A quick getaway- 17-18 September
I got that yearning for rail travel and I felt a night away was needed, so I booked this quick trip.
0731 Meadowhall-Sheffield. Northern 150.
This train was pretty busy by recent standards and I was left to stand for the short journey into Sheffield.
I had planned to do a bit of work on my laptop while waiting for my next train, but all the lounges at Sheffield were closed, so ended up sat on a bench watching trains for quite some time instead, in the ever-chilly station.
0956 Sheffield-Exeter St Davids XC HST.
It was a stunning day for such a journey, and by midday it was fairly warm too. XC HST's are of course excellent and the journey passed quickly. Everyone was spread out and there was plenty of room due to XC's window seat only policy. Even Birmingham managed to look nice in the sun and there were great views of what I assume are the Malverns.
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There was quite a lot going on at Exeter, including HST Castle sets and Pacer action, both of which now hold significant novelty value for me.
1412 Exeter-St Erth. GWR 802 2x5 car sets.
On my arrival at Exeter this train was showing as on time. Then it was announced that it would be late due to being late from the depot, this seemed fish as RTT had shown it departed on time and remained so until around the Taunton area. The service arrived around 15mins late and onboard it was announced that it was delayed due to a bridge strike. I managed to get a seat in the quiet coach. I actually don't think these are bad units to be honest. Yes, I would rather have a HST but these seem fine to me. It was a great day for the run along the Exe estuary and through Dawlish. Here I could see 3 cruise ships, and on closer inspection one turned out to be the Queen Mary 2. I don't believe I've seen a true ocean liner before so that was cool. The 2 sets divided at Plymouth with just 5 cars continuing over the Tamar, although this was adequate capacity on this occasion. As always I enjoyed the views of the Plymouth dockyard and from the bridges around there, the warships are cool. As usual, entering Cornwall was like entering another railway world, with Semaphore's and quaint country branch lines everywhere. I enjoyed a couple of beers on this stretch that I'd brought with me. It was however, a slightly tense trip as the train was very close to being more than 15mins late but many stations looked to have generous dwells, luckily we arrived at St Erth 16mins late gaining me some delay repay on what was a fairly expensive ticket.
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St Erth- St Ives. 2 GWR class 150.
This line would be new coverage for me. It was a well loaded train on such a glorious day and it's a stunning little route.
This was my first visit to St Ives and I was sort of scouting it out for a future trip. It's a nice little place but very touristy, the beach however was amazing. I then partook in some fish and chips, using my anti-seagull defence measures that I learnt at Kingswear. It must be said that Cornish seagulls are pretty lame compared to their wily Devon neighbours. I sat and read the latest James Holland WWII book overlooking the beach on a warm evening, listening to the sound of the sea for a couple of hours before it was time to head off, which was absolute bliss.
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St-Ives-St Erth. As above.
At St Erth, all the facilities had closed so I again took up a bench while I waited for the Night Riviera. It was nice watching the trains come and go, with the added clanging of the Semaphore's.
2155 St Erth-London Paddington. GWR Class 57.
Smart-looking winner
57603 in GWR Green was an impressive sight and sound drawing into the platform; the class 57's certainly know how to make a racket. This was my first time on board since the refurbishment, it was very nicely done. There were many Covid measures in place and it was quite a regimented guest experience, a little too so in my opinion, I felt like I was being checked into a custody suite rather than a sleeper train. The lounge car was out of use, which was understandable, it did look like a marked improvement on the previous incarnation. I did take a sneaky trip to a droplight to have a listen to the 57 pulling away from a station (with only the tiniest gap in the window to listen through) then after that I turned out the lights in my berth, opened the blind and sat and watched rural Cornwall drift by under the stars. When I eventually went to bed, I slept well. The train took the route via Taunton, Bristol Temple Meads, Chippenham and Swindon with an on time arrival at London Paddington. After disembarking I visited the showers on P12 and made my way over to Marylebone on the tube.
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From Marylebone I took the Chiltern Line to Moor Street, where I walked to new Street. I like to travel the Chiltern Mainline every now and again, it just has a different feel to it and the trains are so civilised for taerted-up commuter trains. Sadly I must have got the diagrams wrong so wasn't on a 68 set, but oh well.
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From New Street I travelled to Stoke on a very grubby LNWR 350, before getting an EMR 156 to Derby and a 222 from there to Sheffield. Birmingham-Stoke via Wolverhampton and Stoke-Derby were new daylight coverage. What a dire line Birmingham-Wolverhampton is. Stoke-Derby was much nicer however. The EMR 222 was the first I've travelled on in the new livery.
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Overall it was nice to get back to normality and hit the rails hard, I also got some new line, a new loco and had enjoyable sunny travels.
