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Back in the late 1980s the wife and I travelled down from Edinburgh and due to engineering works we were diverted. At the time I was not ticking off lines as such. We left Newcastle then over Pewlaw Jn and travelled to Darlington via what I kow know to be the Leamside Line. Stupidly I drew in on my atlas the Sunderlnd line! DOH!
So when the oppotunity came up to travel from London to Newcastle via the Sunderland line and tick it off for real I decided to do it.
Awake at Stupid O'Clock and walk to East Croydon. My frst trin was
9R02 East Croydon to St. Pancras International 700037 non winner [13m 40ch].
At St Pancras International I followed age old tradition of a sausage and bacon roll from Greggs. Over the road and into Kings Cross. A quick look on Trksy revealed my train on Platform 1.
1S07 Kings ross to Newcastle 800108, 800203 203 a winner. [278m 59ch]
The train went Kings Cross vis the Hertford Loop to Stevenage then the East Coast Main Line (ECML) to Northallerton. It then went over Northallerton East Jn through Yarm to Stockton Cut Jn and up through Hartlepool and Sunderland to Newcastle.
Only 1 minute late in to Newcastle which I thought was impressive.
I am glad I was not travelling to Edinburgh today. Whenever I have caught the 07:00 off of Kings Cross it arrives in to Edinburgh about 11:17. Today that same train was getting there at 12:25!
I left the station pretty quickly and headed straight to Wetherspoons (The Mile Castle) and after a decent breakfast and a casual stroll back I was in time to see a couple of the new Ashington lines trains arrive and depart. Now considering this is a Saturday and the middle of the day there did seem to be a decent number of people on the trains. Okay so they were not full and standing but both coaches were about half full.
It was a little strange seeing quite a few 1Zxx headcodes showing up on Traksy. These were the restarting LNER and Cross Country trains to Edinburgh.
Nice surprise: 37607 with a Test Train 3Q14 ACE Edinburgh to Newcastle [Consist: 37607,96606, 99666, 72630, 62384, 9806, 9714.
Now heading back 1E13 Newcastle to Kings Cross (H) 800106 winner [278m 59ch]
Being it was a Saturday there there was a fair few of the younger generation (Now I KNOW I'm old) heading out for a night out.
Being that the train was an ex-Inverness one there were quite a few people on it. I managed to find a seat by a window but not at a table sadly but the seat back table was enough to open my phone and my Bluetooth folding keyboard. In fact I managed to start this report on the train coming back.
The journey was good and the train arrived back in the Kings Cross SIX minutes early!
A quick walk over to St Pancras and luckily there were some minor delays that worked in my favour.
9S45 St Pancras International to East Croydon 700153 non winner [13m 40ch].
At East Croydon I had plenty of time to wait for my train back to Selhurst.
2J50 East Croydon to Selhurst 377306, 377310 non winners [0m 77ch].
Whilst sitting on the train awaiting departure I heard a familiar rumble of a diesel loco and through came
3Y90 1435 Tonbridge West Yard Gbrf to Purley Down Siding formed of 69011, 69007.
Which was a nice end to the day.