I've been wanting to do this for some time and finally a suitable opportunity turned up for July 9.
A little bit of background: direct trains between Scarborough and London have existed in various guises down the years, mostly on summer Saturdays, memorably for many as the named 'Scarborough Flyer'. In the diesel era, direct services came and went on Saturdays at lots of different times, always as far as I recall to King's Cross. These even saw some Deltic-hauled trains at Scarborough in their twilight years.
Now the 17.03 Scarborough to London St Pancras is the very last survivor of what was once so commonplace - summer Saturday specials to and from Scarborough.
It's a curious service. Operated by East Midlands Trains with a class 222 Meridian, running from May 21 to September 10, there is an outbound service from St Pancras at 06.37, arriving Scarborough at 11.08, where it then sits in platform 2 until returning. Outside the summer months, the train terminates at York and is stabled in the sidings outside the station all day. I believe its existence owes something to a franchise requirement?
I've bagged an absolute bargain at £33 first class, booked many weeks ahead, but very cheap fares are available up to the day before. However, as I discover, it doesn't seem to stimulate popularity.
Naturally I'm there in good time, especially as I've been allocated seat 1 in coach G, and I do not want this! It is a seat with no view. They open up the train in very good time at around 16.30, but I needn't have worried. Coach D is completely unbooked and I bag an excellent individual seat, 5, in coach D. The individual seat behind it is entirely windowless.
It's a really fine, comfortable seat, great view, individual, facing direction of travel. Modern-day train travel doesn't get much better. My only quibble is that the overhead rack is so narrow. It doesn't matter at all today, but no wonder these trains are subject to major luggage struggles when busy.
Take up of the service at Scarborough seems sparse. We're off bang on 17.03 and it's a most pleasurable feeling to depart this way. On the way out I look up at Westwood wall, where once spotters gathered on summer Saturdays, but no, no-one, no interest.
It's most fine to hurry through Seamer and Malton non-stop. I think about how once class 40s hammered up and down the Seamer-Malton stretch - days that as a child you just thought would never end.
At a road bridge some way out of York, there is a curious piece of graffiti that has been there for years, in big white letters: "47 424 RIP".
I realised during the day that it is the dreaded July York races. Please, please, please, don't let any racing yobs board at York and ruin this experience. Thankfully they don't, though there's a few milling around the station.
We leave York 2 down but I'm not too concerned as there's a fair bit of dwell in the timetable at Doncaster and Sheffield. Between York and Doncaster the 222 is finally able to open up. It's a good, smooth ride.
Sure enough, at Doncaster we make up the time. It's not until Sheffield that the train becomes anything even approaching busy, and in first it's still very calm. Sheffield is also where, finally, the buffet bar opens. My 1st complementary is a cup of tea, two packets of biscuits and oddly, a packet a strawberry popcorn. Not spectacular, but to be honest it meets my needs.
Somewhere between Chesterfield and Derby, as we fly though a small station, no idea which one, I see a grey brake van standing alone, once nothing of note, but unusual these days.
Derby has long been an enthusiasts' mecca, home down the years to many curious forms of traction. At the station approach, 47 812, in blue, stands alone, really giving an echo of past times.
Sheffield-Leicester seems to be the only well-patronised stretch for this service; on the home run into London first has thinned right out. We are 2 down from Leicester. I'm never surprised by these occurences. So many stops are scheduled to be just 90 seconds; it takes so little to get a slight delay.
Thankfully we don't lose any more, and pull into St Pancras just about dead on 21.03.
It's been a totally relaxing, easy, comfortable, cheap and very, very calm way to get from Scarborough to London - something we can't always say about today's rail services, given their popularity.
I thank the driver for a good trip, for which he seems genuinely appreciative and head off to my final destination just wishing there were more of these kinds of opportunities.
A little bit of background: direct trains between Scarborough and London have existed in various guises down the years, mostly on summer Saturdays, memorably for many as the named 'Scarborough Flyer'. In the diesel era, direct services came and went on Saturdays at lots of different times, always as far as I recall to King's Cross. These even saw some Deltic-hauled trains at Scarborough in their twilight years.
Now the 17.03 Scarborough to London St Pancras is the very last survivor of what was once so commonplace - summer Saturday specials to and from Scarborough.
It's a curious service. Operated by East Midlands Trains with a class 222 Meridian, running from May 21 to September 10, there is an outbound service from St Pancras at 06.37, arriving Scarborough at 11.08, where it then sits in platform 2 until returning. Outside the summer months, the train terminates at York and is stabled in the sidings outside the station all day. I believe its existence owes something to a franchise requirement?
I've bagged an absolute bargain at £33 first class, booked many weeks ahead, but very cheap fares are available up to the day before. However, as I discover, it doesn't seem to stimulate popularity.
Naturally I'm there in good time, especially as I've been allocated seat 1 in coach G, and I do not want this! It is a seat with no view. They open up the train in very good time at around 16.30, but I needn't have worried. Coach D is completely unbooked and I bag an excellent individual seat, 5, in coach D. The individual seat behind it is entirely windowless.
It's a really fine, comfortable seat, great view, individual, facing direction of travel. Modern-day train travel doesn't get much better. My only quibble is that the overhead rack is so narrow. It doesn't matter at all today, but no wonder these trains are subject to major luggage struggles when busy.
Take up of the service at Scarborough seems sparse. We're off bang on 17.03 and it's a most pleasurable feeling to depart this way. On the way out I look up at Westwood wall, where once spotters gathered on summer Saturdays, but no, no-one, no interest.
It's most fine to hurry through Seamer and Malton non-stop. I think about how once class 40s hammered up and down the Seamer-Malton stretch - days that as a child you just thought would never end.
At a road bridge some way out of York, there is a curious piece of graffiti that has been there for years, in big white letters: "47 424 RIP".
I realised during the day that it is the dreaded July York races. Please, please, please, don't let any racing yobs board at York and ruin this experience. Thankfully they don't, though there's a few milling around the station.
We leave York 2 down but I'm not too concerned as there's a fair bit of dwell in the timetable at Doncaster and Sheffield. Between York and Doncaster the 222 is finally able to open up. It's a good, smooth ride.
Sure enough, at Doncaster we make up the time. It's not until Sheffield that the train becomes anything even approaching busy, and in first it's still very calm. Sheffield is also where, finally, the buffet bar opens. My 1st complementary is a cup of tea, two packets of biscuits and oddly, a packet a strawberry popcorn. Not spectacular, but to be honest it meets my needs.
Somewhere between Chesterfield and Derby, as we fly though a small station, no idea which one, I see a grey brake van standing alone, once nothing of note, but unusual these days.
Derby has long been an enthusiasts' mecca, home down the years to many curious forms of traction. At the station approach, 47 812, in blue, stands alone, really giving an echo of past times.
Sheffield-Leicester seems to be the only well-patronised stretch for this service; on the home run into London first has thinned right out. We are 2 down from Leicester. I'm never surprised by these occurences. So many stops are scheduled to be just 90 seconds; it takes so little to get a slight delay.
Thankfully we don't lose any more, and pull into St Pancras just about dead on 21.03.
It's been a totally relaxing, easy, comfortable, cheap and very, very calm way to get from Scarborough to London - something we can't always say about today's rail services, given their popularity.
I thank the driver for a good trip, for which he seems genuinely appreciative and head off to my final destination just wishing there were more of these kinds of opportunities.
