For the second day the main plan was to complete the Bradford Foster Square & Ilkley lines and a circular trip to Carlisle.
We arrived at the station at about 0830. We'd already established the gates don't like our tickets already so we had to be waved through. We had a quick look round to see what was there. A 158 and 144 for myself and then it was off to find our first train. This was a big fish! My last 153 for sight was attached to a 158 heading to Carlisle. We caught it as far as Bingley The Carlisle leg would be a lot later. We then caught a 333 to Bradford Forster Square. My first 333 for haulage and I quite like them. We got to Bradford and annoyingly I noticed it would form the service to Ilkey. Another train was due to leave before it though so we caught that to Frizinghall before jumping back into the train to Ilkley. At least another winning unit would be caught. On the way to Ilkley I spotted 333001 at Shipley. One more required for sight now!
At Ilkley we had a little time. So we headed to the new Wetherspoons for a drink. Ilkley is a nice little place an no doubt will return again one day with my wife. She'd love it!
Back to the trains and we headed back to Leeds. Once we were back it meant all the curves and lines to and from Bradford and Ilkley were done.
The next train was to Selby. We needed to be back in Leeds for the 1249 to Carlisle and this would work out well. Also a trip to Selby was handy as we would be back later in the week where a tight connection was going to be made and knowing the footbridge location etc would be handy.
Two winning trains were caught to Selby and back. There was enough time to grab lunch and then onto the train. No table seats! My dad hadn't done Settle - Carlisle before so a table seat would have been better! Never mind!
En route a saw my final 333 for sight at Skipton! Brilliant! And loads of people got off and we moved to a table seat! We also weren't paying attention and missed a DB liveried 66 in a loop. Doh!
The journey was mostly as you'd expect from then on, except it got so foggy by the time we got to Ribblehead you couldn't see anything! It was a pity because the views are stunning. It cleared up as we got nearer to Carlisle and good job as I was able to spot 66850 heading south.
At Carlisle we had about an hour to kill. We photted the 86 and 87 by the station and then in rolled a DB liveried 66! It followed us all the way from Skipton.
It was soon time to head over to Newcastle. I'd not done this line, in fact I've not got off at Newcastle before. The line is nice enough but was starting to get dark.
At Newcastle we had just about enough time to see what the Thunderbird was. It was then onto Sunderland and what a weird station! I did not expect that at all! I don't know why, but I expected a grand station, not a long box underground! Mind you HSTs must sound great accelerating out of there! I did like the lights in the wall though and how they went on and off to give the impression of a shadow of a person behind the wall! Clever!
We had dinner in the nearest Wetherspoons before starting the trek home. It was dark but I could just make out the views. Need to do this line to Middlesbrough from Sunderland again in the daylight. Mind you it was probably the bumpiest train ride I have ever been on! How that Nodding Donkey continued to nod is beyond me! I thought it was going to be thrown off the track!
We didn't go all the way to Middlesbrough. We stopped at Thornaby and then it was the TPE to Leeds. The last bit of excitement was the diversion! On the way I noticed we started getting late. We went really slow and then we spotted the outlines of class 66s on our right hand side. I said to my dad we must have been diverted because I'm sure that was Midland Road. It was all confirmed when we arrived into Leeds in the wrong direction to normal. Bonus! The slow bit would have been the freight line that looped us round to Castleford. We got in 15 minutes late but I didn't care.
A great day and 388 slow miles completed.
No comments:
Post a Comment