 passengers on board, 2 (including myself) were for Grateley the other 3 for Tisbury, I guess making sense using a minibus on the country lanes near Tisbury.

Rear of Minibus HN16 VDO at Grateley Station on a rail replacement service

Anyhow I soon walked home, and relaxed for the rest of the evening, resting my feet which were showing signs of having enough walking for the weekend.  An enjoyable weekend away with some nice old railway lines explored as well as parts of the Trent & Mersey canal.  Unusually for me a weekend with no train cancellations or major delays causing replans.  Thanks for reading, more photos can be found on my Flickr.  May is another busy month featuring 4 railtours and one overnight trip to Crewe [which was previously another Friday – Monday stay but I’ve had to cut it down to Friday – Sunday due to the Railtour on the first Friday in May.