Thorne, Althorpe and Flixborough
One of the places the train stopped was Thorne.
I can remember driving through it on a dark and wet night sometime in about 1970, when it was one of the poorest areas in the UK. C, myself and our eldest son, who was just a baby at the time had been to visit C’s friend from Liverpool University, Sandra Briton and her husband Keith at Gliberdyke.
It still looked pretty bleak from the train, as the wind blew across the flat lands of North Lincolnshire.
It’s not a place I should have ever wanted to live.
Althorpe was another place passed by the train and we used to have friends who lived near there under the shadow of the River Trent. C could remember being woken up by a boat on the river virtually passing by the room where she was sleeping.
Our friends used to tell a story how tourists used to turn up looking for the last resting place of Princess Diana. But of course they had got the spelling wrong. I hope it’s improved with Sat-Navs or do they send those Dianaphiles to the wilds of North Lincolnshire?
But I couldn’t go to this part of the country, without thinking about the Flixborough disaster. I’ve worked on lots of chemical plants and know how dangerous they can be. And the disaster at Flixborough, proved my fears, when 28 people died and many were injured in June 1974.
According to Wikipedia, the cause of the explosion my well have been a badly-designed bypass pipe that wasn’t properly tested. I also heard a contributing factor from an engineer at ICI, was that the design of the plant had been metric as it was a Dutch design and it had been converted to Imperial when it was built in the UK. This had meant that the pipe that broke was the wrong size to withstand the pressure. Wikipedia says this.
The official inquiry into the accident determined that the bypass pipe had failed because of unforeseen lateral stresses in the pipe during a pressure surge. The bypass had been designed by engineers who were not experienced in high-pressure pipework, no plans or calculations had been produced, the pipe was not pressure-tested, and was mounted on temporary scaffolding poles that allowed the pipe to twist under pressure. The by-pass pipe was a smaller diameter (20″) than the reactor flanges (24″) and in order to align the flanges, short sections of steel bellows were added at each end of the by-pass – under pressure such bellows tend to squirm or twist.
I don’t know what the truth was and probably we’ll never find out, but in my view to mix measurement systems in anything as dangerous as a chemical plant is asking for trouble. It should be noted that ICI went fully metric in chemical plant design sometime in the 1950s. I seem to remember hearing somewhere that safety was one of the reasons.
The fact that we still commonly use Imperial measures is an absolute disgrace.
Doncaster to Scunthorpe
Doncaster to Scunthorpe is not the most salubrious of railways. It goes in a pretty straight line through a series of stations, that have seen some improvement over the years. But that can’t be said for some of the trains.
Class 142 Diesel Multiple Unit
I had just missed the Trans Pennine Express, so I had to travel in one of these Class 142‘s or Pacers. I thought that the junk we have on Ipswich to Cambridge was bad, but these seem to be even worse!
Welcome to Scunthorpe! At least the station had had a makeover.
Scunthorpe Station
But it had been said that there was a courtesy bus to Glanford Park, where Scunthorpe United play. Perhaps I was too early, as it wasn’t there. So I decided to explore the nearby town centre and get some lunch.
Little Bits of Cardboard
I took this picture at some time on the journey to Scunthorpe, possibly between Peterborough and Doncaster sitting comfortably in First on East Coast and it shows one of the problems of complicated journeys on trains.
British Rail Tickets
On my trip from Saturday until this morning, I collected eighteen of these little orange tickets. Some incidentally, were marked “NOT VALID FOR TRAVEL”
Surely, those in charge of our railways could do better!
But let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater and make the ticketing dependent on a smart phone. I am old enough to never need a replacement for my Nokia 6310i and if you can’t do it on that, I’m not interested!
So perhaps we need just one orange ticket per trip,that is the same as the ones we have now,but has a bar code printed on the face, so that it can be read by a simple reader in the conductor’s hand on the train.
Comings and Goings at Ely
To get the train to Scunthorpe via Peterborough on Saturday, I got to Ely just before nine in the morning and I was totally surprised at how busy the station was.
There were passenger trains going to Stansted, Kings Lynn and London.
Trains to All Points at Ely
The town will get more important if and when Thameslink opens to Kings Lynn.
The freight importance of the station was also emphasised, as a very long train passed through from Felixstowe to Peterborough and the Midlands and the North.
Lots of Boxes at Ely
There will be lots of changes in the next few years at Ely, what with Thameslink, freight and perhaps many more trains to Norwich and Ipswich. In the case of the latter, there could be substantial passenger improvements following on from the capacity upgrade for freight, with perhaps a new station at Soham.
Ely lives in interesting times.
Trip of the Year, Month or Perhaps Weekend
I did think I might call this post something like Trip of a Lifetime, but that wouldn’t be honest and I don’t want to shilt myself, as I really might do one of those when I get older.
But a trip starting at Ely on Saturday the 25th and then going via Peterborough and Doncaster to Scunthorpe, before travelling to Edinburgh for the night. Then it was Glasgow on the Monday and then up to Inverness. Tuesday it was down to Kyle of Lochalsh, Skye, Mallaig and Fort William for the sleeper back to London, before a train out to Dullingham after changing at Cambridge.
Thoughts on Ticket Booking Web Sites
I’ve just been booking tickets for my trip north at the weekend. It looks like the itinerary will be :-
Saturday 25th September
Ely (8:58) to Peterborough (9:38)/
Peterborough (9:46) to Doncaster (10:38)
Doncaster (11:07)to Scunthorpe (11:45)
Scunthorpe (17:10) to Doncaster (17:40)
Doncaster (18:34) to Newcastle (20:01) – Ticket pick-up at Doncaster
Newcastle (20:50) to Edinburgh (23:30) – It’s actually a bus!
Monday 27th September
Edinburgh (16:33) to Inverness (20:08) – Meet at Waverley Travel Centre at 16:00
Tuesday 28th September
Inverness (09:00) to Kyle of Lochalsh (11:28) Ticket pick-up at Edinburgh Waverley
Mallaig (16:05) to Fort William (17:07)
Fort William (19:50) to London Euston (07:47) Ticket pick-up at Edinburgh Waverley
I haven’t had too much trouble booking these tickets on-line. But one thing that gets to me is the nit-picking detail on many of these sites.
As an example, they always ask you to tick the Terms and Conditions box. Does anybody not tick this box? It should be up the other way and you should only tick it if you don’t accept them!
ScotRail‘s web site seemed to get you to put in everything twice. But then it’s a long way up to Scotland and the Internet probably forgets what I’ve typed in last time.
I also had the usual nause about registering with ScotRail for the sleeper. Why can’t the same registration apply for all of the TOCs? I use the same details in them all anyway!
Ely to York via Scunthorpe
I’m going to see Ipswich at Scunthorpe on the 25th. I have been told by East Coast, that I’ll need to use two single tickets, as I can’t break my journey at Doncaster, like I did last week at Micheldever.
So I’ve booked the first leg from Ely to Scunthorpe and that has cost me £16.45 First Class. Not bad as it would probably cost about £50 for the diesel in the Jaguar!
But getting from Scunthorpe to York, doesn’t seem so easy to buy a ticket. All that seems to exist are Anytime Singles at £20 or £13.20 with my Railcard. Why are there no Off Peak Tickets?
In the end, Ibought the Anytime Single from East Coast at £13.20!
The Anonymous Widower 