Day 151: Thursday 11/08/2022 - Lincolnshire Day Ranger - £21.80 - Valid after 9.00am Weekdays. Habrough to Cleethorpes - £4.40 - Anytime Return. Cleethorpes to Grimsby Town - £1.25 - Anytime Return. Habrough to Thornton Abbey - £2.15 - Off-peak Return. Habrough to New Holland - £3.60 - Off-peak Return. CP Habrough free.
Total time today 525 mins - Time on trains 231 mins and time waiting 294 mins. Stations completed today 7. Total completed 900.
Well, it seems i don't follow my own advice on planning and i was the proud owner of a Lincolnshire Day Ranger before realising it did not cover the section up to Barton. In my own mind i was sure there used to be a Rangerr type ticket that did cover this, but maybe not... Anyway extra tickets then had to be purchased, but i don't think i have paid massively over the odds after having a quick check.
Habrough was the obvious choice for my base given that pretty much everything stops there and its free. Google maps suggested it should take far longer to get there than it actually did and i had time on my hands before my first trip of the day which was all the way into Cleethorpes. Lots of atmospheric mist on flat ground on the drive up by the way and it was absolutely glorious everywhere by arrival time. This is a strange line to my eyes - Lots of rural wonderfulness interspersed with decaying and run down industrial infrastructure and then there is the oddity which is Cleethorpes at the end where it becomes a seaside resort. Not much open upon arrival there although one cafe was open on the front and doing a roaring trade with early punters including the train staff. I decided on the breakfast of champions - which is an ice cream and what they call round here a bacon bun. Ice cream because it was already hot and its the seaside, so its obligatory.
The kicker however was a TP set sitting in our booked P2 berth and not P1 as i was expecting. I wanted to knock out Cleethorpes early on as i anticipated full trains later on carrying the masses to the seaside. I left on P2 however after consulting the boards and RTT as it looked like platform roulette was fully engaged. I decided to fit in a Grimsby and back to see if i would get lucky, so an extra ticket was sourced for this which at £1.55 wasn't going to put a crimp in my wallet. No time issues at Grimsby although i need the return to be somewhat on time to allow my itinerary to be followed. Hurrah, P3 came up on the roulette wheel and i could relax somewhat as it was only a few late. A brisk walk round to P1 for another TP service and i was off back up the line to my starting venue of Habrough. Curiously the village seemed to have just one shop - which was a gun shop!
No time to dwell on this as i had to scoot off the train smartish and leg it across the level crossing as there was only 4 minutes till the return and with it being CCTV controlled we all know how long before these things can be activated. Well, i was across with about 10 seconds to spare and the only pinch point of the day was safely negotiated. Hello Cleethorpes for the third time today and an opportunity to increae my ice cream count - an opportunity that was definitely taken given i had time to spare and take in the sights. Skegness it is not and i found it to be one of the smaller seaside resorts - or is there a hidden side i didn't find. Grimsby Town was next (again) and whilst it was only a short wait for a train continuing west from the bay P3, i did have time to idly ponder whether the football team (Grimsby Town) was named after the station (Grimsby Town) or was it the other way round.
Barnetby was my next choice and the only deviation today off the Barton to Cleethorpes section. Plenty of action on P2 and P3 here so no issues with that but the other 2 which are the outside platforms of P1 and P4, really do not see much passenger action at all. Currently only one service is booked on P4 and that very late in the evening and nothing on P1. I am sure i have seen both in use on a covid timetable so am unsure whether to wait to see if this changes again - or use up precious time on a late night adventure. Parked for now. Barnetby was the one place today i found for semi decent provisions. A new Co-op quite near to the station is being fitted out currently and the bonus in the village was a sandwich shop which did me a bespoke tuna salad sandwich - lovely and so much better than a supermarket offering.
One final visit to Grimsby Town before deciding to take the plunge and go one stop to the wonderfully named Grimsby Docks. It was certainly fishy and nearby units were festooned with gulls of all types no doubt attracted by the smell. How long do i have to wait here? Not long thankfully and at last i bring my first branch line ticket into play as i will be alighting at Thornton Abbey. By this time the heat was at scorchio levels and i abandoned plans to go look at the ruins of the Abbey. Perhaps i should have gone because there was no seating in the shelter and i didn't want to be broiled on the admittedly very smart seating provided on the open platforms.
Stallingborough was next to get my attention after the obligatory wait, with the bonus being a recessed shelter and semi decent seating. My book was therefore brought into play given the 46 minute wait and a chance to relax. Its a pretty small rural affair is Stallingborough and i certainly wasn't plagued by other punters whilst i was there. A perfect station then.
Last new station of the day would be New Holland, which sits adjacent to the dock area and HGV's were a continuous sight over the CCTV level crossing just beyond the single platform. Next stop up the line is Barrow Haven which sounds very idyllic and somewhat surprisingly given its "nowhere" location, is benefiting from a rather signicifant upgrade to its platform. For this reason i will not be returning to the line till its back in service, which RTT suggests may be mid to late September. I didn't find any of the services apart from my first to be starved of custom and a 2 car set is about right on this line. Not sure if it experiences much more at peak times however.
7 new stations in the bag which makes a very tidy number of 900 in total completed. Another 130 or so by the end of the year should see me still bang on schedule for the 5 years but i do have some hard thinking to do as to how i define my "all track" goal. Do i include all relief lines between 2 points for example. There are also some amazing targets coming up in the Toton area next month which involve multiple reversals and any number of oddball bits of track - but are these part of my current goals as none of this is part of a normal timetable? If so i don't think a 5 year timetable is going to hack it. Food for thought certainly, but no need to rush a decision.
I will be off the rails for the next few days as real life trumps this project and with more strikes the back end of next week i only have a window on Monday and/or Wednesday until 21 August to contine in the short term. Perhaps as well in this heat..
Habrough | Depart | 7.34 | ***** | EM | | | stations | platforms |
Cleethorpes | Arrive | 8.02 | P1 | EM | wait 23m | | completed | completed |
Cleethorpes | Depart | 8.25 | P2 | TP | | | | |
Grimsby Town | Arrive | 8.34 | P2 | TP | wait 11m | | | |
Grimsby Town | Depart | 8.45 | P1 | TP | | | | |
Cleethorpes | Arrive | 8.52 | P3 | TP | wait 4m | | 1 | 3 |
Cleethorpes | Depart | 8.56 | P1 | EM | | | | |
Habrough | Arrive | 9.24 | P1 | EM | wait 6m | | | |
Habrough | Depart | 9.30 | P2 | TP | | | 1 | 2 |
Cleethorpes | Arrive | 9.49 | P1 | TP | wait 42m | | | |
Cleethorpes | Depart | 10.31 | P1 | TP | | | | |
Grimsby Town | Arrive | 10.37 | P2 | TP | wait 9m | | | |
Grimsby Town | Depart | 10.46 | P3 | EM | | | 1 | 3 |
Barnetby | Arrive | 11.08 | P3 | EM | wait 61m | | | |
Barnetby | Depart | 12.09 | P2 | EM | | | | |
Grimsby Town | Arrive | 12.29 | P3 | EM | wait 11m | | | |
Grimsby Town | Depart | 12.40 | P1 | EM | | | | |
Grimsby Docks | Arrive | 12.43 | Single | EM | wait 19m | | | |
Grimsby Docks | Depart | 13.02 | Single | EM | | | 1 | 1 |
Thornton Abbey | Arrive | 13.32 | P1 | EM | wait 39m | | | |
Thornton Abbey | Depart | 14.11 | P2 | EM | | | 1 | 2 |
Stallingborough | Arrive | 14.30 | P1 | EM | wait 46m | | | |
Stallingborough | Depart | 15.16 | P2 | EM | | | 1 | 2 |
New Holland | Arrive | 15.39 | Single | EM | wait 23m | | | |
New Holland | Depart | 16.02 | Single | EM | | | 1 | 1 |
Habrough | Arrive | 16.19 | ***** | EM | | | | |