Hi everyone, I am back on here since 'railway escapade 11' which I am pleased to say despite what looked like an almost impossible challenge, I managed to do it and got the photos I was after.
So, what was it about? Well, as I said in the Night Shots thread, I panned to travel over 300 miles of rail between Edinburgh and the East Midlands. However, I kept the beginning part a secret, here is what happened, John was the closet with the guess. I
flew to Edinburgh from Nottingham East Midlands Airport with the fantastic BMI Baby. I just have to say how wonderful this experience was. I got in my opinion the best seat onboard on the front row with a window, and there were some absolutely stunning views of sunrise when we reached 2400 feet, but I really enjoyed the view of Forth Bridge as we landed.
The reason I decided to do this was because I had read comments on the fact that photography was a much easier task at airports compared to the railways with all of these barriers and staff stopping us. So I decided to try this out for myself and see just which one is easier. I can say now that photography at airports is just as big a task as at rail stations despite what people say. I have to say thanks to the BMI Baby onboard staff, who I guessed saw the flash on the camera go off, but had no problem with me taking photos and were really friendly.
After a few hours in Edinburgh and then it was onboard the 13:00 GNER (91128 pusing) as far as Newcastle. I had purposely reserved a seat so that I would fact the left side of the train, and luckily the train was in the formation I expected and I got some great views along te Berwick route. However, not far from Morpeth we had stopped for some time. Then there was an announcement saying that there were some signal problem in the York area, and we were in a que behind 2 other trains, however to be honest it wasn't bad at all, more time onboard the GNER and I got myself a nice hot meal from the menu (wonder if NX will keep to a similar food menu like the great one GNER has
).
Then after just under 2 hours on the 225, we arrived at Newcastle, then it was a wait until the 15:24 Virgin for my final Virgin Cross Country journey. In came 2 joint voyagers
220005 & 220030. I joined on the back voyager which was much quiter than the front, though without an open shop. The service powered down south, and day turned to night as we arrived in the York area. However, after departing the voyager came accross a problem just outside of Meadowhall as it was stopped and reduced speed due to vandalism! The Voyagers finally arrived at Derby at 18:45, and that concluded my last Virgin XC journey. After this it was onto the final Southbound MML HST back to where I had began the escapade.
How pleased I was to have completed such a huge adventure, it was definitely worth the incredibly early start and is a perfect end for this years railway escapades.
The escapade is expected to be called 'The Edinburgh Astonisher' and the photos will be on my site later than usual by this Saturday. The reason for this is that I want to do some enhancement to some of the photos. It will be worth the wait.