BUS STOP

Major news this time is that East Midlands Railway conductors are staging 3 1-day strikes on Suns. 16th, 23rd and 30th May., in a dispute over pay and conditions. At the moment there is a serious problem with cracks being found on new Hitachi class 800 trains, which will not be easy, cheap or quick to fix. Fortunately these do not run through Long Eaton. East Midlands Gateway has been a big success, with several freight trains daily (except Sundays). It can take 16 775m. trains per diurnal cycle and is handling about 10,000 containers a month. There is storage capacity for 4,000 20ft. length equivalent container units. Roadworks on Derby Road, Nottingham affect the Trentbarton indigo and i4 from Mon.10th-Thu.13th May. The road will be closed at Sawley Junction on 15th, 22nd and 23rd May. This will affect the 15, Skylink and CT4N 29. The closure of Kirkhill in Shepshed may divert the Skylink Coalville. Notts & Derby have some new 2nd hand double deckers to serve their vastly reduced network. Nottingham City Transport have helped in the raising of £138,000 for Emmanuel House homeless charity. 

 

We are back in the world of day trips now, thanks to the rollout of vaccinations. I have had both mine now. My 1st outing was to the Great Central Railway, on Saturday 17th April (the day of Prince Philip's funeral), the 1st operating day for the GCR, booked in March. It only cost £11, which, with the Anytime Day Return, with Senior Railcard, from Long Eaton to Loughborough, made it quite a cheap excursion. The rest of the time, I was using my bus pass, so no costs there. The 0841 London train was on-time, with very few passengers. I was soon on the NCT South Notts no. 1, at Loughborough Midland, and this terminated at Baxter Gate, where I had about 10 yards to walk, to get the Centrebus no. 154 to Quorn station, the only boarding point for the steam trains. Class 08 no. D4137 shunted 6990 'Witherslack Hall' into Quorn Yard at 10 to 10, for people to look at. I got the 10 o'clock, formed of ;9F' 92214 'Leicester City', the LMS Inspection Coach and 5 British Railways mark 1 carriages. There was a signal check on the way up to Leicester North, and another one on the way back. I ate my pork pie before the return journey, washed down with water. We were late back at Quorn, but I did not see the 154 bus, as I walked back up to Chaveney Road. I asked a lady if she had seen it go- she said "No". I adjudged it was wise to wait, and I was proved right, when it hoved into view a few minutes late. I transferred to the South Notts no. 1 at Baxter Gate- the garage at Gotham, and former HQ of this firm, was to close this weekend, and had 5 minutes to catch my train, at the Midland Station. We did not know, then, that the Brush factory, overlooking the station, was to close, but 5 days later, it was announced, with 300 redundancies, another blow to Loughborough, after 3M went, a few years ago. My train was on-time, and I got home at 1211. The Camra Zoom AGM and Conference was postponed 'til Sunday, out of deference to Prince Philip, which meant I was able to see the whole lot. And, also in recognition of him, the last train at the GCR was cancelled. It had been a sunny morning, and a sunny, cloudy afternoon, with a very light breeze, quite pleasant overall.

 C R Davis