Saturday 25/03/78
47015 1805 York – Reading, return ADEX. Route not known – and no sign of this on the 6 Bells Junction website. Can anybody assist? (Train ran through from / to Paddington).
Tuesday 25/03/80
The 1705 Kings Cross – Hull, the Hull Executive, ran non-stop to Newark Northgate, and was very tightly timed. As such it was a favourite of the Deltic bashers.
55005 1705 Kings Cross – Doncaster
I had the opportunity to travel on the train on my way to Doncaster en route to York, so I sat back and enjoyed a typically fine Deltic journey. Fortunately there was somebody on board who was keeping a log:
http://www.napier-chronicles.co.uk/5_25-3-80.htm#log
The consistency of the driving was exemplary.
55018 2021 Doncaster – York
This ran 15' late, due to the failure of the 1800 Kings Cross – Edinburgh HST.
Wednesday 25/03/81
46004 0008 Edinburgh – Newcastle
55010 0341 Newcastle – Edinburgh
As I was heading south to Newcastle, 40101 stormed by on the 2000 Kings Cross – Aberdeen, which it worked as far as Edinburgh. After a pause for refreshment at Haymarket it came out for the next leg of its diagram,
re-engineing the 2315 Kings Cross – Aberdeen at Edinburgh:
40101 0702 Edinburgh – Aberdeen
At Aberdeen I was delighted to learn that 55012 was en route too, and would go back on the 1240 to Edinburgh:
55012 1240 Aberdeen – Dundee
My first Deltic out of Aberdeen. Just north of Dundee, my pet Deltic 55019 stormed by on the 0550 from Kings Cross to Aberdeen. I had to have it! I alighted at Dundee, and was delighted to find 40113 on the 1335 Glasgow Queen Street – Aberdeen.
Now the dilemma. 40113 was due into Aberdeen at 1630. 55019 was due out of Aberdeen at 1630. Should I go through to Aberdeen and risk the dead connection, or play safe and alight at Stonehaven to be sure of getting 55019 (but not having it out of Aberdeen)?
Well 40113 was running well, so I risked it. We came to a halt just outside Aberdeen station at 1627, and stood there as I watched 55019 depart, for us then to roll into the same platform it had vacated. The Aberdeen station staff had platformed some of the overnight sleeper trains early, so there wasn't a spare platform for us to arrive in. I never did have 55019 to Aberdeen. Still, at least I've got a decent exit lined up:
40113 1750 Aberdeen – Dundee, dropping back onto
40148 1949 Dundee – Edinburgh
This train called at Burntisland, as scheduled. (There was once a Control Office at Burntisland, and when it was closed, part of the redundancy agreement was that an express service would call at Burntisland every evening to convey Controllers to their new place of employment for night shift in Edinburgh. The only person I ever saw use this stop was a well-known local crank).
47517 2340 Edinburgh – Carstairs
Saturday 25/03/95
There were some engineering diversions taking place on international services between Germany and Amsterdam, involving the use of the big class 234 Kolomna diesels all the way to Amsterdam. So I had to give it a go …
43172 + 43028 1730 Reading – Paddington
86246 1900 Liverpool Street – Harwich Parkeston Quay
Ferry to Hoek van Holland
