2nd & 3rd November – A Weekend in the North East

 2nd & 3rd November – A Weekend in the North East

Another weekend getaway (making the most of my weekends off when I still can), this time heading towards the North East with accommodation sourced in Whitley Bay.  A different hotel to one I’ve previously used in this area, but one of the cheapest which was reasonably close to a Metro stop & didn’t have any dodgy sounding “payment is via bank transfer” or “we will require a £100 cash deposit when checking in” restrictions a couple places south of the Tyne I found.

The idea, weather permitting was to do some walking, with the idea from Bishop Auckland on one of the old railway lines heading north.

2nd November – Fatigued in Newcastle

The trip began with the 05:24 service from Grateley and when I woke on the Saturday, I knew something was wrong with my body (I suspect it was simply the long week catching up with me) and I restricted the urge to go back to bed and made my way to the station for 159010 to Waterloo.  In London I headed towards Kings Cross using the underground (3537/3240 to Oxford Circus & 11064/11063 to Kings Cross), without noticing that Arsenal were away to Newcastle in the kickball on the lunchtime kick-off with only an hourly LNER running between London & Newcastle.

My reserved seat was in coach C of 801206 on the 07:30 service to Edinburgh which was very busy with kickball fans, already on the booze, and singing various football related songs.  I decided to simply bail at York to get away from the noise and instead take my chance on a 3 coach TPE service for Darlington (engineering works resulting in the Saltburn trains diverting to Darlington instead of going towards Middlesborough.  Thankfully 185147 was lightly loaded and made a lovely noise on the fast run towards Darlington (it’s been a while since my last decent high-speed run on a 185).  This service terminated in one of the south facing bays at Darlington, which could be the last time I use these bays considering the speed of process with the new platforms which will mean the trains from Saltburn no longer crossing the ECML.

185147 at Darlington

Stepping back a train didn’t cost me any time, all it did was reduce the fester as I popped out of the station to buy my day ranger and returned to take 158842 to Bishop Auckland where I decided against the walk towards Spennymoor, instead remaining on board the 158 to Newton Aycliffe where I did head out for a gentle stroll along the cycle path (signposted as Locomotion Way) which ran alongside the railway back towards Shildon, arriving earlier than expected to take 158842 back to Bishop Auckland for a 2nd time before alighting at North Road, which turned into a rush due to congestion in the town centre Boots when I purchased lunch.

It was onto a busy winner 801220 to take me to Newcastle, where I headed towards the Metro station, taking sets 4008 & 4036 for the trip towards Whitley Bay so I could get checked into the guest house, dropping off some weight before heading back out.  4023 & 4013 took me towards South Gosforth where I stepped back to 4031 & 4072 to Central Station.  I did keep my eye out for any of my last couple of sub mile Metro Cars, although knowing my luck both 4017 & 4068 are long term out of use.  Time to turn my attention to my little red pen as I managed to get a seat on a very busy 802215 to Durham, fighting to get off the train (knew I should have aimed for the XC instead!).

158842 at Shildon Station

20 or so minutes later, winner 801216 rolled in to take me back to Newcastle where I had a short wait before winner 801201 rolled in from Edinburgh which took me to Darlington, skipping Durham.  A slightly late running 802213 returned me to Newcastle giving me a few minutes to make my way across to another platform to grab a seat on winner 801203 back to Durham.  Leaving me with just the 2 of the LNER fleet to get, one was sitting on Heaton depot the other working services which didn’t go north of York, which considering the mostly hourly timetable wasn’t a bad score for the day (4 out of 6).

To make things better, I managed to catch a late running 800111 back to Newcastle to get back 15 minutes earlier than expected, and I headed to the Metro station to board the first train towards Whitley Bay with 4032 & 4015, making my way to the guesthouse where I collapsed into the comfy bed, unusual for a Sunday trip in not setting an alarm.  I would wake up when my body wanted me to, even though I did get up a couple times in the night with the feeling of wanting to throw up but nothing actually coming up.

801201 at Darlington Station

3rd November – How the East was Won

I exited the accommodation around 8:30 on the Sunday morning, I would recommend the Melrose Guest House, decent beds and very quiet, and only 5 minutes from the metro station.  Had I felt better I would have gone to the Spoons for breakfast but decided against food in an attempt to get my stomach to reset itself to flush out the bug.  I missed a “St James” bound service at Whitley Bay in the hunt of a TVM which is hidden away due to building works, so it was onto 4016 & 4030 for the trip to Central Station via South Gosforth.

I had some time to kill at Newcastle station as the delay reaching meant I missed a southbound XC which I could have taken to Durham, instead I waited for winner 801217 to arrive from Darlington to take me to Alnmouth, which was probably the better option for some scenic views.  In theory I could have bailed at Morpeth for a 40-minute wait for a southbound train, but I didn’t fancy hanging around Morpeth station as from memory the seating isn’t the best.

802205 at Alnmouth Station

Turning down a TPE for Newcastle, it was onto a very busy 801208 on a London service, being lucky to grab an unclaimed seat before the masses boarded at Newcastle, with this service taking me to Darlington giving me 30 or so minutes to waste, so I did have a little stroll out of the station just to pass the time.  I returned to the station in good time with my fingers crossed as winner 801214 rolled in on an Edinburgh service to take me back towards Durham.  My last LNER Azuma (woohoo!) for my little red pen, at least the next time I return to the North East (or even West Yorkshire) I don’t have to worry about LNER until their new units start arriving, whenever that will be.

At Durham, after a quick photo I headed under the subway to the southbound platform to board former Avanti 221114 leading 220017 on a XC service, which was quite easy to grab a seat for the run to York.  I changed to board 180103 on a nonstop London service, getting lucky to grab one of the unreserved seats in the rear coach before the masses boarded, ending up full & standing, but after being on Hitachi units a lot in the previous 30 hours, I decided on a change from the bright red seats, even if it wasn’t a fast run due to catching up with the previous Edinburgh – London train a couple of times which was running late, with the 180 arriving into platform 9 at Kings Cross.

801214 at Durham Station.  Class Cleared

It took me around 5 minutes to get off the train (one issue with only having one passenger door in the leading coach) as I made my way towards the underground jumping onto 11027 & 11028 to Oxford Circus before 3259 & 3550 on what felt like a slow train (new driver?) to Waterloo, giving me a few minutes to board the 16:20 service for Andover with 159104 & 159002 on this busy service (it was the end of half term).  At Andover the train terminated and customers transferred to replacement buses, there was a double decker for Sherborne school only with no other coaches in sight for the other passengers for Salisbury/Gillingham, but thankfully an unbranded Merc Sprinter minibus (EX02 BUS) was the transport for Grateley (and Tisbury) passengers.  Felt strange travelling in this minibus as it had tinted windows, but at least I got to Grateley and walked home where I could relax after a successful weekend for my little red pen, not so for walking.  I was feeling better compared to the morning and come the Monday was back to normal so just one of those short-term bugs I must have caught which is doing the rounds at the moment.