16th June. A less ambitious scheme this time, so a shorter report. Two work meetings, one in Peterborough, then in Crewe the following day. A nice easy start on the 10:10 from Saltaire into Leeds permitted an hour or so’s work at home to get e-mails dealt with etc before setting off. The 333 was 4 minutes late leaving Saltaire, but this is hardly unusual. The public timetable gives trains 3 minutes to cover the 2¼ miles from Bingley to Saltaire, but 4 for the ¾ mile from Saltaire to Shipley. The result of this is that trains are hardly ever on time leaving Saltaire, yet on time departures from Shipley are the norm. We were only one down at Leeds at 10:29, but the platform for the 10:45 to the Cross hadn’t been called yet. 91117 was sitting at the blocks in platform 6, and I surmised this would be the one. I took the opportunity to take a stroll around the station getting some shots of units before platform 6 was indeed called for the 10:45 and I boarded. The 10:45 left on time and I promptly drifted off into the state of dazed reverie that is the best way to cover the ECML.
At Doncaster we departed 6 minutes late with no explanation. I woke up later inside Stoke Tunnel, where we were going very slowly, and arrival at Peterborough was 13 late at 12:18 in the end. An apology this time but again no explanation. Arrival was unusually on platform 3, a platform I don’t think I’ve ever set foot on before, so if I were a platform gricer I could red pen it. Luckily I’m no such thing, so it’s neither interesting nor relevant.
Back at Peterborough station for the 16:52 Cross Country to Birmingham New Street. Unfortunately a 170, but the interior of XC’s sets is nicer than ScotRail’s so it’s not altogether bad. This train stops at South Wigston, Narborough and Hinckley outside the normal pattern so taking an extra 7 minutes to get to Birmingham at 18:45 rather than xx:38, which would leave me only 10 minutes to get from New Street to Moor Street, buy a ticket, and get on the 18:55 to Stourbridge Junction. Tight but doable. It was quite annoying therefore to find the train coming to a stand short of Stamford for nearly 10 minutes. The reason [eventually] offered up by the guard being that a freight train was being allowed into the sidings at Ketton and we had to wait until this manoeuvre was completed. Either (i) this was the longest freight train in the world, (ii) the operation was being done on Slow Speed Control, or (iii) the operation to enter the sidings is more complex than the phrase ‘being allowed into the sidings’ would suggest, but eventually we pulled away. After the Severn Tunnel incident on 31st May, this is the second dubious signalling decision I’ve endured in not much more than a couple of weeks involving a freight being given priority over a passenger working. TBF the driver really caned the 170 to Oakham, whence lateness was reduced to 8 minutes. Still 8 minutes late at Leicester though, with no hope of getting to the 18:55 at Moor Street, yet not late enough to eat much into the unappealing wait for the next departure at 19:23
After the flyover at Nuneaton (first time I’ve been over this I think) came the somewhat surprising sight of what appeared to be a working colliery at Daw Mill. Ha! Missed one Maggie! The containerbase at Hams Hall was unfortunately screened off by trees, so I couldn’t see what was going on there. Why would the developers of such a facility assume that passers by on trains would be so horrified by the sight of containers, gantries and 66s that they need to be protected from such offensive sights? OK, I can see how some fans of British-built Ruston-engined freight locos might get upset about seeing sheds all over the place, but other than catering for this presumably small minority of the travelling public it seems a lot of expense to go to. Anyway, a shed was coming off the direct Water Orton > Walsall line on container flats after we’d passed through Water Orton, so all that effort was all in vain. We passed the enormous central hub of Business Post in Birmingham, where I’d very nearly taken a job in charge of ops development three years ago, and which firm to their credit once experimented with using rail linehauls to move parcels and mail to Scotland. This foundered on the knock-on problems caused when
anything at all went even slightly wrong with the rail operation. It’s a shame, but if rail is ever to get a share of fast moving, time sensitive freight like this, it will have to undergo some sort of revolution.
Five minutes late at New Street meant just too late to get to Moor Street for the 18:55, but an irritating wait for the 19:23 at a time of day when I just want to sit down and relax. I hung around New Street for quarter of an hour to take a few shots, including one of a Cross Country tram on the 19:03 to Leeds. New Street is one of the few major locations on the network that is still just the same as it was 25 years ago. In the case of one other such place I’ve already mentioned (Carlisle) this is clearly a positive. In the case of New Street it really isn’t. The whole place feels as though it is a carefully preserved slice of 1960s grimness, streaked with 20 further years of decay and unlovedness that was so characteristic of British cities in the mid-80s. Perhaps this preservation is intended to serve as a warning to urban planners and architects of the future. The walk to Moor Street has certainly changed though. A dim childhood memory of being corralled down a bleak concrete canyon full of beggars and hawkers between a busy road and the world’s most run down market is impossible to recreate now. Good. The last time I caught a train from Moor Street it was a terminus, so it’s new line for me as far as Smethwick Galton Bridge, but boy, what a dull line. Apart from the sudden spectacular view of the Galton Bridge itself bestriding the canal far below as it enters a tunnel, this 12½ mile trundle in a 150 taking 33 minutes is about the most boring journey I’ve made in the last year,
including various permutations of the Dartford lines
and going to Enfield Town. Imagine going all the way to Worcester on this crate! At the Junction it’s through the subway to take Parry People Mover 139002 along the branch. What a hilarious train! It’s great fun though, although I was surprised to see the booking office at Stourbridge Town was open past 8 o’clock. TBH I was surprised to see a booking office there
at all. Not only that but the PPM had a two man crew despite booking offices at both ends and the ‘guard’ not carrying any visible means of selling tickets. What’s all that about then? I was met at Stourbridge Town by my sister and we strolled back to her house where I stayed over for the night.
Next morning more fun and frolics with the PPM. The booking office clerk woke up and dusted off his machine to sell me a ticket. The sight of serious looking commuters standing at the tiny Stourbridge Town platform reading newspapers while waiting for this comedy train was slightly surreal! More 150 misery as far as Galton Bridge on the 07:32 to Whitlock’s End (who is Whitlock BTW, and what has his end done to warrant having a station named after it?): I have never known 22 minutes take so long. At Galton Bridge I transferred downstairs to platform 3 for 350238 on the 08:08 to Liverpool, taken as far as Crewe. This is my first go on a 350, and it’s an OK train I suppose. Not sure about the 3+2 seating configuration for a run such as Birmingham > Liverpool though, and some fold out tables in the seat backs would be nice. Biggest issue I have though is calling these trains ‘Desiros’, with all that implies in terms of desirability. Sure, it’s a nice enough train, but as for actively arousing
desire? I think not. TBF most of my previous Desiro experience has been on 185s, where the only desire-o I experience is to alight-o as soon as possiblo, so this is certainly an improvement. On time at Crewe at 08:56 where 3 class 86s were visible on the approach. A Freightliner liveried one in the yard, NR liveried 424, and 401 looking resplendent in Network SouthEast colours. Next up a 20 minute walk to the depot.
En route to the depot I had spotted what looked like the end of a potential shortcut emerging from some trees, which I then tried on the way back. Sure enough, it shaved 5 minutes off the walk. I was very glad to be walking because traffic in Crewe was more or less at gridlock, quite an irony for the ultimate railway town. I passed up the chance to ride on a 175 to Manchester to take 323223 on the 13:34 stopper. There were two reasons for this: (i) I require the south curve at Manchester Airport, and (ii) it enables me to crash into the ongoing row between
Ivo and
Sprinterguy about whether 323s are awful or great respectively. Notwithstanding any nuances of difference between Northern and London Midland examples of which I may be unaware I can only conclude that these are OK trains. Definitely not the worst, 378s having moved to an unassailable position at the top of that leaderboard, unlikely ever to be displaced unless someone brings back open third class wagons from the Liverpool & Manchester Railway. 323s are nippy, make a good noise from the traction motors, and make a cheerful whoop-whooping noise when starting up. This gives me happy memories of frequent trips to Holland in the late 1990s where NS’ Dubbeldeks Materieel were the first sets I heard making this noise. TBH I’m with
Sprinterguy on this one.
As swiftly as I crashed into this argument, I’m going to crash out again. 323s might be OK, but they’re not as good as 175s and having scratched the line I’m glad I won’t have to do this again. I slept most of the way to Piccadilly, but luckily not over the required curve. At Piccadilly I decided I have enough photos of 142s, Sprinters and Voyagers already, and have no desire to start taking shots of Pendos, so I couldn’t summon up the energy to wander around taking pictures. I descended to the undercroft for the tram to Victoria, which was uneventful apart from the delightful company of two of the scummiest teenage girls it’s ever been my misfortune to encounter. At Victoria I flagged the 144 on the 15:00 via Brighouse not because I don’t like pacers but because I was knackered and didn’t want to have to change additionally at Hebden Bridge to get back to Bradford. I hung around for the 15:21 via Bradford hoping it would be a 155 (haven’t had one yet this year), but a 3-car 158 rolled into platform 1 at 15:11.
Flagging the 15:00 turned out to have been the best decision of the day. A woman from Northern got on and advised passengers for Rochdale to “go to platform 6”; passengers going beyond Rochdale were unceremoniously told “you won’t be going anywhere”. When I asked “why not?”, I was told "I can’t tell you". Thinking she was joking I looked up to see that she wasn’t at all, but considered it acceptable to talk to paying customers like this. "There’s a valid reason, but I can’t tell you” she said. I packed up my stuff and went to ask the guard what was going on. He also wouldn’t tell me what was going on, but evasively opined that if the line was closed it was beyond Northern’s control. At this stage with still no explanation on the table a not unreasonable assumption would have been that one of Northern’s trains had failed, something well within their responsibility. I went back through the barrier where the RPI advised me to go to platform 6. I must have looked as though I was starting to get annoyed when I told him I was going to Bradford, and he told me that someone had been struck on the line at Rochdale. At last. A proper explanation from someone prepared to treat the people who pay his wages as adults. I immediately understood the situation, thanked him, and reevaluated my plans. Why oh why couldn’t this explanation have been offered straightaway? They were going to have to deal with thousands of angry people at Victoria that evening, so starting off with a ‘nya-nya, we know a secret and we’re not telling’ approach seems likely to start a riot. It seems Northern station staff’s inability to cope in a crisis (with one notable exception this time) extends well beyond Leeds.
I went to the booking office and got my money back on the Littleborough > Walsden and Walsden > Saltaire singles I’d just bought, and got my Crewe > Littleborough ticket excessed to a Crewe > Huddersfield. Finally I bought a Huddersfield > Saltaire single and got back on a tram to Piccadilly. I caught the 15:57 to Scarborough which was wedged and of course a 185. I’d chosen to go via the Calder Valley for a bit of a change, to save my employer a couple of quid, and to avoid 185s. Now here I was on the same old cattle run from Manchester to Leeds, narrowly missing the 16:56 Skipton train. Unprepared to endure more wedgery on the 17:26, I took the 17:10 Forster Square working and walked from Shipley.
The chaos at Victoria/Rochdale was affecting Leeds by this time, with westbound Calder Valley services being turned back at Hebden Bridge. I was glad to turn my back on this farce and head for home, imagining as I did so where I might be now had I caught that 144 at 15:00. Rochdale I suppose, and some might say that’d be divine retribution for bashing pacers.
59 miles and 67 chains for that according to RailMiles 