First time for a National Rail "day out" in over 2 years; after a long delay for family health reasons, it had waited for light evenings and decent weather - both of which were forecast yesterday, correctly.
0752 Saltaire-Keighley: 333, load about 30%, mainly students.
0811 KEI- Carlisle: 158 (2-car), about 40-50 pax overall; we did business (on or off) at all stations, and it was nice to have a trolley from Appleby.
Interesting sight at CAR - a pair of 397s stabled on the middle roads
1054 CAR-Newcastle: 156, about 50% load (pleasantly surprised as the service is now half hourly, but there were connections from Scotland).
1240 NCL-Grosmont (ex Hexham): 158(2 car), busiest (50%?) Hartlepool-Middlesborough. Surprised to do business at stations like Kildale (but not at Battersby, predictably!).
The train was booked to attach a 156 at Middlesbrough, but this had been borrowed to cover a failure - the returning train (1558 Whitby) wasn't busy enough by Grosmont for its absence to have been a problem.
I then switched to the NYMR, where the 1630 to Pickering was Q6 63395 (fairly certain I'd been behind her in about 1972 before official reopening) plus a fascinating set of a Mk1 TSO, a Thompson TK, Gresley TTO and BTO both with bucket seats. I wonder if that was a consequence of recent accident damage leaving them short of Mk1s, but it was a decided plus. The train was very lightly loaded - maybe 30 from Grosmont and another 20 max from Goathland.
Unfortunately, punctuality was awry, with trains from Pickering running 20 late for no obvious reason. We departed +10, and were +19 arriving Pickering, leaving me just time to catch the Coastliner at the other end of town.
Malton produced fish and chips, consumed on the station platform.
1858 MLT-York: cl68 plus 5, lightly loaded. My first experience of the Mk5s - and a ride best described as hard and juddering (reminiscent of my local 331s - which may come as no surprise). It also reminded me of Mk4s in their early days. A short signal stop at Barton Hill put us +2 into York, the worst NR delay of the day.
1949 YRK-Leeds: 802, load over 50% (it was the Newcastle-Liverpool) - much more comfortable despite the very upright seats.
2026 LDS-SAE: 333, the busiest of the day by a short head (the service having just dropped to 2tph).
Overall an excellent day, efficient ticket checking throughout and friendly staff2.
Ticketing: Northern Delay Repay single Saltaire to Grosmont; travel facilities on NYMR; bus pass; Anytime Single Malton-Saltaire (by the time I booked the saving with an Advance at Railcard price was only £2-odd, and would have meant committing to a later train).
0752 Saltaire-Keighley: 333, load about 30%, mainly students.
0811 KEI- Carlisle: 158 (2-car), about 40-50 pax overall; we did business (on or off) at all stations, and it was nice to have a trolley from Appleby.
Interesting sight at CAR - a pair of 397s stabled on the middle roads
1054 CAR-Newcastle: 156, about 50% load (pleasantly surprised as the service is now half hourly, but there were connections from Scotland).
1240 NCL-Grosmont (ex Hexham): 158(2 car), busiest (50%?) Hartlepool-Middlesborough. Surprised to do business at stations like Kildale (but not at Battersby, predictably!).
The train was booked to attach a 156 at Middlesbrough, but this had been borrowed to cover a failure - the returning train (1558 Whitby) wasn't busy enough by Grosmont for its absence to have been a problem.
I then switched to the NYMR, where the 1630 to Pickering was Q6 63395 (fairly certain I'd been behind her in about 1972 before official reopening) plus a fascinating set of a Mk1 TSO, a Thompson TK, Gresley TTO and BTO both with bucket seats. I wonder if that was a consequence of recent accident damage leaving them short of Mk1s, but it was a decided plus. The train was very lightly loaded - maybe 30 from Grosmont and another 20 max from Goathland.
Unfortunately, punctuality was awry, with trains from Pickering running 20 late for no obvious reason. We departed +10, and were +19 arriving Pickering, leaving me just time to catch the Coastliner at the other end of town.
Malton produced fish and chips, consumed on the station platform.
1858 MLT-York: cl68 plus 5, lightly loaded. My first experience of the Mk5s - and a ride best described as hard and juddering (reminiscent of my local 331s - which may come as no surprise). It also reminded me of Mk4s in their early days. A short signal stop at Barton Hill put us +2 into York, the worst NR delay of the day.
1949 YRK-Leeds: 802, load over 50% (it was the Newcastle-Liverpool) - much more comfortable despite the very upright seats.
2026 LDS-SAE: 333, the busiest of the day by a short head (the service having just dropped to 2tph).
Overall an excellent day, efficient ticket checking throughout and friendly staff2.
Ticketing: Northern Delay Repay single Saltaire to Grosmont; travel facilities on NYMR; bus pass; Anytime Single Malton-Saltaire (by the time I booked the saving with an Advance at Railcard price was only £2-odd, and would have meant committing to a later train).