Saturday 03/02/79
40058 0051 Stockport – York via OA&GB Jn
On arrival back at York, my pet Deltic soon arrived heading south. How could I possibly refuse?
55019 0254 York – Grantham
I alighted at Grantham to cover the 0405 Kings Cross – Leeds. Surprisingly this produced a Deltic too, which was especially lively as the train was only load 3!
55018 0629 Grantham – Leeds
There had been a derailment overnight in Leeds Parcels Concentration Depot, so the vans which should have gone overnight to Glasgow were instead being attached to the 0715 Nottingham – Glasgow – and that had a 40 on it!
40068 0915 Leeds – Annan
With a full load 12, 40068 was utterly thrashed over the S&C, and still managed to lose 20 minutes. Departing from Carlisle it became obvious all was not well, as the power was fluctuating on and off. At Annan the 40 was declared a failure with a burnt out load regulator, so we sat and waited for assistance. (There were plenty of 40s sitting on Kingmoor, I wonder which one it will be …)
47349 1207 Annan – Glasgow Central, 110’ late.
Cheers. Sub-zero temperatures, deep snow, and the best they can send us is an NB 47.
Across to Queen Street for a Push Pull to Edinburgh:
27103 + 27205 1650 Glasgow Queen Street – Edinburgh
Time to head south again:
45002 2040 Edinburgh – Newcastle
The boiler failed on this as well, so it was removed at Newcastle and replaced by:
31225 + 31198 2318 Newcastle – York (to be continued …)
Tuesday 03/02/81
I had been attending a training school for new booking office clerks. Naturally we learnt all about ticketing and accountancy, but also such useful information as how to read a timetable. (Funny enough, I was quite good at that already, having been planning week-long Rover tickets for many years). We also had site visits, such as to Bounds Green to see an HST under maintenance. One day we were given the task of planning and preparing a round trip, then another day actually doing it and writing it up from the viewpoint of a passenger. The trip I was supposed to do was from Kings Cross to Cleethorpes and return. I “improved” the official itinerary somewhat. I hoped for a Deltic to Cleethorpes. I had seen them on Kings Cross - Cleethorpes services on several occasions but never managed to have one myself. (I still haven’t). I turned up at Kings Cross to do the 0815 to Cleethorpes, and instead of the hoped-for Deltic on air cons, I was greeted by 47163 on a rake of Mk 1s. Still, never mind, at least I can start off in style:
55015 0805 Kings Cross – Newark Northgate
There I alighted for my “booked” service:
47163 1000 Newark Northgate – Cleethorpes via Lincoln St Marks
That’s where I started going seriously off-piste. I was supposed to wait around at Cleethorpes, examining the passenger infrastructure, and then catch the through train back to Kings Cross (with 47163 again). What I actually did was:
DMU Cleethorpes – New Holland Pier
MV Farringford (1948 vintage paddle steamer ferry) New Holland Pier – Hull
http://www.clydeships.co.uk/view.php?ref=15730
http://www.davesrailpics.bravehost.com/newholland/newholland.htm
DMU Hull – Sheffield
47116 1623 Sheffield – Peterborough via Nottingham, Grantham
This was the 1515 Manchester Piccadilly – Harwich Parkeston Quay. We had been reminded in our lesson on reading timetables to pay special attention to the unusual Cross Country links which were available, so I did just that.
Now at Peterborough I could have just headed on the next available train to Kings Cross, but 55012 arrived on the 1805 Kings Cross – York, so I decided to double back to Grantham, in the hope of something decent back from there:
55012 1906 Peterborough – Grantham
55017 1936 Grantham – Kings Cross
I wrote up a full and honest account of my trip as part of my training log. When the course tutor came to read it, I could see his mind was just about blown. Everybody else on the course had done a straight out-and-back trip and was home in time for tea, whereas I was leaping around the country raking in three different Deltics and even venturing onto a vintage paddle steamer. Apparently he had turned up at Kings Cross to see us off, and wondered why I wasn’t on my scheduled train direct to Cleethorpes. I explained that I turned up early, saw it was formed of Mk 1 coaches, so decided to sample the air conditioned Mk 2 comfort of the preceding train as far as Newark to enable me establish a baseline for a fair comparison! The opening of the Humber Bridge a few months later swiftly put paid to the New Holland Pier branch, and also the ferry service, so this was the last time I sampled it. Happy days!
Sunday 03/02/85
After a night in the Invershin Hotel, it was kippers for breakfast, then we strolled up to the request stop to flag down the return of the Lairg papers:
37260 1106 Invershin – Inverness
After lunch in Inverness and a leisurely stroll around, time to head south:
47214 1700 Inverness – Edinburgh via Ladybank
27063 1700 Inverness – Perth, pilot.
The afternoon / early evening workings from Inverness quite often produced a pilot loco of some description, simply because of imbalanced workings.
47707 2130 Edinburgh – Glasgow Queen Street
Friday 03/02/89
Returning from my parents’ house in Plymouth to Crewe, along with wife + 2 young children (so no scope for variation):
47665 1155 Plymouth – Birmingham New Street
86228 1604 Birmingham New Street – Stafford
86426 1639 Stafford – Crewe
Saturday 03/02/96
60009 “Union of South Africa” 1002 Worcester Shrub Hill – Nottingham via Kidderminster, Soho, Bescot, Sutton Park, Leicester
60009 1530 Nottingham – Crewe via Trent, Sheet Stores, Stenson, Stoke on Trent
87030 2023 Crewe – Euston
43136 + 43009 2130 Paddington – Reading