14:00.

The pair of us are off to Derby to prepare for tonight’s social event before tomorrow’s Community Rail awards. Weatherwise, it’s a fantastic day to be travelling. As we had plenty of time we haven’t had to rush or get up at sparrow-fart to get there, which has been nice. Instead, we’ve had a leisurely morning packing before heading off to the station.

Due to congestion in the Calder valley our intended train from Halifax was late. Instead, we caught a Halifax to Hull service that was running just ahead of ours. The 3car Class 158 that was working it was almost empty so we had a relaxing journey to Leeds where we’d arranged to meet up with a couple of CRN colleagues to catch Cross-Country’s 13:15 to Derby. I’d noted that this was only a 4-car train and likely to be rammed, so prepared a plan B. Sure enough, it was standing room only, so whilst our colleagues braved it Dawn and I followed behind on Northern’s 13:38 to Sheffield. As this started from Leeds we’d no trouble getting a table bay, allowing me to set up the mobile office and for Dee to answer emails. The two of us are in no rush as neither of us are officially on duty tonight and the social event (sponsored by East Midlands Railway) isn’t until 17:00.

So, next stop Sheffield, where we’ll pick up an EMR service onwards to Derby…

15:00.

It’s one of those days! We arrived at Sheffield to meet up with another of the gang only to find that all London bound EMR services were cancelled due to signal failure. Fortunatly, there was a 14:56 Cross-Country to Plymouth that we could catch. Even though it’s 5-car (formed of an ex Avanti unit) it’s packed to the gunwhales.

I’ve a small favour to ask…
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Cheers,

Paul