37372
Member
Hello all,
It's been a long time since I've posted anything on here, although having just completed an ALR I thought I'd share my week with you. I quite enjoyed reading other people's ALR reports so it's only fair I contribute a bit of my own adventure which may either inspire you or put you off!
In the beginning...
My two weeks annual leave from work had finally come around. The first week felt pretty wasted. Most of it was spent doing very little and just generally relaxing and enjoying not being at work. It was then that a friend of mine, 'Purch' suggested doing an ALR on the second week, as it was his week off too. Lots of umm-ing and ahh-ing later I decided to go ahead with it. £315 for a 7-day, standard class ALR with a YP discount. The only lines I needed were Tweedbank and the Ebbw Vale Town extension. Purch needed much more than this, so we aimed to combine some new track with interesting or scenic lines, gain a few locos for haulage and find some decent pubs along the way, as we are both avid real ale fans!
The Sunday beforehand I drove to Doncaster (really cannot stand travelling by train on Sundays) to purchase said rover. It was issued without fuss, no questions asked. With my bank account now a whopping £315 lighter I strolled out of the booking office and almost immediately the station fire alarms went off. Probably because of the smoke coming from my poor debit card!
Ka-ching!
Day 1 - High Speed to Kent
The day began dreary and grey. I made my way to Mexborough station for the 06:39 to Sheffield. In rolled 158910, the first of many trains this week. I was meeting Purch in Nottingham. He lives in Bingham on the Nottingham-Grantham line. Flicking through my Twitter feed en route to Sheffield I noticed straight away a farce was brewing. He was to meet me on the 07:24 Sheffield-London at Nottingham and we'd head south from there. However a complete loss of signalling in the Kettering area had caused significant delays and cancellations. The guard on the 158 commented on the rover saying he recalled doing such rovers in his younger days - adding they were so much easier back then with the variety of overnight services and no daft restrictions.
Starting Day 1 at my local station of Mexborough.
Upon arrival at Sheffield I called into Starbucks for a coffee, which ended up being given to me for free as a result of their card reader not working - result!
A quick dash over to platform 6 where the 06:34 Leeds-London was waiting for me with 43050 & 43045 in charge. The train was only being advised as going as far as Nottingham. Quite annoying considering some trains were carrying on to London but diverting via Corby.
Off we went to Nottingham as I drank my free coffee and read the Metro.
Sure enough at Nottingham we were all turfed off the train. I met Purch and we decided to head to London via Birmingham. To do this we caught 170104 on the 08:41 Crosscountry service to New St. The journey was pleasant enough despite the dreary weather. At New Street we bailed at approximately 09:55. Being the rebels that we are the XC/BHM/10am restriction was ignored. Needless to say nothing happened so a quick visit to Baguette World and then onto the 10:30 Pendolino to London Euston.
The ride down was speedy and efficient, arriving into London bang on time. By now the weather was dry and we walked down the road to St Pancras. I've not ridden on HS1 since I was entitled to a PRIV some 4 years ago now, so it was nice to have a ride out again. We boarded 395009 and sped swiftly away from London. It wasn't long before we re-joined the normal network and were trundling through the likes of Rochester and Strood. We had no idea where to get off for some dinner, so a quick scan of the Wetherspoons fleetlist in my bag suggested Margate. What a mistake. We walked past the Dreamland theme park which was completely closed. The town seemed dreary and tired. Wetherspoons had no decent ale whatsoever so we left straight away and walked quickly back to the station, catching 375701 down the line to Ramsgate hoping we'd have better luck for dinner and beer there.
Sorry Margate, but we won't be coming back!
What did we find? We found the station is pretty much in a housing estate and the town centre was some way down the road. After our ill-fated venture into Margate we couldn't face more possible disappointments, so the decision was made to jump on another Javelin to Canterbury which did apparently have some nice pubs. Another Javelin ride later and we had arrived amidst some lovely September sunshine. The stone walls and old buildings almost reminded me of York, and upon walking through the streets we wished we'd come here straight away when we saw the olde-worlde pubs advertising cask ales!
Our destination was The Foundry, (an ex Victorian foundry funnily enough) where we had a delicious home made burger and some home-brewed ales from the microbrewery.
By now the day was drawing on so, fed and watered, we made our way back to Canterbury West to catch the 17:25 back to St Pancras which would complete our circular tour of HS1/Kent. The train rolled under the impressive signalbox as a whopping 12 car service which hung well off the end of the platform. Unfortunately the service didn't quite live up to its "High Speed" name with several occurrences of slowing right down and staggering along for no apparent reason.
The signalbox at Canterbury West.
Back at St Pancras and awaiting us was a delightful (not) Meridian to take us back north again on the 18:57. I would've liked an HST but there wasn't one due at the time and I wanted to get back home relatively early this particular night. The journey was uneventful and boring, made worse by the lack of any sort of phone signal thanks to their Farraday cage-like design. Purch bailed at Ratcliffe Power-Station Halt to head back into Nottingham whilst I continued on to Sheffield. This connected up nicely with the 21:15 Beverley service back to Mexborough, finishing the day as I had started on a 158.
Miles travelled: 564.
More to come soon when I have a few minutes to spare!
It's been a long time since I've posted anything on here, although having just completed an ALR I thought I'd share my week with you. I quite enjoyed reading other people's ALR reports so it's only fair I contribute a bit of my own adventure which may either inspire you or put you off!
In the beginning...
My two weeks annual leave from work had finally come around. The first week felt pretty wasted. Most of it was spent doing very little and just generally relaxing and enjoying not being at work. It was then that a friend of mine, 'Purch' suggested doing an ALR on the second week, as it was his week off too. Lots of umm-ing and ahh-ing later I decided to go ahead with it. £315 for a 7-day, standard class ALR with a YP discount. The only lines I needed were Tweedbank and the Ebbw Vale Town extension. Purch needed much more than this, so we aimed to combine some new track with interesting or scenic lines, gain a few locos for haulage and find some decent pubs along the way, as we are both avid real ale fans!
The Sunday beforehand I drove to Doncaster (really cannot stand travelling by train on Sundays) to purchase said rover. It was issued without fuss, no questions asked. With my bank account now a whopping £315 lighter I strolled out of the booking office and almost immediately the station fire alarms went off. Probably because of the smoke coming from my poor debit card!
Ka-ching!
Day 1 - High Speed to Kent
The day began dreary and grey. I made my way to Mexborough station for the 06:39 to Sheffield. In rolled 158910, the first of many trains this week. I was meeting Purch in Nottingham. He lives in Bingham on the Nottingham-Grantham line. Flicking through my Twitter feed en route to Sheffield I noticed straight away a farce was brewing. He was to meet me on the 07:24 Sheffield-London at Nottingham and we'd head south from there. However a complete loss of signalling in the Kettering area had caused significant delays and cancellations. The guard on the 158 commented on the rover saying he recalled doing such rovers in his younger days - adding they were so much easier back then with the variety of overnight services and no daft restrictions.
Starting Day 1 at my local station of Mexborough.
Upon arrival at Sheffield I called into Starbucks for a coffee, which ended up being given to me for free as a result of their card reader not working - result!
A quick dash over to platform 6 where the 06:34 Leeds-London was waiting for me with 43050 & 43045 in charge. The train was only being advised as going as far as Nottingham. Quite annoying considering some trains were carrying on to London but diverting via Corby.
Off we went to Nottingham as I drank my free coffee and read the Metro.
Sure enough at Nottingham we were all turfed off the train. I met Purch and we decided to head to London via Birmingham. To do this we caught 170104 on the 08:41 Crosscountry service to New St. The journey was pleasant enough despite the dreary weather. At New Street we bailed at approximately 09:55. Being the rebels that we are the XC/BHM/10am restriction was ignored. Needless to say nothing happened so a quick visit to Baguette World and then onto the 10:30 Pendolino to London Euston.
The ride down was speedy and efficient, arriving into London bang on time. By now the weather was dry and we walked down the road to St Pancras. I've not ridden on HS1 since I was entitled to a PRIV some 4 years ago now, so it was nice to have a ride out again. We boarded 395009 and sped swiftly away from London. It wasn't long before we re-joined the normal network and were trundling through the likes of Rochester and Strood. We had no idea where to get off for some dinner, so a quick scan of the Wetherspoons fleetlist in my bag suggested Margate. What a mistake. We walked past the Dreamland theme park which was completely closed. The town seemed dreary and tired. Wetherspoons had no decent ale whatsoever so we left straight away and walked quickly back to the station, catching 375701 down the line to Ramsgate hoping we'd have better luck for dinner and beer there.
Sorry Margate, but we won't be coming back!
What did we find? We found the station is pretty much in a housing estate and the town centre was some way down the road. After our ill-fated venture into Margate we couldn't face more possible disappointments, so the decision was made to jump on another Javelin to Canterbury which did apparently have some nice pubs. Another Javelin ride later and we had arrived amidst some lovely September sunshine. The stone walls and old buildings almost reminded me of York, and upon walking through the streets we wished we'd come here straight away when we saw the olde-worlde pubs advertising cask ales!
Our destination was The Foundry, (an ex Victorian foundry funnily enough) where we had a delicious home made burger and some home-brewed ales from the microbrewery.
By now the day was drawing on so, fed and watered, we made our way back to Canterbury West to catch the 17:25 back to St Pancras which would complete our circular tour of HS1/Kent. The train rolled under the impressive signalbox as a whopping 12 car service which hung well off the end of the platform. Unfortunately the service didn't quite live up to its "High Speed" name with several occurrences of slowing right down and staggering along for no apparent reason.
The signalbox at Canterbury West.
Back at St Pancras and awaiting us was a delightful (not) Meridian to take us back north again on the 18:57. I would've liked an HST but there wasn't one due at the time and I wanted to get back home relatively early this particular night. The journey was uneventful and boring, made worse by the lack of any sort of phone signal thanks to their Farraday cage-like design. Purch bailed at Ratcliffe Power-Station Halt to head back into Nottingham whilst I continued on to Sheffield. This connected up nicely with the 21:15 Beverley service back to Mexborough, finishing the day as I had started on a 158.
Miles travelled: 564.
More to come soon when I have a few minutes to spare!
!
