Even if you don't do a full trip report I'd love to hear a more detailed account of the ABD - PNZ run that you did. Don't think that there are many that do that!
Writing is underway
although I'm wondering whether I should have been taking notes haha!
No, you'd have to be insane on a Voyager
(I'd better watch what I say as I'll see Ian at the
meal on Thursday!
)
We also had a 'dining' experience on board the train, as Max boarded at York with pizza from Pizza Express!
Yer I am a bit concerned that you'll bring the men in white coats with you! Pizza eh, a cunning plan! I bet the train had more catering than just a trolley too?
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So just because I'm me, I'm going to start by reporting on day 2. Having had a not particularly good nights sleep on the Caledonian Sleeper, I arrived in Aberdeen at almost exactly 07.35.
It seemed like the train had just been abandoned, not a member of staff in site. I made my exit promptly from the sleeper, both because I'd had quite enough of being on board, and because I knew I needed to stock up on provisions for the 13 hour trip ahead, not wanting to rely on the CrossCountry trolley service!
I stocked up on boiled sweets and Ginsters products, and made my way to the Pumpkin on Aberdeen station. Once inside it fell to a lovely Chinese man to translate the Scottish lady serving, as she was at a loss to explain to me, a mere Englishman, what a Lorne Sausage is. Anyway, sausage sandwich and large coffee in hand I made my way back to the platform via WHSmiths, as I fancied some different reading material to that I had been lugging around with me. Extracting and showing my ticket to the gateline with all that in hand was rather interesting but somehow I made it through with everything in one piece.
I found myself loitering on platform 6 munching away, wondering whether things were looking a bit iffy with there not being a Voyager set insight. It got to 08.00 and the incoming CrossCountry had still not arrived, however 67006 Royal Sovereign reappeared shunting the Aberdeen portion of sleeper and distracted me for a while.
The delayed 07.55 arrival appeared from the South and pulled up in Platform 3. Rather amusingly a whole crowd of commuters found themselves trapped on the platform by a whole collection of ScotRail tensator barriers, which seemed to be the last straw for many of them!
After the station had quietened down again I made my way along the platform and met 221135, who would be transporting me for the next 13 hours 22 minutes from the North of Scotland to the far West of Cornwall. Making my way on board I located my reserved seat in Coach D. Quite what the reservation system was aiming for giving me seat 58A, an isle seat I really don't know. Not fancying being up and down all day letting someone sit in the window seat (which was completely unreserved for the whole journey!) I thought I'd best sit in it. Not a word was said all day!
Getting perilously close to the departure time, a slightly nervous sounding central Scottish voice began the announcement:
Welcome on board the 08.20 CrossCountry departure to Penzance, we will be calling at..[I'll spare you this in a text block!] ...once again this is the 08.20 CrossCountry service to Penzance.
So the calling pattern of 1V60, the 08.20 CrossCountry service to Penzance is as follows:
Arr Dep
Aberdeen - 08.20
Stonehaven 08.36 08.38
Montrose 08.57 08.59
Arbroath 09.14 09.15
Dundee 09.31 09.32
Leuchars 09.46 09.47
Cupar 09.53 09.54
Ladybank 10.00 10.01
Markinch 10.08 10.09
Kirkcaldy 10.16 10.17
Inverkeithing 10.31 10.32
Edinburgh Haymarket 10.52 10.54
Edinburgh Waverley 10.58 11.05
Dunbar 11.24 11.25
Berwick-upon-Tweed 11.47 11.48
Alnmouth 12.07 12.08
Newcastle 12.38 12.41
Durham 12.52 12.53
Darlington 13.10 13.11
York 13.41 13.44
Leeds 14.07 14.11
Wakefield Westgate 14.22 14.23
Sheffield 14.51 14.54
Chesterfield 15.05 15.06
Derby 15.26 15.28
Burton On Trent 15.39 15.40
Birmingham New Street 16.04 16.12
Cheltenham Spa 16.51 16.52
Bristol Parkway 17.25 17.27
Bristol Temple Meads 17.40 17.44
Taunton 18.16 18.18
Tiverton Parkway 18.29 18.30
Exeter St Davids 18.44 18.47
Newton Abbot 19.06 19.07
Totnes 19.19 19.20
Plymouth 19.45 19.49
Liskeard 20.11 20.12
Bodmin Parkway 20.23 20.25
Par 20.35 20.36
St Austell 20.41 20.44
Truro 21.00 21.02
Redruth 21.15 21.16
Camborne 21.22 21.23
St Erth 21.33 21.34
Penzance 21.42
Surprisingly I thought, the whole calling pattern was read after nearly every stop, and not a single error was made throughout the day. Anyway, pretty lightly loaded couple of students with copious notes, and some Senior Citizens we set off bang on time, first stop, Stonehaven.
Making our way south I spent my time enjoying the amazing views (from my left hand window) of the Scottish coast. I've done this journey a few times now, but I'm still taken aback by it every time, similar to the coastal views of the northern section of the ECML in many ways. Nothing much else to report until the Tay Bridge, other than a motley collection of ScotRail 170s heading north at speed. I'm still surprised by how many are double formed.
So creeping out of Dundee station we gradually round the bend and begin the passage across the 3.2km Tay Bridge. Not as famous as its more southerly counterpart, the Tay crossing gives a much less obstructed view of the estuary than the Forth Bridge, and to me, from onboard a train is a much more interesting experience.
At this point I jumped into my chosen reading material. Operation Mincemeat, the Second World War story of how the corpse of a vagrant helped to fool the Axis powers into believing that the first Allied landing would be in Greece rather than Scilly where it actually took place. An excellent read if thats your kind of book.
Passing Inverkeithing the first views of the Forth estuary came into view, much shipping activity to be seen. Although much scaffolding and sheeting to obscure the view too. Nothing particularly of note, just a little disappointing after my last trip where I saw a section of what will be the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth being floated around Scotland to the ship's assembly site.
Arriving into Edinburgh Waverley I got my first real view of ScotRail's new Class 380 stock. A 4 car unit which appeared to have arrived from a North Berwick being my first sighting, and what good looking, understated yet purposeful units they are! Of course amongst the ongoing work on the station I also saw the usual collection of 158, 156, 170, 334, 221 and EC 225 stock. Once the doors were unlocked there was a lot of activity on the train. An overwhelming portion of the passengers disembarked and a new collection of passengers joined the service.
Also at Waverley we had a Train Manager change for the journey to Leeds, and for the first time a Retail Service Manager and First Class Host joined the train. On departure the by now very familiar list of calling point was once again repeated, and before too long we were proceeding at speed towards Dunbar. First trolley service of the day, and my first of many, many cups of CrossCountry's new Coffee from Starbucks.
Knowing this part of the route pretty well I tucked into my book again until about Newcastle. Having been suitably amused by the exploits of the East Coast crew on the adjacent platform attempting, despite the efforts of their passengers, to get all the doors of their HST closed so they could depart, we set off via the King Edward VII Bridge. Much as our driver was asking for everything from our trains QSK19s, a Tyne and Wear Metro unit just accelerated away on the Queen Elizabeth II Metro Bridge, just another reminder of the acceleration performance available to electric trains. Newcastle navigated, I got stuck back into my book.
Nothing much of note to report until a crew change at Leeds. I was a little concerned that the service was going to become uncomfortably busy as we reached the core of the crosscountry route. However it seems that, I guess unsurprisingly there are not that many people who want to pile onto a train to Birmingham and beyond at 2pm on a Wednesday afternoon!
Seeing as how time was passing I decided lunch must be due, so much Ginsters munching followed, only punctuated by a distant view of Wakefield Kirkgate station. Now much as I have read much about the state of the place, and much as my view was from some way away, I was still shocked at quite how dilapidated it looked, even from this view point!
A little further on we reached a rather long intermodal service that seemed to have been looped for us to get past. On getting to the end of that what immediately came into view was a London Underground S Stock delivery waiting on a diverging line, presumably on its way from Bombardier in Derby to London. Until that point I'd never really realised what an unusual shape that stock has.
The next interesting sights were on the approaches to Birmingham, there were a number of structures and bits of equipment in place in connection with the Water Orton Resignalling project. Nobody actually working though, although I guess approaching evening peak probably isn't the best time to be working on the infrastructure anyway. I also saw a brick pier with the old SY Saltley sign on it, nothing much else left of that depot one which was a favourite haunt when I lived in the Midlands. Many a 37, 47, 56, 58 and, at the time the hight of modernity, 60 seen 'on shed' there!
Heading through the tunnels into New Street it became apparent that this was going to be another case of nearly everyone on the train getting off, and a new set of passengers getting on. This included a group of very merry young ladies at the first table forward from me, and also a new Train Manager and Retail Service Manager.
The new TM was none other than... drum roll... John! Although this I hadn't realised until we were approaching the charismatic station we know as Cheltenham Spa! Having made our calls at the Bijou station we know as Bristol Parkway, Brunel's masterpiece Temple Meads and the tantalising Taunton, I thought it was all getting a little too much for our friends at the next table. And indeed the titivated station we know as Tiverton Parkway just pushed them over the edge into uncontrollable laughter! To be fair my (I'm not quite sure what number) cup of coffee nearly went all over the seat next to me too!
Back at Bristol Temple Meads we pulled into a platform alongside the rake of Chocolate and Cream Mark 1s which it seems are used for a service called the Torbay Express. This being commuter time (about 17.45) there was the inevitable group of suited individuals having a good old moan that Virgin (!) always say there are no more coaches available to run longer trains on this route. Well what are those?!. All I can say is, thats some nice PR work there Arriva!
This was the first point that I actually began to feel uncomfortable sat on this Voyager. I know many of you have strong opinions on the comfort or otherwise of these units, I have to say I think its of your own making! When I got on I consciously decided to sit carefully and correctly, and honestly I had not even had the slightest thought of being uncomfortable until Bristol. Compare that to my 3 hour journey with East Coast which very, very quickly became uncomfortable.
The next stop was of course the exciting station we all know as Exeter St Davids, where John had to exit, stage left, but not before thanking us for travelling with CrossCountry, where the wheels of friendship keep on turning. At this point we got another friendly CrossCountry Train Manager, whose name unfortunately escapes me. Newton Abbot, Totnes and Plymouth passed quickly and soon enough we were crossing the Tamar on the Royal Albert Bridge in fading light. Although its the shortest of the three great bridges on this route, theres definitely something special about it when compared to its Scottish counterparts. Its 33 years older than the Tay Bridge, and the route geography makes the passage into Cornwall seem even more remote.
By this point the service again was mainly made up of the kind of local passengers which were common north of Edinburgh. Groups of people going to a much debated pub in the next town, or people returning home from work. A blood stained passenger that the British Transport Police had, quite literally, put on the train at Plymouth had by now just about settled down, and was rather busy rolling cigarettes. Then came a very confused conversation between him, with a strong West Country accent, and a man I think was from South East Europe. By the end I'm not sure whether either of them really understood what had been discussed, but some cigarette rolling papers and some matches had changed hands, and they parted on good terms when the first guy got off the train.
Following Plymouth the Train Manager conducted a full ticket check to ensure that, as we're passing into Cornwall late on he could check all the relevant connections. There did follow a number of announcements as we were following a late running First Great Western service, which meant for a couple of branch lines we were in danger of missing the last train by under 5 minutes. To my surprise, CrossCountry control worked with FGW control and the connections were held!
The last bit of excitement came when another combination of those coded beeps came over the PA. Seems that our South Eastern European friend felt the need to smoke his masterpiece of rolling, in one of the, by now pretty grim, toilets. Not only that but having been chucked out of there by the TM, then thought that the vestibule would be an appropriate location to light up again. I honestly can't remember the station he got off at, but he proceeded to walk straight into the platform shelter and light up there. The TM did shout something over, but to be fair I think it was a lost cause.
By this point in the day I was becoming well versed in the bell codes used on Voyagers. Seems that the driver has the door controls on this stock, and so 1-2 means close doors, driver returns the same to acknowledge the TM will be keyed in and observing from the local door then the TM will close the local door, and key 2 for ready to start and try to look out of the small window in the door to observe the train leaving the platform. Although I'm not sure really what you'd see!
The weather had deteriorated somewhat from earlier in the day and not much of the beautiful countryside could be seen. Fog had descended, drizzle and mizzle alternated as we powered on through Cornwall. It really did feel like I was in a scene from Jamaca Inn. Or indeed with all that connections being talked about, that some of the other passengers on board might be about to enter another film, The Ghost Train (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jj0u0jkYWHw - remake in production for release in 2012).
St Erth particularly makes me think of Fal Vale Junction where you must change for Truro, Redruth and St Ives but then later the passengers discover that there be no more trains through here tonight.
After St Erth I really felt the need to have a good wander up and down, to make sure I wasn't going to fall flat on my face when I stepped off the train! Not only did I now have my coach to myself, another was completely empty! Having been on the service for 13.5 hours and hence not really having done much walking I feared the journey to my hotel might not be that easy!
Heading onto the final stretch into Penzance a sudden thundering sound began. Looking out of the window at the other side of the train I just about made out the up Night Riviera heading out on its journey. Then once it had passed had a very good view of a rather empty, but floodlit, Long Rock depot. An 08 was joined by 2 spare sleeper coaches and a 150, but otherwise the place was deserted. Looking back this shouldn't really be a surprise considering the branch line services were still busily shuttling up and down across Cornwall.
And so we arrived into Penzance, the Train Manager apologising profusely for the 12 minute delay to the service, caused entirely by following that late running First Great Western. I did point out to him that, for me, 12 minutes was really neither here nor there in the scheme of my journey, but I guess more than 10 minutes on an Intercity service is late on our current railway system, regardless of how we would look at things!
For me, that was the story of Wednesday 7th September 2011. Crazy a plan as it probably sounds to most of you, once I'd thought of doing it I really couldn't resist doing it! In the end the combination of stunning scenery, people watching and the experience of being whisked across the UK, was actually pretty enjoyable. I'm not sure I'd do it again in a hurry, but if the route or the stock change who knows!
I'm honestly not really sure how far it is. CrossCountry seem to be convinced that its 699, or 773 or 774 miles. My best working out with railmiles is 771 miles 09 chains but I'm really not sure!
hock:
) and Volo TV. Just wish I had been on it again!
Missed out there didn't I! Kinda feeling disappointed now!