The sun has got its hat on, my daily schedule now allows a full day out, and I'd not caught up with changes on the Transpennine routes so on Tuesday 24/2 I caught the electric 662 bus to Bradford Interchange, bought me a SPDR and hopped aboard the 1031 to Manchester Vic (a reasonably loaded and punctual 2-car 195).
At Vic a fair crowd with baggage was waiting for the (3-car and busy) Redcar-Airport, enough to make me think the Castlefield Curve deserves 2tph. It was 7 late on the loop round to Piccadilly, where I swapped to the 1119 Liverpool- Cleethorpes (6 cars and relatively quiet) for an enjoyable run through the Hope Valley.
Thus far I was on familiar ground, but I hadn't been via Penistone for 20+ years so I boarded the 1335 SHF-HUD; this arrived 9 down and left 5 late but made up the time by Huddersfield, mainly because the station stops are mostly a generous 1 minute and by then the train wasn't busy. 3-car 150208 was the motive power; it may be old and the legroom dire but it did the job.
I'd not been over Standedge for ages, so at Huddersfield I picked up an 802 (a first for me) headed for Liverpool which hit the tail-end of a trespass incident near Slaithwaite and was 16 late into Victoria as a result, but still gave me time to do the return leg on the 1524 off Lime St.
I alighted at Hudds to explore the rebuilding works and catch the 3-car York stopper at 1642. This was busy with college students as far as Mirfield, and platform 3 was very crowded, it taking 2 or 3 "Travel Safe" staff to keep us safe
This ran 5 late past the growing Baker Viaduct at Thornhill and the Forest of Healey Mills, by now with few passengers.
The delay meant a change of plan: the signallers rightly let the Leeds-Knottingley precede us at Castleford, so I aborted my plan to head home via Knottingley and Featherstone on the new-to-me direct Leeds service: I wasn't waiting an hour and I see no point trying to view the railway after dark. So I caught the next Knottingley-Leeds instead, a 2-car 150 which conveniently ran punctually into Leeds P13 for my Bradford (non-)connection on 12 at 1759. This was a York-Blackpool, 3-car 195 and very busy but on time.
All in all:
Rolling stock - consistently clean and decently comfortable (apart from the 150s' legroom)
Timekeeping - Northern excellent, TPE not so good though the afternoon delays and consequent missed connection were not the railway's fault.
Staff - did their job as expected, were friendly and kept us informed.
In short, the railway at its boring and (mostly) reliable best, and a good way to resume getting out and about.
PS to save anyone checking, the Day Ranger doesn't cover Castleford-York which I need to re-do after 50+ years.
At Vic a fair crowd with baggage was waiting for the (3-car and busy) Redcar-Airport, enough to make me think the Castlefield Curve deserves 2tph. It was 7 late on the loop round to Piccadilly, where I swapped to the 1119 Liverpool- Cleethorpes (6 cars and relatively quiet) for an enjoyable run through the Hope Valley.
Thus far I was on familiar ground, but I hadn't been via Penistone for 20+ years so I boarded the 1335 SHF-HUD; this arrived 9 down and left 5 late but made up the time by Huddersfield, mainly because the station stops are mostly a generous 1 minute and by then the train wasn't busy. 3-car 150208 was the motive power; it may be old and the legroom dire but it did the job.
I'd not been over Standedge for ages, so at Huddersfield I picked up an 802 (a first for me) headed for Liverpool which hit the tail-end of a trespass incident near Slaithwaite and was 16 late into Victoria as a result, but still gave me time to do the return leg on the 1524 off Lime St.
I alighted at Hudds to explore the rebuilding works and catch the 3-car York stopper at 1642. This was busy with college students as far as Mirfield, and platform 3 was very crowded, it taking 2 or 3 "Travel Safe" staff to keep us safe
This ran 5 late past the growing Baker Viaduct at Thornhill and the Forest of Healey Mills, by now with few passengers.The delay meant a change of plan: the signallers rightly let the Leeds-Knottingley precede us at Castleford, so I aborted my plan to head home via Knottingley and Featherstone on the new-to-me direct Leeds service: I wasn't waiting an hour and I see no point trying to view the railway after dark. So I caught the next Knottingley-Leeds instead, a 2-car 150 which conveniently ran punctually into Leeds P13 for my Bradford (non-)connection on 12 at 1759. This was a York-Blackpool, 3-car 195 and very busy but on time.
All in all:
Rolling stock - consistently clean and decently comfortable (apart from the 150s' legroom)
Timekeeping - Northern excellent, TPE not so good though the afternoon delays and consequent missed connection were not the railway's fault.
Staff - did their job as expected, were friendly and kept us informed.
In short, the railway at its boring and (mostly) reliable best, and a good way to resume getting out and about.
PS to save anyone checking, the Day Ranger doesn't cover Castleford-York which I need to re-do after 50+ years.
