ALR06/02 Day Six - A Diverting Day in the Tyne Valley

Posted in Railways on Saturday 14th October 2006 at 9:21pm

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Didn't need to be up nearly so early this morning, but partly due to have a fairly poor night of sleep, and partly out of habit found myself up and out pretty early. My usual Renfield Street haunt wasn't open yet, so proceeded to Queen Street for coffee and had a pleasant time watching the world go by. Considered using an earlier train since the Queen Street to Waverley service has an impressive fifteen minute frequency, but decided to stick to the plan - it hadn't yet failed me this week - which was fairly amazing by all accounts! Very quiet today compared to loadings I'd seen on some of the weekday services on this route. Settled into my seat for a trip I'd not done for some time via Falkirk High and Linlithgow into Waverley. Passed several coal trains en route, which hadn't generally been evident when I'd been here before. There seems to be a general upturn in Scottish coal traffic which is very positive, although some question the resource usage in taking coal from ports north of the border to power stations further south in England.

Arrived at Waverley and brought one or two things for the trip, before heading to platform 11 for what appeared to be a very busy diverted service to Newcastle. This was really the purpose for me - an unusual route, west via Carstairs then to Carlisle on the WCML, crossing back to Newcastle via the Tyne Valley. This had been a damp, misty and slow crossing on a previous trip but today it promised to be a little quicker and a little brighter. Listened in to an angry little American guy getting upset because the station staff misheard his barked request to go to London as being for Lanark. He'd also committed the cardinal sin - wearing Scottish attire in Scotland. No one with any self-respect does this, except perhaps American tourists who think tartan sweaters make them fit in somehow? Boarded the unrefurbished HST set, which brought back memories of pre-privatisation trips to points north. Strangely, discovered wifi was available despite not being advertised, but the system refused to allocate IP addresses. Another passenger checked with me that I was having the same trouble, and we reasoned that there was something wrong for everyone - not just us. Some stunning scenery throughout the crossing of the northern Pennines, passing a fair number of diverted northbound services on our way.

185123 at Newcastle Central

Every rover there seems to be a place I end up being at fairly frequently during the week. Last time out it was Nottingham, and this time around, Newcastle has been the place. Trundled in over the Tyne and saw 185123 waiting at platform 10 - destined to be the traction for the service to Manchester. Had a quick wander around the station to see if anything interesting was going on, and got a couple of photographs of the HST and the 185 before boarding and settling in for the ride down the ECML and beyond. The train was fairly busy as far as York. For this part of the journey we had a guard who would try to over-ride the rather robotic autoannouncer voice by speaking at the same time which cancelled the announcement. She also tried hard to be friendly and personable which was appreciated by most of us, even though one or two of the passengers standing seemed none too impressed at her attempts to cheer them up. I'm not sure if Huddersfield had a home game, but after York the train became incredibly busy with several invasions into first class thwarted by the equally good-humoured guard and rather bulky trainee who took over here - how are Transpennine keeping their staff so jovial? A bit of a signalling farce near Dewsbury saw us running slowly for a while and eventually losing about six minutes by my calculations. It's testament to the 185's excellent acceleration that we arrived at Piccadilly only a minute or so late, despite there being very few opportunities to make up time around Guide Bridge and Ardwick.

At Piccadilly, time to pop into the shops on behalf of my nephew who has developed a great love for the Thomas the Tank Engine TV series. Far from letting this opportunity for railway enthusiasm indoctrination pass, grabbed a couple of DVDs which I'm sure he will enjoy. Tried to joke with the assistant that they weren't for me, but despite her smile I'm fairly sure she didn't believe me! On to the waiting Pendolino for the last leg of today's travels, to Birmingham. I'd usually have stayed with relatives nearby but the continuing weekend closure between Kings Norton and Redditch would have made life doubly difficult tomorrow - a bus in from Redditch and another bus out to Gloucester. In the spirit of my trip, found a way around this block entirely tomorrow - hugely time-consuming and not recommended for real people naturally - Birmingham Snow Hill to London Marylebone to London Paddington and home. 'Utter madness' as a gent I was talking to about my trip described it. Hadn't the heart to tell him about the time I went home from the Midlands via Leicester, St Pancras and Ramsgate!

So instead of heading for family, checked into the Britannia Hotel on New Street. A very odd place. Queued for ages to check in, as a large Welsh coach party were taking turns to ask either odd, impossible or pointless questions of the staff. Even their coach driver was doing his best to field some of the queries to ease the burden on the receptionist. The room was curious too - fronting onto a balcony overlooking New Street, and clearly not decorated for some time. Comfortable enough however, and having popped out to one of my old haunts for food, settled in for a longer sleep than I've managed this week so far.