for another year i once again headed down to sheringham for the north norfolk railway's raising the standard gala, after a nice drive down i got on board the first train, soon i learnt that 2 of the steam locos would not be running rather unfortunately due to a collision, this did not stop me from enjoying my time on the railway and in the town of sheringham and as much as the weather was bad this did not stop me my girlfriend and sister having a great time on the remaining in steam locomotives even though we missed out on the J15 again

to use up the final bits and peices i got recently i decided another trip to the south west was needed, and beings the south devon railway was holding a gala all week i decided it would be best to go and visit.
the gala was the branch line gala and a special guest in the form of GWR rail motor no. 93 was the star attraction being a busy service until the last service. a second visitor in the form of small prarie worked in tamden with 2 auto coaches on the full length of the line accompanying the railmotor which was for passengers with upgraded tickets, 2 shuttle services were also operated, on the buckfastly to staverton section a third visitor 14XX no. 1450 worked a 1 coach br 50s/60s branchline train while on the 2nd shuttle between staverton and totnes littlehampstead resident 1369 worked a 2 coach GWR branchline train both shuttles accompanied by 2 milk tankers for part of the day, in the evening a class 122 bubble car was let out to run taking people to and from the staverton beer festival and people to totnes for journeys home. though at times things got very quiet and the timetable a little quiet in points i had a great time especially while riding the rail motor. the day of my visit (23/02/13) was very cold (not the south devon's fault) but this did not stop me having a fantastic time on this very delightful west country branchline and i hope to go back for a 4th visit in the future.
meanwhile i was kept informed about the happenings on my home fort of peterborough as the very same weekend the nene valley railway was holding it's own winter gala with guest engines 70000 britannia and 4141 running with 44422, 22 & 1800. information relayed to me involve 70000 britannia derailing, a vacuum problem with the 4F or the MK1s at some point, 4141 not being able to do it's first train and that there was almost a colision. will i be making a visit on the sunday as planned? read the above blog (you probably already have though)

as the only day i could really do this very good offer was thursday the 21st of february i started the day at london euston after using one of my delay repay vouchers to get to london for 60 pence i then after only a suprisingly minor delay (thanks to the overhead line problems on the ECML between the 20th and the 22nd) luckily this didn't affect me when i got to london, i quickly walked to london euston to start my great escape. firstly i headed to watford junction to clear the st albans abbey line and ride a class 321 unit, after this i headed north to meet my friend bruce, i went firstly to northampton before realising my train wasn't going via rugby so couldn't meet him there, after this i went back to milton keynes to meet bruce there, after this we went one stop south to clear the bletchley to bedford line on a 150, after this we headed to birmingham to clear the lichfield trent valley route, after this we did a quick run to wolverhampton then headed south & home, i left bruce at coventry station as he needed the branch to nuneaton so he could get to where he lives. i continued south back to london euston where i grabbed a pizza and headed to king's cross.
thanks to the overhead line problems and unbeknown to be engineering works were happening on the line tonight, as a result first capital connect ran a special service from king's cross to biggleswade non stop, the time of this journey on a 100MPH class 365 was approximately 30 minutes however it would take me a further hour and a half to get home thanks to the useless replacement bus service. yes it did call at every station north of biggleswade and a lazy passenger got dropped off enroute but seriously an hour and a half to complete what is 40 minutes on a train is a joke and is reason why i hate replacement busses. atleast this one wasn't hot and stuffy and useless like the replacement bus i got between leicester and peterborough

after hearing the news on the 23rd about 70000 britannia derailing i decided i would visit the nene valley railway's steam gala but only briefly i started off by going to longville junction to do some linesiding, after this i went to collect my nan so we can have sunday lunch at my house, i also watched a brakevan ride at this time, after lunch i went for a return trip to wansford before going back home

right, i have tons to write about so read carefully
me & my girlfriend had been organising something a little special for a long time but now well a week and a few days ago things finally came to reality, 6th of february i went up to her city to collect her and bring her home, during her brief stay in peterborough i had work every evening for 3 days and we met up with one of my good friends then on the 9th things really started to get spicey, we were up nice and early at peterborough train station heading to london, in london we quickly took cover on the hammersmith and city line on the london underground, my lass was out of her confort zone but i successfully guided her to paddington station and onto coach D of a first great western HST so she had a tv to watch if she got bored on our journey, this didn't happen though and while we waiting in the box area for network rail to fix a signal problem and first great western to fix our HST i casually mocked the ordinary show which featured on the tv, once the problems were fixed we swapped trains at bristol for the short run into weston super mare, our holiday destination picked by my girlfriend and a very wise choice it was
after my birthday on the 10th and a day to settle in on the tuesday we visited the aquarium which was fantastic and we also had a brief walk because i forgot what we were going to do after was closed but we did go back the next day when it was open, this was weston super mare helicopter museum which is the biggest helicopter museum in the world, the displays were fantastic and very interesting (this is from someone who doesn't normally do helicopters but has a slight interest) weather they were toy helicopters, model helicopters, small helicopters or big helicopters me and my girlfriend enjoyed the museum (she agreed to go and loved it and i will note now to save me writing this again) there was meant to be a chinook visiting but this didn't turn up so we went home
on valentines day we went to the west somerset railway the first train to pull in after we arrived was hauled by 7828 'norton manor' we rode the train to williton where we swiftly changed trains for the service back to bishops lydeard pulled by 9351, when we got back we explored the museum on platform 2 and watch 9351 head back to minehead, me and my girlfriend thoroughly enjoyed the west somerset railway and she loved visiting the footplate of 9351 as well as the ride and the museum, we then headed back to weston super mare for a romantic meal
friday we were on the trains again as we went to bristol zoo today, this was one of my girlfriend's choices as well as the aquarium, the weston super mare museum and the grand pier, we had fun at all these venues
unfortunately we had to go home but the fun didn't stop there, on sunday we went to the ferry meadows railway where they were running the brand new steam engine no, 44 a 10 1/4 inch gauge replica of a dajeerling B class locomotive which is a fantastic runner and puller, i say go find out for yourself, it will be running every sunday from now till mid november, i also took her to nene valley to watch their engines settle down for the night
to conclude after going to a gig in sheffield on monday i went home on tuesday and watched britannia arrive on the nene valley railway to star in the

because the day before today was my sister's birthday she decided she wanted the family to go to the nene valley railway so we did, the engine in service today was 44422 and it was the blue service which if you ask me is a bit pointless but we'll skip this cos i don't run the railway, it was a nice little journey on a nice locomotive, happy birthday sis

2 days ago saw the start of the 2013 gala season on heritage railways with the great central railway kicking things off in real style. star visiting engine was 6023 supported by visiting engine 3803 a great western 2-8-0 freight engine both these engines worked faultlessly throughout my visit on the 26th with other engines such as 46521, 78019, 777 sir lamiel, 48624, 47406 & 1744 thrown in the mix proved to be a real gala success for variety and performance with turntable, freight and tpo demonstrations running with passenger trains to give a real western/midland region mix on this as usual fantastic gala event
unfortunately my return journey home was absolutely shocking, got into leicester from loughborough no problems (thanks east midland trains for a good journey) but when i got to leicester i found a late running cross country turbo star so got on board only to be waiting a further hour before they decided to put everyone onto replacement busses, there were 2 train loads of passengers on 3 busses which were stuffy, hot and generally made everyone sick. the cause of such an awful farce was that the entire line between peterborough and whittlesea died, why they couldn't make the turbostar trapped at peterborough form a new service to birmingham then send out train to peterborough i'll never know. to make things worse i lost my monopod either on the train or on the replacement bus and one month after this incident i've still not heard anything back from cross country trains about this. good performance great central railway, absolutely poor from cross country

150 years ago this month the london underground which funnily enough is in london opened to the public and ran it's first trains, 150 years later the opening was celebrated when a steam locomotive once again wandered the london underground. running between kensington olympia to moorgate via high street kensington metropolitan railways E class number 1 with 6 metropolitan railway carriages and metropolitan railways electric locomotive number 12 sarah siddons ran on the underground through stations such as euston square and king's cross st pancras the latter of which now looks very different compared to them early days. the excursions proved to be a success both with those crazy enough to pay £150 for a single trip, enthusiasts and the general public with many of the platforms along the route being very crowded.
I went along to celebrate and see steam where i'd never seen it before and i was just blown away by the amount of people and seeing steam in pretty much the last place i ever expected to see it
thanks to london underground for pulling off such an amazing event and thanks to all those who joined me on this adventure and hope to see you all again soon

after my shinanigans on the friday though i was very tired i was out the next day (saturday) to go down to finsbury park, why go there? to get myself on the first railtour of 2013 which i booked a while ago. this was the uk railtours excursion from finsbury park to high marnham via peterborough, syston north curve and toton. after toton we joined the robin hood line which runs from nottingham to worksop with a triangle at shirebrook which connections there for some collieries and ofcourse the high marnham test track. after passing the colliery junctions and stopping to top up the water in the carriages we ventured onto the test track which involved jumping the east coast mainline at tuxford. after our interesting visit to the test track the tour continued taking the other part of the triangle to continue heading north towards worksop. at the next junction the tour didn't head towards worksop instead it took the other route towards shireoaks. sadly our time at the test track was over spent and our timings along that part of the route were far from generous and we were an hour late due to speed restrictions on the test track that weren't taken into account. moving onto that info i was told by the stewarts we took the junction west of shireoaks onto the south yorkshire joint line (closed to passengers since 1929) i must say this was an interesting route and we soon found ourselves on the east coast mainline again this time at doncaster, we travelled through the royal mail terminus and the station avoider, getting some very rare track along the way. we then took the swinton avoider then through rotherham central to find ourselves running parralel to the sheffield super trams. we then headed into tinsley yard which now sees less use than it did in it's heyday. the tour continued from here again clinging to the side of the tram route joining the doncaster to sheffield route at nunnery juntion to continue into sheffield, from there (and after surprising my girlfriend who was there for the day) the tour started heading south again along the midland mainline to head back to loughborough via toton again. after toton and dropping off tons of passengers the tour went again down the syston north curve stopping everywhere it did on it's way north. i admit it was a brilliant day and the class 66s pulling the train were amazing. another amaing day out thanks to the lads at ukrailtours

let's cut to the chase, has a problem from this guard on my northern service where this guard told me off for having a ticket which i booked in advance for a train before 10pm, i've done the same service every friday since the end of august when i go to see my girlfriend no problem whatsoever till today. but things really spiced up in the evening. usually i get a cross country to doncaster and wait for an east coast 91 to take me home, however when i arrived i saw my service was 40 minutes late and it slowly got later and later. i found out thanks to friends 91121 developed a fault and was only running on 2 traction motors. next i bumped into 4 party goers from sheffield who asked me when their next train home was, unfortunately for them they had a while to wait so decided to go to the lepard pub in doncaster and drag me with them. i thought i'd go for the one drink since they insisted so much then leave after so i did. after having my drink and hanging with these 4 people i politely said i must go then i went, when i got back my service home now running an hour late arrived. there was something unusual about my train today, it was being dragged by a class 67 no. 67020. what made this even more interesting was they kept the train in service instead of canceling it. i got on as planned, sat back and enjoyed the ride. i like class 67s and i knew i was getting this journey for free thanks to east coast's delay repay scheme. by the time i arrived in peterborough the train was 88 minutes late cos the 67 could only run at 100 vice 125mph