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Might as well get this down while it's still fresh in the memory and while the shoulder still aches from carrying my bag around on it for about 80% of last week ...
Sat 2nd July.
5:30am on Doncaster station, and there's surprisingly more people around than I was expecting, there's also a 185 and a 142 that I'm definitely not starting my trip on, I'm catching the 91 down to London village. It's busier than I was expecting, filling up around Grantham & Peterborough, and everyone else - like me - is not used to being up this early, but it's a good ride down.
After an hour in St Pancras its time for a ride on one of the 395's (sorry, I can't remember the individual numbers) down to Canterbury for a spot of sightseeing. It's a fast, smooth and exciting run down through the tunnels and along the east of London, the highlight being a race between us and a unit along the north of the Thames, then it hits Ashford International and back to the 3rd rail to Canterbury, and suddenly the contrast between the speedy smooth HS1 and the ordinary network makes it feel like I'm back on a 142 doing Doncaster to Sheffield - it's probably an unfair comparison, nowhere near as rough and only because of the massive contrast in ride quality to what immediately preceded, but a train that thrashed its way through the suburbs suddenly feels clumsy and about to fall off the rails.
After Canterbury a couple of 375's took me to Dover and back to Ashford Int for the Hastings train, seeing a few 92's on the way, allowing half an hour for watching the Channel Tunnel trains thrashing through at the back of the platform. A 171 covered the Hastings route, despite being diesel it still felt a bit comfier than the 395 (Ashford-Canterbury) and the 375's, another 2 of which took me on to Battle and then (following a cancellation due to a lineside fire) on to London Bridge.
No trains to St Pancras, so its a fairly average traumatic and busy journey through the underground back there, where an attempt to board the EMT service to Sheffield is slowed by the first query of the ALR by a member of staff on the entrance gates. I'd already tried it through the machines and it didn't work, so had been showing it without problems where required, at St P the conversation went something like:
Assitant: That ticket is for Doncaster, this is London
Me: Oh? It's an All Line Rover
Ass.: uh ...
Me: It's valid for all lines, it was issued at Doncaster, that's why it says Doncaster and "issued at" just above that
Ass.: oh ... (and then lets me through)
Interestingly the ticket inspector on the train also takes a long look at the ticket before handing it back, the 222 is quite empty for early evening and gives a good run up to Sheffield (past the DRS yard at Derby, with 31s,37s,4/57s & 73 there), where another good run on a Voyager (I got a seat on this, if it had been full & I'd ended up in the vestibule I'd probably be saying something different here, nevertheless, they are quite a decent ride when you get a seat on one) takes me to Doncaster and a finishing hop on the 321 to Bentley.
Sun 3rd July.
This was always going to be a nice easy, short day, in the build up to Monday/Tuesday, though it wasn't helped by the overhead line problems causing cancellation of the train I was intending to catch. I caught a Hull 180 down to Stevenage, which was then delayed by a signal problem south of Retford for about 10 minutes, meaning I had less of a wait for the Cambridge train, a 365. It was a decent, if short run, and after a few hours of looking round Cambridge I got the 170 round to Peterborough, again fairly good even if the air conditioning was set a little cold.
Finally, a good old HST back to Doncaster in the evening, passing by what seemed to be a lot of 91's going south on the way back. So far so good, and most of the trains this weekend had been fairly quiet, only the Dover-Ashford and Ashford-Hastings had been fairly busy.
Anyway, that's the first two days over with, on Monday it was up to Scotland ... (to be continued)
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Mon 4th July
Another early start, this time for the 6:15 to Edinburgh and evidently whatever overhead line problems had occurred yesterday had been resolved in time for this. The 91 arrived promptly into Edinburgh, though I still had a quick run round to the Perth train with only 10 minutes between arrival and departure.
The 158 to Perth seemed noisier than the ones around here, though it too gave a decent ride and enabled me to quickly go into town to get a sandwich before the 170 to Aberdeen arrived. Another great run, very scenic, and the sunny weather meant that there were lots of golfers out on the East Coast.
The 158 from Aberdeen to Inverness was packed though, apparently it always is, probably to do with it being a whole two cars in length. The run was another good one though, even the guy sat opposite who got on at Elgin with a few cans of Strongbow wasn't that annoying ...
Back to Inverness for the first time in 5 years, glad I didn't bother bringing the loyalty card for a restaurant I went to then because it had closed! Subway it was then, followed by 2 hours of looking round before the Kyle of Lochalsh train.
Another 158 this time, the last of the Highland lines I've been on and this was one of the best runs, travelling in the late evening on a sunny day I think I probably caught it at its best there.
My accomadation at KoL wasn't the best though, a bench on the seafront after the pub closed, it was a small price to pay though.
Tue 5th July.
Arriving back at the station an hour early I find the train doors open and the lights have been switched, getting a seat and an hours sleep before it sets off was good as the weather had begun to turn slightly. The journey to Inverness is alright, though it is much cloudier, I have about 20 minutes before the 170 to Glasgow is due to depart.
Kept nodding off on the Glasgow train though, but it arrived into Queen Street with long enough to go for me to have a look around a couple of the record shops in the centre before going over to Glasgow Central for the London Train.
The Pendolino was busy, a lot of the seats reserved but I dropped on one that wasn't in a different carriage to where they said these seats were available, it gives a good ride to Preston after stopping at Carlisle and Lancaster, but shortly after passing through Stafford the journey gets a lot better.
Between Nuneaton and Euston the track improvements of the last few years have a great effect, those plus the tilting of the train itself mean the run is very fast and impressive when passing some of the local services, possibly surpassing the 395 from Saturday due to the way it takes the curves in the line.
London to Doncaster on a packed 18:30 service is a bit of a low point, even more so than the 170 toilet experience, though the 91 empties after Peterborough. I did make it back in time for the 20:26 local back home though, ready for another long journey in the morning.
Sat 2nd July.
5:30am on Doncaster station, and there's surprisingly more people around than I was expecting, there's also a 185 and a 142 that I'm definitely not starting my trip on, I'm catching the 91 down to London village. It's busier than I was expecting, filling up around Grantham & Peterborough, and everyone else - like me - is not used to being up this early, but it's a good ride down.
After an hour in St Pancras its time for a ride on one of the 395's (sorry, I can't remember the individual numbers) down to Canterbury for a spot of sightseeing. It's a fast, smooth and exciting run down through the tunnels and along the east of London, the highlight being a race between us and a unit along the north of the Thames, then it hits Ashford International and back to the 3rd rail to Canterbury, and suddenly the contrast between the speedy smooth HS1 and the ordinary network makes it feel like I'm back on a 142 doing Doncaster to Sheffield - it's probably an unfair comparison, nowhere near as rough and only because of the massive contrast in ride quality to what immediately preceded, but a train that thrashed its way through the suburbs suddenly feels clumsy and about to fall off the rails.
After Canterbury a couple of 375's took me to Dover and back to Ashford Int for the Hastings train, seeing a few 92's on the way, allowing half an hour for watching the Channel Tunnel trains thrashing through at the back of the platform. A 171 covered the Hastings route, despite being diesel it still felt a bit comfier than the 395 (Ashford-Canterbury) and the 375's, another 2 of which took me on to Battle and then (following a cancellation due to a lineside fire) on to London Bridge.
No trains to St Pancras, so its a fairly average traumatic and busy journey through the underground back there, where an attempt to board the EMT service to Sheffield is slowed by the first query of the ALR by a member of staff on the entrance gates. I'd already tried it through the machines and it didn't work, so had been showing it without problems where required, at St P the conversation went something like:
Assitant: That ticket is for Doncaster, this is London
Me: Oh? It's an All Line Rover
Ass.: uh ...
Me: It's valid for all lines, it was issued at Doncaster, that's why it says Doncaster and "issued at" just above that
Ass.: oh ... (and then lets me through)
Interestingly the ticket inspector on the train also takes a long look at the ticket before handing it back, the 222 is quite empty for early evening and gives a good run up to Sheffield (past the DRS yard at Derby, with 31s,37s,4/57s & 73 there), where another good run on a Voyager (I got a seat on this, if it had been full & I'd ended up in the vestibule I'd probably be saying something different here, nevertheless, they are quite a decent ride when you get a seat on one) takes me to Doncaster and a finishing hop on the 321 to Bentley.
Sun 3rd July.
This was always going to be a nice easy, short day, in the build up to Monday/Tuesday, though it wasn't helped by the overhead line problems causing cancellation of the train I was intending to catch. I caught a Hull 180 down to Stevenage, which was then delayed by a signal problem south of Retford for about 10 minutes, meaning I had less of a wait for the Cambridge train, a 365. It was a decent, if short run, and after a few hours of looking round Cambridge I got the 170 round to Peterborough, again fairly good even if the air conditioning was set a little cold.
Finally, a good old HST back to Doncaster in the evening, passing by what seemed to be a lot of 91's going south on the way back. So far so good, and most of the trains this weekend had been fairly quiet, only the Dover-Ashford and Ashford-Hastings had been fairly busy.
Anyway, that's the first two days over with, on Monday it was up to Scotland ... (to be continued)
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Mon 4th July
Another early start, this time for the 6:15 to Edinburgh and evidently whatever overhead line problems had occurred yesterday had been resolved in time for this. The 91 arrived promptly into Edinburgh, though I still had a quick run round to the Perth train with only 10 minutes between arrival and departure.
The 158 to Perth seemed noisier than the ones around here, though it too gave a decent ride and enabled me to quickly go into town to get a sandwich before the 170 to Aberdeen arrived. Another great run, very scenic, and the sunny weather meant that there were lots of golfers out on the East Coast.
The 158 from Aberdeen to Inverness was packed though, apparently it always is, probably to do with it being a whole two cars in length. The run was another good one though, even the guy sat opposite who got on at Elgin with a few cans of Strongbow wasn't that annoying ...
Back to Inverness for the first time in 5 years, glad I didn't bother bringing the loyalty card for a restaurant I went to then because it had closed! Subway it was then, followed by 2 hours of looking round before the Kyle of Lochalsh train.
Another 158 this time, the last of the Highland lines I've been on and this was one of the best runs, travelling in the late evening on a sunny day I think I probably caught it at its best there.
My accomadation at KoL wasn't the best though, a bench on the seafront after the pub closed, it was a small price to pay though.
Tue 5th July.
Arriving back at the station an hour early I find the train doors open and the lights have been switched, getting a seat and an hours sleep before it sets off was good as the weather had begun to turn slightly. The journey to Inverness is alright, though it is much cloudier, I have about 20 minutes before the 170 to Glasgow is due to depart.
Kept nodding off on the Glasgow train though, but it arrived into Queen Street with long enough to go for me to have a look around a couple of the record shops in the centre before going over to Glasgow Central for the London Train.
The Pendolino was busy, a lot of the seats reserved but I dropped on one that wasn't in a different carriage to where they said these seats were available, it gives a good ride to Preston after stopping at Carlisle and Lancaster, but shortly after passing through Stafford the journey gets a lot better.
Between Nuneaton and Euston the track improvements of the last few years have a great effect, those plus the tilting of the train itself mean the run is very fast and impressive when passing some of the local services, possibly surpassing the 395 from Saturday due to the way it takes the curves in the line.
London to Doncaster on a packed 18:30 service is a bit of a low point, even more so than the 170 toilet experience, though the 91 empties after Peterborough. I did make it back in time for the 20:26 local back home though, ready for another long journey in the morning.
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