The strike on the north day 4: Delay day
The second day of our North East, the Tuesday, was the day that went wrong, but luckily more towards the end. As I say, it started well, beginning at 07:30 when my alarm went off. I got up and woke Nat up before wondering downstairs (something that is quite weird for me) and heading to the kitchen. Granny was already up and made us some brekky, which was had while chatting before granddad came downstairs and got ready to take us to the station. We were both very grateful about this and headed to the car for the ride to Malton, getting there 25 minutes before the train at 08:50. Why were we 25 minutes early? The road between Pickering and Malton can really stuff you up if you get stuck behind something so we left with lots of time. It wasn't needed in the end though.
When there we discovered that it was very cold so decided to pop into the warm buffet for our wait. I called mum and dad before heading in and then wandered into the cafe and got an orange juice so we could sit in there. We were in there for about 15 minutes before leaving again and heading up towards the 3-car stop board to wait for the 185 to arrive. Winner
185101 was leading the busy service this morning but we both managed to get seats away from each other (just) for the ride to York.
Just like the day before we were to get the GC as it'd mean that we'd cover both turns over the two days. We left the diesel dez at York and noticed that the same winner milkfloat was on the 10:03 to Kings Cross this morning (132). We had a short fester for the 09:58 to Sunderland and it was soon arriving on platform 10. Nat was very lgad the moment he got the number of the front powercar as it was his last GC one,
43480. I'd still had no luck but now had a 50% chance of a winner on the back. This chance came through as it was winner
43484 pushing the set. Score for both of us!
When we left, Nat had cleared his first company's trams. I'd had my first one ages ago (XC) but didn't mention it. This left me with just 43468 to clear my GC trams. This is actually dad's last required 'passenger' tram (he also needs 013) so it was weird that it'd be my last GC one but it meant that we could hunt it down together.
We easily get a bay of 4 on board and a ticket check took place upon departure from York. The guard declared our tickets not valid (which they technically were but there was a rule in the national conditions of carriage saying that it needs to be printed on the ticket, which it wasn't so they also were) but just mentioned it before moving on. We just relaxed from here and enjoyed the race up the ECML to Northallerton, getting there on time.
A dull half an hour later, we were on the move again up to Darlington. Dud for me (winner for Nat)
91116 was powering us on the same service as yesterday and we bailed 10 minutes later for 'E09. When we got off, we found out that it was running just under 15 minutes late. I headed to some station staff at Darlo' to ask if the connection would be held onto the 12:03 Kings Cross, which we were planning on taking to Retford for a +7 onto a milkfloat back to York. This was now a -5 onto it but they said they usually hold it to 12:15 so we should be OK. Hopefully it'll work out!
This was the one that was vice yesterday so we were very relieved when getting there to see the familiar view of a powercar up front. This was
43314 and it was the one that was pushing us from York to Haymarket exactly a week before. It was still with
43318 so we had a high mileage pair taking us back to York, 314 reaching 831.25 by York. Clearance by the end of the week?
As we arrived at York, both Nat and I were at the vestibule windows and saw no tram in platform 6, showing that they hadn't held the connection. Darn it! Remember that that was try 1 for Retford. It wasn't the last!
It was now 12:14 so we had 20 minutes before the next northbound milkfloat, which gave us time to get to the Sainsbury's local before it. We wandered over and got some lunch, me going for a chicken triple sarnie with a bag of crisps and a drink. A pack of custard donuts were also got and all taken back to the station and onto dud for me (winner for Nat)
91102. Lunch was devoured on board, us each having two custard donuts out of the five, leaving one for granddad. It went down perfectly and was all gone by Darlington when we left City of York's set. We now had a fairly long fester at Darlo' of 25 minutes before the southbound Chieftain. As we'd had the northbound one from York to Newcastle the day before, we knew what it would be and, sure enough, it was
43206 leading with
43299 trailing. Our plan was now simple. Try to make the northbound chieftain and, if it's missed, then go for Retford on the 14:03 for a tram back up.
We were a couple of minutes late arriving at York unfortunately so the northbound chieftain was viewed but missed. Nat was pretty ticked off as it had one of his winners on but I pointed out that we knew what it would be coming south on the next day, which made him less of a pain. It was a basic cross platform change at York onto dud (I'm really having no luck with the milkfloats on this trip)
91109 on the 14:03, which would give a +9 at Retford. Nat was happy with this one as he had scored yet another milkfloat (jammy so and so) so at least one of us got something out of the ride. 14:03 came and went and we eventually departed York 10-late for some stupid reason. That's try number 2 for Retford. Will we be lucky on try 3?
We bailed at Donny as the 10 minutes remained lost and, with a two-hour fester until the next VTEC north, it wasn't worth risking. There was quite a lot hanging around at Donny so we could see quite a lot before our 15:04 to York. Nat scored a GBRF 66 on a sand train while we waited so he was kept happy too. It was a double dud for both of us on the tram back up to York,
43309 and
43315. 315 was needed for 100 by me and wasn't even cleared by York, getting there on time. It was a tightish connection here onto a Kings Cross milkfloat, this being the 15:31 to Kings Cross, which we would be able to take to Doncaster for another milkfloat back to York on the 16:10, getting us there in time for the 16:40 to Malton. This was a good move so we were pleased to make it, even though it was dud for both of us
91105. A speedy run was had down the ECML but I'm sure Tech will be shaking his head at the moment saying that I'd crazy for this (and the other pushing milkfloat that we'd had that day). We were soon arriving at Donny bang on time...
And that's when it all went horribly wrong.
We went to a departure board to see how the 16:10 was running and found that it was simply 'delayed'. I did an RTT check and didn't like what I saw - it got to Newark right time and hadn't left. About 10 minutes later there was an announcement saying that it had been caped due to a train fault. Blast.
I called granny and granddad first to let them know that we'd be an hour late back before calling mum and dad to fill them in. It was then a basic wait for the 10-late 16:14 to Leeds. Why was it late? That freaking Newcastle that we were meant to be on got in the way! Thank god for three platforms at Newark Northgate!
After a bit of waiting at Donny (during which a magic 'replacement' train for the 16:10 was announced but never appeared so passengers were sent over to a UHT), I was pleased to see
91130, my favorite milkfloat, leading the Leeds. Although it was a dud for me, Nat scored it so I was happy enough. We managed to get seats on board without much trouble and relaxed for the race to Leeds, arriving 10 down. We'd now have 15 minutes until the 185 to Malton. Or would we...
The first announcement we heard when getting to Leeds was 'due to a points failure at Huddersfield, trains are disrupted and cancelled'. It wasn't wrong either! Nothing had got past Huddersfield for ages and the 185 that we were meant to catch from York at 16:40 hadn't even cleared the disruption (it was already 16:56 at this point). The departure board just showed a sea of 'delayed' and we knew that we were in for a long fester so I called granny to update her and said that I'd keep in touch. Finally a couple of trains started to show estimated departure times from Leeds again and it was working again! The first one to arrive was caped at Leeds, much to the disgust of the billions of commuters and daytrippers now swarming the platforms like insects (weird professional writer mode off). We knew that the first one through would be absolutely heaving out of Leeds...
What are the odds that that'd be ours? Damn! We knew that there was another Scarborough following it by about 10 minutes (the 17:40 from York) so we planned to flag the first one and get that, now expected in at 17:35. It was highly surprising to see that
185129 didn't only have space after the people wanting it had joined at Leeds but even had a bay of four up front. Excellent!
This was the 16:40 from York and was running just under an hour and a half late when we set off from Leeds. It was actually rather pleasant and I called granny again to say that we had left Leeds and that I'd call when we left York so Granddad knew when to head out. All went very smoothly until we arrived at York...
5 minutes after arrival and announcement was made saying that there was no guard to take us forward and that the 185 would be caped here, although there was another one a few minutes behind. Shambles!
I called granny to say but she said that granddad had already headed out! This wasn't good news at all, even more so when we saw that the Scarborough behind was also caped at York, meaning that the next one would be just under an hour after we arrived! Granddad wasn't contactable as he didn't take a phone and we would be an hour later than we said we would at Leeds. Oh, TPE, you really can be a total pain sometimes.
I was very annoyed during the fester, a GC tram set stood next to me for about 5 minutes providing the best part of the fester (60020 also came through). Seeing 1S51 was more taunting as it was basically just yelling to us 'look, you could have got me from Leeds to York and still have been on the same diesel dez back to Malton'. Damn.
Tram at York by
fishquinn1, on Flickr
The 18:40 also had a delay to it and arrived at 19:00 with dud
185102. It was rammed from Malton but I managed to get a seat, Nat standing up next to a window (I did offer him my seat). It was mid way through the journey that Nat commented that it was a 6-coach as he could see the rear of the unit on one of the curves. I really couldn't tell judged on how busy the cart was! Sure enough, dud
185111 was on the back so I guess I got double the 185 mileage on the run.
We were both highly apologetic to granddad when we got there but he fully understood and had been kept informed at Malton, unlike York with us. We gave him his custard donut too and had a nice chat but I still feel bad about granddad being there for over an hour. Nothing that could be done though and we all knew that so the topic wasn't brought up again through the rest of the enjoyable evening and we got to bed at about 22:00, ready for what our next day will give.