The second day of my unexpected weekend dawned with an early start, and a checkout from my comfortable warm hotel into a drizzly and grey Sheffield Sunday. The pedestrianised plaza rising from the station to the hotel which had been full of students lolling around in the warm evening was now empty. Still, it gave me an opportunity to grab a picture of 'What If?' - the poem installed in huge letters on the side of Sheffield Hallam University, written by none other than Andrew Motion - our current poet laureate. I'm no great fan of Mr Motion usually, but the impressive concept and the rather fine words struck me enough to make me curious - and indeed to spend a few moments thinking on the poem before I pressed onward, towards the station and inevitably, breakfast!
Today's itinerary, from a heavy rail perpsective, was gentle. The first train off Sheffield for Leeds, reversing at Castleford - and involving some required track. Then a dash up to Newcastle on a Transpennine Express service. Started strangely - with an unexpectedly busy service from Sheffield, many of the passengers apparently having not made it home from the previous night. A nagging door fault, resulting in the guard or driver needing to repeatedly kick the unit back into life, didn't delay things much and we rolled into Leeds a few minutes before time after a decent run along the final stretches. After a quick wander around this station which I get to far less often than I'd like, a bit of a platform farce. We were moved over the bridge onto another platform, then back - despite a silent and switched-off Voyager blocking our exit. A few minutes late we reversed, paused, crossed over and took the middle road through the station. More track I suppose, and hardly expected!
On arriving at Newcastle, descended straight onto the Metro, buying my day ticket and making my way via carefully researched escalator-free routes down to the platform. Covering the entire system wasn't a quick proposition - but it promised to be interesting, involving sections of purpose-built track alongside long chunks of former heavy rail routes. Started with a trip out to the Airport, before returning south to cover South Hylton and South Shields. Some freight action on the lines near Pelaw despite being Sunday.
Back under the city next to complete a circle of the coast, via the formerly rather grand stations at Whitley Bay and Tynemouth (home in fact to a rather interesting looking book sale). All that remained was a short stretch into St. James. All but deserted outside matchday, and oddly quiet. Not sorry to get going again to return to Central and surface in the station before checking into my hotel - tired, but pleased to have finally done this trip.
And so the business end of my Lost Weekend comes to a close, a wander around Newcastle - my first in a few years in the City Centre - noting the changes and exploring new parts of the city. Tomorrow I have the fun of a long run back to the south west to look forward to. Maybe I should do this kind of trip more often?
Lost::MikeGTN
I've had a home on the web for more years than I care to remember, and a few kind souls persuade me it's worth persisting with keeping it updated. This current incarnation of the site is centred around the blog posts which began back in 1999 as 'the daylog' and continued through my travels and tribulations during the following years.
I don't get out and about nearly as much these days, but I do try to record significant events and trips for posterity. You may also have arrived here by following the trail to my former music blog Songs Heard On Fast Trains. That content is preserved here too.
