Doncaster in the Rain

After timetable changes, the 10.49 from Retford to Doncaster is now a Hull Trains service and no longer the previously rostered Class 91 hauled train to York. The booking office at Retford is obviously part of LNER, so I made a point of checking that my anytime day return ticket is valid on other companies’ departures, which I was assured was the case. The ticket only states that it is “valid via any permitted route”, which is not quite the same thing as any permitted companies’ services, nor does it list which ones are “permitted”, either.

The 7 Class 60s recently parked in warm storage at Doncaster Down Decoy yard were partially blocked off by two rakes of wagons as we slowed in the approach to the station, so no photo opportunities there then. I caught a glimpse of them, including the four that were new to me, leaving me with just four more to track down before they, too, run out of work to do on the national network.

On the recently re-landscaped pedestrian approach to Doncaster station is the sculpture “Building Speed”. It celebrates the more than 2,000 locomotives built at Doncaster locomotive works, known as “The Plant”. The collaborative piece initiated by Doncaster Council and installed by CB Arts includes a series of vertical rails inscribed with the names of some of the locomotives built in the town that had carried the names of various winners of the St Leger.

Back inside and out of the rain, the footbridge across the platforms had disappeared since my last visit, though part of it still remains on the west side to allow footplate staff to cross the lines to the sidings and stabling point adjacent to the station.

Doncaster remains its usual busy self with passenger trains, but there is also enough of a freight locomotive mix to keep me interested. At the platform end, I waited patiently while two avid spotters called out the numbers of individual container wagons into their phones. When the train had passed, I asked what the number of the Class 70 was that had just disappeared to the north, light engine. They couldn’t tell me, as the loco did not have its number on the side. I felt a little puzzled by the situation in which wagon numbers had assumed an immediately greater importance than locomotives, but I suppose my own affliction in this direction is really only a matter of scale. I don’t even bother with unit numbers these days, never mind carriage numbers. There are just so many of them. I’d be getting a cricked neck or vertigo by merely trying to record them all. I’ll reserve my passion for actual locomotives, which I find is quite enough to be going on with.

I went elsewhere to discover the identity of the Class 70. “01” said the first person I asked. “001?”, I asked in reply, as there is a second series of Class 70s, starting with 801. He confirmed this with an unconvincing nod, and my suspicions turned out to be justified when No. 70801 eventually pulled into view again. Freightliner yellow doesn’t wear well unless you are going to wash it fairly regularly, I decided, reminding myself at the same time to put my high-vis cycling jacket through the eco-wash programme when I got home.