If a genuine rail enthusiast was making my journey...

[Harlesden]

... what would he/she be looking out for or hoping to see?

East Coast - King's Cross-Newark Northgate - early morning
EMT - Newark Northgate-Grimsby Town via Lincoln - mid morning

Early evening return
East Coast - Doncaster-King's Cross
(having taken a RRB Grimsby Town-Doncaster)

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Kings Cross-Newark NG:
- Work on the Hitchin flyover, probably east side would be best.
- Holme Fen, south of Peterborough, the lowest point on the rail network at 6m (or is it ft?) below sea level. Probably also one of the lowest in the UK generally too.
- The site of the world speed record for a steam train at Essendine, between Peterborough and Stoke Summit (IIRC), of course made by Mallard in 1938. There's a commemorative board on the Up (east) side of the line.
- The old Barkston Curve north of Grantham, which closed in 2005. It again is on the east side and is rather obvious. It's right after a tunnel too if that helps.

Newark NG-Grimsby Town:
- I don't know the line that well (I've only ever done it once or twice), but there's always Lincoln Cathedral and the High Street level crossing to look out for. As much as I love it, Fenland / flatland scenery does have an awful tendency to be thoroughly tedious, though that's fine by me, makes a change from the moors and hills where I hail from! Perhaps you could measure how far from either side of Lincoln you can see the cathedral, like with Ely (which is well in excess of 10 miles from the March line).

Donny-Kings Cross:
- As above with sides reversed obviously, but also the flat crossing (the only main line one left in the UK where standard gauges cross) just north of Newark.

 

[hairyhandedfool]

There is a thing of wonder and beauty just before Finsbury Park on the eastern side of the ECML as you head north, it's called the Emirates Stadium.

I would be looking out for Hornsey Depot, Bounds Green Depot, the FCC sidings at Peterborough and the GBRF fuelling point (usually with some class 20s hanging about) and maybe the works and sidings at Doncaster.

 

[Bedpan]

For the first leg, excluding what has already been mentioned, to begin with there's Gasworks and Copenhagen tunnels immediately after leaving Kings Cross, which are hard to miss. There's also the HS1 line passing over the line between the two tunnels.

Then there's the line from Moorgate approaching from the east and passing under the main line just after you pass the Arsenal stadium.

I'd also be looking out for Ferme Park Depot on the west side of the line between Harringay and Hornsey, followed immediately by Hornsey depot (east side) and then Bounds Green (west side) with the Hertford loop branching off to the east at the end of the depot.

Flyover and sidings at Welwyn Garden City, followed by the bottleneck over the impressive Welwyn Viaduct, through Welwyn North Station, and two tunnels.

Hertford loop rejoining from the east just before Stevenage.

Often a few bits and bobs in the yard at Hitchin.

Remains of the long closed Bedford - Cambridge line at Sandy - it comes in from the east and then, to the north of the station, rises to cross the line and continue west. Before Peterborough, just after the football ground on the east side, you cross the line from Ely on a lattice girder bridge. On the west side the Peterborough statin of the Nene Valley Railway can just be seen, alongside this is or was "Railworld" which includes an easily seeable monorail car.

I'll let somebody else take over for the journey north of Peterborough.

 

[trentside]

Newark NG-Grimsby Town:
- I don't know the line that well (I've only ever done it once or twice), but there's always Lincoln Cathedral and the High Street level crossing to look out for. As much as I love it, Fenland / flatland scenery does have an awful tendency to be thoroughly tedious, though that's fine by me, makes a change from the moors and hills where I hail from! Perhaps you could measure how far from either side of Lincoln you can see the cathedral, like with Ely (which is well in excess of 10 miles from the March line).

You can see Lincoln Cathedral from the ECML south of Newark on a clear day, and also at night when it's illuminated. I often head into the vestibule and try to spot it on the approach to Newark as it means I'm getting near to home

Some other things to spot between Newark and Grimsby;

- Semaphore signalling between Newark and Swinderby.

- The view over the Brayford pool in Lincoln, of the University, Cathedral and Castle. You've also got Central Station itself - a beautiful building.

- The old Lincoln MPD just to the east of Central station, now in use as a bus garage by Stagecoach - but still retaining the original carriage shed.

- Wrawby Junction signal box, I believe the second largest mechanical box still in operation in the UK. Just on the approach to Barnetby - plus the associated loops and sidings. There's also the semaphore signalling.

- The closed station at Brocklesby, along with its unusual signal box.

There are probably more things to see, but these are the immediate ones that spring to mind - both from an enthusiasts and normal passengers point of view.

 

[12CSVT]

There is a thing of wonder and beauty just before Finsbury Park on the eastern side of the ECML as you head north, it's called the Emirates Stadium.

There was a thing of wonder and beauty on the other side of the line until about 30 years ago called Finsbury Park depot, home to some of the deltics.

 

[High Dyke]

As you emerge from the northern portal of Stoke Tunnel the remains of the Stainby branch trailing in from the west at High Dyke. Entering Grantham there was the loco shed on the left - now a housing estate; and after the station, about where the Nottingham/Skegness line diverges (Nott'm Branch Jn) can be seen the remains of the former line into Ambergate station (the original station in Grantham), but latterly was a goods yard.

Onwards from Newark the alignment of the Midland line into St Mark's Station has long disappeared under redevelopment, but the old GN Goods warehouse opposite East Holmes SB is still used, now part of the university buildings. Oh and prior to that the unmissable view of the 'old folks home'...err i mean Lincoln Signalling Centre at West Holmes.

Beyond Lincoln there is the Welton oil terminal and siding near Langworth and the steady meander along the foot of the Lincolnshire Wolds.

 

[Boothby97]

Arriving at Barnetby, on your right hand side there may be a freight train awaiting a path or a freight reversing.
For the return, when at Doncaster you have the West Yard, which is visible from Platform 8 and usually there is a ECML (Class 67) thunderbird along with rolling stock awaiting to move into the works and some other locomotives and on track machines also do stable there.
When heading south from Doncaster there is a large selection of yards on both sides of the train with GBRf, Freightliner, and DBS locomotives all visible.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Thanks, Sam

 

[DaveNewcastle]

At the start of the long dual track descent that starts after the cuttings north of Huntingdon, you pass Abbots Ripton, which is the site of the fatal Flying Scotsman crash of 1876 in a blizzard, and where the weight of snow prevented a signal arm rising to 'on' to protect a preceeding goods train which was reversing into a siding. (Signalling was changed forever after that.)
The site is just before the lonely St Andrews Church standing in fields at Woodwalton, on the east side.

Before Peterborough, just after the football ground on the east side, you cross the line from Ely on a lattice girder bridge. On the west side the Peterborough statin of the Nene Valley Railway can just be seen, . . . .

It is worth noting that the 'jump' up onto that bridge is the steepest gradient on the ECML between London and Edinburgh*. It's only a couple of hundred meters at 1 in 100, but it is remarkable in shifting from going under a road bridge to over another road in such a short distance (both roads being at similar heights).

* [I say steepest between London and Edinburgh, as I believe the short drop out of Kings Cross to get under the canal may be steeper, and the corresponding climb into Waverley from Calton tunnel is definitely steeper]

Other points of rail interest between Peterborough and Grantham include:
a six-track railway over Helpston LC, before the line to Stamford, Oakham and Leicester veers off to the west;
remnants of an east-west railway bridge at Essendine (with spans off to the east side towards Bourne);
remnants of another east-west railway bridge at Little Bytham (Leicester - Melton - Spalding);
the site of the first 100mph speed record by the Flying Scotsman in 1934 , also at Little Bytham (and which unlike the Mallard record, does not have a commemorative sign)

Much further north, just as the right-left-right-left-right curves before Retford begin at Tuxford, there is the recently re-opened line into Marnham colliery on a bridge over the ECML.

There is a thing of wonder and beauty just before Finsbury Park on the eastern side of the ECML as you head north, it's called the Emirates Stadium.

To my mind, 'a thing of beauty and wonder' right there is on the other side of the track: its Sarah Wrigglesworth's eco house, "The Straw House" which stands on stilts next to the ECML, insulated with straw bales and quilting, and which includes an observation tower.

 

[Bedpan]

Anybody remember the Ian Allen Famous Trains booklets? There were 6 or so in the series, The Elizabethan, Cornish Riviera Express, Atlantic Coast Express, South Wales Pullman, can't remember the others but one could have been Bournemouth Belle/Royal Wessex and another on a West Coast route.

They were about 24 pages long and a bit like the Nicholson's guides to the waterways in that you had a section of route down the side of each page, with stations, branches etc marked and then a typed narrative pn the main part of the page going into more detail.

Anyway, we could do our own with threads like this, where people chip in with whatever they can think of, and then it can all be put into order.

 

[High Dyke]

I, and others, have neglected to mention the semaphore signals in Eastfield Yard at Peterborough.