Sunday 26/09/2010
Wymondham	Dep	09:27	EA
Ely	Arr	10:19
	Dep	10:52	EA
Peterborough	Arr	11:36
	Dep	12:18	EM
Nottingham	Arr	13:26
Option 1
Nottingham Stn St	Dep	13:31	NET
Hucknell	Arr	14:03
	Dep	14:11	NET
David Lane	Arr	14:22
	Dep	14:26	NET
Pheonix Park	Arr	14:31
	Dep	14:40	NET
Nottingham Stn St	Arr	15:05
Option 2
Nottingham Stn St	Dep	13:39	NET
Pheonix Park	Arr	14:04
	Dep	14:10	NET
Nottingham Stn St	Arr	14:35
Nottingham	Dep	15:14	NO
Chesterfield	Arr	15:53
	Dep	16:02	XC
Newport	Arr	18:44
	Dep	19:41	GW
Neath	Arr	20:43

 

Saturday 25 September 2010

It was up at 05:00 in order to get to the train at 05:40. Number one son was not impressed as he struggles to get out of his pit by 10 a.m. when not going to school. “Why does dad have to go out so early?” he asks. The answer is quite simple, if you want to go to the other end of the country and actually get there before you have to come back you have to go early.

On arrival at the station I realise I have left out lunch in the fridge. Oops. We will have to fix that problem later.

We join the train which was virtually deserted all the way to London. Number one son has decided that the early start was actually too early and returns to hibernation mode until Reading, nearly 3 hours later. At 08:00 it was now time to wake up. This is a shame as it was a very clear morning and he has missed a spectacular autumnal sunrise with great red to orange to yellow light conditions. He would probably not have appreciated it anyway.

Arrival in London was on time and it was time to do battle with the tube. The Circle Line was suspended all day so this means Bakerloo to Oxford Circus and Central to Liverpool St. During the planning stage the quickest way to Wymondham was from Kings Cross but I had decided a circular tour via Norwich was better and the trains between Liverpool St and Norwich are loco hauled so a better travelling experience.

At Liverpool St we have two different types of food to find breakfast and lunch. For breakfast we head out of the station time to see what is on offer. There is sandwich shop across the road, sausage sandwich, crumpets, coffee, orange juice and £10 yes £10 later (this would be under a fiver in South Wales) we have had breakfast. There is just time to visit M&S food to replace the lunch I have left at home.

With a few minutes to spare the platform is announced and we join the train and depart for

37601 "Class 37 Fifty" at Dereham

Norwich, which departs late. NXEA are not having a good day as a DRS Class 47 is backing up onto the next Norwich service. Before leaving home I had turned on BBC breakfast and the weather lady was correct, just north of Diss the sun disappeared and it clouds over and by the time we got to Wymondham it is raining. This was the only corner of the UK with a blue area on the map (raining) and we are in it. It was a wet trudge across Wymondham between stations. Having printed the map of the town from Multimap we had a rough idea where we were going. As we walk across town the familiar grow of an EE Type 3 (Class 37) can be heard. We must be getting near.

It appears we have not come by the most direct route but eventually discover the station. We manage to catch the 12:00 running late. The train is packed and we end up standing. Check in with the rest of the team we are meeting and they are on the train starting at the other end. The plan is we will change trains at the halfway point and join them. I start telling number on son about the great noise a Class 37 makes and then listen to the one on the front of the train which is sounding decidedly sick. We have not been able to see which one it is as the platform at Wymondham Abbey is very short and you cannot get to the front of the train. It is only when we leave and join the train in the other direction that I find out the loco was 37906 which has been re-engined and does not make the characteristic growl and the reason it sounded sick.

At this point in the day there is a choice of activities you can travel on one train down to the Network Rail limit of the railway or go to the loco naming and cavalcade at Dereham. We have chosen the former. This means a bit of shunting at Wymondham and a trip to Thuxton and back while the other things are happening at Dereham. We will go to Dereham on the next trip. I manage to get a few photos at Dereham.

Thinks are not going too well for the MNR as a number of loco failures have taken place and the trains are getting later and later. The weather is already wet and now getting cold.

The next trip down back to Wymondham has a pair of 37s on each end. It is to Wy

37518 + 37219 at Thuxton.

mondham and back to Thuxton to get both pairs. Two more trips between Wymondham and Thuxton and we have been hauled by all bar one loco 37706. This was not required as it hauled our trip last year round the Oldham Loop. Not a bad day’s work. The trains were approaching 50 minutes late by this stage.

It is now off to find somewhere to eat. The original plan was to go to Norwich in our enlarged group and we would return to Wymondham to our hotel. This turned out not to be possible as there is no train back from Norwich between 20:40 and 22:40. An hour or three hours to eat on hour is just not possible. I was not prepared to keep number one son out until 23:00 as he was up at 05:00, I have to at least make an attempt to be a partially responsible parent. We would have to eat in Wymondham. Two pubs have been recommended which both do real ale and good food. Unfortunately after visiting both they are fully booked.

There is only one thing for it. The other part of the team would return to Norwich to eat and we would find something for ourselves in Wymondham. A walk back down the street and number one son wants Chinese take away. I question how he proposes to eat it. Not easy without a knife and fork. He then sees sense and Pizza is the order of the day. We sit in the covered pagoda in the square eating pizza.

I had booked the hotel on www.laterooms.com. I find this site offers much better prices than many of the other sites, for the same hotels. I had chosen the Abbey Hotel as it was near the MNR station and £70 for a twin room, with breakfast was not too expensive. The Norwich hotels were more than this for room only. Booking hotels in this way is sometimes a bit of a lottery. We were pleasantly surprised as it was an old Victorian building and by the looks of it our room was recently modernised. There was some work still being carried out on one of the corridors but this does not affect our stay.  The food in the restaurant also smelt fantastic but unfortunately we had already eaten.

We are exhausted and in bed by 10 p.m. It has been a long but very enjoyable day. Just after going to bed I hear the last train of the diesel gala leave heading back to Dereham. This must have been over an hour and a half late. I do feel sorry for the organisers they have had a very long day and have more of the same tomorrow.  The gala was extremely enjoyable, I don’t think I have ridden behind this many different class 37s in a day since the West Highland line in 1989.

Sunday 26 September 2010

 Awake at 7 a.m. after a great night’s sleep which is unusual for me in hotels. The weather is still damp. I have woken earlier than required as the train does not leave until 09:30. I hatch a plan. As we are already awake we can go for breakfast then get a photo of the first arrival in Wymondham Abbey then head to the mainline station for our train. The breakfast is good and we leave full of cereal, fried breakfast, toast orange juice and coffee. This was a good hotel and not too expensive.

The Mid Norfolk Railway station is only 5 minutes walk from the hotel. We await the arrival of the first train at 08:40. We wait, and wait and wait. Number one son goes off to find out “what’s occurring”. It appears they are not off to a good start this morning with the first train of the day train running 40 minutes late. This means that we cannot wait to see it as we will not make our train. Wymondham has only one departure on Sunday morning at 09:27. If we do not catch it we are stuck until the afternoon.

A swift walk across town with 10 minutes to spare. This turned out to be ample time as it was 15 minutes late. This is not one of my favourite rail journeys. You may be passing through countryside but this is a featureless landscape. There is not a hill in sight. The tallest things in the flatlands of Norfolk are the trees.

It is a change at Ely. On train catering in non-existent, at this time on a Sunday morning, although the train is quite busy. The station vendors of Ely have worked out it is worth opening with a choice of outlets. We have 40 minutes here so I get a coffee. Number one son does not require anything until about 2 minutes before the train is due when he needs a hot chocolate. He comes back out the shop after the train has arrived and is due to leave. We get on just in time.  Another change at Peterborough and time to procure lunch, sandwiches from Pumpkin is the best the station has to offer.

The next train is East Midlands to Nottingham. The train is formed of a recently refurbished Class 158. In my opinion this is one of the best refurbishments on this unit type. They are now light and airy where they previously resembled sitting in a cave. This train is not taking the normal route through Grantham but is travelling west towards Leicester before turning north at Syston Jn and avoiding Leicester. This is because of engineering works on the other route.

We are on quite a tight connection at Nottingham. We intend to attempt to

NET Tram 204 at Phoenix Park

cover the entire Nottingham Express Transit network between trains. We arrive outside Nottingham early so this is looking good as we only have 5 minutes to get from the train onto the tram. We stand outside Nottingham for an age and the arrival time comes and goes and so does the departure time of the tram. We have missed it and now cannot complete the whole network today. Number one son is not impressed and attempts to work out a revised plan. I know the answer as I have already checked at the planning stage this is not possible.

We join the next tram and only have time for a run to Phoenix Park and back. I had carried out a little research before making this journey. The Tram day rover is £3 but the Nottingham Plus Bus scheme includes the tram and is only £2.70. This means we could buy the tickets before travelling, not having to worry about trying to purchase a ticket and it was cheaper.

This is our first visit to the Nottingham tram system. It is one line from the railway station in Nottingham serving the city centre and university with two short branches at the country end to Phoenix Park and Hucknell. It has some impressive hills for a tram system. The section around the city centre was busy but much quieter at the extremities. It is worth a visit if you have time to spare in Nottingham. We will have to come again another day to complete the missing section to Hucknell.

We have not been able to complete the whole network and because of this have time to spare before our train departs. Looking round the station it becomes obvious why we had stood outside earlier. The engineering works at the east end of the station are causing operational problem with more trains than normal to reverse. The station is full of units with only limited access to the depot.

Our train comes in at around 14:50 and the traincrew clear the rubbish away then sit at a table having a cup of tea while the passengers are locked outside looking in the windows. Passengers are a strange creature. They walk up to the train and press the button to open the door (which is not illuminated in this case) and nothing happens. So they press it again, and still nothing happens. So they then bash the button and strangely enough the door still does not open. They then start peering in through the door windows as this will somehow reveal why the door has not opened. It appears to be a difficult concept the grasp when the button lights up the doors will open when it is not the doors are locked. This concept appears to confuse passengers.

A few minutes before departure the train is unlocked the little buttons light up and we are allowed to board the train. It departs on time. This train is booked by a slightly different route than normal. It heads west through Beeston before turning off through Toton Yard before rejoining the normal route through Alfreton and Chesterfield.

We pass through Toton and it resembles an EWS red version of Vic Berry’s scrap yard. There are Class 60s dumped everywhere on both sides of the track, with some Class 56s and Class 37s for good measure.

I visited the depot a number of times in the 1980s. The Health and Safety Nazis have now stopped that sort of thing, as people might injure themselves and sue the company for millions of pounds. If we slipped over in the oil and got covered it was our own fault. I was more worried what my mum would say if I came home covered in dirty oil that prevented me falling over, rather than worrying about suing BR.

In the 1980s the place was full of withdrawn “Peaks” but now it is Class 60s. Even at the height of “Peak” withdrawal I had not seen this many locos dumped. Class 60 lined both sides of the line, many of which are about to take a one way trip to the metal recyclers. I suppose that’s progress.

As we head a little further north we pass the Midland Railway Centre. A Class 37 is disappearing back towards Butterley. I once visited this railway and it was a very disappointing day out. I wonder if it has improved.

We arrive at Chesterfield and it is time to head for home. We only have 9 minutes to wait for our Cross Country train to Newport. It is a Voyager. We join and find seats and continue our journey south. The last couple of journeys on Cross Country have been OK (except for the trains are Voyagers). This journey restores my view with the first pass of the trolley as we enter Wales at Chepstow (2 hours after joining the train).

I think I have worked out why they named this trains after famous explorers. If you want to travel on them you have to come equipped, like an explorer, with provisions to last for the journey. You do not know when your next refreshments will come so you will need to carry enough to last you.

As we pass Kingsbury Metal Recycling near Tamworth the remains of a Class 87 recently arrived from Long Marston are visible. It does appear it will be joined shortly by other locos from DB Schenker as the clearout continues. Many of the class 60s at Toton will be arriving in the next few weeks I think.

As we head south I watch the arrivals and departures at Newport on the Internet, in the hope the First Great Western is 5 minutes late. If this is the case we get home an hour early. It leaves Newport on time a few minutes before we arrive. We leave the station at Newport in order to find something to eat. The new western footbridge has just opened and looks just about finished. It is a little rough round the edges but I am sure it will be nice once finished. A week before the Ryder Cup is due to take place.

The only place we can find open in Newport is McDonalds. Looks like to are going to have a McSnack or nothing. We purchase our food and head back to the station. A Cross Country Class 170 arrives heading to Cardiff so we join as it is easier to eat sat down on the train than sat on a bench at the station.

As we arrive in Cardiff the First Great Western we had missed at Newport is just leaving heading west it had been delayed in Cardiff for some reason. This is most annoying as if we had arrived a couple of minutes earlier we would have been able to arrive home 40 minutes earlier.

A walk around Cardiff to kill time and the train comes to take us home for an on time arrival.

This has been a very enjoyable weekend seeing old friends, lots of different Class 37s and visiting new places. Number one son has also thoroughly enjoyed himself and looking forward to more tractor action on 06 November.

Traction Log:

Saturday 25/09/2010
Neath - Paddington	43172+43033
Liverpool St - Norwich	90003
Norwich - Wymondham	170207
Wymondham Abbey - Thuxton	37906
Thuxton - Wynondham (MNR) NR Limit	37037
Wymondham (MNR) NR Limit - Thuxton	37109
Thuxton - Wynondham Abbey	37037
Wymondham Abbey - Dereham	37109
Dereham - Wymindham Abbey	37601+37423
Wymondham Abbey - Thuxton	97301+37360(37003)
Thuxton - Wynondham Abbey	37037+37029
Wymondham Abbey - Thuxton	37275
Thuxton - Wynondham Abbey	37518+37219
Sunday 26/09/2010
Wymondham - Ely	170202
Ely - Peterborough	170203
Peterborough - Oakham - Loughborough - Nottingham	158780
Station St - Phoenix Park - Station St	204
Nottingham - Beeston - Toton - Chesterfield	158848
Chesterfield - Birmingham N St - Gloucester - Newport	221128
Newport - Cardiff Ctl	170109
Cardiff Ctl - Neath	43179+43143