10th May 2008

UK Railtours
The Shires Lincs

Route:
1Z27 : Ealing Broadway to Cleethorpes
1Z28 : Cleethorpes to Ealing Broadway

Notes :
(1) 67003 on rear.
(2) 67021 on rear.
(3) Off tour option: visit to the Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway, with locos No.24, 'Battison' & visiting R.H.& D.Rly. No.4 'The Bug' in operation.
(4) Craig Simmons comments: The weather that day was fantastic, and made Cleethorpes, almost, bearable!! The train was due to make a crew change at my home town (Nottingham) on the return. I intended to bunk off here rather that the official stop at Leicester. I packed my bags and said my goodbyes, and when somebody in an adjacent seat suggested I might not be allowed off as it was a crew change only, I said “nothing will stop me getting off, I’m hard….bye!” Unfortunately we went straight through platform 6 non stop. I came back to my seat, head down, to a chorus of laughter, as someone said “not THAT hard then, are we?”!

Sources : Dan Adkins (joined/left the train at Bedford), Nick Bartlett (joined/left the train at St Albans City) & Craig Simmons

Tour Review
(by Dan Adkins)

I arrived at Bedford at 07:42 (we like to get there early, make sure we are there), we then done a bit of spotting and photting the units (we were told someone got moaned at for taking pics, so we asked a member of staff, who said it was OK, as long as I didn’t go into the 4ft! 

The charter was due in platform 4, so after photting 3 319s, we moved over to 4. The booklet stated that the Charter was due to leave Bedford at 08:46, but it was running a bit late, as it said it was due in at 09:10! This then changed to 09:00. Just before the charter arrived, one of my last 319s, 319382 pulled in on platform 1, so I was well happy!

  The charter pulled in at 08:56, with 67021 on the front.

Just before getting on, I noticed a chap I knew from the Northampton & Lamport Railway, but I didn’t say anything to him.

 We had to find Coach E, which was 5009. Fortunately, we didn’t have far to walk to get to it. I was planning to do a bit of bashing, but not until after Leicester (the final calling point), at which we arrived at 09:33, on time. We had to wait for a HST to come in before we could leave, as we had to cross over, this made us 3 minutes late.

 Nothing much to report until arriving in the Immingham area (14:00), this meant passing Immingham loco shed, my target was to try and see 60070 which is stored inside, no such luck, got 64. 60074 was sitting outside the shed, ideal for a photo or two!

 We arrived in Cleethorpes at 14:32. We didn’t really want to go to Cleethorpes, as last time we went ‘it was shut’, so we didn’t hold out much hope! However, as this was where the charter went to, we had no choice but to give it a second chance, which it blew…

67021 rests at the stops, Cleethorpes (photo: Dan Adkins)

 We walked down to the Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway, for a little ride before going back to the station. The queues were enormous! When we eventually got on a train, we were not departing. The other train had failed at the other end of the line, effectively stopping all services. Like many on that train, we got off, and got our money back. The train still wasn’t going after we left, although we did hear a few whistles once we had left, we guessed that the other train was slowly making its way back, but we had no time, we wanted to get back to the station.

 In all, it was a good day. The weather was glorious! Although I didn’t cop much, the main point of us going on that trip was to go past Immingham, and to get photos.

Dan Adkins

Timings (Booked & Actual)
(from Dan Adkins)

Timings continue in first table.

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