Kite159
Veteran Member
1st April A Field of Eastern Roses
The day began in the hotel in Hull, with my usual waking up and getting ready to depart, checking out was easy the only downside was getting a bit lost trying to locate the entrance to the platforms at Hull, but I arrived in plenty of time as the doors on the 06:06 Doncaster service to be released once the 05:56 to Bridlington had departed. I was happy as I was expecting this service to be a lovely pacer, but it was in fact required 158815 to kick my day off to a good start.
The ticket I was using today was a Northern freebie ticket I got sent from the Brigg related delays last June, anyhow there was only a couple other passengers on board for a service calling at all stations (first call at Hessle and Ferriby, scoring the platform loop), apart from Broomfleet, as it turned left at the junction to pause at Saltmarshe. Thankfully I easily made the +5 via the barrow crossing located at the Goole end of the station, as option B involved my bike. A late running freight train caught me off guard, but a couple minutes later dud 158901 rolled in with an unknown 153 (low platforms meant I was on the northern end where there is a hump). This service called at all stations, as I alighted at my 2nd new shack of the day at Ferriby for my first bike ride of the year. Dud 153363 was on the rear of that 158.
I reached the bike/footpath which runs alongside the River Humber, with the railway line on the left hand side, giving excellent views of the magnificent Humber Bridge before going underneath the bridge around a visitor centre. A quick double back on the road as I arrived at Hessle to clear the line from Hull towards Selby and to clear all shacks TPE passes through. Anyhow it was a busy platform as Scarborough bound 158907 rolled in, reversing at Hull before taking the misleadingly titled Yorkshire Coast Line (you do eventually see the sea around Bridlington), and into North Yorkshire, dropping me off at Filey. Filey station has a lovely station shed and historic looking footbridge.
My bike was already unfolded, but it wasnt the best of rides as it kept jumping out of gear (returning to 1st gear which is built for high acceleration from a standing start with a low top speed) [which looking at it on the Monday evening, appeared to be a cable which had worked itself loose]. However swinging via a handy Co-Op (has the price of a Co-Op meal deal gone up to £3.50?) to grab some brunch before arriving at Hunmanby station (which compared to Filey was basic), arriving just as the rain began so good timing. As expected it was 158907 returning from Scarborough to take me back down south, the train picking more passengers up as it went southbound, but thankfully kept to time as I alighted at the hourly served Hutton Cranswick.
My fingers were crossed as it was a tight connection here, with a level crossing, the 158 departed and the barriers went up as I popped across the line to reach the other platform before the barriers returned (allowing me to once more put plan B to bed, which involved riding back up the line to Driffield). 158859 was on the next northbound service, which took me to another hourly served shack, this time Nafferton, and with a 35 minute fester at another basic station, although I was rewarded with confirmation of a sighting of a required 158 bound for Scarborough (saw it departing towards Sheffield when waiting to come into Hull earlier).
158859 returned from the bay platform at Bridlington to take me to the very limited served Arram, which serves a farm (and not a lot else in the nearby area). 45 minutes of reading my magazine later, I walked to the raised hump as once more the platforms here are low (as hopefully one of the pictures will show), and for the 3rd time of the day I returned to 158859 to take me back up the line to Driffield, bringing back memories of someone I used to know (an internet friend from my youth). Anyhow it was time to say goodbye to 158959 and board dud 158850 to take me to Cottingham, doubling back with 158907 as a mere time wasting move to Beverley, clearing East Yorkshire for shacks, which made me happy, but gave me a puzzle at what to do next (as I didnt need either plan Bs due to making connections earlier in the day).
158859 returned me to Cottingham, where 158844 took me back up to Beverley, again as a time wasting move before required 158853 rolled in, which after checking RTT I decided to take all the way to Meadowhall, for a lack of a better idea on how to waste time (and gave me some good 158 speed as it was a semi-fast service calling only at Brough, Goole & Doncaster after the reversal at Hull). 158872 took me into Sheffield, where I made the connection back onto fresh dud 158853 for the run back to Hull, losing a bit of time on departure from Sheffield caused by a delayed freight service. The run allowed me to look out of the window and relax watching the countryside rush past.
Once at Hull, I noticed a large police presence, for West Ham were playing away to Hull in the Kickball championship, and noting that the little shop at Hull station wanted £4.99 for a meal-deal (!), I turned that down and headed to board 180110 forming the 18:36 Hull Kings Cross, Hull Trains service, and things didnt look good as the vast majority of seats had paper reservations, and the usual thing happened when some of the passengers boarded, removing the reservations to try and bluff that this seat is unreserved when the rightful owner arrived. Sadly the power-socket at my table seat was completely wrecked, but I managed to drown out the noise of drunken singing of racist songs (I think most of the other kickball clubs got mentioned), although not as bad when the train guard came through checking tickets with a couple BTP officers to charge those fare dodgers (personally Im surprised there wasnt any sort of pre-check at Hull, to check tickets before passengers being allowed onto the platform, just to catch those trying to blag a free trip back to London).
Anyhow, a storming run from the 180, even though it was overtaken south of Doncaster by a GC HST, it regained some time to overtake a Virgin service at Peterborough, arriving roughly on time. I allowed some of the drunken idiots to depart first before grabbing my bike (which I had hidden between the backs of seats), noting the many cans/bottles of beer/wine on the tables [one big clean up job, as I think the buffet ran out of booze after Selby]. To the Piccadilly line platforms, with 193/228 taking me forward to Green Park, before 96065/96058 taking me forward to Waterloo for some Jubilee line thrash, once more with my bike it is quite hard to do LU hunting.
Dinner was sourced from McDonalds at Waterloo, before waiting for 159014 to roll in to form the busy 22:20 service back to Salisbury (one can only hope that First will increase this service to at least a double unit). I alighted at Grateley, with a semi-push/semi-ride of my bike back home, giving me time to reflect on an excellent day, 2 more Northern 158s into my book (just leaves 3 out of the Newton Heath batch) into my book with 10 new shacks into my book.
Some pictures:
Saltmarshe:
Ferriby:
The Humber Bridge:
Hessle (featuring a delightful 144):
The Train Shed at Filey:
Hunmanby:
Hutton Cranswick, no 390s here:
Nafferton:
Arram (mind the gap!):
Driffield:
Beverleys Train Shed and footbridge:
And a random Tram:
The day began in the hotel in Hull, with my usual waking up and getting ready to depart, checking out was easy the only downside was getting a bit lost trying to locate the entrance to the platforms at Hull, but I arrived in plenty of time as the doors on the 06:06 Doncaster service to be released once the 05:56 to Bridlington had departed. I was happy as I was expecting this service to be a lovely pacer, but it was in fact required 158815 to kick my day off to a good start.
The ticket I was using today was a Northern freebie ticket I got sent from the Brigg related delays last June, anyhow there was only a couple other passengers on board for a service calling at all stations (first call at Hessle and Ferriby, scoring the platform loop), apart from Broomfleet, as it turned left at the junction to pause at Saltmarshe. Thankfully I easily made the +5 via the barrow crossing located at the Goole end of the station, as option B involved my bike. A late running freight train caught me off guard, but a couple minutes later dud 158901 rolled in with an unknown 153 (low platforms meant I was on the northern end where there is a hump). This service called at all stations, as I alighted at my 2nd new shack of the day at Ferriby for my first bike ride of the year. Dud 153363 was on the rear of that 158.
I reached the bike/footpath which runs alongside the River Humber, with the railway line on the left hand side, giving excellent views of the magnificent Humber Bridge before going underneath the bridge around a visitor centre. A quick double back on the road as I arrived at Hessle to clear the line from Hull towards Selby and to clear all shacks TPE passes through. Anyhow it was a busy platform as Scarborough bound 158907 rolled in, reversing at Hull before taking the misleadingly titled Yorkshire Coast Line (you do eventually see the sea around Bridlington), and into North Yorkshire, dropping me off at Filey. Filey station has a lovely station shed and historic looking footbridge.
My bike was already unfolded, but it wasnt the best of rides as it kept jumping out of gear (returning to 1st gear which is built for high acceleration from a standing start with a low top speed) [which looking at it on the Monday evening, appeared to be a cable which had worked itself loose]. However swinging via a handy Co-Op (has the price of a Co-Op meal deal gone up to £3.50?) to grab some brunch before arriving at Hunmanby station (which compared to Filey was basic), arriving just as the rain began so good timing. As expected it was 158907 returning from Scarborough to take me back down south, the train picking more passengers up as it went southbound, but thankfully kept to time as I alighted at the hourly served Hutton Cranswick.
My fingers were crossed as it was a tight connection here, with a level crossing, the 158 departed and the barriers went up as I popped across the line to reach the other platform before the barriers returned (allowing me to once more put plan B to bed, which involved riding back up the line to Driffield). 158859 was on the next northbound service, which took me to another hourly served shack, this time Nafferton, and with a 35 minute fester at another basic station, although I was rewarded with confirmation of a sighting of a required 158 bound for Scarborough (saw it departing towards Sheffield when waiting to come into Hull earlier).
158859 returned from the bay platform at Bridlington to take me to the very limited served Arram, which serves a farm (and not a lot else in the nearby area). 45 minutes of reading my magazine later, I walked to the raised hump as once more the platforms here are low (as hopefully one of the pictures will show), and for the 3rd time of the day I returned to 158859 to take me back up the line to Driffield, bringing back memories of someone I used to know (an internet friend from my youth). Anyhow it was time to say goodbye to 158959 and board dud 158850 to take me to Cottingham, doubling back with 158907 as a mere time wasting move to Beverley, clearing East Yorkshire for shacks, which made me happy, but gave me a puzzle at what to do next (as I didnt need either plan Bs due to making connections earlier in the day).
158859 returned me to Cottingham, where 158844 took me back up to Beverley, again as a time wasting move before required 158853 rolled in, which after checking RTT I decided to take all the way to Meadowhall, for a lack of a better idea on how to waste time (and gave me some good 158 speed as it was a semi-fast service calling only at Brough, Goole & Doncaster after the reversal at Hull). 158872 took me into Sheffield, where I made the connection back onto fresh dud 158853 for the run back to Hull, losing a bit of time on departure from Sheffield caused by a delayed freight service. The run allowed me to look out of the window and relax watching the countryside rush past.
Once at Hull, I noticed a large police presence, for West Ham were playing away to Hull in the Kickball championship, and noting that the little shop at Hull station wanted £4.99 for a meal-deal (!), I turned that down and headed to board 180110 forming the 18:36 Hull Kings Cross, Hull Trains service, and things didnt look good as the vast majority of seats had paper reservations, and the usual thing happened when some of the passengers boarded, removing the reservations to try and bluff that this seat is unreserved when the rightful owner arrived. Sadly the power-socket at my table seat was completely wrecked, but I managed to drown out the noise of drunken singing of racist songs (I think most of the other kickball clubs got mentioned), although not as bad when the train guard came through checking tickets with a couple BTP officers to charge those fare dodgers (personally Im surprised there wasnt any sort of pre-check at Hull, to check tickets before passengers being allowed onto the platform, just to catch those trying to blag a free trip back to London).
Anyhow, a storming run from the 180, even though it was overtaken south of Doncaster by a GC HST, it regained some time to overtake a Virgin service at Peterborough, arriving roughly on time. I allowed some of the drunken idiots to depart first before grabbing my bike (which I had hidden between the backs of seats), noting the many cans/bottles of beer/wine on the tables [one big clean up job, as I think the buffet ran out of booze after Selby]. To the Piccadilly line platforms, with 193/228 taking me forward to Green Park, before 96065/96058 taking me forward to Waterloo for some Jubilee line thrash, once more with my bike it is quite hard to do LU hunting.
Dinner was sourced from McDonalds at Waterloo, before waiting for 159014 to roll in to form the busy 22:20 service back to Salisbury (one can only hope that First will increase this service to at least a double unit). I alighted at Grateley, with a semi-push/semi-ride of my bike back home, giving me time to reflect on an excellent day, 2 more Northern 158s into my book (just leaves 3 out of the Newton Heath batch) into my book with 10 new shacks into my book.
Some pictures:
Saltmarshe:
Ferriby:
The Humber Bridge:
Hessle (featuring a delightful 144):
The Train Shed at Filey:
Hunmanby:
Hutton Cranswick, no 390s here:
Nafferton:
Arram (mind the gap!):
Driffield:
Beverleys Train Shed and footbridge:
And a random Tram:
) on 158828/158833, returning on a busy 350128 which called at all stations [bar Adderley Park]. Still with some time to kill before that 153 would appear, it was to Five Ways on 323211/323243 returning on 323215 [mmm 323 motor noise]. The 15:49 was already on the platform, well a busy 170/5 was, as I had my fingers crossed as a 153 was spotted rolling in, it was 15336...
