22nd June 2002

Past Time Rail
The Spinnin' State III

Route:
1Z92 : Finsbury Park to York
1Z56 : York to Finsbury Park

Notes:
(1) no barrier loco used (first time for a 92 hauling a railtour?)
(2) Route confirmation required.

Source : Scott Spencer

Tour Review
(by David Clark)

This was Past-Times 3rd Spinning tour, and was to take us from Finsbury Park to York with a FP Deltic, sorry no class 92, 67 and returning back to Finsbury Park via Sheffield, Retford and the ECML.

The 0850 departure from Finsbury Park meant doing either the 0623 / 0535 from Doncaster.  So come Friday, arrangements are in place to pick up a friend at Scunthorpe at 0430.  Wooops.  Well we did wait till 0445 for the errant person to arrive.  But no he didn't.

Eurostars GNER Stars 5 / 6 were taken down to Retford where the noise in the coach increased a few decibels as the Retford contingent arrived.  At Peterborough the train slowed down on to the Up Slow due to the freight train derailment there the previous night.  If we thought this was bad, nothing could have been worse outside Kings Cross where we awaited a platform, and guess what, when we arrived at Kings Cross most of the platforms were free, but the two which Eurostars could pass in to were occupied with trains! (so a ECS had to be taken back to Bounds Green for our train to access the station).  Oh well breakfast was taken at McDonalds before taking a 365530 unit out to Finsbury Park to await the ECS.

The ECS arrived a little late with 92004 at the helm and no barrier loco which was good to see.  This was the first tour without a barrier loco for a 92 (I think) J.  The tour departed Finsbury Park at 0922 and took the slow lines picking up at Potters Bar (SL - FL) and Stevenage. At Woolmer Green JN we went from Fast Lines to Slow Lines, and after Hitchin we swapped back on to the Fast Lines.  We passed Huntingdon at 1000 28 late, and things were looking OK.  However, due to the Freight train derailment Peterborough station saw platforms 1, 2 and 5 in use.  Which meant that lots of trains were delayed due to station congestion.  So, at Fletton Jn we were at the end of a queue of trains to come in from the London Direction.  But we sat on the River Nene bridge and watched a couple of young ladies rowing down the river.  We arrived at Peterborough at 1159 (some 105 minutes late), and departed at 1203 (90 minutes late).  The 92 picked up speed as we departed on the slow lines to Helpston and ascended Stoke Bank quite quickly.  The loco change for the 67 was due to take place in Doncaster station, but due to one reason or another we went in to the RMT and the loco change took place between 1150-1207 for 67018 forward. The journey to York was not exactly quick, and speeds of 50mph were the tops till Hambleton South Jn, where we must have been following something and after that the speeds picked up to around 80mph.  We arrived at York at 1356 for a quick lunch move in to KFC, and a nice walk through the city.

The Grid was 090, which was in nice loadhaul livery.  We heard the loco, and went back to our seats and waited departure time. However, a few GNER trains were seen with many problems (1030 Kings Cross to Aberdeen 2 hours late in to York!).

The Grid departed York at 1503 and the clag coming out was rateable!!!  The route to Sheffield was via Church Fenton, Moorthorpe, Swinton, Aldwarke and Meadowhall.  At Moorthorpe we awaited a Virgin HST, and at Swinton we awaited the 1419 Cleethorpes to Manchester Airport with 158767. We passed through Meadowhall at 1604 and arrived at Sheffield at 1611 (one late). Here, 60013 was waiting on the through road to come on to our train.

The 60 backed on to the train, and we were ready for our departure time of 1630.  The route to Retford was via Kiveton and Worksop.  At Worksop quite a few 66s were seen but no 58s.  The sign of the times I guess? We arrived at Retford at 1706 (2 late) where 66705 was waiting to come on to our train. It looked good with its Golden Jubilee Nameplate and the Union Jack Flag on the side.  Rule Britannia!

My friend had to get back to work, so he took a late running GNER service to Doncaster, for Arriva Trains to Scunthorpe.  Well our tour departed Retford at 1726 ( 2 early) and took a steady journey down to Peterborough where things were slightly better and we arrived at 1826.  The 58 forward was 043, and the loco change took place quite quickly.  And at 1844 we departed for our final leg to Finsbury Park.  Well, we got off at Stevenage.  We were held at Hitchin for a Peterborough to Kings Cross unit to depart, and arrived at Stevenage at 1948 (7 late).  We thought our unit to Peterborough had departed Stevenage earlier, but it turns out the 317 was not our train. And so we stood and watched a 365 depart to Peterborough, and we had to wait a further 30 minutes for 317348 to take us to Peterborough (or the slow road to china).

At Peterborough our train to Doncaster (the 2115) was 30 minutes late, so a decision was to go to the pub.  And sure enough when we got back 91024 was on the train to Doncaster.  However, it staggered out of Peterborough, and we got to Newark at 2226 with just two minutes before my train left from Doncaster!  Hmmm.

We arrived at Doncaster, said farewell to my colleagues and ended up sharing a taxi all the way back to Scunthorpe.  So instead of getting home at 2310, I got home at 2345!!!! Hmmm.  Oh well, full credit for GNER to get me a taxi anyway!

So, a good tour, pity about the problems at Peterborough, but that's just one thing that you have to get used to, and its unfortunate that it happened on a late Friday, and in to Saturday and caused lots of chaos.  But the tour was good, and with a few interesting locos it was a really good day out.

Well done all concerned to make sure it went well.

David Clark (2002)

Timings (Booked & Actual)
(from Roger Elliott & Gordon Lacy)

Timings continue in first table.

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