harry42
Member
Attached are 4 photos, (apologies for quality.)
An extremely bitter morning at Long Eaton with great value all day parking at £2. Brought tickets to Leicester with: 1 adult+2 children £11.60 return and 2 adults with senior railcards at around £9 return. Brisk walking pass the confusing signage lead us to a surprisingly crowded platform. But then we realised the mistake: Forest are playing Leicester today. 43058 whizzed through and then a 222- - - trundled in and everyone did the 'the trains going further forward then expected so lets all run after the nearest doors causing the train to be late' action! The train was packed and we stood in the aisle. We arrived in at Loughborough 2L and exited through the operational ticket gates, and the GC station was just a 15 minute walk.
Arriving at Central at 10:15 frozen, we strolled down the platform with its brand new canopy costing around 1/2 million pounds. We took a seat in the 'brief encounter' refreshment room and had a hot drink as the diesel rolled in to take us. 11:00 to Rothley 11:21, RT. Rothley houses a fantastic garden railway entertaining us for 20 mins, and a parcel office, gas lit platforms and a waiting room with an open fire.
The bell sounded and the 12:20 chuffed in 5L as we took a seat for the short 10 min journey to Leicester North. A friendly conductor gave information on Belgrave and Birtsall and how Leicester North was actually 200m on, very close together. The bridge link is now missing and a huge ring road sits in the way.
Leicester North is a small station so we walked down to the platform café at the new greenacres complex of which GCR took over the franchise in 2008. Could anyone extend on what this complex is and what it is used for? We ate lunch there, me ordering a chicken curry only 20 mins later to be told the chicken was falling apart so I had toad in the hole instead. This was fantastic food with great service and a very friendly atmosphere. The café closed at 14:30 for a private conference but that didn't effect us anyway. Views from the café were good with cityscapes and the space centre in priority.
It was now 4.5 degrees so we looked at the 14:15 from Leicester, skipping Quorn getting us to Loughborough for 14:47. This was a restaurant car and only had 1 coach of passenger accommodation, but had separate compartments so we were happy! The station staff at Leicester in the booking office and tea room were very happy to help and even gave us free leaflets and pens etc. A roaring log fire here kept us happy too. The 14:15 restaurant was non stop so took us straight to Loughborough RT at 14:47.
We looked round the 2nd hand bookshop, purchased a few magasines, hovered around the gift shop, went into the museum then slowly walked back to the mainline station.
Ticket barriers were open at Loughborough on the return and after a 43 shifted through at an amazing speed, frightening 3 students out of there mind who, despite asked to move back, stood right at the edge. This was quite amusing in the end, but there body almost touched the what must be 110mph HST! Here I had time to notice the cleaniness of Loughborough compared to Nottingham. Station office door was open and it had 'station of the year 2013' or something similar proudly displayed.
The return journey was busy, but not full. An ignorant women who refused to move her suitcase on the seat which we had established she had not paid for was shortly removed by the conductor to the foyer area as we asked the conductor for some assistance. If only she could just move her bag? An already eventful journey made even worse by another person sitting next to me which was fine! I was in the aisle, her in the window and she asked me if she could go to the toilet please. Refraning my self from saying no or I don't know, can you, I said yes. She came and sat back down. (Note me standing up and down twice now.) 30 seconds later she wanted to go to the buffet. I politely stood up. She then came back. I did again. 10 seconds later we rolled into EM parkway where she was alighting. It didn't bother me of course but...oh well! We arrived in at Long Eaton 1L without having RTN tickets checked.
Hope you enjoyed, don't really write reports. Suggestions, comments please!
An extremely bitter morning at Long Eaton with great value all day parking at £2. Brought tickets to Leicester with: 1 adult+2 children £11.60 return and 2 adults with senior railcards at around £9 return. Brisk walking pass the confusing signage lead us to a surprisingly crowded platform. But then we realised the mistake: Forest are playing Leicester today. 43058 whizzed through and then a 222- - - trundled in and everyone did the 'the trains going further forward then expected so lets all run after the nearest doors causing the train to be late' action! The train was packed and we stood in the aisle. We arrived in at Loughborough 2L and exited through the operational ticket gates, and the GC station was just a 15 minute walk.
Arriving at Central at 10:15 frozen, we strolled down the platform with its brand new canopy costing around 1/2 million pounds. We took a seat in the 'brief encounter' refreshment room and had a hot drink as the diesel rolled in to take us. 11:00 to Rothley 11:21, RT. Rothley houses a fantastic garden railway entertaining us for 20 mins, and a parcel office, gas lit platforms and a waiting room with an open fire.
The bell sounded and the 12:20 chuffed in 5L as we took a seat for the short 10 min journey to Leicester North. A friendly conductor gave information on Belgrave and Birtsall and how Leicester North was actually 200m on, very close together. The bridge link is now missing and a huge ring road sits in the way.
Leicester North is a small station so we walked down to the platform café at the new greenacres complex of which GCR took over the franchise in 2008. Could anyone extend on what this complex is and what it is used for? We ate lunch there, me ordering a chicken curry only 20 mins later to be told the chicken was falling apart so I had toad in the hole instead. This was fantastic food with great service and a very friendly atmosphere. The café closed at 14:30 for a private conference but that didn't effect us anyway. Views from the café were good with cityscapes and the space centre in priority.
It was now 4.5 degrees so we looked at the 14:15 from Leicester, skipping Quorn getting us to Loughborough for 14:47. This was a restaurant car and only had 1 coach of passenger accommodation, but had separate compartments so we were happy! The station staff at Leicester in the booking office and tea room were very happy to help and even gave us free leaflets and pens etc. A roaring log fire here kept us happy too. The 14:15 restaurant was non stop so took us straight to Loughborough RT at 14:47.
We looked round the 2nd hand bookshop, purchased a few magasines, hovered around the gift shop, went into the museum then slowly walked back to the mainline station.
Ticket barriers were open at Loughborough on the return and after a 43 shifted through at an amazing speed, frightening 3 students out of there mind who, despite asked to move back, stood right at the edge. This was quite amusing in the end, but there body almost touched the what must be 110mph HST! Here I had time to notice the cleaniness of Loughborough compared to Nottingham. Station office door was open and it had 'station of the year 2013' or something similar proudly displayed.
The return journey was busy, but not full. An ignorant women who refused to move her suitcase on the seat which we had established she had not paid for was shortly removed by the conductor to the foyer area as we asked the conductor for some assistance. If only she could just move her bag? An already eventful journey made even worse by another person sitting next to me which was fine! I was in the aisle, her in the window and she asked me if she could go to the toilet please. Refraning my self from saying no or I don't know, can you, I said yes. She came and sat back down. (Note me standing up and down twice now.) 30 seconds later she wanted to go to the buffet. I politely stood up. She then came back. I did again. 10 seconds later we rolled into EM parkway where she was alighting. It didn't bother me of course but...oh well! We arrived in at Long Eaton 1L without having RTN tickets checked.
Hope you enjoyed, don't really write reports. Suggestions, comments please!
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