The Various Random Mutterings of Kite

[D841 Roebuck]

Coldplay

hock:hock:
Nice collection of winners there, but I'd rather do Penzance to Wick on a Mersey seated 142 than go to a Coldplay gig.

Each to their own, though...

 

[FQ]

Coldplay

Hellfire!

Sounds like a brilliant time there and congrats on clearing the 165s!

 

[Techniquest]

Glad to hear your winners all produced, and congratulations on clearing your 165s! Agreed the 376s will be easier to get than the 165/0s were.

Not entirely my first choice of tunes is Coldplay, but I have few favourites for when I'm in the mood for it. Obviously, as my trip reports will have suggested, I usually like my music much more upbeat! Coldplay draw crowds from everywhere mind, one of my workmates went up to Glasgow for one of their gigs!

Fingers crossed the weather is good for you next week, no doubt soon we'll hear how you've cleared the EMT fleet and only need a few awkward shacks

 

[Keith Jarrett]

Kite, you are an inspiration to all of us. That little leap around the Smoke before you chugged off to Wembley was rather productive. I, along with all the regulars here, will be waiting to hear which awkward EMT shack eludes you by the end of the week.

 

[47403]

Congrats on getting the 165s in the bag. Its almost frightening, how from week to week, the classes your putting to bed. 7 more 72 stock needed too, jesus h christ, I doff my cap to you kite.
A very productive pre Coldplay jaunt, each to their own as Roebuck says, there not my cup of tea but Id rather listen to Coldplay than any of this RnB and dance crap, any day of the week.
Good luck with the East Midlands Rover, hope the weather holds out. Happy hunting.

 

[Kite159]

Kite, you are an inspiration to all of us. That little leap around the Smoke before you chugged off to Wembley was rather productive. I, along with all the regulars here, will be waiting to hear which awkward EMT shack eludes you by the end of the week.

If all goes to plan it will be the very awkward Corby which eluded me due to not really having the best connections when heading to it from the north
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Meanwhile in rural Lincolnshire....





Next two days without the bike, woohoo!

 

[Techniquest]

I can't wait for your trip report Kite, the updates I received indicate the others will rather enjoy the trip report too!

 

[Kite159]

Rooming in the East Midlands – Introduction

Late last year I was having a look at how to attack the east midlands in terms of shacks, owing to a small number being of the very limited service type, and decided to do a full week rover to get the best value of money from it (7 days is £108.90, although using up some RTVs from Virgin WC got that cost down to a mere £10.10), deciding the best place to base myself would be in the Nottingham area.

After researching I booked up in a little hotel in the Beeston area, pretty much just outside Beeston station (2 minutes walking) and 15 minutes away from the tram stop which would be useful as my plan had me arriving into Nottingham after the final service towards Derby departed (the 23:20 ‘super’ train which RTT suggested was formed of 4 units) so it would have required the tram. Anyhow plans were made, changed around before I got a plan I was happy with.

My big bag was packed, my folding bike was checked and I was ready to go

18th June – Day ‘0’

It was an unusually late start for me, the hotel didn’t open until 14:30 and knowing with both bag & bike in tow my options were very limited, so I had booked onto the 11:15 departure from St Pancras (of which I think even Quinn would approve as it was the HST), so with a slow walk to the station (I was so thankful it wasn’t raining), I arrived in good time for the 08:59 service, formed this morning of 159003 & 159009, taking a seat in the front coach of 009 for the nice trip into Waterloo, with an on time arrival, allowing me time to swing via Boots for a meal-deal.

Down to the underground, avoiding the race goers, and it was duds 3540 & 3243 taking me forward to Oxford Circus, where the Victoria line was having a mild delay with the first train being 5 minutes away, which looked busy and was dud, so I allowed it to go with duds 11011/11012 rolling in a minute or so later nice and empty. To Kings Cross St Pancras, and I made it up towards the EMT gateline with time to spare, the HST was sitting on platform 1 (I believe), and had just been called for boarding. First Class was at the front on this set (I’m guessing the reversals at Nottingham when they come down from Leeds messes up which way round the sets come down to London).

Dud 43081 (last had pretending to be an East Coast power-unit coming back from Edinburgh earlier in the year) was leading dud 43073 (dud from a Luton Sunday leap), taking me seat in coach C for the bouncy ride northbound, calling only at Market Harborough, Leicester & East Midlands Parkway before rolling into Nottingham pretty much bang on time, if not a couple minutes early. With a quick look around if anything required was heading back out to Beeston in the next half hour drew blanks I headed over to the tram stop to pick up my “Robin Hood” Day ticket (seems to be the new name for the “Kangaroo” ).

Winning tram 209 rolled in so to kill some time I headed to my first new stop of the week at Old Market Square, which as the name suggested is in the market square, opposite a Wetherspoons, but it wasn’t a long wait before winner 229 took me back to the station, and I went back down the steps and headed to platform 4B, as a late running Northern 158 arrived, behind it through was winner 156413 on a Leicester stopping service (I believe), so it was to Beeston, before a short wait for something back to Nottingham. Nothing required spotted so it was onto dud 222007 for the 3 mile 25 chain journey, for another short fester before heading back out to Beeston on 156410 to check into the hotel, to ditch my bag giving me some freedom.

Back at Beeston and it was to Nottingham on another dud 222, this time 222016 doing the honours, and I had a short wait before the next Skegness service was due out, I might not be on my main rover yet, but it didn’t stop me doing a small linear bash. The next Skegness service was formed of duds 158773 & 158783 for the just over 5 mile journey crossing the River Trent (with the former branch line to Cotgrave colliery branching off over a viaduct) to my first new proper station of the trip at Radcliffe. A station which sees a semi-limited train service (but from what it seemed like a regular bus service), however it was time to unfold the bike for a short ride.

A few miles later of mostly bike paths on pavements, and a wrong turn I reached Bingham station, opposite a sports pitch and what it sounded like had some sort of sports day. There is a PIS board on the Nottingham bound platform, but nothing on the Grantham bound platform. With the short platform it meant local door only on winner 156415 leading dud 156497 to take me to the most awkward shack along this line, in terms of frequency as it only gets one call in each direction daily, and it in the middle of two small villages. Unsurprisingly then that I was the only passenger alighting at Elton & Orston, with the bike unfolded for the 3.5 mile ride along a couple country lanes via the village of Bottesford to reach Bottesford station, a new footbridge dominates the platforms, which are quite low down.

As the sun was out I decided to make myself comfortable on the bike shelter away from some smoking rap ‘music’ playing youths (the sort of ‘music’ which will make your nan blush) to await the next Nottingham bound service, which was formed of duds 156411 & 153321 to take me westbound to Aslockton, which like Bottesford had low platforms but a humped portion for the front of the train, quite a step down if you were in the 153.

Anyhow for the 3rd time of the day I was onto my bike, riding back to Bingham (which gets an unusual honour of having caught a train from twice, but never alighted from), this time not going wrong and passing a busy looking Wetherspoons and other local shops in a small town to reach the station, with two options to get back to Nottingham as unusually the next service from Norwich calls. The service from Skegness was a pair of duds, but sadly one of my last 2 (EMT) 158s didn’t decide to randomly appear, and it was 158858 back to Nottingham. A short walk later and I boarded dud 222021 to take me back to Beeston so I could ditch the bike and have a short walk to play with some trams.

Bike dumped (saves carrying it around) and a short 15 minute walk later and I saw the overhead wiring for the trams, and having just seen a Toton bound service heading towards Toton I decided to walk to Middle Street which is a handy island platform. First up was the forum celebrity tram 236 to take me to High Road – Central College for a short wait before tram 208 took me the tiny distance back to Chilwell Road. A short wait here before dud 221 took me to Bramcote Lane with the return of 236 for the tiny distance to Cator Lane.

Dud 231 was up next to take me to Eskdale Drive, followed by winner 206 to take me to Inham Road the last stop on the line before Toton lane itself. Thankfully I didn’t have a 15 minute wait as 231 didn’t reappear for a couple minutes to take me to the University of Nottingham stop, where I decided to call it a night with winner 215 back to Beeston Centre, swinging via the Co-Op for a meal deal I headed back towards the hotel, deciding to head down the steps to make use of the free station Wi-Fi and to see what would roll up. First service was a XC from Cardiff which was formed of 2 coaches and in rolled winner 170116.

5 or so minutes later, passing Mansfield/Speedo junction )) it was into Nottingham, and a short wait for the 22:18 (or so) Derby train, which would feature as my last move for many of my days, and tonight was dud 158856, back to Beeston station, and a short walk later and I was into the hotel to settle in for the night, sorting out my bag etc (seeing as I was there for 8 nights, I might as well spread out from the bag). The hotel was that close to the station that I could hear the trains go pass, and the bed was very comfortable.

Anyhow some pictures from the 1st day:

158773/158783 at Radcliffe:


Bingham, footbridge in background:


156415 & 156497 running away from the busy hub of activity known as Elton & Orston:


New footbridge at Bottesford, replacing a barrow crossing:


Mind the gap at Aslockton:

 

[Blindtraveler]

Ooo sounds fun.
Whats the name of that hotel and was it pricy?

 

[Kite159]

Fairhaven hotel, think it was £30 a night (Nottingham isn't the cheapest place)

 

[Keith Jarrett]

Kite, if Day 0 is anything to go by, this looks as though it's going to be one helluva productive trip. I see that you managed to bump into my sole winning EMT 156 - 156415. And at Aslockton, there appears to be some competition for your bike in the photo! It's a pity that some of those shacks now have a poor service - I need most of them and annoyingly, many years ago, I travelled that line on a semi regular basis when I lived/worked in Nottingham. But then I was not into shack bashing and the DMUs were mainly Lincoln based 114s and Etches Park 120s. I was far more interested in loco bashing, especially the 20s that went to Skeggy.

I presume that you'll be producing mileage figures for the trusty old bike ....

Looking forward to the remainder of the write-up.

 

[FQ]

You were right about me being glad about you getting a tram! I can't believe you hadn't have Old Market Square before that day though... Call yourself a shack scorer . Sounds like a good first day there too and you got a few of my winner shacks on the NET (and obviously heavy rail) there. I also noticed that you got one of dad's last 3 required NET trams (208).

 

[Kite159]

19th June – Rooming in the East Midlands Day 1

The first day of my rover, and the idea of today was to grab the XC shacks out of Leicester which frequency doesn’t really change on a Sunday (i.e. still hourly or two hourly). As there was no trains from Beeston in the morning due to engineering works it was a short walk to the tram stop at Beeston Centre, with a good hour or so to play with before my first mainline move, I decided to finish of what I started on the Saturday evening and try to clear the Toton Lane branch of the Nottingham Express Transit.

Winner tram 217 took me forward a couple stops to University Boulevard for a 10 minute wait for winning 228 forward to the island platform at Gregory Street, opposite an old pub sadly destroyed (Red Cow), dud 206 of the original batch took me back one stop onto the viaduct opposite the Queens Medical Centre, with a couple minute gap before dud 221 took me to Meadows Way West with a tight connection over the other side of the tracks with tram 209 to NG2, the final stop on the Toton Lane branch, and dud 212 soon arrived to take me to Nottingham Station with 10 or so minutes spare before my first mainline move of the day, the 08:50-ish to St Pancras.

Dud 43052 was leading winner 43083 which got me off to a good start with finding a seat for the long trip, heading via some new track towards the Toton depot area (Attenborough curve) coming to a stop around the 60 graveyard (seemed to be a lot more locos here than normal, but then again it is a Sunday morning), a reversal took place and we exited Toton via the high level bridge (spotting the engineering works around the junction area) and onto the slows, pausing at East Midlands Parkway & Loughborough before Leicester and I alighted at Market Harborough for a 10 minute connection for a northbound service.

A nice little station, but like most of the stations on the Midland Main Line, it seems a bit of a distance to the actual town centre. Dud 222023 rolled in to take me back north to Loughborough as a time wasting move, which resulted in winner 43075 rolled in attached with 43044 to take me to Leicester. A short walk across the platform to board duds 170115 & 170114 working the Birmingham New Street service, finding a seat in 115 (as usual the rear unit looked busy, the front unit was empty) to take me to Narborough with a 5 or so minute connection with dud 170110 back to Leicester, to grab some lunch from a nearby Sainsburys.

As predicted my rover ticket failed to open the barriers with something like a “not valid for this leg of the journey” error, so via the manual gate both ways before taking up a seat in 170110 again for the short run to South Wigston, where I almost purchased a wig. This is where things went a tad wrong as the next Leicester service was 20-odd minutes down, so taking a seat on a wall (as the bus shelter had that sort of bar seat which I find very uncomfortable) before 170397 decided to show itself to take me to Leicester, thankful I grabbed lunch on the previous visit as I only had 5 minutes to wait before duds 170114 & 170115 returned to take me the long road eastbound. I worked out I had around a 5 minute connection at Stamford, well we lost time straight away waiting for a late running service to clear the line before heading towards Oakham, and eventually arrived into Stamford 7 minutes down, with the next Birmingham service long gone.

However Stamford has nice benches and comes with free Wi-Fi, so after having a quick look around the area (nothing of interest), I returned to have a quick catch up session using the tablet device before 170638 rolled in, the next eastbound service was again running late as we passed it heading into the station as we were departing, as I stayed on to Melton Mowbray, where I was thinking about buying a pork pie, but decided to jump on a late running (10 minutes late at this point) 170397 to Oakham for a mileage grab (having scored Oakham in September 14 changing from a service from St Pancras which did the line north of Corby, to a XC bound for the airport.

A cosy 170519 was up next, to take me back westwards via Leicester to Nuneaton, where I made use of the island platform to wait for the next Leicester ‘stopper’ formed of 170638 to take me to Hinckley, my last shack between Peterborough & Birmingham, over the footbridge and it was onto dud 170101 back to Nuneaton, and then onto 170398 on the next Stansted Airport service. With the delay caused at Stamford I decided to ditch my plan to doing the three shacks between Stoke & Derby until Friday, and instead after a quick check saw a good connection to get Langley Mill in the bag, I decided to head back to Nottingham on dud 222014.

Dud 158902 was on the next Leeds service, which took me the near 12 mile run to Langley Mill arriving a few minutes early due to the timetable having a stop at Ilkeston (which appears to have finally begun construction works), passing underneath the delightful Bennerley Viaduct. Down the steps and across a busy road to reach the other platform before 158902 had even departed, it was a short wait before dud 158844 rolled in to take me back to Nottingham, where I had a couple options and decided to head to Hucknall on dud 158813 crossing over in the rain to the tram platform with winner tram 222 taking me forward giving some speed to Butler’s Hill, the tram stop which I didn’t do in February time due to running out of time.

Dud tram 231 rolled in to take me back to Hucknall, where I stayed on board for some tram speed (gets some good speed on the part running alongside the Robin Hood line), with a required tram spotted heading northbound I decided to bail from 231 at Nottingham Trent University, timing it to connect with a northbound dud 212 to High School, which gave me a couple minutes before winner 216 from Phoenix Park took me to Royal Centre followed 5 minutes later by winner 204 which I took all the way to Beeston Centre having missed the hourly service from Nottingham which called at Beeston.

Overall a good day, some new trams in the book along with some tram stops, I was happy to get Butler’s Hill into the book as it saves heading back out that way again. Only a couple required power-cars into the book, but some required shacks, clearing the “XC” ones. The additional of some new track was a bonus, especially since I didn’t have to get up at silly o’clock to do the curve on a regular passenger service
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Rooming in the East Midlands – Day 2

My first weekday on the rover, and after the free breakfast in the hotel, I set about to Beeston noting that it was a bit on the wet side, bah humbug as today was a bike day for a couple little rides. The idea was to clear everything on the Robin Hood line and also towards Lincoln. My rover was valid from 09:00 which gave me three options to get to Nottingham (as 3 of the 4 hourly departures from Beeston to Nottingham all bunch up together at the start of the hour) in time for the first Worksop bound service which was valid on my rover.

I didn’t need all 3 chances as first service was the XC from Birmingham, winner 170113 which had spent all of yesterday mocking me from a siding next to Leicester station, and final 170/1 to clear the small sub-class. Quite a busy service so it was standing room only for the 3 mile 25 chain leap into Nottingham, where I had time to pick up lunch for later from the “M-Local” store before heading down to platform 1 to board dud 156473 for the run to Newstead. An hourly served platform on the single track section, and to be honest I can see why it is hourly as there wasn’t much around, a closed hotel/pub next to the station and some houses.

A few minutes later and dud 156411 arrived to take me back south to Hucknall, where I waited on the same platform for 156404 to take me to the end of its working at Mansfield Woodhouse to tick both the station and also the bay platform used by terminating trains. Changing ends at the handsome looking station with an interesting train shed building over the bay platform, and it was back onto 156404 to Sutton Parkway, which is many miles away from Sutton in Surrey, a parkway station indeed . As with most of the stations along this line, they were rebuilt “on the cheap”, so no handy footbridges between platforms, so it was out across the car-park and over a narrow one-way road bridge, down some steps and up a ramp to reach the other platform.

5 or so minutes later 156411 rolled in to take me to Whitwell and either I could wait 30 minutes for the unit to return or cycle the 2.6 miles back down the line to the next station, thankfully it had stopped raining so it was on my bike, having enabled voice instructions on Google Maps (which does come in handy as it shouts where to turn), and I reached Creswell, a station which is on top of an embankment with no easy way between platforms (I would say a good 5 minutes if walking as you need to go down to the main-road and under the railway bridge and up another access road the other side). Anyhow apart from a chain smoker discussing her domestic issues over the telephone quite loudly, you know the sort who hangs her dirty laundry in the open for the world to see.

Anyhow 156411 returned from Worksop to take me to Shirebrook, home of Sports Direct, and not a lot else, and a short walk (pushing the bike) over the road bridge and down to the other platform and it was 156404 returning from Nottingham to take me to the very lawyer firm sounding Langwith-Whaley Thorns, where I crossed over the footbridge and headed to the other platform, to sit down in the bus shelter to have my lunch and watch the world go by.

One of the conductors mentioned that this line doesn’t see a lot of freight traffic anymore, since the colliery closed, just the odd stone train, so nothing passed me by as 156404 returned, sounding a bit on the worst for wear as one of the engines had stopped working, meaning a lot of thrash from the other engine having to do more work, as the driver tried to restart the failed engine but with no joy. A few minutes late passing Mansfield Woodhouse and I decided to bail at Mansfield Town, a station which isn’t the best atmosphere for the locals, it seemed hanging dirty laundry out in public was a sport, various ‘chavs’ in their branded tracksuits talking away moaning about their partners sleeping with someone else etc etc. Anyhow 156411 returned to take me to Mansfield Woodhouse bay for a 2nd time, before changing ends to the final station on this line at Kirkby in Ashfield. A station which I had planned to have a 30 minute fester as it is a passing point; however the other unit hadn’t showed up so it was over a footbridge (how handy) and onto 156473 to Mansfield.

Under the subway and to the other platform, the gang of ‘chavs’ had gone away and it was a short 10 minute wait before 156498 rolled in, held outside the single track section after Kirkby station for 156404 to roll pass, but an on time arrival into Nottingham, allowing me time to have a quick breather before heading to the Newark Castle train, which arrived from Matlock and seems to sit at Nottingham for a good 10/15 minutes before carrying on, either as an all-station caller or a semi-fast service (allowing the Leicester – Lincoln services to run fast between Nottingham & Newark Castle). Anyhow first up was a stopper, and only needing one more EMT 156, it was no surprise it was a dud unit, 156405 to take me to Burton Joyce.

The sun had come out as I set about on the road for the 2.6 mile trip mainly along the pavement (shared cycle path & pavement, which is good in one way as it avoids being on a busy road, but bad as it means you have to keep pausing at road junctions and going up and down where the pavement has been dropped giving access to driveways), and 20 minutes or so later (after a pause to remove my coat as it was a tad warm) I arrived at the level crossing shack at Lowdham. Word of warning for anybody wanting to visit the stations up this line, they are pretty much all level crossings, some are even manual level crossings, so beware with any tight connections.

Anyhow I couldn’t help noticing the existence of what appeared to be a former bay platform at Lowdham, now very much disused, as I took a seat for a good 30 minute fester for the next semi-fast Newark Castle service. My run of 156s continued as 156415 (it says Hi Keith) rolled in to take me to Fiskerton, where my bike was unfolded and ready to go to ride the 0.7 miles down Occupation lane, over a manual level crossing and reaching Rolleston station, beware the entrance to the Nottingham bound platform is at the other end to the level crossing. Taking a seat with some race goers (as the station is handily located by a nearby racecourse), to await the return of 156415 to take me back down the line to Thurgarton arriving thankfully on time as the next ride was tighter than normal, with 15 minutes to do 1.8 miles. Thankfully the level crossing gates rose quickly and I was on my bike, my heart sinking when I saw a large hill coming up before my phone shouted to “turn right” just before the hill.

9 minutes later, including a couple wrong turns, I arrived at Bleasby, my final ride of the day complete, and it wasn’t a lot wait before 156406 rolled in to take me to Newark Castle, where I remained on the same platform as the 156 did a shunt move to the other platform to form the next Matlock service. My 156 continued, however my face lit up as winner (and final EMT 156) 156403 rolled in to take me to Collingham with a 30 minute fester before the next service (using the evening peak extras), which turned into a 40 minute fester as the service was 10 minutes late in departing Nottingham, but as there wasn’t much to do around the station I was chilling out, before duds 153321 & 153355 rolled in for the short hop to Swinderby, a station with manual level crossing gates at the Lincoln end, and not a lot else (a small car-park and some nice benches).

20 minutes later my first 158 of the day arrived, in the shape of dud 158854 to take me to Hykeham, my final shack on the line, however due to a gap in departures from Lincoln back to Nottingham, I had nothing better to do than to jump onto dud 153381 on a Newark North-Gate working from Grimsby back to Collingham, before dud 158862 took me to Lincoln Central. Over the platform as I awaited the arrival of the unit from Doncaster which would form the next Nottingham, only for a farce as it tried to attach itself to 158854, it was dud 158810. Eventually 5 minutes after it was meant to have departed the doors were released and we departed 9 minutes down, resulting in a Leicester stopper being held at Nottingham for connections.

With nothing much else around I jumped onto dud 158777 to Beeston and headed to the Co-Op for some well needed food, before coming back to Beeston to eat it on the platform. The XC service was dud, however the next service was winner 153308 attached to 153376 which I took to Nottingham for a short wait before dud 158785 took me back to Beeston on the 22:18 Derby service, the end of a busy day on the rails. One thing I will say is that having the “Robin Hood Line” logo in bricks on the platform surface is a good idea.

Total winners – 3
Total new stations visited – 19

Some random pictures:
Creswell station:


“Hello, I’m calling from Langwith- Whaley Thorns to discuss your law suit, against Seer Greens & Jordons”


The smart mini-shed at Mansfield Woodhouse:


Rolleston station, hasn’t really got a lot on the platforms:


The bike meets Bleasby, you could probably fit a train in the gap between platforms!


The sun shining at Swinderby:


Taking a hike at Hykeham....


(To be continued)

 

[FQ]

Sounds like another great time there and congrats on the EMT 156s! A good bonus with the engineering works so your tram was diverted too.

 

[47403]

Cracking read so far kite, congrats on getting your last EMT 156 and clearing them shacks. Wish I could've been on that zing when you stopped beside the 60s graveyard, my last 60 for sights among them. So if you saw 60093, I'm extremely jealous.

Looking forward to the rest of the trip report, to see what else unfurls.

 

[noddy1878]

I know you had a very productive time but good to read how you did it! £30 for the hotel including breakfast is a bargain!

 

[Kite159]

I know you had a very productive time but good to read how you did it! £30 for the hotel including breakfast is a bargain!

£30 a night, not for the whole stay.

There was a couple cheaper hotels available when I was looking, but those were ruled out on grounds of not being the easiest to get to. Beeston is a good location, had a train connection to the city centre plus the trams, so easy enough to get back to the hotel in the evening without a 15-odd minute walk
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Rooming in the East Midlands Day 3

Today I shifted my attention away from EMT shacks to focus more on some Northern shacks in Lincolnshire which are outside any real day ranger area, so like the Monday I had time for breakfast in the hotel, before making my way to Beeston station. Sadly my XC luck didn’t hold and it was a dud unit on the 09:00, followed by 156405 to take me to Nottingham, where I had a quick breather to pick up a bottle of cold drink and a newspaper before making my way down to platform 4A (I believe) for the 09:16 Northern service to Leeds. Formed this morning of dud 158906, however one which has been fitted with USB sockets at the tables and Wi-Fi (which I couldn’t get to work).

A good speedy run up via Langley Mill towards Chesterfield and onto Sheffield, where I had a bit of luck, the 10:10 TPE to Cleethorpes was running around 10 minutes late, so to cut down on the pacer action from a dud (and busy looking) 142, I headed over to platform 1 as dud 185115 rolled in, probably one of my highest 185 in terms of distance, it being my first 185 into the book from Glasgow to Manchester in May 14. Originally I was going to bail at Doncaster to await the 142, but a quick check of RTT spotted that the 185 gave a good connection with the next Scunthorpe – Lincoln service which gave a +1 at Crowle. So I took the 185 all the way to Scunthorpe, and with a short walk over the footbridge to await the arrival of dud 142086 for a right time departure heading towards Lincoln, making a loud banging noise as it crossed a couple swing-bridges.

Arriving into Crowle luck was again on my side as the pacer from Sheffield was a couple minutes late which allowed me to cross the barrow crossing and get to the other platform a good couple minutes before dud 142013 rolled in which I took to Scunthorpe. My original plan was to bail and ride the 4 and a bit miles to Althorpe, but every little helps, even though the next Manchester bound TPE kept loosing time. Scunthorpe is a bit of a strange station, it has a bay platform facing Cleethorpes direction, so terminating pacers have to unload and do some shunt moves into the bay platform to clear the line before shifting back out to the other platform. 142013 eventually departed 10 minutes down which cut my +14 at Althorpe down, thankfully it is a handy footbridge rather than a massive detour, so I easily made the connection onto dud 142093 back to Scunthorpe.

My first impression of Scunthorpe is that it makes Mansfield seem civilised in terms of dirty laundry hanging, the sort of people who will appear on the Jeremy Kyle at some point to argue some case about “he slept with my sister” etc, anyhow thankfully it wasn’t long before winner 185122 rolled in to take me to a semi-required Barnetby, having spent 10 minutes here previously on a rail tour last year waiting for a TPE to clear the line before going towards Grimsby Docks. No spotters around this afternoon (as I know Barnetby is a good place to spot all the various freight to Immingham docks), so it was sitting in the sunshine making use of the Wi-Fi eating a roll purchased from the shop at Scunthorpe, to pass the time away.

40 or so minutes later dud 153357 rolled in for a thrashful run towards Lincoln as I alighted at Market Rasen, just to get it into the book with a 40 minute connection, that was a brilliant run from the driver, might only be 14 and a half miles but it was at a good speed, with an excellent guard (and in the unlikely case he is reading, don’t lose your Sunlife blue pen ). Market Rasen has a large Tesco next to the station, but you can’t go directly from the station to the Tesco, instead going around, so to kill time I picked up lunch (that roll wasn’t that filling) and something for later on, before heading back with dud 153381 rolling in for the 21 mile run to Habrough.

This is where I had another bit of luck with a late running service, as normally the connection time at Habrough is rubbish with the EMT service to Grimsby passing the Northern service to Barton-On-Humber with a +0, with my plan to ride the ~ 4 miles to Ulceby to pass the time, however winner 153351 was either on time and we were a couple minutes early, but it wasn’t at the platform when we passed, so a quick crossing of the road to wait the level crossing barriers to open and I jumped on board (after the guard checking I wanted Barton rather than Lincoln).

Happy days as that cut down a bike ride as I settled down for the nice run to Barrow Haven, the bike unfolded for another fast ride, 14 minutes to do 2 miles, which I did it in 10 minutes getting some Brompton speed (not easy as it looks due to the tiny wheels and gearing built for city centre acceleration), to arrive at New Holland, where the disused line towards the New Holland Grain Terminal is very overgrown. Fresh dud 153351 returned and I requested for the train to call at the only request stop on this service, and 17 and a half miles later the train call to a stop at New Clee, which has very low platforms. My bike was already unfolded, as I set about the short 0.7 mile ride via the very fishy part of Grimsby to Grimsby Docks.

It smelt very fishy and I was a bit glad when 153351 returned to take be back onto the Barton line, this time to Goxhill where I hit rush hour traffic as I rode back (a nice easy 2.1 miles) passing the Goxhill Chippy to Thornton Abbey, a station not really located for anything apart from a couple farm houses and an old abbey which got destroyed many years ago, a station with very low platforms, but with humps installed to reduce the step from the gravel platform. Onto 153351 for the 4th time of the day back onto the main line to Healing which has manually operated level crossing gates, and I failed to keep one of the gates open for long enough as it closed onto my arm putting a small cut (only an inch long).

Anyhow, it was onto my bike once more (so much easier to ride between these 2-hourly shacks) for the 2.6 mile ride (would have been shorter if I took a short-cut) to Stallingborough, where I had enough time to have some food and relax before my favourite Northern dog-box of the day rolled in to take me to Ulceby where due to making that connection earlier meant I had an hour to wait. A lot of the spotters which I saw earlier had gone, however in the short time I had I spotted 37604 heading towards Barton on a Network Rail Ultrasound train, 60001 hauling some oil wagons out of Immingham, with 66057 & 66120 heading into that area, one with some Drax biomass wagons, the other with some steel wagons.

153351 returned to take me to the final shack on this part of the line at Great Coates which was a nice and easy 2 and a bit mile ride to Grimsby Town to catch 153302 to Cleethorpes to get a brucie bonus of an EMT service to Cleethorpes on a weekday. Enough time for a quick photo of 153302, 153351 & 185122 lined up before the units started disappearing, 153351 back out to Barton, and the 185 to the little stabling sidings for the night. Nothing much really to do in the 10 minutes before the final Lincoln train (I think final train overall) of the evening departed, nothing much open around Cleethorpes station, so it was onto 153302 for a thrashful run to Lincoln, so much dog-box thrash it was lovely (especially after pottering around at low speeds on that Northern 153).

To Lincoln, where I changed trains, to dud 158856 for the near 34 mile run which sadly seemed to call at most of the stations, arriving into Nottingham around 23:30, so the last train towards Beeston had gone, and by the time I had managed to get a single ticket for the tram out of the machine (one of the machines doesn’t like cards), I had missed a Toton Lane tram, which meant a 15 minute wait for dud 229 to roll in to take me to Beeston Centre, for a short walk back to the hotel.

Anyhow a very successful day with the Barton line cleared, clearing the line from Cleethorpes all the way to Doncaster & to Lincoln, anyhow some pictures:

142086 getting ready to depart from Crowle:


142013 heading away from Althorpe:


Market Rasen:


New Holland, track to the left goes to Barton, track on the right goes to a Grain depot which appears to be out of use:


153351 at New Clee


Fishy Docks:


The dogbox departs Goxhill:


Thornton Abbey:


I need some Healing, after healing attacked me.


The Sun shining at Stallingborough:


Movements at Ulceby:




153302, 153351, 185122 lined up together at Cleethorpes:

 

[Blindtraveler]

All sounds very productive so far good sir. Long days though! Glad the weather held for you

 

[Keith Jarrett]

Kite, days 1-3 seem to be as entertaining as day 0 with a good bit of variety even though you cranked up the mileage on a certain Tin Rocket when shuttling up and down the Barton branch.

I'm sure that the shack attacking community will be grateful for your words of wisdom with regards to those level crossing shacks.

You've nicely demonstrated that despite meticulous planning, sometimes the Railway Gods smile on you and help you out with a the odd dodgy +0/+1.

Roll on days 4+

 

[alexf380]

Sounds like a fantastic time so far Mr.Kite! Keep 'em coming.

 

[Kite159]

@ Blind Traveller - Yes, it was good the weather held for me when I was on my bike, I was worried it would be like the previous week and be rubbish and wet.

Rooming in the East – Day 4

The idea for today was to visit the local stations towards Leicester on the Ivanhoe line in the morning before turning my attention towards the Skegness line, which has 6 stations with limited service, which took some planning to work out the best way to get them into my book. The usual breakfast later and I was down to Beeston station, the XC was dud and so was the service from Leicester, but the 222 from London was winner 222010, so it was to Nottingham with a couple options.

The first was a HST to East Midlands Parkway, however both power cars were dud, so I gave that a miss in exchange for dud 156401 for most of the way to Syston station, a nice single platform station which gets a bit of traffic passing. I wasn’t waiting for long before 156401 returned from its short turnaround at Leicester to take me to Barrow-Upon-Soar, another nice basic station, can’t really say anything more than that (I would imagine they were built on the cheap when the Ivanhoe line phase 1 opened in the 1990s. A short wait before 156410 rolled in to take me to the final station along this line at Sileby.

A 30 minute fester here at Sileby giving me chance to read the newspaper I purchased earlier in the day and to relax before 156410 returned to drop me off at Loughborough, with a delayed service from London formed of 222104 taking me to Nottingham, where I had time to pop out to Tesco for some lunch before returning to the station, the next Norwich service was a dud 158 so I gave that a miss in exchange for the next Skegness service. The sun was out and I was chilled as I took a seat on dud 153385 leading 158856 for the run eastwards from Nottingham, with a reversal at Grantham before heading back around the new(ish) chord at Allington Junction to the first stop on the line at Ancaster.

My bike was unfolded ready for the 6.2 mile ride via Waterwell Lane (avoids the main-road), passing Rauceby and around 35 minutes after departing from the 153/156 at Ancaster I arrived at Sleaford, the junction station. A 153 had just departed towards Lincoln, but apart from that nothing much of interest around the station itself (nice buildings), so I took a seat to wait for the next Skegness service, formed of dud 156413 (featuring a very handsome guard ) to take me to Boston for a short wait before the next Nottingham bound service. Boston is a nice enough station, although I’m guessing of days of old it used to have avoiding lines in the middle, back when the line towards Skegness wasn’t single track in places and it was a key junction in Lincolnshire with a few routes coming into the town, now what looks like to be an overgrown line to the docks is all that is left. A large Asda is next to the station, but to access it is a long way round as a side guard is only for disabled passengers with a Radar key.

Anyhow, 153385 & 158856 had returned from Skegness, so taking a seat in the front coach of the 158 for the short run back west to Swineshead, I was the only passenger to alight from the sole afternoon train. Where it is possible to ride like the wind the 3 mile straight to Hubberts Bridge, it’s the sort of ride requiring a bike with a higher top speed as you only have 15 minutes to do it in (and the road is sorta busy). Nice enough station, although I couldn’t help noticing someone looking out of the window of the old station house, probably thinking “someone is getting off the train, how unusual”.

158846 & 156498 were up next, where I noted 2 school kids alighting at both Swineshead & Hubberts Bridge, probably a useful service for them if they are local to the area. It was on the 158 for the long distance to Wainfleet via that tight 270 degree curve at Firsby, where once more I was back onto my bike for the 2.9 mile ride, passing a local brewery around Wainfleet, onto Mill Lane with Google throwing me an odd-ball with an unmade byway before reaching Thorpe Culvert. For a station which only sees two trains a day stopping in each direction, I wasn’t expecting a lot, maybe a bus shelter style shelter, but the Skegness bound platform had a little waiting room with a decent seat inside, so keeping the door open with my ruck-sack (to freshen up the air), I sat down to relax, listening out for the sound of the level crossing to come down signalling the incoming train.

153383 & 156406 rolled in, and it was front door only and I think I gave the guard a bit of a shock when I boarded, and even more of a shock when I alighted 3 and a bit miles later at Havenhouse. 15 minutes of riding the 2.5 miles later I was back at Wainfleet, happy that I’m making progress with the stations on the Poacher Line. Back onto 156406 & 153383 and what felt like a storm was brewing as I escaped the eastern edges of Lincolnshire back towards Sleaford for the final ride of the day. Heading back along the way I arrived a few hours ago, I reached Rauceby station, which has sticky gates which open outwards onto a semi-busy road to gain access (not the best design feature that). The station itself was basic, but was in a nice tree-lined cutting, a nice place to spend a few minutes relaxing before 156414 rolled in to take me back to Sleaford once more.

A short walk over the footbridge and to the P2-P3 island to wait for dud 156497 to roll in to take me to Grantham, where I had a short wait before dud 158799 rolled in to take me to Nottingham arriving a few minutes after that 156. As I was getting a bit hungry I jumped on the first thing heading towards Beeston which didn’t involve a massive walk from platform 4B to 7B, so it was onto dud 170104 to Beeston, heading via the Co-Op to get a meal-deal and back to the hotel to get a quick shower and into the bed for the night.

In summary, only 1 required unit, but a few of awkward limited service stations in the bag, in case anybody is wondering I did Heckington back in November 14 after doing the morning Nottingham – Skegness service which avoids Grantham to get the other side of the triangle into my coverage book. Anyhow some random pictures:

156401 departing Barrow Upon Soar:


Lancaster if it should ever lose the L, and moved to Lincolnshire:


You Swine!


Taking a breather on the bike:


Thorpe Culvert (even has a waiting room!):

Old sign!


156498 isn’t stopping here today:


156406 departing Havenhouse:


That also appears to have a waiting room?


Skegness is that way:


Rauceby:


Have I been here before?

--------------

Rooming in the East – Day 5

It was a day without the bike, which after 3 days of carrying it around was nice to be ‘free’ from the weight, however it was also an early start requiring a purchase of an anytime single to Alfterton in order for my plan to work. After watching a couple ‘peak’ time service roll into Beeston which didn’t look that busy, I boarded dud 222008 for the short hop to Nottingham, swinging via the M-Local (which was starting to look barer every day due to the financial troubles they are in) to pick up a newspaper & a hot sausage roll.

Duds 158788 & 158854 rolled in from Norwich to take me the 40 and a half miles up towards Sheffield, where I had time to have a slow walk over to the next Lincoln bound service, expecting a 142, but was pleased when winner 144002 was sitting in the bay, so climbing on board to get a bay seat for the bouncing journey to Shireoaks, making use of the level crossing to get to the other platform before dud 144005 rolled in to take me back towards Sheffield and into South Yorkshire to Woodhouse. Nothing of note around the station apart from a lot of houses, but my time at Woodhouse was cut short by the arrival of dud 142023 to take me to Retford (Low Level).

A short walk up and stairs and along the path took me to the High Level station to await the arrival of my first Hull Trains service for a good few months, dud 180111 rolled in causing temporary deafness. The guard didn’t bat an eyelid with my ticket and carried on as I alighted at Grantham to await the Virgin Trains HST which I spotted starting at Newark North Gate, and in rolled winner 43272 with 43295 making it a rare double win to take down my requirements for VTEC down to 4 x 43s. As the train started from Newark it was nice and empty, apart from coach C which was full, so walking down to a near empty coach E for the short run down to Peterborough, crossing over to platform 2 to join dud 153379 forming the next Lincoln bound service.

Quite well loaded I would say, however I bailed at Spalding and was going to have an hour fester for the next service, however the footbridge smelt like a toilet and I didn’t quite fancy hanging around as the former junction station didn’t look the most welcoming, thankfully I made the +3 onto dud 153311 which took me back to Peterborough where I went off in search of the Greggs in the nearby shopping centre for lunch. A quick check of RTT when on route suggested a connection could be made at Grantham to the Skegness train I was going to catch, rather than a fester at Sleaford, so waving goodbye to 153311 I headed over for a busy time with a HST heading to the North, next stop York, a 91 heading to Leeds, next stop Doncaster before dud 91126 rolled in with DVT 82231 on the rear to take me back to Grantham for a cross platform interchange with 156497.

It was out to Boston for the 2nd time, as I alighted from the 156 to cross over to the other platform, to sit and relax for 30-odd minutes, making use of the free station Wi-Fi before 153381/158856 rolled in to take me back the near 4 miles to Hubberts Bridge, my final shack on the line. It was front door only due to a tiny platform and a local resident alighted from the train, as I waited for it to depart from the station before using the barrow crossing. Nothing much of interest around the station, apart from a busy crossroads and what appeared to be a pub on the other side of the waterway bridge. 158780 & 156411 rolled in and as like the day before the only passengers alighting were a couple of school kids, and it was local door only, to arrive into Boston a few minutes later.

As I was getting a bit hungry, I headed to the nearby Asda to pick up something to eat and a nice cold drink, before returning to the station to take 156497 back to Sleaford, being held up outside the single line section for a late running Skegness train. A quick cross platform change and I was onto 153383 for the short run up to Ruskington, which is an evil station if you want to get between platforms as it involves using a road bridge and a long ramp. Anyhow I had the time to walk across before dud 156403 rolled in from Leicester to take me back to Sleaford, changing ends as it formed a service to Doncaster, to take me to Metheringham which is a basic shack with a level crossing. 153379 gave me some dog-box thrash back down to Sleaford where I was thinking what to do.

In the end as I wasn’t feeling quite 100%, I decided to head back to Grantham on 156473 & 153308, a 91 heading northbound was dud so it was onto dud 158854 back to Nottingham, where I was going to call it a night. Walking up the platform to see what my options were and I spotted my last XC 170, so it would be rude to turn down a ride on 170523 to Beeston, where I went via the Co-Op to pick up some food before heading back down to Beeston station to eat it when using the free Wi-Fi to catch up on the news. I didn’t stay around for too long as I spotted my last 222/0 rushing past towards Nottingham, and a quick check of RTT saw it down as forming a service back out.

Dud 156410 was up next to take me to Nottingham, where things went wrong, the signalling down West Hampstead had failed which meant 222019 wasn’t going anywhere for a while, the 21:00 service was still sat on the platform, and after 30 minutes of waiting I decided to give up, and headed to the 22:18 Derby formed this evening of 156497, 156403 & 156401, with the rear two units locked out of use.

So in summary, a quieter day than before, my last XC 170 fell which was a bonus, with some more shacks falling, leaving a mere 5 EMT shacks to go, all of which are hourly. Anyhow some pictures:

Shireoaks:


144005 at Woodhouse, Quinn run!


Arriving into Retford in style, 142023:


Two 153s pass at Spalding:


66779, Evening Star, looks good in green:


Wide open spaces at Boston:


Hubberts Bridge:



153383 at Ruskington:

Has a long ramp:


Metheringham:

 

[noddy1878]

£30 a night, not for the whole stay.
There was a couple cheaper hotels available when I was looking, but those were ruled out on grounds of not being the easiest to get to. Beeston is a good location, had a train connection to the city centre plus the trams, so easy enough to get back to the hotel in the evening without a 15-odd minute walk

I knew you meant £30 a day and I thought that was a good price. Just caught up with the rest of the report. I'm so jealous, but you sure have the will and patience to have quite long festers, the same unit over and over and lugging your bike around! All worth it though!

 

[87electric]

Great reads. Lincolnshire is my old stamping ground especially Spalding.
I admire your ingenuity with your bike in the hobby.

 

[Techniquest]

Finally been able to read this, as always an excellent read. As if I'd expect anything less!

I burst out laughing reading your photo caption at the lawyer-sounding station, so much so my coffee has partially stained my shirt!

As Keith says, those of us yet to do the shacks you've done are certainly more than grateful for the advice on them. Hopefully it'll all be imprinted into memory for when we all get up there!

Congratulations on clearing the 156s and XC 170s, although I already know how much better you did I shall not spoil it. It goes without saying I'm super jealous!

 

[FQ]

I wonder how the guard on 153351 reacted when you kept on getting on it at different stations! Score on the double winner VTEC tram as well! I can't believe I had Metheringham before you too. Does Metheringham still have its signal box or is it gone now?

Shame you weren't feeling 100% by the end of the day but at least it meant you got your last XC 170. Congrats!

 

[Kite159]

I wonder how the guard on 153351 reacted when you kept on getting on it at different stations! Score on the double winner VTEC tram as well! I can't believe I had Metheringham before you too. Does Metheringham still have its signal box or is it gone now?

Shame you weren't feeling 100% by the end of the day but at least it meant you got your last XC 170. Congrats!

"Oh you again, where next?"

I can't recall if Metheringham had a signal box or not. Aye 170523 was a nice treat, saves searching for it around Birmingham and hoping it pops up on a Cardiff working.

----------

Techni - Sorry for your shirt

87Electric - Sometimes having the bike is the only way to visit some of those more limited served stations, or even those 2 hourly stations on the Barton line where the stations are close enough together to ride but not quite close enough to walk.

------------

Rooming in the East – Day 6

The original plan for today was to have a lazy day, a spare day to cover anything which I might have missed during the week, but apart from issues on Sunday caused by a late running 170 (and rail replacement buses at Corby), my plans were mostly successful. Nice bit of breakfast from the hotel before the short walk to the station to pick up dud 222008 to take me the distance down towards Kettering. One trick with the 5-coach 222s is if you sit in coach D you can pick up the free Wi-Fi from the 1st class portion of the train

Anyhow once at Kettering it was a cross platform interchange for a couple minute wait before dud 222007 rolled in to take me to Corby, where I didn’t have the urge to purchase a trouser press. A nice basic station, but I didn’t have long to wait before 222007 would depart back towards London, with news that 222019 was on the 3rd Corby diagram meant I decided to have a wait to finally try and bag the thing. In theory you could make the connection at Kettering to a Nottingham bound service, but it is quite tight, however I carried on down to Bedford, and onto dud 150109 to make a little difference around the corner to Bedford St Johns.

A slow walk back towards Bedford Midland, noting a freight train pausing on the river bridge waiting for signal clearance, and it was back to the main station in around 20 minutes (that was at a very slow walk involving a phone call). As expected winner and final 222/0, 222019 was on the next Corby, so it was back to Kettering for a half hour fester, I had news that my final 222/1 was currently sat at Derby so that could come out to play on the afternoon Derby – London via Corby service. From a look at RTT it suggested that 222008 (on the next Nottingham) was starting short at Luton Airport, so it was nice and empty when it rolled in for the short run to Leicester where I bailed and made my way over to the Tesco outside the station to pick up lunch.

The next Sheffield ‘fast’ service was running a few minutes late, not to worry I through as I had a +19 (or so) at Derby for the next Crewe service, and dud 222002 rolled in a few minutes down I wasn’t that worried. I was worried when we got dumped into the slow lines north of Leicester (looked like caused by a freight train blocking the fasts coming in or out of the little industrial area around Sileby, made worst by catching up with a stopper, that 4 minutes turned into 9 minutes down, which turned into 14 minutes down, eventually rolling into Derby 17 or so minutes late. All of a sudden my +19 turned into a +2 so it was a fast walk from P1 to P2 to jump on an unknown 153, although I shouldn’t have worried as it was held for a couple minutes due to a late running Voyager to clear the line.

Some good dog-box thrash on a busy service, as I alighted at Longton, opposite a large Tesco and an “Adult Superstore” on the other side of the tracks, I was happy when I caught the ID of the 153, as it was my final EMT 153 which had been hiding from me all week, 153384. I didn’t have long to go down the steps from the embankment, underneath a bridge and back up the other side, but I had enough time to do it without a dash. The next Derby bound service was in the hands of a very un-153 like 156497 for some 156 thrash to Uttoxeter, which is next to the race course and is the closest station to Alton Towers, it has a nice footbridge to get between platforms, not like I needed to worry as I had 5 or so minutes before dud 153313 arrived from Derby to take me to the final station between Crewe & Derby, Blythe Bridge.

Change here for the Foxfield Railway said the signs, and it was a level crossing station, and it had started to rain, so I slowly made my way over the level crossing after a quick look around (nothing of note spotted, although there might have been a pub next to the level crossing, I couldn’t say). A short 25 (or so) minute wait before fresh dud 153384 returned from sunny Crewe to take me back to Derby, pausing for a brief moment at Peartree (where it looked like at least 2 passengers alighted and 1 passenger was waiting on the other platform as I think this service calls at Peartree on its way back out towards Crewe). Dud 222102 was on the service to London via Corby, so I gave that a miss in exchange for waiting for the next Cross Country High Speed Train service towards Glasgow. Sadly it wasn’t one of my last 2 required XC 43s, instead was duds 43303 & 43304 to take me in comfort to Chesterfield.

In a way I was glad it was a dud 222/1 on that London service, as it meant I could board dud 158857 leading winner 158770 for the run to Sheffield and have a nice 8 minute connection to my final EMT 158, 158812 leading dud 158810 back down to Chesterfield, clearing both for 10 miles in the process. A short wait at Chesterfield before dud 221128 rolled in to take me down to Derby, followed by 170102 out to Beeston (passing 222103 which was sitting waving at me from the depot). 222008 returned for the 3rd time of the day to take me to Loughborough for some HST hunting (after noting the HST which had just run into Nottingham was dud). The first northbound service to Derby via Nottingham was dud so I gave that a miss in exchange for the next Leeds via Nottingham service, with winning power-car 43058 leading dud 43055 for the run back into Nottingham.

In lack of any other plans (other than a plan to intercept another HST working towards Nottingham), I decided to head to the trams, with dud tram 201 taking me to Noel Street with a semi-fast walk across the Asda car-park to reach Hyson Green Market with time to spare with wining tram 226 taking me back to the station. It was a dud 222, however due to waiting for a member of train crew (mainly the driver) it was delayed in departing Nottingham, so I decided to bail and give the HST a miss. Having an idea to try and clear the tram stops on the ‘original’ NET saw me jumping onto winner 205 to Beaconsfield Street followed by winner 210 for the tiny distance to Shipstone Street where it terminated (as it was that time of night where frequency changed from every 10 minutes to every 15 minutes so surplus trams were running as far as Shipstone Street before going to the depot.

A short walk saw me arriving at Wilkinson Street with another winner tram, this time 207 to take me to Radford Road, my final stop on this part of the network (leaving just the branch towards Clifton South to do). Another short wait before dud 213 rolled in to take me to High School, where I made used of the little Sainsburys Local to pick up some food, before dud 211 took me back to the station, giving me 5 or so minutes to get down to platform 3 where duds 156414 & 158858 were working the 22:18 Derby train.

In summary, at the end of the day my EMT requirements stood at 1 station (Gainsborough Lea Road), 1x 222/1 and 3 x 43s, with an early start planned for the Saturday I had an early-ish night.

A few pictures:
One of Quinn’s favourite trains at Corby:


66078 waiting for the little green light to exit the Bletchley line:


153384 at Longton:

Hello, from the other side:


156497 pretending to be a horse at Uttoxeter:


By’the Bridge we will meet:


My last 375/7 was also spotted at Derby, ready to head back down south pulled by 37884:


----------

Rooming in the East - Day 7

It was the last day of the rover and an early start to catch the first Derby bound train of the day from Beeston, the 06:0X XC to Birmingham, so leaving the hotel quiet as a dormouse (not that easy when carrying the bike) to reach Beeston station with time to catch 170397 to Derby (looked like the first London train was going to be busy), this 170 was nice and quiet and called at all the stations on route to Derby. It was to platform 1, via the shop to purchase a newspaper, to wait for the first Glasgow bound service of the day which in true XC style was already 3 minutes late. Needless to say it was dud 221132 for the fast and quiet run to Sheffield.

I had a short wait at Sheffield before winner 142078 rolled in from the sidings to form the first Lincoln service of the day, grabbing a good bay seat as someone from the ‘South Yorkshire Travel’ board was on the service doing a survey (looked like noting down what sort of tickets passengers had). It wasn’t long before we dived under the ECML and then over the River Trent, passing a disused siding, rolling into Gainsborough Lea Road, my final EMT shack. However I didn’t have time to wait around as it was onto the bike for the short mile and a half ride to the other station in Gainsborough, the slightly more infamous Gainsborough Central.

And I bet you all know why Gainsborough Central is famous? For having 3 services a week in each direction only on a Saturday, the station since I last ‘visited’ has had a new footbridge built, but the barrow crossing remained for those disabled passengers wanting to travel to Sheffield, however the station itself is ultra-basic, a small waiting shelter on the Sheffield bound platform, no seats on the Cleethorpes bound platform, but due to the armed forces day parade in Cleethorpes a good 20 or so passengers were waiting duds 142066 & 144002 to arrive to take me just over 10 miles to Kirton Lindsey, which is a single platform without much around it (apart from a few passengers waiting). My bike was unfolded, and I was ready for the big ride, 8.5 miles, but I had a good 2 hours or so to do it in.

A nice bit of B-road riding, before hitting a couple country lanes and a massive hill (that was hard going even walking up the hill), before I hit some former roads closed to cars but left open for cyclists and walkers, which avoided traffic, before rolling down the hill towards Brigg town itself. With time to kill (and a pedestrian area) I went via Greggs and had a look around a pleasant market town with a farmers market, taking a rest on some benches, before continuing down to Brigg station itself. Like Gainsborough this station has a new footbridge, but also has decent seats and I could access BT WiFi from a nearby house, which passed the time as I still had an hour or so to go before the pair of pacers were due back. This is where things went wrong (as Posteye experienced), the service was around 15 minutes late departing Cleethorpes due to the Barton service collapsing (i.e. major delays, one service was around 60 minutes down, with the following round trip cancelled), and got a bit later as it was caught behind the stopper (I was tracking it on the maps found on Open Time Trains), eventually it left the stopper behind and arrived at Barnetby…

…where it seemed to remained for a fair while, eventually moving forward on the map to a signal with the level crossing sounding and manual gates drawn across, knowing that I will probably have to ride between the two Kiveton stations now, a few minutes later still no train, and the gates were opened up. A local who works as a station volunteer was on the phone and it was a points failure. Eventually the map showed the service was back on the move as I crossed back over to the Sheffield bound platform, the level crossing was closed and the estimated time of arrival came and went. 20 minutes later the pacers returned, and I decided it wasn’t worth reboarding as by this point it was something like 75 minutes late, and I could get back to Sheffield quicker by catching the next service towards Cleethorpes for a +14 (or so) at Barnetby. Also with the sun being out, it was hot enough waiting around on the platform, those two units would be like ovens, it lost more time having to wait for the next service to clear the single track section around Kirton (and I think eventually reached Sheffield 90-odd minutes late, so whatever service those units were down to do next probably ended up being cancelled).

Duds 142023 & 142093 rolled in to take me eastwards, a couple minutes late into Brigg, before departing and coming to a stop, restarted moving before coming to a stop again after the level crossing (which had massive queues). Another restart and a large bang was heard before the units stopped again, the driver jumping out, as due to signalling problems he was talked through a red signal by the signaller, however someone forgot to set the points and the large bang was the train forcing the points so it could continue. 5 minutes later the driver got back on board (by this time my connection had disappeared), and we continued. As the connection was gone I decided to remain on board until Grimsby Town, crossing over to the other platform for a 10 minute wait for a slightly delayed dud 185117 to roll in. I saw the train and was full of dread as it was rammed, thankfully the majority of the passengers alighted at Grimsby allowing me to find a table seat for a quick charge of my phone, and a good ride back towards Sheffield, checking connection times as I had planned to do some shacks along the Hope Valley, but now would be 2 hours down. At Doncaster I spotted a GA 153 north of the station, plus the usual odds and sods.

My mind was made up when we were approaching Meadowhall and the heavens opened, a good thunder and lightning storm, and once back at Sheffield I decided to ditch those shacks for another day (as I don’t think the likes of Hope will offer much protection against the storm). With time to kill I jumped onto my final 2-car 144 for a short leap to Meadowhall, gets 144006 into the book, and with a short wait boarded fresh dud 142078 back to Sheffield. Due to signalling problems earlier in the day at St Pancras, EMT services were all messed up, with a fast service running 20 minutes late, which was formed of 222017 which I took down to Derby before a cross platform change to 222014 which was only a couple minutes behind working a semi-fast to take me down to East Midlands Parkway.

Crossing over to the northbound ‘fast’ platform, it wasn’t long before required 43047 rolled in with dud 43066 on the back for the short run back to Nottingham. I had spotted my last 222 working a Leicester stopper which gave me an idea to intercept it when it worked back up, so a quick check of RTT introduced a plan and it was to Beeston on 222020 to drop off the bike, helmet & other stuff, before returning to Beeston station with time to spare before the next Leicester stopper rolled in, formed of an old friend, 156498 to take me back around the corner to East Midlands Parkway, crossing over to platform 3 to await the return of the Nottingham bound service (which would normally have continued to Lincoln, but as it was the time of day when the next service from St Pancras was extended to Lincoln, the stopper terminated at Nottingham.

I would imagine the only reason for winner (and final 222) 222103 being on this service was due to unit strengthening on the Cleethorpes services, anyhow I sat in “1st class” as it was a standard class only service, for a nice bit of luxury back to Nottingham. Another class cleared and last EMT unit, leaving just 2, 43s left, one which was on depot that day the other down to work an evening service via Derby to Leeds, so both could wait for another day. So with time to kill and no bike I headed to the tram platforms, to purchase my tram day rover before dud 228 took me down to Queens Walk. A short wait and winner 214 rolled in to take me to Meadows Embankment where I crossed over platforms to board 226 heading to the depot back to Queens Walk. Rain looked to be in the air so I didn’t want to be caught out.

Dud 210 was up next, and I didn’t realise how far apart Wilford Lane & Wilford Village stops were, so I missed a tram back and decided to bail at Compton Acres, a short wait before winner 223 rolled in to take me down to Wilford Lane followed a minute or two later by dud 228 to Wilford Village, heading back to depot and had some RPIs surprised how quiet it was.

A nice island platform at the village and it wasn’t long (10 minute frequency at this time) before dud 205 took me to Southchurch Drive North where a quick jump got me onto dud 210 to Ruddington Lane. I knew the next Nottingham bound tram would be required, so I hung around as it was down as heading to Shipstone Street, i.e. back the depot, so winner tram 234 took me the bus stop leap to Compton Acres, before 236 arrived to take me to Clifton Centre.

Another nice island platform allowed easy access to dud 206 to take me the tiny distance to Rivergreen, for a short wait before dud 201 took me to Holy Trinity, and with my last stop being only around the corner I walked to Summerwood Lane arriving in the nick of time as the Sheffield thunderstorm rolled into Nottingham and threw it down. The next Clifton South tram was dud so it was back onto 201 for the long trip back to Lace Market for a small spot of tram hunting. Winner 227 took me back to the station, followed by duds 204 to Old Market Square. Dud 231 took me back to the station, with winner 232 taking me to Lace Market. Back to the station on dud 236 to head down for my final service on my rover ticket, 158788 working the 22:18 to Derby, for a short hop to Beeston, the end of my rover, but not the end of my holiday.

Although foolishly as I purchased advance tickets on a service departing later on in the day I had a day where I planned to do not a lot, maybe some HST hunting if those 2 power-cars came out to play, and see if I could get any of my remaining 5 trams into the book, when sitting around in the city centre having identified Old Market Square as a good spot to hunt as it has some seats (well a low brick wall) to avoid hanging around the stop. A bit disappointed my idea to clearing everything within the rover area failed, but those three towards Shireoaks can be done on a South Yorkshire day, and the Hope Valley I have a plan for a Sunday from Manchester.

Anyhow some pictures, and hopefully not any coffee spilling captions:
142078 pausing for a moment at Gainsborough Lea Road, pacer power!


Have I come to Beirut?:


A nice enough station, shame it only gets 3 trains a week:


The Brigg:



Got a bit wet at Meadowhall, maybe it was an upper power sad with the pending doom of the TPE 170s?


First Class on board 222103... Had to be done


Summerwood Lane, being very much like summer...

 

[Techniquest]

Thankfully no coffee accidents this time

Many congratulations on clearing your EMT 153s and your 222s, well jealous! More good reading of course, ans well done on clearing NET for shacks. An amazing clearout had, and welcome to the club on NET

Shame about the delays messing up your plans, it does go to show Worst Case Scenario needs to be planned for!

 

[trentside]

I wonder how the guard on 153351 reacted when you kept on getting on it at different stations! Score on the double winner VTEC tram as well! I can't believe I had Metheringham before you too. Does Metheringham still have its signal box or is it gone now?

Yes, Blankney box is still standing - it's listed, so not going anywhere all being well. It's the last box still standing between Lincoln and Littleworth (south of Spalding) on the GNGE. Sleaford still retains the West and East boxes - the North box on the GNGE was removed only a couple of weeks ago after a couple of years of disuse.

Really enjoyable read Kite159. Pleased you had such a good time in the East Midlands.

 

[55013]

Well that was a fantastic read, winners a-plenty there

 

[FQ]

Seeing your last 375/7 can't have been nice! Must have been unexpected too!

Thanks Trentside for the gen on the signal box!

Which XC powercars do you need Kite?