A Sense of Deja Vu-10/03/18
Another day, another bash...
On my way to Lincoln last week I was given a couple of Northern Family and Friends vouchers, so I intended to use one today. After having some scran, I set off to Birchwood station in order to catch the first Northern service of the day-the 07:00 to Manchester Oxford Road. I was hoping for a pacer, but a very empty 156424 rolled in to form the service. The train called at all stations to Manchester, which merely slowed the journey down as very few people boarded en route.
158785 was my next move for the bus stop move to Manchester Piccadilly. There was just enough time to grab a drink and some scran before heading to platform 1 to board the Sheffield service. The loadings on this train seem to vary massively-thankfully today a very empty 142028 was provided. I was very grateful of a pacer as the last two times I've been to Sheffield I've been bowled out by a 150/1! I wasn't glad of the pacer for long though... the unit applied power then bang. Bang. Bang. Bang (repeats...) Great. We had the worst wheel flat I'd heard for a long time. Just what one wants for an 80 minute journey! We picked up quite a few passengers in the Derbyshire villages-there seemed to be an open day at one of the Sheffield universities, the guard managed to get rid of a fair amount of his bog roll as a result!
Arrival into Sheffield was a relief, and it was already time to jump into the waiting room for some phone charge! A PNB was also had in the 40 minute interchange and I headed onto RTT to look at planning the bash. I specifically wanted to scratch Creswell as it cleared the Robin Hood Line, and was my most local required shack (that title has now passed onto Wilnecote), so yet again I was on the Lincoln line. 144011 was my chariot for the dull ride to Worksop which, aside from a minor door issue at Darnall, was uneventful. I sourced my ticket to Creswell from the Northern guard to avoid having to cross over to the other platform at Worksop.
Changing at Worksop of course gave me the opportunity to visit the truly excellent Railway Cafe! A large breakfast was ordered, minus the tomatoes and mushrooms in favour of extra bacon and another egg. The scran on offer was cheaper than the equivalent in ‘Spoons, and much better. Nothing against ‘Spoons breakfast at all, the last one I had in Warrington was fantastic (and almost made me miss my bus!), but this is an independent cafe on a railway station. There's always been a decent amount of customers when I've been in-and deservedly so! I've never changed at Worksop and NOT stopped in there! (Unless I’ve already been in that is...) I took my food away onto dud 158777. It was at this point I discovered rancid tomatoes had been put on my breakfast... they didn't touch much so all was good!
I was gripped quite quickly onboard this service, the guard seemed a bit surprised at me pulling bog paper out-but happily scribbled on it. I was soon alighting at Creswell, word of warning: Don't attempt a tight connection here! The distance between platforms, as seems to be a bit of a theme for this line, is rather excessive...
It did at least reduce my 25 minute fester, so it wasn't all bad. The northbound unit was on time, and my chariot was dud 156406 for the 15 minutes back up to Worksop. The scenery on the Northern section of the line is surprisingly pleasant, however I was very glad to have ticked it off and not have to use it again! It’s quite slow for what it is, and apparently (signage at stations certainly backs this up) sees far more than it's fair share of trouble.
I'd forgotten how poor the connections off the ex Nottingham trains are at Worksop... 45 minute wait for a train in either direction? Uggh... I went back to the 156, spoke to the guard who helpfully allowed me to travel to Nottingham. This was the first time I'd done the entire length of the Robin Hood Line on one train, what a drag! The unit wasn't as busy as I expected it'd get, however I got briefly wedged out of my table between Langwith and Mansfield, and again further down the line. The guard appeared and asked the passenger opposite me for a ticket after departing Hucknall, she asked for a return to Nottingham, then claimed to have having boarded at Hucknall... I would have challenged this blatant fare evasion, however I couldn't remember where she'd actually boarded (Kirkby-in-Ashfield possibly?) so kept quiet.
I'd had an interesting idea on this train, and a quick look on RTT proved in possible... where would be the last place you’d expect me to head to next, after reading my previous report?
But firstly, I had more pressing matters. I'm a bloke. It was the day before Mother's Day. I'd definitely bought something by now... honest! Thankfully Broadmarsh shopping centre isn't too far, so off I went-trying not to get distracted by the beautiful looking TrentBarton E200MMCs and NCT E400s...
After my brief trip into Normaldom, I fed the TVM with £11.20 and purchased a return to Swineshead! Yup, back up the Skeggy branch! 156498 was my chariot out to Boston this pleasant afternoon. The ride was very pleasant, much better than my experience last week! There seemed to be less jointed track than I remembered, however the journey felt quite lengthy-but not particularly slow, with the exception of a lengthy wait in the bay platform at Grantham. Sprinting into Grantham alongside a VTEC HST, also calling at Grantham, was fun. I thought I saw something rare as we were departing, a FirstGroup 180 hurtling through heading North! Are Hull Trains actually running a service?? Ah, no. It's an ex GWR unit with Grand Central heading to Bradford...
It felt strange being back at Sleaford so soon, then I realised I was on the 14:52 Skegness service. The same service when things all fell apart last week... I'd be lying if I said I didn't cheer slightly as we flew through Hubberts Bridge station! That was a very nice sight! I had just over half an hour in Boston, so decided to head to Spoons. I eventually found the busy pub and just had time for a pint before the Nottingham service. I now had no need to ever visit Boston again, which I was rather glad of! I just got back to the station in time to comfortably board winner 153326+dud 153321 to Swineshead. The guard looked at my ticket and told me she needed the other portion, she'd not read it properly and seen the origin of Nottingham and decided I'd given the wrong one. Once that was pointed out, it was fine.
I alighted at Swineshead for a 10 minute fester, the shelter was appreciated as it'd just started raining! 16:05 came and went. No sign of the train. Here we go again... Thankfully it was only a couple of minutes late, but my stalker EMT 156, 156470, produced! I made a comment to the guard as I boarded along the lines of ‘I bet you don't get many here!’ and was VERY surprised to be met with the reply “two people have just got off! But no, you're my first passenger.” I mentioned what happened last week with regards to being terminated at Hubberts Bridge-she wasn't particularly impressed either! I did have a few flashbacks as we slowed for Hubberts Bridge and when the door opened... the sound of ‘buzz buzz' was a very reassuring sound!
I had to bail again at Boston to await the 16:48 back to Nottingham. The wait was much more pleasant than my last wait on Boston station had been, that's for sure! The 30 minutes passed quite quickly, however I was distinctly unimpressed at seeing 156498 again! Grr! I couldn't flag it due to needing to catch Northern home from Nottingham, so I parked my arse at a table muttering swear words at the diagram under my breath. The thrash along the branch line, rattling over the jointed track across rural Lincolnshire in the sunset was beautiful! I could do that all day! There was definitely more jointed track in the Westerly direction than the East, I wasn't imagining that at all. I considered bailing at Grantham for the Liverpool service, simply to change units-but in the end I decided I couldn't be bothered.
Totally nothing to do with falling asleep on the approach to Grantham. Honestly...
I woke passing Eastcroft depot, which was handy! The unit pulled into platform 7, and it's destination was changed to Liverpool, which made me VERY glad I didn't have an advance home on it! I'd have been livid! I headed over to the waiting room and took use of the handy USB sockets EMT have installed all over the place. That is once I found one that someone hadn't vandalised... I mean seriously?? The ‘nasty, greedy train companies’ do things to make their facilities better, and people have to spoil it. That's one thing I'll (and I suspect the majority of people) never see the possible ‘appeal’ of...
Eventually it was time to board the Leeds train, formed of 158817 (yuck!) With a BTP escort for some unknown reason. A passenger sat a row in front of me learnt that the fare advertised on NRE isn't always the fare available. (Just another reason why I am strongly opposed to ‘Advance Purchase on the Day’...) She was expecting to pay £7 and was shocked at being asked for £14.10! She told the guard (who didn't realise she'd found an APOD fare until I pointed it out) that she'd got the train from Worksop to Nottingham with 10 others and got a groupsave for about £70-so the fare to Sheffield was a rip off, making it clear she wasn't blaming the guard at the same time of course. I was tempted to point out that had she boarded an EMT service she'd potentially have been paying a Penalty Fare of £28.10, but thought better of it...
The rest of the journey was slow, calling all stops, but uneventful. Arrival into Sheffield was a few minutes down, just enough to ID an XC HST which was arriving into platform 1. ‘CrossCountry “High Speed Train” service to York.... this train has 5 coaches’ and in rolls 221121. That's not a HST! Boo! I therefore headed back to Platform 2C where I belong and boarded a half full 142039 for the slog back to Manchester. And what a slog it is... nothing to look at, all shacks except Ardwick called at. It takes an hour and a half to cover 42 miles! No ticket check was conducted on this service, very unusually, and we arrived into Manchester a minute early.
Just enough time for (by Mancunian standards) Late night 323 veg! 323235 was my chariot on the full and standing in the vestibules 22:04 Crewe service as far as Stockport. I proved how out of touch I am with a rail network I used to know so well when we slowed for Levenshulme. I had no idea this train stopped at Levenshulme and Heaton Chapel and wondered what the hell was going on! Even after we stopped, my first thoughts were ‘he's stopped by mistake' ‘why's he opening the doors??’ I was expecting to be late into Stockport, but we were on time. I realised something fantastic as I bailed. Virgin have got rid of their god-awful auto announcer and replaced with the Anne announcements used nationwide! I've no idea what the previous announcer used was, but I couldn't stand the old announcements. Brilliant to hear that these have gone! Quite literally...
323236 was my chariot back to Piccadilly, which had 4 minutes of standing time at Stockport however had arrived early. That felt like forever! We were also held outside Piccadilly for a while and ended up arriving 8 late. The 23:07 Liverpool service was running 13 late, which was bad as I needed the last Cheshire Lines stopper from Occy Road at 23:20! The Chester hippo came and went, which mopped up quite a few Warrington passengers. That unit looked quite empty as it left, 185107 followed it in a few minutes later. I spoke to the guard who didn't expect the stopper would have been held and told me to stay on the 185, so I did. This was an unrefurbished unit unfortunately, and I ended up on a tip-down in the ballroom. I got back to Birchwood 10 minutes early as a result, as I'd travelled on a train earlier than the one I should have been on.
Summary:
1 winner unit
2 winner shacks
