A quick update before a trip report:
Recently I've done:
- Alnmouth-Wakey Westgate (Alnmouth being a new shack)
- 0359 Huddersfield-Manchester Airport (unusual diversion route via Rochdale and Salford Crescent)
- A lot of Dutch trains around Amsterdam, including most of their sprinter fleet as well as some intercity services.
- Amsterdam Centraal-Alkmaar on an interesting double-decker Dutch intercity train:
Leeds-Dewsbury via Scotland and London 16/17-02-16
An early start gave me an opportunity to use the new entrance at Leeds station for the first time before catching my favourite service out of Leeds:
The new entrance at Leeds
I'm still not entirely sure what the new entrance is supposed to be, but inside it has a
Brave New World feel to it due to the number of and prominence of the escalators. On the platforms, Leeds was HST-central this morning with an EMT service and then a plethora of VTEC HST's being spawned from the darkest depths of Neville Hill.
0710 Leeds-Aberdeen. VTEC HST. 1st Class, £42.25
This is my favourite Northbound service from Leeds as it is the only one that is 100% certain to be a HST. It also has the added benefit of being a VTEC service that goes somewhere other than London and comes with a respectable 1st class offering. However, on this coldest of mornings the train chef had fallen ill, thus only a curtailed offering was available. The staff handled the situation well and the service team leader jumped into the kitchen in order cook the food himself, which was a fantastic effort. The reduced offering was a Bacon Roll, Mushrooms on Toast or Porridge. I took the opportunity to have something a little different and went for the mushroom option. The staff were great, offering toast and hot drinks twice before York. One other minor setback was the plugs not working at all in coach M.
DRS 66 stabled at York on a cold but beautiful morning
As we rolled out of York I caught sight of a BR green 37, a Blue 08 and Maroon class 47
Prince William at the NRM as well as some sort of old intermodal container flat. Food arrived shortly afterwards:
VTEC Mushrooms on Toast
Some greenery would have aided the presentation, but it was very tasty so a great job under the circumstances. As we dashed Northwards we passed a number of GBRF 66's on coal trains. At Gateshead there was a FL 66 and a class 325 postal unit. Newcastle station held 67008 on Thunderbird duties with a GBRF 66 present on platform 7 and another one stabled just past Manors. The crew then came around again asking if anybody wanted anything else to eat, which was good of them- I declined this time. As we approached Dunbar 2 Colas 60's were present at an industrial facility. A good day for loco's so far! At Craigentinny 47843 was present in a deep blue livery as well as 2 XC HST rakes which is a little disappointing- I really wish they'd get more use out of them! EWS liveried 67021 was stabled at Waverley. The previously busy train emptied out at Edinburgh, where we also had a crew change, so we were no longer chefless for the journey up to Aberdeen.
A view across the Forth estuary.
The 1st class service had now moved onto the 'All-day menu,' I like this menu as it always means you can get a hot meal, which was needed today. VTEC have improved the menu now too, as there are now two hot options rather than just the one on East Coast. The one downside of HST travel is that people leave the droplights open, which is problematic in Scotland in February! Steak and ale pie was ordered from the very friendly crew member, even though it was only 11am I opted to try the new Hop On Board ale too.
VTEC steak and ale pie and the new Hop On Board ale.
The pie was a decent size, warming and really tasty, I'd have liked a bit more mash and it was a bit tepid for my liking. It was a definite improvement on the East Coast food though. I really enjoyed the beer. I could have drunk quite a lot of that, and the friendly crew member did try tempting me into having more, but I stuck with just the 1. Lemon and Elderflower cake followed, which was up to the usual high standard. The coastal views continued to impress on the way up to Aberdeen where we arrived bang on time. In the station 67011 was attached to that mornings sleeper working. I ID'd the front power car of my service as 43206.
Aberdeen was freezing with a horrendous wind. The town centre is pleasant enough but very grey and appears to be primarily one large shopping centre. I ventured out in search of a pub, I found a few but none of them looked too welcoming or like the type of place I'd want too long in on my own. I eventually found a place called Bridge Street Social Club which was quite nice and had a good atmosphere in it. I also thought it was good value, which I put down to the studenty clientèle. On the way back to the station I picked up a quick Costa- a hazelnut hot chocolate- just outside the station entrance.
1527 Aberdeen-Inverness. Scotrail 2x158. £5.20.
I was initially a bit sceptical about the 2x158's, thinking it a bit wasteful on such a rural route, but the train did get reasonably busy until Keith so fair play there Scotrail. The 158's provided were 'the wrong type of 158,' having no 1st class sections, the guard therefore declared all reservations void. I did manage to get a decent table seat though for the journey of over 2 hours. The seat padding was somehow broken, so not the most comfortable of journeys, but oh well, at least it wasn't a pacer! I was a bit surprised at how few stations there are on this route. The countryside was very typical of Northern Scotland but very enjoyable, this is a very nice part of the world.
This route was all new coverage for me, so I was glad when the light just about held out until Inverness, which means I don't need to to revisit it for coverage purposes.
On arrival, I spent quite a bit of time walking around wet and windy Inverness in search of food, coming across a number of Indians. I'd eaten in one of them before and it was good, but I wasn't feeling Indian tonight. I eventually settled on a small restaurant down by the river. I was the only customer, the staff weren't accommodating at all, not letting me charge my phone and they were just a bit 'cold' in general. I'd have walked out at this point normally, but I couldn't be bothered continuing to traipse around Inverness anymore. The food was good, I ordered Hake in a tomato and chorizo sauce, the beer from the Cairngorms was fantastic. Not enjoying the hospitality I paid and left pretty quickly. Predictably, my route then took me right past a choice of restaurants, which looked quite nice. Oh well, I know for next time.
I then sought out the Caledonian Sleeper lounge, which interestingly is not actually in the station, but over the road from the station. It had a welcoming host and was pretty comfortable. I used the plugs in there to resurrect my phone as there are no plugs in the berths on the sleeper:
The sleeper lounge at Inverness.
I then walked over about 30mins before departure to get into my berth and get a spot in the lounge car. I'd got very lucky in terms of traction on this trip- upfront were both the usual 67007 and mega-bonus 73967. Class 73 is new traction for me, so I was over the moon, even better that it was double-headed too
73967 and 67007 on the Highland Sleeper stood at Inverness
While I was milling around the Highland Chieftain pulled in, a little late so I got a quick photo.
The Highland Chieftain arrives at Inverness.
2044 Inverness-London Kings Cross (Diverted). Caledonian Sleeper Class 67 and 73. 1st Class Berth, £102.30.
Meanwhile, in the lounge car I'd ordered a bottle of Avalanche ale and the cheeseboard from another friendly host. Again, the beer was a winner. We then eased out of the station, unsurprisingly we picked up speed very quickly with 2 loco's pulling only 6 coaches. The lounge car population peaked at 9, I did see a few other folk around the train and there were people in the seated sections, so I think that was pretty good considering the time of year and how out of season it was.
As we climbed out of Inverness there was now a meaningful snow covering which added to the experience. The cheeseboard duly arrived- is there a better way to travel- fine beer, good cheese, sat on a proper chair, being propelled through the snowy highlands by a pair of loco's? Perfection if you ask me. The cheeses were brie, blue and a mild cheddar, all of good quality and it was pretty reasonable value at £6.50.
The lounge car
Cally Sleeper Cheeseboard.
At about half 10 I succumbed to the need for sleep, but first I headed to the foremost droplight for a bit of thrash on leaving one of the highland mainline stations. It was brilliant but unfortunately the 67 drowned out the 73, being nearer to the carriages.
To bed it was then. It was basically the same as the Night Riviera, but with more comfortable bedding and lacking a phone charging socket. I got a pretty good nights sleep- much better than when I did the Riviera. I was awaken by the unavoidable bump in the middle of the night at Edinburgh where the other portions join and the loco's are swapped. In general though a great night sleep was had. It does help that the route is a lot straighter and there are proportionally fewer stops compared to on the night Riviera.
I was quite excited to see what traction was on the front in the morning at Kings Cross. Could I bag a 73 and a 92 in one fell swoop? First, breakfast. Salmon and scramble eggs it was, as recommended by just about everyone who has ever had the full English on the sleeper. I then got ready and took up a seat in the lounge car once more, to see us flying through Huntingdon. The commuters on the Southern ECML looked intrigued by the sleeper train.
The sunrise from the sleeper
We arrived into Kings Cross about 30mins early, I saw the EWS 67 thunderbird and the CS 86 on the way in. I was a little disappointed to find a FL 90 on the front, but it's still a loco so a good result.
FL class 90 at Kings Cross.
I then headed over to Euston for a much needed shower. The 1st class lounge there is pretty nice and well stocked, the showers are nicer than Paddington's too.
0940 London Euston-Manchester. Virgin Trains class 390. 1st class, £35.
As I've previously stated on here I'm quite bored of the Southern ECML, so I thought I'd try a different route home. The train was pretty busy, but it made a nice change. I really enjoyed the breakfast of Eggs Benedict. We had a good run up the WCML before crawling after Stoke.
VTWC Eggs Benedict.
I then walked across rainy Manchester to Victoria. For a dirt-cheap Northern Advance £2 fare home to Dewsbury. I've started to use this route more as it's usually a 158 and if not a 150 with the odd 153 thrown in for good measure. It's also a lot quieter than the TPE route. You will have noticed that everything seems to have gone pretty well on this trip so far, so obviously a spanner was going to be thrown into the works somewhere ...You guessed it. Not 1, but 2 of Northern Rail's finest 142's to take me back to Dewsbury (including one with bus-seats, for good measure). Just to rub it in, there was a perfectly good 3-car 158 sat in one of the bays all the time I was waiting at Vic...
1326 Manchester Victoria-Dewsbury (Leeds). Northern 2x 142. £2.
The offending Pacers :roll:
Ah well, at least they have big windows, and with 4 carriages it was pretty quiet. I got a good seat, so it wasn't too bad. Obviously, I chose to sit in the 142 which had proper seats in it.
It was a fairly routine trip back over the hill, apart from spotting the most colourful train in the country near Rochdale:
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So a pretty successful trip, giving me new coverage Aberdeen-Inverness, a new operator in Caledonian sleeper, new traction in the form of a 73 and some rare double headed LHCS action.