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.
A Neat Station Design
I said in an earlier post that yesterday I took the train from Thirsk into York. I actually took a Grand Central train for just £2, so as they seem very affordable, if I go to York from London, I might consider them as an alternative to East Coast.
Thirsk station was a rather neat design, as this picture shows.
Thirsk Station
It is reached by an overbridge and the combined ticket office, waiting room and other sevices are all on one platform in a chalet style wood and steel building.
It seemed to be a rather practical design, as the ticket office was built into one end of the waiting room. I suspect that this would mean that security and safety is very good. Note too the wooden safety fence to the left of the building, which separates the two high speed lines in the middle of the station from passengers on this platform.
I would suspect that the concept could be used in many places to renew old station buildings at an affordable cost.
It was good to see the station and it goes to show that good design and safety can probably be achieved without throwing vast amounts of money at the problem.
The Welcome Invader from the East.
After racing yesterday, I took the train from Thirsk to York, so that I could see my old boss, who was in hospital in York. He seemed better in some ways to when I saw him a few weeks ago, but I understand from his family he has a long way to go. But I know he’ll do it, as he’ll find some way to pull through. I’ll also visit him when I can, as he has been such a great support to me over the previous couple of years through my troubles and I know I must pay that back. But I’m not that good on those sorts of debts!
But as I got back from York to Cambridge for the princely sum of just £13.20, it’s not something that would worry anybody on cost grounds!
After I’d seen him in hospital, I went with his son to the local Premium Inn. They had bottles of Aspall cyder in the bar! So over 250 years after it was first brewed in Suffolk, it finally invades Yorkshire!
I certainly needed a drink after the day I’d had!
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!
Towards the Match
I was mainly gpoing to London to see Ipswich play at Millwall.
I didn’t take a direct route, as I had time to spare and wanted to do one or two things before the match.
So from Tottenham Hale, I took a couple of stops on the Victoria Line to Highbury and Islington, where I took the North London Line to Canonbury.
A house I am interested in, lies betwwen there and Dalston Junction and I wanted to see which was the nearest station. The first leg took eleven minutes and the second ten, so Dalston Junction is closer and will be a couple of minutes so, when they complete the station. It’s also downhill from Canonbury and flat to Dalston Junction, which means that it is an easy walk to Dalston to travel away and another easy one to get home from Canonbury. In some ways it won’t matter too much, as from May 2011, the two stations will just be two stops apart on the East London Line.
FRom Dalston Junction, I took the East London Line south to Rotherhithe, with the aim of seeing the Brunel Museum; which is one of the many museums on the line. I took this photo of the brickwork on the entrance to the station.
Brickwork at Rotherhithe Station
I’ve always liked good brickwork and in my life, I’ve designed and had built several important brick features including a traditional crinkle-crankle wall at Debach and my round office here. Are we training bricklayers to be able to do the difficult stuff? Ralph who did the wall, used to work in rubber gloves to save his hands and spent his holidays looking at buildig techniques all over the world. His colleagues used to laugh at him, but he certainly knew how to lay bricks.
Bad Driving
There has been a lot of reports about the reasons why people drive badly today. Various solutions are being proposed including restrictions on young drivers.
I have driven for many years, but don’t now and I may never do again. But I’m happy to use buses and trains, with lifts to the nearest station.
I sometimes think that the reason we have a lot of bad driving is because people are pressured to use their cars, by lifestyle, family or jobs.
Let’s look at some categories, who get blamed for bad driving and accidents.
- Young drivers often have no other means, except a battered car to get to work or have a night out. It will be interesting to see if things like the new East London Line and the extensions to the Manchester Tram, actually cut accidents involving young drivers, as they take quality public transport instead.
- Elderly drivers who won’t give up their car, as they need it for the shops etc. You see quite a few round here, who should not drive. But there is no alternative.
- Company car drivers, who feel pressured to use the car, rather than perhaps take the train. How many companies refuse train expenses to people with company cars?
- And what about wives who are pressured to drive their husbands after a good meal out!
I have recently seen a change in that some people I know have swapped their cars for trains on longer journeys.
This needs to be encouraged, by more comfortable trains, better stations, more parking at stations, better connections and perks like free WiFi. I know of one person, who now commutes to his office in the nearest big city by bus because of the WiFi.
One thing that is accelerating change to rail and bus is Railcards and passes, as I found on my trip to Great Yarmouth.
