Earlier in November I headed up to Darlington on an LNER service with the intention on nipping up the Bishop Auckland branch and visiting the National Railway Museum’s second site, Locomotion at Shildon. Unfortunately, what I didn’t take into account was forgetting to check the opening hours, finding out on arrival that Locomotion is closed on Monday and Tuesdays. My trip was on a Tuesday…
With a winter chill in the air, but a glorious sunrise just beginning, I arrived at Peterborough station bright and early ready for another adventure. My ultimate destination was the NRM’s Locomotion in Shildon (although that failed miserably), however the first leg, as far as Darlington, was with LNER in first-class. It also turns out that this is the 150th blog of Flights and Times and so I feel that a first-class journey was appropriate.
iving into the grand Victorian station onboard a Great Anglia class 755, my first impressions of Bury St Edmunds were of a once important town that has found itself of diminishing importance in recent years. The station building was much too grand for its three services every two hours between Ipswich, Cambridge and Peterborough and the large gap between the east and westbound lines hinted at through lines once being present.
Last time I ventured into Anglia for a proper railday the branch lines and rural routes were served by a fleet of Sprinters and Turbos. Since then, when I’ve travelled through, I’ve gradually seen these replaced by Greater Anglia’s new class 755 FLIRT trains, however until now haven’t had a chance to try one out.
Arriving at Crewe onboard one of East Midlands Railway’s class 156s from Derby, I ventured out of the station for what was, despite numerous trips to, from and via Crewe, the first time. With my destination not mentioned on any of the directional signage out on the street, I was in the hands of Google Maps and thankfully, after a walk of about 15-minutes, arrived at the gates of Crewe Heritage Centre.
The evening of Friday 21st January 1876 was not a pleasant one for Huntingdonshire, with blizzards raging across the county leading to poor visibility and overall poor conditions. It was these conditions that led to the Abbots Ripton rail disaster, the worst rail accident in the county and one which changed some of the fundamental practices of the railways for the better.
Flights & Times 