Despite starting our journey from relatively close at hand, set out early and arrived in Stratford in time for a stupidly expensive breakfast courtesy of The White Swan. Stratford is, after all, a town designed to fleece passing heritage hungry tourists of their cash - and early on a Saturday morning there are few options but to dig deep. Ate lots to make up for it, and hoped there wouldn't be any queasiness on the bus to Long Marston. Made our way back to the station in time to start the queue for the bus, which despite a lack of information arrived bang on time to meet the train. A short trip through the Warwickshire countryside to the former MOD base, and we were soon queueing to enter Long Marston with it's untold riches of stored locomotives and rolling stock.
Sneezed my way into the site, clearly finding lots of unfamiliar pollen we just don't get down south. Greeted by the site of a single Class 87 reminding us of the purpose of today - to bid a sad farewell to an entire class of West Coast Mainline workhorses which it seemed would just keep going on! However, they sit here in the countryside, miles from the nearest overhead line, awaiting shipment to Bulgaria and a new useful life.
The scale of the site was simply vast. After working our way up and down the lines of stored locos and wagons, we continued to find new things hiding in corners - I can honestly say that few open days have held my attention for so long on the basis of the exhibits alone. Once we'd photographed, noted and discussed all the stock we could, headed for the small platform near the East Gate for the DMU ride around the site to the West Gate and a little beyond. A decent run, around some very tight curves. More stock and wagons spotted on the run. The only things remaining out of sight being a group of 31s we'd seen a while back at Meldon Quarry and the ill-fated Pendolino 390033 which was stored, respectfully out of view given it's recent history.
Mid-afternoon the UK Railtours service arrived on site, with a pair of 66s creeping around the busy area. As the railtour guests swelled the ranks in the site, we decided to consider leaving having had a happy, dry and fruitful day.
The highlight for me was to hear about the possibility of 87002 'Royal Sovreign' working future railtours on classic electric mainline routes. A re-enactment of the Electric Scot Farewell might be fun?
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?
The dearth of decent railtour opportunities this summer has driven me to desperate measures! This weekend, having booked a couple of days of leave and not really planned much, I decided to get away. After wrestling with the trainline website came up with a plan - a trip to Sheffield today, on to Newcastle tomorrow and an epic trek back on Monday. Lots of opportunities to progress my target of covering Light Rail systems in the process and a couple of nights away in areas I don't get to see often. So, in fairly good weather I found myself zooming through familiar territory from recent weeks through the Midlands and Derby. A nice, relaxing trip with no great worry about getting anywhere by any particular time. Had planned my rambles on the Stagecoach Supertram network, but frequencies meant it wasn't desperate if this slipped a bit. Arrived at Sheffield and immediately made my way over the bridge to the tram stop to start my ramble.
I visited Sheffield soon after the tram network opened in 1995, and had a short run from the station to the City Centre. It was busy then with people eager to try the new form of urban transport, and it remained busy today, but seems to have become part of the fairly robust network here - with people happy to make journeys skipping between bus, tram and train as necessary. For someone who works in transport, a joy to see! Started with the southern branches of the network, soaring up into the hilly south west of the city via some impressive gradients and interestingly engineered viaducts. The network appears to cover a fair bit of open country or at least post-industrial land, and makes some quite spirited runs on open track at times. After terminating at Herdings Park, doubled back to cover the longer branch to the strangest name for a terminal station - Halfway.
Back into the city centre with far more people on board, but plenty of space and no feeling of overcrowding. Having not strayed into Sheffield much over the years, good to see a fairly bustling and pleasant central area. Hillsborough too had the feeling of a small town in itself and with the sun shining it was pleasant to wait at the tram stop after making the short run out to Malin Park, for my tram to Middlewood. Another reversal, back through the city and over the triangle of junctions at Ponds Forge. Here, the impressive but much maligned Park Hill flats tower above the line, currently derelict and awaiting regeneration - but still listed buildings despite their modern brutalism. We rose above the city again, passing the tram depot at Nunnery Square and eventually running alongside the freight-only railway which served as the western access to the mammoth Tinsley depot. Now closed, with a small freight terminal on it's site, there is little activity on what must have been an incredibly busy railway.
A final curve brings us to Meadowhall Interchange, where again bus, tram and rail meet at the local mecca for shoppers. Considered a train back, but confusion over ticket validity makes it easier to head for the next tram into the city centre. After a brief wander, time to check into my hotel for the night, relax a bit and enjoy the surroundings. Perhaps these unplanning weekend wanders are no bad thing after all...
In an effort to support the Friends of the Highbridge campaign which has started on burnham-on-sea.com, I've taken a few pictures of the current state of the Highbridge Hotel. It's frankly not pretty, and with a week of fairly inclement weather the building is beginning to suffer from neglect and remains easily accessible by vandals. The pictures are here.
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.
