Now a mate of mine had mentioned before about his day's out on the NorthernRail network for a tenner, so when I noticed that the offer was going to be in the Sunderland Echo, I thought I'll give this a go. Being a tight wad, I got the tokens from the Echo's that we get at work and I registered on the Northern Rail website and got a form to download to get the tickets. The form said to take it & two tokens to any staffed station on the Northern Rail network - sounds simple eh....
Our last trip was the 19.36 East Coast to Durham and this wasn't without its drama as two of the standard class coaches had no electric, so everyone was packed into the remaining coaches which had lights and someone was sat in our seats. Usually I'd turf anyone out, but it was a Mother with a young kid that was almost asleep and sometimes, I do have a heart.
So, off I go to Newcastle to buy my tickets - after all, its a staffed station and its on the Northern Rail network, but lo, I can't buy my tickets at this specific staffed station on the Northern Rail network as the ticket office is staffed by East Coast. The East Coast staff told me that I could only buy the tickets at either Hexham or Sunderland stations. A touch miffed, the following day I head to Sunderland and eventually get my tickets and the lady on the desk was extremely helpful, so credit where credits due.
I'd put a canny bit of effort into planning our day out (Capt Dom came with me) and the aim was to have a run on the Settle & Carlisle and try and travel on some of the electric trains around West Yorkshire. It was almost military precision, with the day finishing with East Coast from York to Durham on the 19.36 departure, with yet another bargain ticket.
Saturday 27th September was the big day for our Grand Day Out with Northern Rail
Our day started with the 07.50 from Chester-le-Street to Newcastle, one of only 2 northbound Northern trains from Chester-le-Street. We got to the station early and was a bit puzzled as the station display said that the train wasn't stopping. Needless to say, pretty soon after we found out why as one of the Chester-le-Track employee's came out to say that the train was cancelled - a great start. The next train was at 08.07, but this was a TransPennine Express train and our tickets wouldn't be valid. As we had some spare time, we had a quick look to see if there was a bus that would get us to Newcastle in time for our 08.24 train to Carlisle. It looked a bit tight to get the bus instead & we decided to give the train a go. I had my story prepared for the TPE conductor that the Northern Rail train had been cancelled, but it wasn't needed as no-one appeared to check tickets on the train. We got to Newcastle at 08.20 and legged it over the bridge for the 08.24 to Carlisle and we just caught it. It was a good job too, as we soon found out that the next train to Carlisle at 09.24 had been cancelled. So, if we had missed the 08.24 then our plans for the day would have gone down the pan as we would miss the S&C train by 1 min at Carlisle.
I did have a moan at Northern Rail on twitter, but the page isn't manned on a weekend - not very customer focussed that one & I've still not had a reply. I also moaned at them on the ticket office issue and they sent me a link to their complaint form and the link didn't work either, so god knows if my complaint is registered or not. As I've heard nowt, presumably it isn't.
We had a canny run to Carlisle on a Pacer and I even managed a bit of a sales pitch for the AD122 bus as a fellow passenger was heading for Hadrian's Wall. Part of our cunning plan was to watch A4 Union of South Africa leave from Carlisle on a charter and thankfully we saw this and Duchess of Sutherland and got some great pictures, so a big plus. We also clocked a couple of Class 92's and a TPE 350, both of which neither of us had seen before.
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Our journey South on the S&C was pretty good on a 158, although the conductor wasn't particularly communicative and just seemed downright miserable. It was great to relive some memories of my past trips on the S&C, largely in the latter days of loco-hauled trains with a few D200 trips being the highlight. The scenery is just as dramatic and it made me wonder on some of the daft train changes I'd done at places like Dent and Garsdale in the past - the back end of beyond and all in the days before mobile phones !
We baled at Skipton and it was another quick under bridge dash to jump on the electric 333 to Bradford. I was quite impressed with these units and they seem just a bit too posh for the Skipton/Ilkley to Leeds/Bradford lines. The conductor was bright and cheery, even though he just joked that we'd already have tickets (which we did) but he didn't actually see them. We got to Bradford a few minutes late and Dom got a bit of videoing in as our train headed back off to Ilkley.
Off we went for a toddle around Bradford - it's a while since I'd been its now bloody horrible, what a dirty city centre with geet big wheely bins plonked everywhere. We'd promised ourselves a KFC and we had that and then headed off again with a bit of Pacer rustlin' on 142020, a former Tyne & Wear veteran, as we headed to Leeds. The plan was to do a bit more electric unit bashing and see what was lurking around. Dominic was taking pictures and video's, until a Network Rail bod turned up and told him he couldn't use a tripod on the station - despite us being out of the way of anyone, its a trip hazard.
We had a quick trip to Wakefield and back - out on a 322 and back on a 321 on the Doncaster stoppers. The journey back was a bit lively as the train was full of people drinking - at 5 to 5 on their way for a night out in Leeds. When we got back to Leeds, we had another wander about, got ripped off for a hugely expensive brew and then headed to York via Harrogate on a pair of 150/2's. I was quite surprised at just how busy the train was and all the way to Harrogate too, part of me was quite pleased. We tried a comedy V sign selfie as the train passed Starbeck, but it didn't really work out well, which was pretty apt. There's some top stretches of jointed track on the section between Harrogate and York, it's proper clickety clack type of stuff. Plus, it's like stepping back in time when you see the signalman handing over the token at some of the stations.
Next stop was York and we arrived about 18.45, just in time to clock a 90 heading south on a charter from Durham, plus we clocked a pair of Grand Central HST's. I'd watched the All Aboard East Coast documentary series on Sky and wondered if the scenes from York Station on a Saturday had been hyped up and my experience was that they hadn't. It was like a human zoo and at 7pm at night too. Our journey home was nearly via TPE to Thornaby and I was so pleased we didn't do it as we'd have been the only sober boarders on the 19.10 departure to the Boro.
Our last trip was the 19.36 East Coast to Durham and this wasn't without its drama as two of the standard class coaches had no electric, so everyone was packed into the remaining coaches which had lights and someone was sat in our seats. Usually I'd turf anyone out, but it was a Mother with a young kid that was almost asleep and sometimes, I do have a heart.
All in all, we head a great day and we both really enjoyed it, but it could have all gone horribly wrong at the start, however it didn't. It's a funny little network is Northern Rail and it needs an awful lot of TLC and a bloody good deep clean with a few new trains - then it might be quite a canny little operator........
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