Recent content by rich r

When we pulled in at Leeds a fitter was waiting, and he immediately went to look at the coolant gauge as soon as we'd stopped. He was unscrewing the cap as I walked past. So your suspicion was probably his too.

Thanks all. It's relatively flat between Selby and Leeds, with about 7 stops mostly a few miles apart (other than East Garforth/Garforth) so there's plenty of time for acceleration and yes, this route is often a 142/144 with the occational 150 but for a while we had 170s so if it was timed...

My commute from Selby to Leeds this morning (6:50am, 2K55) was on a 158 rather than the usual 144 so I thought "great, legroom and cooler air". Unfortunately the front carriage (that I was in) had an engine fault. It'd start but then immediately stop. We made it to Leeds with no issues (the...

Not just small branch lines - the eastern approach to Leeds station often has trees being batted out of the way by trains. Quite alarming when leaves and twigs snag the open windows in a Pacer and shower people inside with debris. I'm sure Leeds isn't at all unique in this respect too. Generally...

Virtually everything east of Leeds is 142/144 or 150 at the moment. So a few nice 158s would be welcome (as we're probably unlikely to see 170s or 195s on the Hull, Selby and York lines until they're as old as the Pacers).

That's fair enough if there were ticket barriers - but only one (out of eight) stations on this route does. Makes you wonder why they bother checking at all. To be fair, TPE don't check on the busy services, but only because there's too many people standing to get through ;)

To be fair, my three section TPE one has my photocard (not actually needed any more but handy to keep there just in case I need it), my TPE Smartcard and the bottom section contains the paper receipt for the ticket on the smartcard - because Northern staff don't appear to be able (or willing) to...

My TPE ones only seem to last about 3 months before tearing on the hinged bits. I might pop into Leeds station to see if I can get a Northern or plain one :)

I've done London to York via Birmingham or Manchester on more than one occasion when the ECML's been broken. The company I worked for then were quite happy for me to reclaim the extra tickets on expenses and sort out the claims. It's inconvenient, and often involves a lot of standing for many...

However tickets on Northern services covering exactly the same routes often at almost the same departure times from major stations (albeit with more stops) cost less than TPE. So it's clearly targetted at TOCs other than Northern. Mind you, east of the Pennines, there's not as much competition I...

Hull trains don't have 'carriages' or 'coaches'. They have 'kerches', and there's nerr smerking in any of them. ;)

My experience of a busy TPE service (Leeds-Selby every weekday at 16:48) is that it's about half full of people travelling a longer distance (eg Manchester to Hull) who have reserved seats, and half full of commuters who don't mind standing for 20 minutes rather than spend 45 minutes crammed in...

Sadly it's going to be a long time before some areas see a 195, if ever. I suspect many areas in the east of Northern's region not on the Connect routes will be running mainly 15x units once the Pacers have finally gone, which whilst a bit larger and slightly more comfortable (in the case of...

Indeed - whilst it'd be nice not to get covered in soot and breathe in fumes, for many of us in areas that aren't getting electrified any time soon it's just something we have to live with. Also in a big chunk of Northern-land, we're unlikely to see any new units in the next decade. It'll be 14x...

I noticed some changes this morning in the Leeds area. The 144s and 142s running the Selby-Leeds route for the last 6 weeks or so have been replaced by 158s and at least one 170. I didn't see any 14x units on my commute in until we got to Leeds station, so I assume they're not doing the...