13th September 2003

Past Time Rail
Spinnin' State 8

Route:
1Z60 : Kings Cross to Derby
1Z61 : Derby to Kings Cross

Notes :
(1) Originally booked via Beighton Jn & Tapton Jn but routing changed following a bridge hit a few days prior to the tour.

Here are some photos taken on the day by David Burton.

Sources : various including Julian Noble

Tour Review
(by PRAR)

Spinnin' State VIII was a marriage of dull track and dud locos. For some 92031 presented a handy claw back but as past Time had already had it on Spinnin' State II, along with 37668 on IV a number of people simply walked away. Hopefully IX will be better.

Saturday, as is usual on railtour days, dawned early. At this point I discovered I'd set the alarm for 02:23 rather than 2 hours 23 minutes before the departure time from Kings Cross. Back to sleep! A slightly more civilised departure and 10 miles of CIG got me to Victoria. With the cross-London Thameslink reduced to rubber tyred vehicles the Tube was braved to Kings Cross.

Here 92031 was to be found at the head of the stock. Earlier gen had suggested '003 would be working but it seems that 031 was the only one available at Wembley. With a lot of people away (Hungary and other exotic locations) the 11 coaches were very sparsely filled. I settled into a bay of 4 to myself.

The run up the slows to Newark was uneventful, the 0826 path from Kings Cross seems to be on the basis of a 75 mph 66 on load 13 or 14. 92031 had no difficulty in beating this schedule. Running early meant we were halted on the Nene bridge to await a platform at Peterborough. Traffic on the river was forced to avoid the outflow from the buffet!

Heading on north to Newark we diverged right to come into the reversible loop. Bad luck for anybody on the tour who wanted photos or worse luck for anybody waiting to board the tour! The 92 was quickly detached and waiting 37668+37712 took it's place. Diverging right towards Lincoln the spotters had their booked panic as we passed a convoy of light engines.

Lincolnshire didn't offer much to tax the 37s. Taking the Boultham to Pywipe Junction curve to avoid Lincoln gave us the first proper bit of red track. With GNER now using buses instead of dragging this is going to be rarer in the future. Heading back west we took the flyover and descended into the RMT at Doncaster. As usual no disembarking was allowed: apparently opening the doors makes them hit the platform. (One day could somebody organise a sliding door train into the RMT to we can actually stand on the platform.)

Anyway, the 37s were soon removed and headed off south. 60038 backed on (at last a winner) and we headed off round the Bridge Curve (red track number 2). After allowing a collection of 158s and Pacers to pass we took up our appointed slot and headed towards Sheffield. The original plan was to take the old road and by pass Sheffield. A bridge strike earlier in the week put paid to that idea and we were routed via Sheffield station.

Carrying on south we sped into Derby for the main break of the day. Whilst the clientele variously partook of bus spotting (!!), beer, fish 'n' chips and the other nefarious delights that Derby offers 60038 was swapped for 66069. At this point the usual suspects appeared, presumably fresh from the ELR Gala.

Break over, it was back to Peterborough to swap the 66 for a 56. Routing was via Nottingham and the very pleasant line through Bottesford. The timings showed a stop at Grantham, but this was not honoured. It was slow lines all the way on the ECML, our 75mph being a bit too slow to mingle with the 91s and HSTs. As is usual, the loco change at Peterborough took place in what is confusingly called the West Yard. I believe we were adjacent to Eastfield signal box, but the view from 11 coaches back wasn't great.

56065 came on for the run back to the cross. Again we were mostly slow line running but this is pretty much expected for diesels on the ECML.

When Past Time came onto the Spin & Win scene it seemed that they were making an effort to get the locos everybody needed. Can we go back to this state of affairs please? It's disappointing when you get locos they have had before on their own tours. Overall it has to be said that they did what was advertised (barring the minor re-route in Sheffield) and all the correct classes were used. Whether any Spinnin' States run in 2004 remains to be seen. People will only support vanilla Spin & Wins if they can offer enough "big" engines and this goes for all railtour operators.

PRAR

Timings (Booked Only)

Timings continue in first table.

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