I’m in good time at Lowdham station. Last time, it took me ages to work out my requirements on the only ticket machine and it still wouldn’t give me a railcard deduction on my return journey. This time the screens are completely blank. As there is no sign of life, I ring the adjacent help point. I am directed to “Just board the train and tell the conductor the machine is not working”. By the time we reach Nottingham, where I change for Leicester, the conductor has not put in an appearance, so I go to find him. “Go out of the station and buy a ticket at the ticket office”, he says, but I’ll miss my connection if I do that. “I’ll just see if I’ve got a charge on my ticket machine, then”, which unsurprisingly, he has. I nice relaxing start to my day out, then. I’m only here for a bit of unhurried and unworried gentle escapism, after all. Leicester station is as busy as usual. Loads of purposeful business people wait for the London trains. Many are engaged in earnest conversations via their headsets, “The only thing I’d say is two things….”, is a noticeably loud offering that makes me smile. The train back from Leicester is late leaving and signal-checked all the way into Nottingham, by which time I’ve missed the Lowdham train by three minutes and have an hour’s wait, instead. Not the most straightforward of journeys but I didn’t care a bit. I had enjoyed a few hours of mindlessness on Leicester station and even got quite excited when Class 60 No. 60028, which I had not seen before, crept out of the depot before reversing back in and onto another siding. Some new Hitachi Aurora sets were in service with others being tested out. There was no sign of the new Class 99s, unfortunately, but I can wait. In fact, I’m already looking forward to trying again before long. Perhaps they’ll have fixed their platform ticket machine by then, as well.
