Battered @ Battersby
Stuart Boyd • 23 July 2019
Sunday 21st July 2019 - Lovely relaxing day to reach a milestone
Sunday morning stroll through the woods and over the hills, sounds good right? Well it was, it was blooming awesome.
I headed to the station from the hotel, hopped on the first train of the day and headed to my first station of the day, Kildale. That announcement that city commuters will of not heard before, "at the next station only the rear door will open, if you are wanting to alight at Kildale, please make your way to the back of the train now". Personally i love hearing that announcement as it means there is a good chance it is going to be a little cute rural station. Kildale did not disappoint my theory. The platform did fit the whole 2 carriages, but it was very tight. It quite possibly is my favorite station on the Esk Valley line. Anyway time to take a walk.
The walk was beautiful. I headed all up hill for what felt forever. The hill never seemed ending, bear in mind these are hills that the buses struggled with the day before. After taking the wrong footpath, then cutting through overgrown woodland, i made it to the monument at the top. The views were quite special, i then headed back down the hill. Needless to say, the walk down was much easier than the walk up.
At the bottom of the hill i arrived at my next station, Great Ayton. Now at Great Ayton this is where i encountered my one delay. The train from Hexham was running 20 minutes late which worried me that my connection at the next station was going to be in jeopardy. Back to Great Ayton station. There was quite a few people waiting to board the train to Whitby, family days out to the seaside i expect. But it was good to see people using the train rather than the car.
When the train arrived on I hoped, after a quick chat i discovered that the 2 x 156s were running at a reduced speed. I also learnt that I need not worry about my connection at Battersby because the train from Whitby would go into the platform first and wait for this train to pull in first and leave again, guaranteed connection you could say. Apparently this is a maneuver that only happens on a Sunday.
Now there was two trains at the one platform, with the Whitby bound unit at the front blocking the other in. Unfortunately the service for Whitby was having issues getting going, not sure what it was but it basically wasn't moving. In the end it got going (No idea how it made it to Whitby!) Now it was my turn to get moving, easier said than done apparently. Off we went to head towards Middlesbrough. less than 50 meters from the platform our trains brakes randomly decided to go on hard. Unit restart was required then we got on our way 26 minutes late.
By this point my schedule had been well and truly battered. I was planning what to do as there was no way i was going to make my connection at Thornaby for the Transpennine Express service to Yarn. Then we pulled into Nunthorpe station and the guard said we had to wait there for the single track ahead to become clear. I'd had enough of the sight of 156 units by now so decided to bail at Nunthorpe, as it turned out the train that was coming in was going to be the one i got after my Yarn excursion. So i was sort of back on plan, i'd dropped Yarn, but picked up Nunthorpe instead.
After quickly heading the the Spar shop by Nunthorpe station i boarded 158844 and headed to my next station on a very quiet service, I think it was so quiet due to 156479 only running 10 minutes ahead so most people would of boarded that one. I had a pleasant half hour journey to Billingham. While on my way to Billingham I made a discovery... If i was to walk quickly i could in fact make a bus that would take me to Stockton station allowing me to get an earlier train meaning I could fit in an extra station in on my day. Now Billingham was nothing to write home about, and neither was Stockton station. So on I moved to my extra station... Hartlepool.
After Hartlepool I took a service to Seaton Carew where i had a 5 minute connection for my next train, unfortunately I had no time to look around or head to the beach. The killer blow was there was a sainsburys right by the stations that I also did not have time to get any lunch from.
Time for Difficult station of the day, Teeside Airport gets one train per week in one direction only. This used to be 2 trains per week (1 in each direction) but due to the bad state of the footbridge and of platform 2. The service was cut in December 2017.
Once i had alighted at Teesside Airport i was having a sense of deja vu. I felt the same as when i was stood at Redcar British Steel the day before, a feeling of neglect and nothingness. To be completely honest i was feeling a little disappointed. I had looked forward so much to visiting both Redcar British Steel and Teesside Airport that the reality of been there was that they were quite sad places to be. Not so much from a station point of view, but from an all you could see around was evidence of what used to be there. It was mixed feelings leaving the station and starting my walk to Dinsdale.
This walk i'm sure isn't that long really, but on this particualar Sunday let me tell you this, It felt like 100 miles away! Choosing to walk the road route after one third of the walk i was really regretting this decision. Anyway i made it to Dinsdale. Found a Shop, purchased some pop, sandwich, chocolate and headed to the station.
While sat at Dinsdale station i had a decision to make, go off plan in order to get my 700th station that day. I decided to throw the plan in the bin and go for the 700th. So after boarding at Dinsdale I headed to Newton Aycliffe where i wasn't there long enough to have a real look around, i had to jump on the next service back down the line to Heighington.
At Heighington there was quite a bit of notices up about the history of the station, how it played a part in the war effort in the 40's. How the original station building are some of the oldest still in use on the national rail network, It's worth noting that the old station buildings are no longer in use as part of the railways.
After my read up on the history of the station i took the next service heading to Bishop Auckland, the end of the line nowadays, although it did used to go further in the past. I'm not entirely sure where it did go to either, i did ask the guard and he didn't know.
Now after a quick bite to eat in the weatherspoons in the town i hopped on a bus to Durham. On the way i passed through some nice looking villages/towns. Must go back on the bus for more of an explore of the area... Every Last Bus Route has a certain ring to it.... Who knows ;-)
I decided to get off the bus well before the station in Durham as i wanted to take a walk through the city, it was beautiful. Really beautiful.
After a short wait at Durham it was time to head to my final station of the day, the 700th station of the challenge.....
Yep Darlington became my 700th station visited on my challenge. As with Newcastle station I was slightly surprised at how nice Darlington station was. LNER even sent a fairwell gift for me in the form of an Azuma... I will leave the photo below to end my blog.
Until next time
Stu :)
The day started with myself meeting Rob and Jan at Machynlleth station before hoping into Robs car and driving to Tywyn. We decided to arrive in plenty of time as we knew there was a cafe at the station that had a reputation as been very good for a fry up. Given I love a good old fry up I was never going to turn down trying one of these out! I can confirm it was rather brilliant. A nice little surprise was that the fry up was under a tenner! We also got a free drink each as we chose to gift aid our ticket purchase for the trains that day. After we had all devoured our breakfasts we went for a little wander around Tywyn Wharf station before then boarding a train and setting ourselves in for the journey to the other end of the line, Nant Gwernol! Along the way we got to grips with the line, what the other stations looked like from the train, and most importantly, what the footpaths alongside the railway looked like. Footpaths later in the day would turn out to be a bit of a problem.
After hearing about the Steam Gala on the Llangollen Railway I simply had to see if I could make it work to visit. The day started at the awful time of 0645 with a train from Liverpool Lime Street to Chester. I hopped off at Frogsham on the way in the hunt of a cap in the Morrisons next to the station. Annoyingly thought he supermarket had zero mens clothing. So hopped on the next train to try my luck in Chester. Result, I got a cap! Hopefully this one lasts longer than this trip. I have a habbit of loosing hats! Aftert he great hat hunt I headed back to the station in order to catch the train down to Gobowen where I was meeting my good friend Rob. After the hellos we headed in car to Llangollen and started the great car parking space hunt which was followed by spending 10 minutes trying to work out how to pay for a car park ticket! After all that we headed down to the station and went straight to the platform. Couple of photos taken followed by boarding the first train of the day which would take us the full length of the line to Corwen station. We spent 20 minutes at Corwen before heading back to Glyndyfrdwy station and went for a short walk and took some photos. It was at this point we realised that every service on the line was running late. We boarded our third train and headed to Carrog where we alighted. Took some more photos and then went in search of a pub! The Grouse Inn to be precise. After a 5 minute walk we came across the pub and plonked ourselves in the beer garden with a drink and promply orders some grub! Was rather tasty! After this we headed back to the station, had a look around, bought some gifts in the shop and then headed over to the next train. On the way we asked a member of staff/volunteer what was happening with the timetable and their words was "the timetable is a work of fiction" so from this point we played it by ear with trains. The next stop was Berwyn which is quite possibly the best station on the line! The setting with the river next to the station was super and you simply couldn't stand on the platform and not be impressed! Given the timetable was completly out of the window we decided to just stay at the station and wait for the next train. This arrived and took us back to where we started: Llangollen. The line is a thing of beauty. The scenery was breathtaking, and every member of staff/volunteer we spoke to was great. After a walk around Llangollen we headed for the car and then drove to Machynlleth where i am based for the next few nights. Enjoy below some photos from today. And until next time... Ta for now
Kildale station is located on the very scenic Esk Valley Line that runs from Middlesborough to Whitby. From the June 2024 timetable change the station will see 8 trains per day, 4 in each direction! Although this is a limited service it does give you the opportunity to do some exploring of the area.
I set of on a walk with my sisters dog and headed for the disused canal from Kendal. I followed along disused canal to the village of Natland. I then swapped the disused canal for the river. After following the riverside path, I came across a footbridge that I had planned to use, annoyingly it was closed! Annoyingly I was planning to use this footbridge, due to this there was a lenghty diversion. Thankfully the diversion wasn't a total waste of time, I was able to walk through the beautiful Sizergh Castle and then head back up to my original route plan and headed to Helsington church and view point. After spending a little time chatting with my Dad (who's ashs was scattered there) me and Bailey then headed up to Scout Scar before setting of back down towards Kendal. Upon reaching the River Kent I decided that my feet was still feeling good and I headed back along the river to Hawes Bridge. I then headed up into the village of Natland and then up to Oxenholme where my walk came to an end!
A blog about the new Northumberland Line that is scheduled to start opening in the Summer of 2024.
This walk was a tail of two halves! The day started with walking through Reading suburbs and then through the city centre. Things mid morning took a positive turn as we headed to the The Kennet and Avon Canal which I then followed for the remaineder of the day. Only hopping away from the canal to go on to station platforms. A very enjoyable walk, even in the scorching heat! Stations visted today was: Reading, Reading West, Theale, Aldermaston & ended the day at Midgham. By walking between Aldermaston and Midgham I actually have managed to get a station ahead on my plan which can only be a good thing as I head down to the more difficult reagions of Somerset & Devon next week. Until tomorrow :)
Todays walk was a little bit of a tough one, mainly due to the excessive heat which is only going to get worse as the week goes on. Thinking there will be some early starts coming up to try and miss the worst of the heat! Today was a mixture of roads and walks across fields. Discovered there is some beautiful countryside between Maidenhead and Twyford. I strongly encourage you to take this walk! Stations visited today: Burnham, Taplow, Maidenhead and ended at Twyford. Was great to have Nick Badley along with me today. Make sure to check out and subscribe to his YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/@NickBadley . After the walk myself and Nick headed to Windsor where we met up with Coastway Will and had a Nandos dinner where the unlimited refils was very much used again and again! Until tomorrow :)
Todays walk saw me starting at Southall and heading straight to The Grand Union Canal. We followed this for most of the walk today. Stations called at today was: Hayes & Harlington, West Drayton, Iver, Langley before finishing the walk at Slough. Was great to have pals Jack and Dave with me today. Laughed for the most part, especially when we got the wrong place for the London/Buckinghamshire borders. That video on twitter got filmed twice lol. Massive thank you to everyone supporting the event via donations to either/both: Donate to Samaritans: https://justgiving.com/page/greatwesternwalk Support me with the challenge: https://www.gofundme.com/f/GreatWesternWalk My photos from today are below. Daves photos from today can be found here on his Flickr photostream: https://flic.kr/ps/3ppCTV Until tomorrow :)
The first day of the walk from London Paddington to Southall saw me call at Acton Mainline, Ealing Broadway, West Ealing & Hanwell. On the way we saw unexpected viaducts, fancy McDonalds, pretty gardens & nice market squares. Today I was joined by a couple of friends who can be found online at the following places, Please do check their accounts out. Jack All Station: twitter.com/JackAllStations Midland London: youtube.com/@MidlandLondon Below is a selection of photos from today.
Walk around Windermere: