This Site
Copyright
The wife was meeting the daughter and heading to the Christms market so it was an oppotunity to do a few miles.
Bold = Haulage, Red = Winner, All others are sightings.
It started well enough. Out of the house and into Croydon to catch 9R10 East Croydon to London Bridge 700038 Winner [10m 28ch]. Due to the ASLEF Action Short Of A Strike there were no trains through the core. Still we alighted and went down to the underground and caught a tube to Kings Cross/St Pancras.
The next train to Nottingham would be 1D18 St Pancras International 222002 non winner [128m 09ch]. It was a pretty usual journey up to Nottingham. When I say normal I mean; the WiFi didn't work, the cl.222s are just Faraday Cages on wheels so you cannot get any reception and of course EMR arrived in late. 12 minutes in fact.
Whilst on the platform awaiting my train to go over to Grimsby Town via Market Rasen, the wife messaged me to say our daughter's train was being delayed due to a fatality on the line. That would usually involve me getting on the phone and plotting a new route. Maybe it was a sixth sense but the day before I'd made notes on getting to Skegness. So I found the right platform and caught 2S13 Nottinghm to Skegness 170423 winner [80m 71ch]. The unit reverses at Grantham which I'd forgotten and it uses the the bay platform. On the journey it crosses a lot of flat lands but the outward highlights were five deer stood by the side of the track watching and the various little signal boxes along he line. The unit was a former Southern 171. Purple on the outside and Southern Green on the inside.
Of course a visit to tick off a 'Spoons had to happen. Yep, the Red Lion is a good one. I took a walk aound and realised I would spend time better at the station especially as it began to rain.
Back at the station the platforms had gates across them stopping anyone from straying on to the platforms. I spoke to a staff member and he gave me the ok to walk down to the far end of the platform to get a couple of photos of the signal box and a quick video of the train arriving in to take me back to Nottingham.
This time it was 2S18 Skegness to Nottingham 170419 winner [80m 71ch] and again this one was also 14 minutes late in to Nottingham. Again deer were a highlight as in a field there must have been between 15 to 20 of them just casually taking in the sight of us passing by.
Back over to Victoria then on to 1L62 Victoria to Selhurst 377416, 377133 non winners [9m 31ch]
Apart from EMR not covering themselves in glory with their timekeeping and their ability to provide to information to any of us, it was a pretty good day.