The trains I've been on (part 2)

Hello, and welcome back to part 2 of my review of the trains I've been on. Today I'll talk about another 5 types of train I've been on and give my feedback. Some of these trains were quite a while ago, so I'll do my best to remember!

If you haven't already, check out part 1 of this series of posts, which went live on Wednesday.

So, up first today.... the class 170 turbostar.

This type of train can be found on many routes across the country, but I've used them for various journeys between Nottingham and Birmingham New Street or stations in between the two, such as Derby and Tamworth. The main memory I have of these is how busy they were when I went to Birmingham; whilst the online booking system gave us seat reservations apparently these weren't valid, and I was very lucky to get a seat both ways. The trains were packed full of people, on both a Sunday afternoon and a Monday afternoon, and I had a small suitcase with me as well, which didn't help matters. These trains could really use being doubled up to increase capacity and prevent people from packing all the way down the aisle of the train, as happened on most of my journeys on them.

And next up, the class 185.

This was a few years ago now, when I travelled between Manchester Piccadilly and York with family as part of a holiday in the north of the UK. And when I say a few years ago, I mean 3 years ago, a full 2 years before I even started thinking of doing GirlOnRails. And we booked first class tickets for a Sunday lunchtime, more than anything because between the 3 of us, we had 2 relatively big suitcases (we were away for a week and a half). It was quite nice to be fair, the train wasn't too busy and there was more than enough space to store our belongings on board. The train was right in the middle of the day, with us leaving a hotel in Manchester just before check out at 12 noon, and arriving in York to check in just after 2pm (although I think we got a drink/lunch at York station after arriving) and I had worried that it would be busy, but certainly first class was fine, although there may have been a few people standing in standard. We'd managed to use our railcards to get a discount on the tickets, which made them very affordable.

Next up, is one of my favourite trains in the country, the class 230 D-train, produced by vivarail from old District line D stock, which operates on the Marston Vale line between Bedford and Bletchley. This was one of the first official trips I did after starting GirlOnRails, albeit before the blog started, back in the summer of 2019. I'd just finished my exams for the end of my second year at uni and had a couple of weeks in Nottingham before I went home for the summer, with various events dotted around it such as end of year awards/parties for various activities that I'd been part of during the year.  I decided to make the most of the time I had in Nottingham and got myself a 3 out of 7 days East Midlands ranger ticket. The first day featured a trip down to Bedford (the southernmost limit of the ticket on the Midland Main Line) and across to Bletchley before heading North. I remembered these trains from their days on the tube (just about) and was amazed by the transformation - they were really nice to ride on. I also believe a few D-trains, albeit with a different class number, will be heading over to the Isle of Wight in the next couple of years, and I'm looking forward to heading back over there when they are in service to give them ago. It's a great idea to re-use the bodyshells of trains which have been withdrawn before the end of their lives to make a new unit to continue serving the rails. 

The fourth train for today is, unfortunately, one that I'm not all that fond of - the class 222 Meridians operated by EMR. I've only been on one twice, and the first time was 2 weeks after moving in to uni, when I'd come home for the night after an event in London (leaving home at 6.30am and getting home at 10pm wasn't really my idea of fun). I'd also been quite poorly with the so-called freshers' flu, which in my case turned into a bout of bronchitis which, despite my GP saying I'd likely cleared the infection by the point of this trip, left me with a cough for almost 2 months. I'd barely slept and felt grim and really quite wanted to not go back to uni so wasn't in the best mood seeing as I'd just left my mum behind at St Pancras. The second time was at the end of a university holiday period and I'd got my luggage with me (a medium sized suitcase, laptop case and handbag) We'd plumped for a first class ticket so I could get the free refreshments and more space (we'd established by now how to get a cheap advance first class ticket - middle of the day - and with my railcard we paid less than £20). I was pretty disappointed to discover that there was no luggage rack in my first class carriage (the one with the cab on the end of it) - I had to leave my suitcase in the next carriage's rack and spent most of the journey worrying it would go astray, which it thankfully didn't. The best suggestion of the staff on this service when I queried it was to put my case in the wheelchair space, which of course I didn't. There weren't any valuables in my case but it was still annoying and I hope all new train designers ensure that there are racks, particularly in first class intercity carriages. Since this trip I've stuck to HSTs, although now those are on their way out I'm not sure what I'll do (and if the pandemic means I never get to ride a HST again I'll be very displeased). 

And talking of the HST, that is my final train for today. I love these. That's all there is to say. I'm not a fan of opening the door, particularly not with my hiking rucksack on my back (I'm a guide leader, I use it when I go camping for all of my kit). I did nearly fall out of the train on one occasion whilst trying to open the door, which wouldn't have been a pretty sight. I've been lucky enough to travel in first class both on Virgin East Coast (as it was at the time, now LNER) and on EMT/EMR. The catering is better on the East coast (although there's no beating the franchise now held by Avanti West Coast), but I've loved travelling on the MML. I have used the MML in standard class on a couple of occasions, most recently heading to London in January to watch a theatre show in the West end , and it's just as nice. But when it's around £10 in standard or £18 in first with my railcard, I'm always going to take first. The journey from my accommodation at uni to the station could be very varied in length so I always allowed plenty of time, and therefore use of the lounge at Nottingham was always well appreciated, as was the drink on the train (although I always got a sandwich at the co-op at the station for lunch rather than buying a meal on the train). I'll miss them when they go.

That's all for today, but on Wednesday we will be visiting some units found more locally to home in the South East.

The trains I've been on (Part 1)

I've decided to split this into four parts, for two reasons: 

1. There's been many types of trains

2. Covid is severely limiting how much I can go out, although with the reopening of some leisure facilities from next month, maybe the future is looking a bit brighter.

But today, I'll focus on a selection of those trains I've travelled on, starting with one of my favourites: the class 139 Parry People Mover. Running from Stourbridge Junction to Stourbridge town again, this unit provides a service every 10 minutes in each direction. It's the cutest train I've ever seen. 

There's not that much I can say about this unit to be honest, although I really liked the use of a smaller, more environmentally friendly, unit on a small branch line, such as Stourbridge, where passenger numbers are relatively low.  The frequency of the service is fab for those using it to connect with trains to or from Birmingham, with a service every 10 minutes, dropping to every 15 minutes on a Sunday. I like this train! Unfortunately I don't tend to have a reason for a trip to Stourbridge, but I'll be trying to get back at some point. 

Class 142 Pacer

I love pacers and will be sad to see them go in full, although I'm glad they've had some of their ranks preserved. 

I like the bumpiness, although I can see that that would be annoying on a long journey, I've only ever been on one for less than an hour at a time. There aren't many trains in this country that are unique, but the fact that the pacer is made from a bus body would in my eyes put it in that group. I'll miss them, and am glad I made the trip up to go and see a couple in Sheffield before they go. 

Class 153 Super Sprinter

I've only been on these a couple of times, and I don't have any pictures, but they seemed nice enough. They worked quite well in rural areas, such as in the East Midlands where I travelled on a few, and they were sufficient to cope with demand however on a number of occasions I have seen a couple of cars coupled together. It would be quite nice if we didn't have anywhere in this country which had single car trains running, however given the lower passenger numbers on some rural services I can definitely see the need for them. 

Class 158 Express Sprinter

I've been on one of these, from Manchester to Nottingham in January, and it was actually the last train I travelled on pre-pandemic. They were nice. If I'm honest I was too tired to pay much notice, but similar to a 153 if I remember correctly. They do the job well.

I'm going to leave it here now, to save enough trains to do another post in a few days. 

The first post-COVID trip

It had been too long. It was January 25th when I last boarded a train and travelled on it. 2 hours back from Manchester to Nottingham, a trip which I didn't realise would be my last trip for almost 6 months.

Thankfully, I'd had some decent train action in the couple of weeks immediately before this date - I'd travelled on an EMR HST from London St Pancras to Nottingham to go and sit my university exams, before travelling back to London to see a show and then up to Manchester for a Careers event immediately before that final trip. 

So to say I've missed being on a train is an understatement. But I understand the reasons why I must stay away for now. Unfortunately there's no easy place for me to even go and spot - I'd be looking at around an hour's walk and it would only be class 377's and 700's (Southern and Thameslink). Not that I don't like those trains, I do, but if I'm going to go and stand and spot I'd kind of like a bit more variety. Or more than 8 trains an hour (4 each way). 

But then, the opportunity arose for me to go on a train. 

I had an interview for a job (which I didn't get), which required me to get a train to Croydon and then a tram. It was a key worker role, hence why my journey was definitely essential for the interview. It was possible for me to be dropped at the local station, so I didn't need to get a bus there or anything, but my Mum was definitely not prepared to make the 45 minute journey each way (particularly when I was only meant to be at the job an hour, so she'd have to sit and wait for me) as she is working from home at the moment. So I had to go on the train and tram.

I planned on being at the station 40 minutes before the train I wanted to get, and that itself got me into Croydon just over an hour before the interview, which considering I wouldn't need to wait more than 10 minutes at the most for a tram ride lasting 10 minutes, was plenty. It was even only a 30 minute walk to my destination from the railway station, so I had ample time to get there. I wanted to have time to queue, what with it being the first day of shops opening, in case there were queues to get onto trains and trams to maintain social distancing.

But I walked straight onto a train 25 minutes before I was planning on, arriving in Croydon 90 minutes before my interview. I then walked to the Sainsburys local next to the station to get a drink before getting on the tram. I ended up sitting at the tram stop for almost 40 minutes before walking to my interview. On the way home, I arrived at the tram stop at the same time as the tram and my only hiccup was the slight wait for a train home.

It was the first day where face coverings were mandatory on public transport in England and I was pleased to see that most people were wearing them. There are a limited number of exceptions and therefore I couldn't really challenge the few people I saw who weren't wearing them. And the trains were empty enough that people were easily able to socially distance. And I felt perfectly safe.

So, while it's important that we stay at home as enthusiasts until it's safe to do so (unless of course we have the occasional essential trip in the meantime), I felt perfectly safe travelling on Monday. And, if it's safe for me to travel for the trips I have planned in the autumn (although who knows if the theatres will have reopened), I will be doing so, knowing how to keep myself and others as safe as possible in this strange time.

So What next?

Well... this wasn't how I expected this blog post to turn out....

My "What next" was meant to be what I have planned for later this year, and I will cover a bit of that, later in this post, but life has taken a rather unexpected turn, and no, I don't mean the pandemic.

Well, in a way, I do. I was meant to be going on a few trips around Easter which got cancelled. That only included a couple of new stations given where I was going, but it was activities I was looking forward to a lot.

I'd got a theatre trip in London, followed by a trip to Sheffield and back to Nottingham, followed a few weeks later by a trip from Nottingham to Liverpool (with Manchester to Liverpool giving me some new stations), followed by Liverpool home to Sussex (one new station - Runcorn - if I remember correctly) and then back to Nottingham.  And a trip from Nottingham to London in May, with a return on a late night coach (I'd have missed the last train). 

And then coronavirus hit. And I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life.  

I applied for a few jobs, and nothing really went anywhere.

And then, a few days ago, I got an interview, for a job which requires a train journey to get to. The interview is not over video call, so I have to go on a train for my interview. 

Anyway, what else have I got planned? Of course, all of this is pandemic dependent, particularly in terms of whether the theatres reopen.

Well, in October, I've got a trip to Nottingham, because a theatre trip I had booked for a touring production has been rescheduled from March. But I'm going via Reading (to do Crossrail's eastern edge), and central London for theatre shows on the Friday and Saturday. Then, on Sunday, I'm going to do London to Nottingham via Birmingham (to do some of the stations on the Chiltern main line) ready for the show on Monday night, before returning home. I may even have time to do some sort of tube challenge (possibly zone 1 or all 16 lines, I only have a few hours) while I'm in London. 

And then, in November, I'll be making that trip to Liverpool, for a gig I've got tickets to (a gig at a theatre, rather than an arena or anything), before doing some of the London Overground as I'm visiting London with friends to go to some shows, but we are staying in Hackney rather than the city centre because it's cheaper. I'll therefore be using the Overground to get to and from Hackney during the trip.

And then December, I'll be going to London to use theatre tickets that were postponed from May (a singalong performance of a show, hence why it's so far in the future as they essentially transferred the tickets across). Thankfully, I could get a reasonably (ie approx £100) priced hotel room, so have chosen to stay. The late-night coach back to Nottingham (arriving at 4am) was in place of a £250 TRAVELODGE room. That's really quite excessive. 

And then, in February, an event in Sheffield I'd been going to in April has been rescheduled, so I'll be going to that.

Anyway, I think I'm going to leave this here for now.

And so to 2020

And so to 2020. I'd had a bit of a rough few months in the autumn term and needed something to get myself out of a bit of a rut. I'd also travelled on no trains at all other than those to get home from uni in December and back in January. The first two weeks of the spring term are exams at my University and it was on the first day of the exam period, having received my student loan (the bit that covers living costs, anyway) on that cold Monday morning, that I decided I needed to treat myself. I'd planned a trip for the Friday-Saturday at the end of the exam period (so just under 2 weeks away) to Manchester to attend a careers event, although had decided that, as advance fares weren't really available for the Nottingham-Manchester (well, Liverpool in reality) trains, I'd buy my ticket on the day. Well, there were a few advance fares, but in some cases they were more expensive than the cost of an off-peak return ticket. Plus, I really didn't know what time I'd have finished at the careers event.

It was with this in mind that I thought about one of my other loves: theatre. I'm quite a musical fan, and in particular like the newer musicals that have been released over the last few years. A show had opened in London called & Juliet in autumn 2019, for its premiere production (well, if you exclude the couple of weeks they spend in Manchester with exactly the same cast, essentially as a try out for London). I'd been interested in it for a while and, having received the soundtrack album for my birthday in December, had been really keen in going. My other musical love is Six, which I'd booked tickets for the touring production of (unfortunately the performance got rescheduled due to the current coronavirus pandemic). I therefore decided to amend my itinerary for the weekend trip I was due to make to Manchester, to include a London theatre trip on the Thursday night, 10 days after I booked, to go and see & Juliet. I managed to get a hotel room in central London for a reasonable price (as in less than £100 for the Covent Garden Travelodge, which was literally 30 seconds on foot from the theatre for & Juliet). I know this is a rail blog and not a theatre one but there is relevance to this I promise. Genuinely though, if you like musicals and pop songs, you need to go and see it. I went to see the show with a friend from home, who returned home after the show.

In terms of travel, I booked an advance ticket from Nottingham to London for the Thursday and one from Euston to Manchester on the Friday to tie in with my existing hotel booking in the city. As a treat, I decided to travel first class between London and Manchester, as this would also save me from having to find lunch as well as giving me lounge access at Euston station. This was beneficial as I'd opted out of the travelodge breakfast and gone to McDonalds so appreciated the presence of cake in the lounge (the chocolate brownies as THE BEST), plus the chocolate biscuit things served after the main hot food are also amazing. My train into London arrived at around 1pm, and I decided to make use of the approximately 4 hours between me arriving and my friend arriving by going for an explore. I took the tube to Liverpool Street, where I used TFL rail to go out to Romford. I debated going to Shenfield but decided against it as I'd bought a travelcard and would have had to buy an additional ticket to do this.

At Romford, I unfortunately missed the train to Upminster by literally 40 seconds, so had a half hour wait before I could continue my journey.

From here, I travelled through the Least Used Overground station, Emerson Park, and onto Upminster, where I boarded a train to London Fenchurch Street. From here, I found a bus heading towards my hotel. Unfortunately this bus terminated short - my phone said I was less than 5 minutes on foot from the hotel so I decided to walk and got a bit lost, but I eventually found my hotel before going and finding dinner. Dinner, in this case, being Mcdonalds. I ate a lot of fast food on that trip. I have since discovered that there is a five guys burgers within a 10 minute walk of this hotel and theatre and am planning on going there next time I'm in the area (which should be October and November depending on the pandemic situation rather than the beginning of April as planned).

Anyway, back at the hotel my friend came to join me in the room for dinner and we got ready to go to the theatre. I had quite a nice view from the room, straight out onto Holborn with Drury lane off to the left. The theatre I had tickets to for that night was 30 seconds walk to the right down the same side of the road.

The show was brilliant and, after going to stage door to get our programmes signed, my friend headed home and I went back to the hotel to bed. I walked to the bus stop with my friend, who got the bus back to the mainline station she needed rather than having to change on the tube, and was amazed with how pretty the sign on the theatre looked, something which I'd not noticed earlier due to us arriving at the theatre on the same side of the road as the theatre. I'd also approached the hotel from the east and the theatre was to the west so hadn't walked past it at a distance until then.

The next day, I woke up and fetched breakfast from McDonalds before getting lost on my way to Euston due to bus issues (thankfully I'd allowed close to 2.5 hours to make the journey and arrived with over an hour to spare). I opted not to use the tube as I'm not a huge lift fan and had a suitcase which I didn't fancy taking on an escalator. Whilst the subsurface lines were okay between St Pancras and Liverpool Street, I didn't fancy using the deep level lines from Tottenham Court Road to Euston. After a drink and cake in the first class lounge at Euston, I boarded my pendolino up to Manchester.

On arrival, I headed to the tram to go to my hotel for the night before heading to my careers event in the morning. My journey to and from the event passed through Piccadilly on the tram, where I picked up a burger from Burger King for a very late lunch on my way back to the hotel, where I collected my luggage from their storage and headed back to the station to head home to Nottingham. I'd also managed to miss dinner in my accommodation on the Saturday night so stopped at Five Guys in the city centre to pick up some food. All in all, a good trip even if I'd eaten a lot of fast food.


Stations visited: Barking, Chadwell Heath, Emerson Park, Euston, Fenchurch Street, Forest Gate, Goodmayes, Ilford, Limehouse, Manchester Piccadilly, Manor Park, Market Harborough, Maryland, Romford, Seven Kings, St Pancras, Stratford, Upminster, Watford Junction and West Ham.

Station count: 226

That's all I've currently travelled so I'll leave it here for now, but over the next few posts I'll be discussing plans I've got for travel once the current pandemic restrictions are over.

Summer adventures

Over the summer, I was working a lot so didn't have as much time as I'd have liked to have got out on the trains.

I did, however go on a few adventures. The first of these was the least noteworthy as it involved no new stations and was a trip to Brighton with friends. I did however get a rather nice picture of Brighton Station.

I did, however, take 2 trips which involved new stations to me. The first was a family trip to Milton Keynes, where we visited Bletchley Park. Whilst there were no new stations to me as far as London, we stopped at a number of stations north of the city, including Wolverton, where we visited a museum on the day we travelled up to Milton Keynes.

Stations visited: Apsley, Berkhamsted, Cheddington, Harrow and Wealdstone, Hemel Hempstead, Kings Langley, Leighton Buzzard, Milton Keynes Central, Tring and Wolverton.

I also found myself in Croydon one day, shopping with friends, and travelled home on a number of different services to tick off all of the stations between East Croydon and Horley. These were stations I'd not used on earlier trips as we tended to use the faster trains up to London.

My journey involved changing twice, once at Redhill and once at Horley, in order to tick off all of the stations that I wanted to, and took more than double the time of a fast train home from Croydon, but it was quite nice to stop at stations that I never really travelled through. The Brighton Mainline splits north of Horley into 2 pairs of tracks - a fast pair and a slow pair - meaning that I often didn't even pass through some of these smaller stations as the trains I usually used simply passed through without stopping.

Stations visited: Coulsdon South, Earlswood, Horley, Merstham, Purley, Purley Oaks, Redhill, Salfords, South Croydon and Three Bridges.

I've also noticed a mistake in my stations count on here, where somewhere I've written down a station and not added it up correctly - my spreadsheet shows 206 stations complete not 205, which it would be with the 20 new stations mentioned in this post. I've checked and all stations mentioned on my spreadsheet are accounted for on my blog, so have added the extra one on here to ensure that my spreadsheet balances correctly.

Station Count: 206

From here, we jump forward to the very beginning of 2020, but that's a story for another time!

The first delay...

The day after tackling Stafford, Stoke and Stone was my final travel day in that week, using my 3 in 7 day East Midlands Rover ticket. The plan was to go and try to hunt down a Pacer at Sheffield station, travelling there via Lincoln, and then travelling down to Leicester in order to pick up the Leicester-Nottingham stopping service before heading home. I had considered heading over towards Derby in order to try to pick up Spondon station after this, however as you will see, the day didn't quite go to plan.

So, what was the plan?

I had planned to be on a train from Nottingham to Lincoln almost as soon as the peak period had finished (forgive me, I can't remember the exact time!), where I would change for a service back over to Sheffield, stopping at all of the stations along the line which I hadn't done whilst heading for the Robin Hood line a few days earlier. At Sheffield, the plan was to obtain lunch (that burger king making its third appearance on my blog) before finding a pacer to travel on. I wasn't hugely fussed where the pacer went (provided it was within the validity of my rover ticket), I just wanted to travel on one before they were all retired and I knew that with going home from Uni for the summer, back to the south east, it was pretty much now or never. From there, I planned to get a EMT service down to Leicester, where I would change for the stopping service to Nottingham, calling at Beeston and Attenborough among other places. At Nottingham, I would look for a train to Spondon, however I was planning to travel through the station to Derby itself to enable me to change for any train coming back to Nottingham (I knew that not all Notts-Derby trains stopped at Spondon and had a committment that needed me to be on a bus out of the city centre by 6.45pm, having eaten if at all possible, so minimising the wait for this return journey was important).

This was also the last time I used East Midlands Trains before the franchise was taken over by East Midlands Railway over the summer. Another notable thing was that (according to wikipedia) this journey took place around the time that Lincoln Central Station became known as Lincoln. Signage at the stations showed the name as just Lincoln, whilst the train information referred to it as Lincoln Central.

Anyway, I made my way to Nottingham Station rather early in the morning (If I remember correctly, I was there by 9.15am, which considering it took me about 45 minutes to get from my student accommodation to the station meant a rather early start by student standards) in order to board my train to Lincoln. I had downloaded the National Rail app before I first used the trains to get home from Uni, 18 months earlier, and it came into its own on this journey, allowing me to look up platforms for trains between Lincoln and Sheffield before my inbound train arrived. This meant I was in and out of the station within under 10 minutes.

The journey across was rather uneventful, and I even managed to top up my phone battery on the stretch between Worksop and Sheffield, which I'd taken photos of during the trip I made the previous week. I decided that it was a bit early for lunch on arrival at Sheffield, so headed straight down to try and find a pacer. I was thrilled to discover that the first train to arrive at the platform I was at was a pacer, which I climbed aboard. If I remember correctly, it was heading towards Gainsborough Central, however I wasn't heading this far, instead changing at Doncaster to head back towards Sheffield. It was on the train back to Sheffield that I remembered that I had forgotten to tick off the stations between Worksop and Sheffield when I had passed through them the previous week, so I added them to the list for this day as I'd passed through them on the train from Lincoln that morning.

By the time I got back to Sheffield, I was getting hungry, so I decided to stop for lunch. Again, I headed for the trusty Burger King within the station, with the aim of being on the train bound for London St Pancras that was due to depart around 45 minutes later than I'd arrived at the station.


On this train, I ticked off Long Eaton, which I'd never stopped at previously, as well as stopping at a number of stations that I'd been to before such as Derby. At East Midlands Parkway, the train stopped for around 45 minutes due to a medical emergency with a patient in another carriage. I must commend the staff on the service for their professionalism throughout the situation. Unfortunately this delay meant that I missed the planned train out of Leicester, but I completely understand why the train had to stop and hope the passenger involved was okay. The delay meant that I had a wait of around half an hour for the train an hour later than I'd originally planned to get, giving me plenty of time to get a drink. It was rather cold and wet on this day so I sheltered within the cafe until I could see the unit arriving to take me back for Nottingham.

On my train back to Nottingham, I realised that I didn't have time to eat and make the return journey across to and from Derby via Spondon, so dropped this plan as I was going to have to head up to Matlock at some point so doing Spondon (as well as Peartree) at this later point seemed to make sense.

Therefore I simply headed up towards Nottingham, where I alighted from the train and went to find some dinner before I headed out to my evening activity, before arriving home at approximately 10pm, 14 hours after leaving in the morning.

Stations visited (including those I missed off the list last week): Attenborough, Barrow-upon-Soar, Beeston, Conisborough, Darnall, Doncaster, Gainsborough Lea Road, Kiveton Bridge, Kiveton Park, Lincoln (Central), Long Eaton, Meadowhall, Mexborough, Newark Castle, Retford, Rotherham Central, Saxilby, Swinton, Syston and Woodhouse.

Station count: 185

After this, it was a few weeks before I made it out on the rails again, so I think I'll leave this post here.