Aye i'll have to go stay in Cornwall in future
I'm also 1 away from clearing the 91s after today
91114 needs to show its face...
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Tyne Tees Ranger- 11/10/15
So, what was initially a plan to shack Tees-side Airport ballooned into a plan to shack a few of my remaining required stations in the Tyne Tees Ranger area. And with that, it was off to Newcastle Central, along with the first few rugby fans heading home, for the 0755 departure to London, which had double duds
43238/43239 working.
238 was in NRM vinyls too, which have been recently applied. Departure was prompt, and we were into Darlington for 0827 where I wandered over to dud
142071 for the run to Allens West. I had some time to kill, so a linear move to Eaglescliffe seemed like the best option as dud
156438 was 5 minutes behind us on the Whitby service, which I took for the insect leap to Eaglescliffe. It was quiet this morning as I waited out the 10 minutes for dud
142093 to take me to shack 1 of the day, Newton Aycliffe. It was a sluggish run as we sat for 15 minutes at Darlington, with there being a 10 minute timetabled wait and a stupid amount of padding from Dinsdale, but we were soon off to the Aycliffe, with its rather creaky looking platforms, where I was the only person to bail.
I fired up the ol' Google Maps and headed south. For anyone planning this move, it's a tedious but straightforward walk past a few industrial units, which on a Sunday morning were completely devoid of life as I made easy work of the 45 minutes allowed for this move, making it to shack 2, Heighington, with 10 minutes to spare, albeit with mud on my jeans as I accidentally deviated from the route and ended up running out of path
142093 appeared again and it was taken to Darlington where I now had a +30 for the most important move of the day, the 1105 to Hartlepool which had dud
142016 working, and it was taken to Tees-side Airport. The infamous Tees-side Airport. The guard put the fact that I had a ranger and was bailing here together and quickly asked if I was up to much today, and I actually later encountered him as he was travelling pax back to Newcastle, nice guy.
Off at Tees-side Airport, shack 3, I went, grabbing a few photos of my surroundings, including the slightly unsafe looking footbridge, before setting off into the wilderness down a tarmac path. I was beginning to realise why the station saw such little use! I even took a stroll past the Airport Terminal at Durham Tees Valley and it looked so sad. The bus stop for the Withdrawn (as of several years ago) 737 service was still in situ, and the terminal itself was devoid of any passenger at all. There were more dogwalkers than Airline passengers! I continued into Middleton St George, taking my time as I had 79 minutes to do the 47 minute walk, making it in good time at Dinsdale for dud
142093 again back to Darlington. A new plan was devised as the 2.4 mile slog to Dinsdale had got me sick of walking! I joined a winning
221130 up on the 1256 to Durham, securing a table somehow for the 22 mile blast up to Durham where I crossed platforms for the 1328 back to Darlington, which is booked an HST. However, there'd been a swap and a MK4 set approached. I looked back and saw the Skyfall nameplate. It was winner
91107. I grinned to myself as this meant I just had 91114 to go then every 91 had been cleared for haulage. A pair of seats were sourced for the 22 miles back south where I then caught dud
91125 back north to Durham in the hope of a winning Voyager behind. Alas not, as mega dud
221137 produced to Newcastle.
I crossed platforms and joined dud
221132 and winner
220004 in Coach L for the journey back south to Darlington where I had a 20 minute fester, so I popped out to Sainsbury's for a cheap steak pie to keep me going! Dud
142021 appeared to take me to Thornaby, shortly followed by dud
185102 to Middlesbrough where I now had another important move as dud
156481 arrived for Whitby. I was to take this to another winning shack, number 4, Great Ayton. If you do this on any day other than a Sunday, you're in for a walk and a bus back to Nunthorpe or a very very long fester indeed! But, on 3 trains out of the 4 on a Sunday, there's a more palatable +20 as the trains cross over at Battersby rather than a 1 train in operation working. The scenery opened up after Nunthorpe, and it was thoroughly pleasant run to the rather blank Great Ayton. Just a few houses and a tarmac road! Very peaceful though! A locked out dud
142068 leading dud
156438 then took me back to the Boro for
142022 to Stockton, shack 5. This was my last shack on the
Durham coast, and I ended up being the only passenger on the platform as I awaited the 1805 back to Thornaby.
This had the refurbished
156454 working. My observations are that the doors are slower in opening, and that the beep is pretty irritating along with the currently broken PIS. However, the spaceship toilet thing wasn't much different compared to the older unit, as that was a pretty big unit. I think that maybe half a dozen seats have been lost? But that's more down to the extra wheelchair space. 'Ladies and gentlemen....we shall shortly be arriving at Thornabyyyyyyy' soon rang out over the PA (a much clearer one at that) from the guard and I changed onto dud
185115 for the run to a dark Northallerton. From here, I was getting pretty tired so I just joined dud
91119 on the 1855 all the way through to Newcastle, for 1942.
A decent day all round!
Total Mileage: 297mi 71ch
Total Winners: 3
Total Shacks: 5
Total Cost: £14.95
Worth a complaint about the ticket office I think.
