Taking the breakfast train

We were at the Churnet Valley Railway in Staffordshire yesterday for our first lads’ train day on the heritage line. It was also the first time we had experienced a meal together in the dining car. This took the form of a cooked breakfast and Staffordshire oat cake combo that certainly did the job. The CRV has got it right in terms of the visitor experience. Plentiful, attentive and cheery staff served us well throughout the day. The day rover ticket allowed a second trip during the afternoon. We relaxed in our own compartment further up the train, while the hefty American 2-8-0 No. 6046 made light work of the gradients at the top end of the line. To top off the day, we all enjoyed a splendid Indian curry, once we’d found the lively Black Lion pub, hidden away above the main A520 road near Cheddleton to the south of Leek. 

   

Making Music at Toton

Last time I went to Toton bank I didn’t see anything new. This time, I thought I’d give mid-week a go instead of the previous weekend trips, which proved to be a good move. I’d not seen any Class 92s at Toton before, but here was 92011 sticking its head out of the depot and mostly hidden by other locos. Turns out it is called Handel. Two days later we are at the Minster in Southwell for a midweek concert performed by musicians from the Minster School. Second up is “Where e’re you walk” by Handel, unerringly and movingly sung by one of the youngsters. I have a soft spot for Handel [though certainly not all of it]. Every Christmas, I play sections from the Messiah that particularly appeal to me, including “He shall feed his flock” and “I know that my redeemer liveth”. In all 3 cases, it strikes me that Handel must have been a genius, writing such beautiful, melodic songs 300 years before Paul McCartney. It just seems like its such modern music to me. I know little about classical music [as by now you may have already decided] but I’m not aware of anything remotely as interesting coming before Handel, and yet to say that these songs strike a chord is a massive understatement for me. He must surely have recast the mould. On Wednesday, it carried all the way to the bank overlooking Toton MPD. I also copped 3 sheds.

         

Penistone Coal Drops

This Grade II listed site in the centre of Penistone is earmarked for redevelopment by a local company, who want to create offices, retail and hospitality outlets on derelict former sidings, alongside the old track bed of the Woodhead trans-Pennine route, which crossed the main road into the town centre on a bridge which still stands at this point. Protected from removal since 1988, the redeveloped site will incorporate the arches of the stone-built coal drops as well as the surviving nearby building that is described as the signal house.

Doncaster, for the first train day of the year

 

It was a bright sunny day for a return to Doncaster. My train from Retford and heading for York was delayed because “a train has hit an obstacle on the line”, we were informed, but only by 17 minutes, so presumably not too big an obstacle. This is still a Class 91 powered diagram, it seems. Locomotive hauled freights were actually few and far between, hardly surprising given the intensity of the passenger train traffic on the ECML and cross-country routes. 

  

Cross Lane Crossing

On the edge of Collingham, a village east of the Trent and north of Newark, is Cross Lane. It connects two main roads going eastwards from the village centre – Swinderby Road and Potterhill Road. As in so much of the lower and flatter bits of Eastern England, the railway crosses the roads around here at a series of level crossings as there are few bridges. In times past, these tended to be gated crossings with cottages alongside, where the crossing keeper lived. Their job was to open and close the gates manually and as required. Where road traffic was dominant, the gates were only closed to vehicles when a train was due to pass. Where road traffic was sparse, or virtually non-existent, the gates would only be opened on demand for occasional road users, like farmers’ tractors, etc. Drivers would summon attention from the crossing keeper by ringing a bell outside their property. Today, modern crossings are operated remotely. Warning lights show and then automatic barriers are lowered over the road when a train is approaching. The crossing keepers’ cottages are consequently defunct and most have been sold off to private occupiers. Apparently, in this particular case there are plans afoot to actually divert Cross Lane itself, so that it no longer crosses the railway at this point, but joins Swinderby Road further away from the village, thus removing the need for the Cross Lane crossing at all in the future. 

 

 

GCR Steam Winter Gala 2025

They put on a good gala weekend on the GCR. Double track helps a lot, of course, as it allows a very intensive timetable to be followed, but so does careful planning, including guest locos from other heritage railways. I was particularly pleased to see the new-build Grange Class No. 6880 Betton Grange making her first visit to the line.

  

Entente Cordiale

An attractive postcard arrived from France. It shows an old South Eastern and Chatham Railway poster advertising the attractions of the spa town of Enghien-les-Bains in the northern suburbs of Paris. Christmas and New Year messages have been exchanged with the sender every year for well over half a century, since Chris, with her friend, Sue, went youth hostelling and hitch-hiking together in the Lake District. A Citroen 2CV pulled up at the roadside and Andre and Erol, young medical students from the French capital, offered them a lift. Dinner at a restaurant in Keswick soon followed. The girls had even packed their home-made evening dresses in their rucksacks for any such eventualities. On their way down south after their Lakes adventure, the lads stayed at Chris’s dad’s family run hotel in New Brighton, where they became quite attached to the full English breakfast. When we got married in 1972, we spent part of our honeymoon at Erol’s parents’ apartment in Paris. Later on, and by then with our children, we were welcomed to Andre and Nicole’s home in Montmorency, where we met their own young family. We were then given a tour around the sights of Paris. Although we have kept in touch, we haven’t met up for many years - but that could still change.

It’s a heart-warming story - reaching out across borders, overcoming language differences and an appreciation of acts of kindness. It helps recall the eagerness and optimism of youth and all those similar journeys of exploration made in the company of friends. Historic Anglo-French rivalry, jingoistic newspaper headlines and the fuss over Brexit pale when compared to the value of maintaining such contacts, bringing with them comforting memories of significant moments from the past.