A Weekend in Middlesbrough
As I said in Travels with My Stroke, the first trip outside London would be one to Middlesbrough. Some of my friends thought I was slightly unhinged to be going there, but then you don’t have to be mad or stupid to be an Ipswich supporter, but it does help.
So it was with a certain amount of anticipation, that I boarded the train at Peterborough for the journey to York, where I changed for Middlesbrough. It was a pleasant and uneventful journey that was completed by a short taxi ride to a clean and comfortable B&B called Chadwick Guest House, run by a charming young Sardinian, who had come to the UK to learn English a few years ago and had stayed.
Also staying in the same guest house, were some Town fans from Oslo in Norway, who after the match were going to Exeter for the Carling Cup.
I should say that I was going to be shown round Middlesbrough by a lady, Liz, who subscribes to the coeliac group on the Internet that I moderate, and her husband, Terry.
So on the morning of the match, they showed me around Middlesbrough and gave me lunch. One of the reasons, I’d come was north was to see the new Anish Kapoor installation, Temenos, and the various amazing bridges across the Tees. They have the famous Transporter Bridge, an enormous lifting bridge, a modern stylish footbridge and a barrage to prevent flooding of the town. We even saw some salmon leaping up the salmon ladder past the barrage alongside the canoe slalom course.
It was a very interesting couple of hours before the match and the walks along the Tees are very much to be recommended.
I won’t say too much about the match, except to say my fears and those of the other several hundred travelling fans were not fulfilled.
Perhaps, we should have all gone had paid homage at Temenos, which in ancient Greece was a place to worship gods, after the match., as the structure is very close to the Riverside Stadium, but I suspect if we’d tried, the Middlesbrough Police wouldn’t have understood the joke.
Did I have any regrets about going? Only one! Sunday marked the start of the Tall Ships Race, just over the Tees at Hartlepool. If I’d known about it, I’d have gone. But neither the Middlesbrough Council or Football Club web sites had mentioned this was happening. Instead I took the train back to Bury St. Edmunds in a much more optimistic mood in more ways than one, to the one I’d started out on Friday.
I will return to the Tall Ships Race. Surely, in these times of austerity, we should do everything we can to encourage visitors and make their visits as enjoyable as possible. If just a few Town fans had stayed over to see the unique race, at least they would have had a meal and a few beers to help the local economy.
Remember too, that many football fans are interested in other things. I was in Milan, when Town fans showed how to support the team away in style. It was the first time, I actually had managed to get to see Leonardo’s Last Supper, in the city. One of the guides told me, that she’d never seen so many football fans viewing one of the world’s most famous paintings.
But then Town fans are different and long may it stay that way!
Anyone for a weekend in Scunthorpe?
Senior Railcards and Free Bus Passes
Yesterday, I took the train into Cambridge as I wanted to do a bit of shopping, visit the real tennis club and C’s old chambers. But I didn’t take the train back, as if I could get to Newmarket, I could get a lift back home.
So to return, I took the bus from Cambridge to Newmarket. It was quite pleasant on a clean bus, although if you think that passengers here are better behaved than those in London, in this case you will be wrong. There were two teenage girls, one of whom after being told to turn off the music on her mobile phone, proceeded to annoy the driver through the periscope by which he observed the top deck. I think we vwere all pleased when they got off.
Why though, do I need two cards to get best value out of public transport; my Senior Railcard for the trains and the free pass for the buses. I know I pay for the railcard, but surely it could be used as a free bus pass. But then it doesn’t have my photo, but then no-one on the railway has ever questioned my ticket. In fact, when you buy train tickets on-line, they don’t even ask you for the number on the Railcard.
A Strategy for Over-60 Visitors to the UK!
Travel when you get older can get strenuous and tiring. But on the other hand, a country like the UK, where there are plenty of pretty good small hotels, restaurants with rooms and B&Bs in addition to expensive ones where you can really pamper yourself, is probably the ideal destination for the senior tourist.
I have just had it confirmed by a man close to the Fat Controller at ATOC, the trade body for the train operating companies, that Senior Railcards are available to anyone with the appropriate fee of £26 for a year, on production of a passport, which proves they are over 60. Holders get a 33% discount on all Standard and First Class tickets. So you don’t need to do too many trips before you have reclaimed the fee!
As an example of what you can do, take my trip to London from Cambridge last weekend. I visited the Olympic Park, Canary Wharf, Croydon and the National Gallery, all in a few hours on a ticket that cost just £21.10. If I’d wanted to see a play or have a meal, then I would have had time and my train ticket would still have cost the same.
My only problem with this sort of Awayday is getting to the station, as I can’t drive and taxis are just too expensive. But stay in Cambridge, Oxford, Reading, Bristol, York, Liverpool, Coventry or any one of a number of historic cities and towns, with plenty of attractions of their own, perhaps a nearby airport to get there from outside of the UK and good rail links to lots of other places worth visiting.
Another thing that should be mentioned is that the UK has one of the youngest train fleets in the world. On all the trains I used on the trip last weekend, not one was old and decrepit. Two were old, but very comfortably refurbished.
Remember too, these things about the UK.
- A lot of national and many local museums are free.
- Most major towns and cities have a decent live theatre.
- We have some of the best restaurants in the world. But if you are on a budget, it is generally not a problem these days, especially if like me you like Indian or Chinese food, as every B&B owner knows where the best local ethnic restaurants are.
- The shopping ranges from the expensive and swish down to some of the best street markets in the world.
- For those who like walking, we have them at all levels of difficulty. My favourites are to go up Primrose Hill, walk along the Thames and explore Hampstead Heath in London. But there are endless and many walks that are easily accessible from train stations.
- If you like horse racing, we have dozens of tracks from the grand to the somewhat quaint. All are different and few are the boring ovals, you find in many countries.
- You can choose times that fit or don’t fit in with annoyances like children going to school, harassed commuters as they go and come back from work and those dreadful flying midges in Scotland. This web site has details on the latter.
Hopefully, this blog will detail some places to go.
Home at a Price
I got to Cambridge on time, had time to do food shopping for Sunday lunch in the M&S at the station and then took a taxi home.
But it was a price worth paying for an exciting day! But it does seem wrong, that to get from Cambridge station to my home, cost nearly twice as much as all the rest of the travel. But there is no other way! There isn’t a bus at all between Cambridge Station and the nearest large village. Surely someone, could come up with an Internet-based share taxi service!
Cinderella Will Take You to the Ball!
If ever there was a railway that was built on the cheap and was very much an ugly duckling, that has metamorphasised into a swan, it is that Cinderella of London’s transport system, the Docklands Light Railway.
It is a unique concept in the United Kingdom, in that the small trains are driverless and generally run between unmanned stations, to cut down both the capital and running costs. Each train has an onboard customer service representative for security as well as dealing with the passengers, He or she can drive the train in an emergency.
It may in some ways be a Cinderella, but over the twenty years or so it has been running, it has grown like Topsy from its original routes linking the City, Canary Wharf and Stratford to serve Lewisham and Woolwich south of the Thames and the City Airport and other places to the east.
Docklands Light Railway at Canary Wharf
Now that the Olympics are just two years away, this line has new and larger trains and will play a major part in moving people to and from that big party in Stratford. Even now, some of the best views of the Olympic Park are from the DLR.
Olympic Park From the DLR
I travel the DLR a lot if I can, as it is the best way to explore the east of London. Views are superb, as unlike the Underground, very little of the line is in tunnels and much of it is on viaducts or bridges raised above the ground. No trip by a tourist to London is complete without using London’s most unusual and unique transport system.
I can’t understand, why the concept has not been copied elsewhere. I feel that the badly-designed, implemented and built Cambridge Busway could almost now have been built as a smaller version of the DLR. Trains might be just two coaches and running at ground level from Trumpington, via Addenbrookes and the city centre all the way to Histon, Long Stanton and St. Ives. The DLR has shown that such a concept will work and in the end, people get to love it.
Towards The Olympic Park
When I left Dullingam, I had had the vague intention of taking the newly rebuilt North London Line, either to Richmond or Stratford to see the Olympic Park for 2012. Access to the line is just one stop away from King’s Cross at Highbury and Islington.
A few minutes later, I was on the platform there waiting for my brand-new train to Stratford.
What impressed me was the attention to detail. Look at this staircase for example.
Stairs at Highbury and Islington
Now I am not disabled, but the grip in my left hand is not good and I have some issues with my eyesight, in that I miss objects at a low level. But here the rails and step edges are in bright orange, so I had no difficulty negotiating them at all.
Have they also have decided that on an outdoor station, that flowers rather than art is the best way to decorate the stations. Note the hanging baskets shown here as the train arrives.
The Stratford Train arrives at Highbury and Islington
The trains are a far cry from the old stock that used to creep around the North London Line, when I used to take it from Broad Street to Willesden to get to Metier at Stonebridge Park. They were third rail electric trains then, but now they are fed from an overhead catenary. This is a first for London Underground or Overground, but it is so they can get freight trains from East London to the main West Coast Main Line.
Here a load of containers are trundelling towards Stratford and then probably up the Norwich line to the port of Felixstowe.
My train was on time and I took it all the way. The last part of the journey is through the Olympic Park.
Here the main stadium is rising towards completion.
The Olympic Stadium Rises
And this is the aquatic centre.
Aquatic Centre
It is all very different from when as a child, I used to go to Stratford to bunk the engine sheds to collect engine numbers. I don’t think kids do that any more!
At Stratford, you have several choices about how to continue your journey.
- North London Line – You could take the line across the city, with its superb views of central London, to have a walk in Hampstead Heath.Kew Gardens or along the river at Richmond.
- Central Line – This is the quickest way back to the City and central London.
- Jubilee Line – This will take you to Greenwich, Canary Wharf and the West End, through some of the most spectacular stations on the planet.
- Docklands Light Railway – This is the route for people, who like to explore. Get a good guide book and just go to a station and walk around what I say is the real London, with its markets, churches, canals and historic buildings. And of course, its rich tapestry of people!
I chose the last and took the driverless train to Canary Wharf.
Proving I’m Not Tired of Life!
It was Samuel Johnson, who famously said, “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life!”
As there was little to do to keep me at home, I got a lift from one of the stud staff to the small station at Dullingham from where I got the local train to CAmbridge from the fast train to London.
Cambridge Train Arriving at Dullingham
For just £21.10, I bought a ticket that got me to London and allowed me to roam all over the city as far as Croydon in the South and Barking in the East. So I do have a Senior Railcard!
When I left I hadn’t too much idea about what I was going to do, but I had vague thoughts about travelling around seeing some of the sights and perhaps going to see some friends in South London.
Well, within an hour from leaving Dullingham, I was in Kings Cross, after an enjoyable journey chatting with three ladies of about my own age. The American lady opposite was at a legal Summer School in Cambridge and was intending to use the trains to explore London and places further, whilst in the city. I think she said that she’d bought a Senior Railcard in Cambridge to get the discount of a third on tickets. I hadn’t realised that the cards were available for non-UK citizens, but it seems fair and it will encourage tourists of the right type.
The Thunder of Three-Thousand Three-Hundred Horses
I think it was Paul Theroux, who wrote about waking up to the sound of the railroad. At home in Cockfosters, I used to hear the sound of the steam trains travelling north towards the North and Scotland, as they ran through Oakleigh Park and New Barnet. From about eight I used to cycle to the line to collect train numbers. It was towards the end of the steam age, and I can still see and smell, Gresley‘s magnificent A4 Pacifics as they roared through Hadley Wood, where we used to put pennies on the line, so they were squashed flat. I also broke a front tooth at Oakleigh Park, when I fell off my bike. It has been capped twice, so hopefully it is a good omen for the rest of my body.
Everything started to change in 1955, when an interloper arrived on the scene, in the shape of English Electric’s Deltic prototype, which I could hear as it raced north once a day. It was called Deltic after its lightweight and very compact Napier diesel engine of the same name. At the time, the 3,300 bhp made them the most powerful railway engine in the world. The diesel engines had originally been developed during the Second World War to power ships like MTBs and mine hunters, but found their fame in the powerful railway engine. Some of the engines even ended up in fast patrol boats in the US Navy.
The Deltic signalled the end of an era and by the time I went to Liverpool University in 1965, all the formidable A4s had gone to be replaced by the production Deltics or Class 55s, as they are more correctly called.
When I worked for ICI at Welwyn Garden City in the very early seventies, I travelled north a few times to the manufacturing site at Wilton on Teesside behind the Class 55s.
One of the most memorable train journeys I have ever experienced, if not the most memorable, was on one of the return trips from Teesside.
I had finished my work at Wilton that day, when I was rung by the Transport Office, who asked if I ‘d mind being taken to Darlington early to catch the London train, as they had a VIP, who wanted to go early for the train to Bristol. I said yes, as that would mean a car journey in comfort instead of the local train from Eaglescliffe, through the hell-like landscape of the steelworks.
In the end, I arrived at Darlington with about an hour to wait for my train. After looking at Locomotion No. 1, which in those days was displayed on the platform, I retired to the bar for a pint. Just as I was settling in a chair, an announcement said that the train now arriving was the delayed Talisman for London. I asked if I should board the train and if I did would I get to London early. I got a double yes, left my pint and got on the train, which at that time was running forty-five minutes late, as a generator slung under a carriage had disintegrated and they’d had to stop to leave the offending carriage behind.
There is an interesting aside here about Locomotion No. 1, in that Hunter Davies saw the engine on the station and then went into W. H. Smith on the station to buy a book for the journey back to London. As he had just seen the engine, he looked for a biography of its creator, George Stephenson , only to be told that no-one had written one. Later he supposedly checked this with his agent, who then suggested that he write the book. So that is why an author of popular biographies of the such of the Beatles and Wayne Rooney, ended up writing the first biography of the only engineer, known to nearly everybody.
At the time of my return trip, the fastest Darlington to Kings Cross trains took three hours, whereas today a time of two hours forty-five minutes is about average, with the fastest ones taking about two hours twenty-five minutes. I should say that Darlington is 232 miles from Kings Cross.
My train that day had a clear run, as it had delayed everything behind it, so the driver was able to open up those Napier Deltic engines to try to regain the lost forty-five minutes.
And regain them he did!
Despite stops at probably York, Doncaster, Newark and Peterborough, he was able to keep the speed to such a level, that by the time we stopped in London, he was on time. So that means he probably took two hours fifteen minutes, which worked out as an average speed of just over 103 miles per hour including stops. Not bad for a train with a maximum speed of just 100. I actually timed the train at about this speed, just north of Peterborough.
Train journeys are not like that today. I remember eating dinner on the train and it was possibly the worst-served meal, I’ve ever had on a train, as the waiter had difficulty walking up and down, as the train bumped and lurched. The guard also kept passing through, announcing the latest estimate of our arrival time in Kings Cross.
I sometimes think that time has enlivened this story, but it was a wonderful thrill to find out what a properly-driven Deltic could do. Eurostars, TGVs and the other modern fast trains don’t give that same feeling! Certainly my trip to Middlesbrough behind a Class 91 for part of the way will not be so exciting.
The Opposite of Death By A Thousand Cuts
Sometimes we just concentrate on how austerity generally means cuts, cuts and more cuts. But in this month’s edition of Modern Railways there is an example of the opposite. East Coast, the company that runs services from London to the North and Scotland, has just introduced Operation Peppercorn, which is series of many small upgrades to increase the capacity of the route and get the London to Edinburgh time under four hours. Perhaps, it’s just looking after the pennies and letting the pounds look after themselves in an engineering sense.
There is no references to Operation Peppercorn on the web, which is a pity, as many would benefit by reading the article, which shows that small amounts of money targetted at a problem, can often make a big improvement in a short time.
