Missing Trains

It was time for the festive season steam specials - good old Christmas markets. I planned to watch three in a week; Tyseley to Lincoln, King’s Cross to Lincoln on the same day and a week later, King’s Cross to York.

Plans in place, I went back to the telly. I am hopeless at working out what happens in TV dramas. Luckily, I have an interpreter to explain things. “I thought he was in prison,” I said. “It’s in different time zones,” I am informed. “They tell you when each bit is happening at the bottom of the screen, but you can work it out from their appearance, anyway.”

I kept a close eye on developments but ex-GWR Castle Class 4-6-0 No. 5043 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe was deemed to be out of gauge at Nottingham quite early on. That would no doubt be the result of major changes at the station in recent times. Mind you, how long have they had to check that out?

“Are those girls twins? She looks just like the one that died in the garden shed.” Withering look, no further comment.

We embarked on a busy Saturday, undeterred by the loss of the Tyseley train. First stop, Stoneleigh, to drop off a poster and carriage print for a future railwayana auction. On, then, to Packwood House [NT] for some Christmas spirit - a most welcoming Elizabethan country house with a roaring log fire in the entrance hall. It must have been doing just that for 400 years, or so.

On the way back, we checked on the iphone that ex-LMS Coronation Pacific No. 46233 Duchess of Sutherland was still advertised as running. We were in good time when we reached Newark.

Why was there was only a handful of people waiting for the steam special, instead of the usual twenty or thirty, plus? A middle-aged man dressed as Andy Pandy and carrying a large rucksack skipped off the local train from Lincoln. He told us that the semi had not even reached London that morning before the empty stock carriage formation had split in two. The run had subsequently been aborted. When I got home I checked the website again and it had, indeed, reported that fact. We should have checked again nearer to our destination. Two down one to go. Luckily Sutherland was due to be back again the following week.

“Are we still in Germany?” No, it’s Switzerland.” Well, at least I knew it wasn’t Iraq because there was no desert. “So, there were three girls, but no twins?” “Yes, and he had a scar on his face, she had a different hair style and the detective had shaved his head.” “So, the daughter was still alive at the end?” “YES!!”

The semi was shown as running as normal when the times were posted on the following Saturday morning. We were entertaining friends and I explained the added treat we had in store for them before we went for our booked evening meal out – 7p.m. at the pub. Gamely, they had shown the same admirable enthusiasm when I had mounted a similar “share my hobby with me” event a year or two ago.

We walked until the light faded and the drizzle began, had a cuppa, got changed for an evening out and made a dash for Newark Northgate through heavy rain, getting there with 5 minutes to spare. A Class 91 sped through, southbound, and after a minute or two the signal returned to amber and I got that all important, anticipatory buzz, which I hoped was being shared by all. Nothing happened.

Twenty minutes later a young man with his finger on the technological pulse took pity on us and shared the news from his app’. Sutherland had been delayed by an hour. That means we would miss our booked restaurant slot on a busy Saturday night, a couple of weeks before Christmas. We could have been struggling. We left for the pub. Talk about the missing. I’d missed all three planned trains in a week.

Running steam on a modern main line is fraught with difficulties and sometimes things happen. I’m not into the blame culture but I am into culture and heritage. I salute all those who go to great lengths in trying to make it work and usually getting it right. I’d have taken my hat off to them there and then but it was still absolutely pouring down with rain.

The website we should have investigated showed that, as predicted, Sutherland went through just over an hour late. Under normal circumstances, I would, of course, have been only too pleased to wait for her. Partly for the benefit of our patient and understanding friends, here is a photo of what we all missed – until next time.