Not all Dandy at Danby!

The day started with my alarm going off at 5am! After a quick spruce up i took the short walk to Middlebrough station to catch the first train out of the station, pretty sure i was the first member of public in the station that morning. My first unit was pacer 142086 which would be taking me to Longbeck. Now when planning i knew Longbeck station was only a short walk from another station, so i decided to walk it. So on i went, best foot forward and all that stuff...

Now as the picture above shows the walk was through fields of wheat. There was a narrow path at the bottom of each field. I was walking pretty quick as Google maps was telling me it was a 14 minute walk and i only had 16minutes before the train. As it was i managed to get to the end of the fields in 10minutes. On stepping onto the pavement again i thought to myself my boot feels funny, when i looked down i was horrified to see that my foot had a load of straw attached to the base of it, on wiping it on some grass i quickly learnt it wasn't just straw! Some dog walker had just left dog poo on the path! I have nothing against dog walkers, or dogs for that matter, but please, if your going to own own, do the right thing and clean up after it! I managed to get most of the poo of my boot, unfortunately while walking some had got onto my cargo pants around the ankle. Que a 34 year old man swearing excessively in a country road.

Stinking of dog poo i had a train to catch. I headed to the platform at Marske where the pacer that dropped me off at Longbeck now picked me up and took me to Redcar East. I can only imagine what the guard thought of my smell when she came and checked my ticket, she was polite and said nothing. i told myself she has a cold and couldn't smell anything, and i'm still telling myself that ;-).

At Redcar East i waiting for the next train to take me to Redcar Central, thankfully this train was nearly empty and no guard came near me for the 3 minuet journey. Now i had half hour a t Redcar Central and i'd spied a Morrison's near the station. Still with a whiff of poo coming from me i made for there, buying a cheap bar of soap, a 1.5ltr bottle of Evian, some gloves I headed back to a quiet corner of Redcar Central where i rubbed my trousers with soap and water to try and rectify the poo issue. I think it worked.

It was now time to head to Britains Least Used station. Redcar British Steel, or British Steel Redcar, what ever you want to call it, for the purpose of this section of the blog i'll simply refer to it as BSR. Now BSR gets 4 trains per day Monday to Saturday, if your wondering why more people don't use it it's because you can't actually leave the station. There is no public access off the platforms. This was pointed out to me by a confused guard who actually said "You know you can't leave right" to which i replied back "we best hope northern don't cancel the next train then". As i alighted the train i quickly climbed the steps on the footbridge to get a shot of the train departing

Once the train had vanished out of sight i had a good look around and just thought to myself how bleak and empty the area was. What was once a hive of activity was now just abandoned land with the odd security patrol. To be honest with you it was quite a freaky experience been there. It felt very much like I shouldn't of been there.

Anyway, my time at BSR was over, and to be honest i was quite pleased to see my train approaching in the distance, even if it was a pacer, 142091 to be precise. Please remember, I don't write numbers down, got the number from a picture ;-)

Once on the train at BSR the guard started chatting to me and asking what I was doing, after all, it's not everyday someone gets on the train at BSR. I find most guards i chat to about the challenge are always interested and normally with me luck.

Anyway onwards to Saltburn, now despite several people advising me to spend some time here, i'm afraid to say i didn't. I got off train, took few photo's then hopped straight on a bus to Whitby. Now this really has annoyed me. Saltburn will be getting a revisit sooner rather than later!

Armed with an Arriva North East Explorer ticket I traveled on the X4 service to Whitby. A journey of just over an hour with some beautiful scenery. Anyway on arrival into Whitby i had about and hour and half to look around. To be honest i was getting quite hungry, after all i was out of the hotel before the cook had even arrived for work! I had a quick walk around the harbour and then headed for Wetherspoons for a good fry up! Now this has got to be a contender for the most expensive Wetherspoons in the UK! £10 for a fry up and a Pepsi.

After this it was on to another bus, only a short journey this time. It was on board a Transdev Coastliner service and to say i was impressed with the on board facilities was an understatement. I was only on it a short time, but am trying to get a full length journey from Whitby to Leeds in on my way home.

After getting off the bus at Sleights it was time to head back to the trains, I was starting to get with drawl symptoms, and was also getting tired of the bus w**ker GIF from a certain person haha.

Sleights station was really quite nice, the old station house is now a private house that was absolutely beautiful. I had a little wonder around and then waited for the train.

I hopped on the train, as i was only going to be on it a matter of minuets i stayed at the back and chatted with the guard about the weather.

We arrived at my next station, Ruswarp. The weather here seriously warmed up, to the point that i removed my jumper, little bit of a mistake that was, I was wearing a Man United shirt. Within minuets some young lads from a group trip were shouting dirty united and other things. I politely asked who they supported. One supported Tottenham, to which i replied "as least Man Utd is in the north".

Anyway, i waited for the train to arrive, after the friendly banter i noticed the train was running late, this wasn't good as i had a tight connection to make at my next station. Anyway, 156454 arrived out of the distance and on I got and traveled to Egton.

As i said, this train was delayed and i only had a 4 minuet connection with a bus. Running 4 minuets late i crossed my fingers and toes and hoped for the best. Arriving into Egton i literally took 3 photo's and then headed straight down the track to the road and into the village to try and get the bus, just as I got to the bus stop around the corner came the Arriva North East bus 95. I boarded using the explorer ticket i bought earlier that day.

Travelling through the Esk Valley on little Optare busses that were full of local people was great fun, ear wigging to there conversations and just grinning at how simple life must be in areas that rural. Anyway, we arrived at my next station, Grosmont!

Now at Grosmont it was time for something a little different. I was going to do Grosmont station and Whitby station by Steam Train! It really was a trip back in time! The fair was obviously not included in my rover ticket, but at £8.70 i thought this to be quite reasonable for a heritage service. I got on board, got a table to myself and off we went.

After a very pleasant half hour we arrived at Whitby where i had 10 minuets to catch another bus, actually a bus i'd already used, the 95 again, this time though i was doing the full length journey. From Whitby to Lealholm. What a journey the scenery was terrific, the other passengers were chatty and friendly. For all the tourist bus services, coastliner to name one of a few, you can't beat the good old local bus services for local people.

On the journey to Lealholm the mobile signal was really patchy so was struggling to see how the train was running, this was quite important as the bus was running 15 minuets late and i only had a 10 minuet connection. Now as it happened when i did get some signal i learnt the train was running 15 minuets late too. phew.

Lealholm was a beautiful little station, it was also another example of an old station house now been in private ownership and looking very beautiful. I honestly could of spent hours at this station, but as it was I had 10 minuets, it's on my to revisit list for sure.

After boarding i stayed stood at the back again as it was a very busy service and I was only going to be on the bus for a matter of minuets.

The next station for me to visit was Glaisdale. Now here i had an hour and half to kill, I had planed to take a walk and take in some of the countryside and woodlands. But nature had another idea. The heavens opened, and how they did!

Now, I'm definitely committed to the challenge, but getting soaked to the skin is no fun for anyone and I simply wasn't going to do it. Instead i put a picture of the phone box in the shelter on Twitter to see if anyone called. I was surprised at how many people did actually call. Kept me occupied for over an hour. Before i knew it the train was returning and it was time to head off.

Now at this point it was still raining hard and i had an hour walk to do between Castleton Moor and Commondale. I had then planned to go to Danby and go to the pub for some dinner. I decided to cancel the walk and go straight to Danby station where i knew i could get a bus to Redcar. Now every app, website, timetable told me that the M3 bus was operated by Arriva North East, when an Arriva north east bus finally turned up i hoped on it and put my QR code under the scanner for the driver to say it wasn't valid on that bus as it was on hire.... Puzzled was an understatement. I then asked for a single to Redcar for which he told me that he was only going as far as Guisborough. I bought a ticket for £3 (Which was printed on an Arriva North East ticket. The driver advised me to get off at Guisborough and change for another bus to Redcar.

I got off the bus at Guisborough as he said, went across to a shop to get a drink, only to come out of the shop and see the same driver, same bus, just empty drive past me empty but saying Redcar on the front. I swear there was smoke coming out of my ears. When i had a look online i noticed he was the next bus and that it was now a 40 minuet wait for the next bus. I decided to just get the next bus for Middlesbrough and call it a day.

But NO. I decided to knock out two more stations. On arrival back into Middlesbrough i got a taxi to take me to South Bank station where i caught a bus to Thornaby, I was only coming here as google maps told me there was a sainsburys near the station, as it turned out it was very handy i did Thornaby on this day as you'll find out in tomorrows Blog.

Many Thanks for taking the time to read my blog.

All the best

Stuart