A day where I actually took not one, or two, but SIX trains, each for a meaningful distance. Two were parly services but all were varied and fun so let's begin with a summary:
Drove Wigan to Manchester Piccadilly then...
1220 MAN - Sheffield
1330 SHF - Sherburn-in-Elmet
25 minute walk
1515 South Milford - Selby
1558 Selby - Hull
1659 Hull - Goole
1849 Goole - Leeds
2012 Leeds - MAN
Tickets: 16-25 discounted MAN-HULL off-peak return
16-25 discounted Meadowhall - Sherburn-in-Elmet anytime day single
I had been aiming to just do the Goole line but when I was googling Goole (say that repeatedly quickly!) I noticed that I could include the main bit of the Sheffield-York twice daily parly on my way to Hull.
There were no delays or incidents but I couldn't help but feel that the section from Sheffield to Swinton via Rotherham and the Goole line all the way to just north of Castleford is bloody slow!!!
My first highlight was watching the passenger count almost deplete after Moorthorpe but not completely. There were some foreigners on who must be going to York or beyond for a holiday and one or two extra daytrippers. I recall about 2 getting on AND off at Baghill which I assume is heaving for this station.
The route has been climbing to this point and I now notice we are crossing major east-west routes as well as the large Ferrybridge powerplant and the nearby freight yard full of freight carriages just waiting.
Sherburn-in-Elmet awaits 5 minutes later where the sun pierces the cloud cover just long enough for me to perambulate the town which might have had a festival on going of faint noise and fellow pedestrians and children. google sent me down Pasture Way which cuts off the crossroads in the town centre.
Later, at South Milford, I wait for 10 minutes for my departure as I spot on the distant, opposite train calling in to pick up several who are dressed for a good time somewhere westward.
My train arrives with just me to welcome it. It is fairly loaded and we are decamped promptly in the bay platform at Selby. A scene from the Jeremy Kyle show plays out in the time it takes for my connecting service to arrive from Dewsbury, according to the interactive screen which must take readings from ATOC or something to know where the train has just passed.
I baulk at Selby station vending machine's offer of £1.70 and find the same bottle of Coke for £1.20 from the kiosk at the bowling green just outside. The shopkeeper contemplates the rain ruining his takings.
My train hits Wressle when a First Hull Train, class 180, I believe, comes streming through. I have never seen one of these in action before. I like what I see.
In Hull, a security guard directs me to M&S with instructions that baffle me when I see a sprawl of construction work on pedestrian streets outside the station that inhibit my view of the shop signs on the horizon. I decide I'd rather be at Goole early than be in Goole late and miss the main point of the day. I swiftly return to the fascinating roofscape that is the Paragon station.
I arrive at Goole mistakenly confident that I could use 1 hour and 10 minutes to go to the nearby McDonald's or Burger King. When I disembarked, it was very clear that my choices for refreshment were either the vending machine, the strewn bread slices all over platform 1 or whatever was available in Asda. I took the latter option which meant I had to brace the ceaseless rain. It further hammered down for the full hour, providing refuge in the station and a meeting point for the town's youth who must have thought I was nuts for being here an hour!!
At last the Goole service approaches with no-one getting off either of the three carriages. Ten minutes later, it shuffles across into position by using the crossover beyond the station and me and one other person join. I sit in the front carriage where I am joined by the conductor, driver and a trainee driver who is being detailed on the particulars of the Goole line. They finish their discussion with 3 minutes left for the service to depart.
I remain on the train to Leeds and keep a count of who uses the smaller stations to Knottingly:
Rawcliffe: 0
Snaith: 1 (but the local youth make full use of the shelter)
Hensall: -1 (the person who got on at Snaith)
Whitley Bridge: 0
The woman who started at Goole with me departs at Pontefract. I continue to suffer low line speeds but enjoy a rare swapping of ends at Castleford and then the pace picks up somewhat to Leeds which is heaving with revellers for the evening. I speed-walk as best I can from P17 to the matrix at P16 only to just need to stand right there for my last train home to Manchester Piccadilly on another rammed TPE service.
Throughout the journey my phone was dying and from beginning the day at 49%, it did well to die out just as we approached Ardwick. A pity the train didn't stop there as my car was parked on Blind Lane underneath with the phone charger.
I arrive home for 10pm, buzzing from the fact that I had 2 parlys under my belt for £40!
Drove Wigan to Manchester Piccadilly then...
1220 MAN - Sheffield
1330 SHF - Sherburn-in-Elmet
25 minute walk
1515 South Milford - Selby
1558 Selby - Hull
1659 Hull - Goole
1849 Goole - Leeds
2012 Leeds - MAN
Tickets: 16-25 discounted MAN-HULL off-peak return
16-25 discounted Meadowhall - Sherburn-in-Elmet anytime day single
I had been aiming to just do the Goole line but when I was googling Goole (say that repeatedly quickly!) I noticed that I could include the main bit of the Sheffield-York twice daily parly on my way to Hull.
There were no delays or incidents but I couldn't help but feel that the section from Sheffield to Swinton via Rotherham and the Goole line all the way to just north of Castleford is bloody slow!!!
My first highlight was watching the passenger count almost deplete after Moorthorpe but not completely. There were some foreigners on who must be going to York or beyond for a holiday and one or two extra daytrippers. I recall about 2 getting on AND off at Baghill which I assume is heaving for this station.
The route has been climbing to this point and I now notice we are crossing major east-west routes as well as the large Ferrybridge powerplant and the nearby freight yard full of freight carriages just waiting.
Sherburn-in-Elmet awaits 5 minutes later where the sun pierces the cloud cover just long enough for me to perambulate the town which might have had a festival on going of faint noise and fellow pedestrians and children. google sent me down Pasture Way which cuts off the crossroads in the town centre.
Later, at South Milford, I wait for 10 minutes for my departure as I spot on the distant, opposite train calling in to pick up several who are dressed for a good time somewhere westward.
My train arrives with just me to welcome it. It is fairly loaded and we are decamped promptly in the bay platform at Selby. A scene from the Jeremy Kyle show plays out in the time it takes for my connecting service to arrive from Dewsbury, according to the interactive screen which must take readings from ATOC or something to know where the train has just passed.
I baulk at Selby station vending machine's offer of £1.70 and find the same bottle of Coke for £1.20 from the kiosk at the bowling green just outside. The shopkeeper contemplates the rain ruining his takings.
My train hits Wressle when a First Hull Train, class 180, I believe, comes streming through. I have never seen one of these in action before. I like what I see.
In Hull, a security guard directs me to M&S with instructions that baffle me when I see a sprawl of construction work on pedestrian streets outside the station that inhibit my view of the shop signs on the horizon. I decide I'd rather be at Goole early than be in Goole late and miss the main point of the day. I swiftly return to the fascinating roofscape that is the Paragon station.
I arrive at Goole mistakenly confident that I could use 1 hour and 10 minutes to go to the nearby McDonald's or Burger King. When I disembarked, it was very clear that my choices for refreshment were either the vending machine, the strewn bread slices all over platform 1 or whatever was available in Asda. I took the latter option which meant I had to brace the ceaseless rain. It further hammered down for the full hour, providing refuge in the station and a meeting point for the town's youth who must have thought I was nuts for being here an hour!!
At last the Goole service approaches with no-one getting off either of the three carriages. Ten minutes later, it shuffles across into position by using the crossover beyond the station and me and one other person join. I sit in the front carriage where I am joined by the conductor, driver and a trainee driver who is being detailed on the particulars of the Goole line. They finish their discussion with 3 minutes left for the service to depart.
I remain on the train to Leeds and keep a count of who uses the smaller stations to Knottingly:
Rawcliffe: 0
Snaith: 1 (but the local youth make full use of the shelter)
Hensall: -1 (the person who got on at Snaith)
Whitley Bridge: 0
The woman who started at Goole with me departs at Pontefract. I continue to suffer low line speeds but enjoy a rare swapping of ends at Castleford and then the pace picks up somewhat to Leeds which is heaving with revellers for the evening. I speed-walk as best I can from P17 to the matrix at P16 only to just need to stand right there for my last train home to Manchester Piccadilly on another rammed TPE service.
Throughout the journey my phone was dying and from beginning the day at 49%, it did well to die out just as we approached Ardwick. A pity the train didn't stop there as my car was parked on Blind Lane underneath with the phone charger.
I arrive home for 10pm, buzzing from the fact that I had 2 parlys under my belt for £40!
