I arrived at Kettering station on the way back from Finedon. After a cup of tea in the buffet I went out to catch my train.
A platform change was announced. Sure enough, the Nottingham service was being diverted and would not call at Market Harborough.
It was still light, I had all the necessary tickets, so I decided to catch it even so. Who could resist a trip over the Welland Viaduct?
The view as far as Corby is not exciting (as Go Litel Blog, Go... once pointed out), though there was a snowy field full of black sheep to enjoy.
Then we reached the viaduct itself. The hills were white, what Lord Bonkers always calls "the broad valley of the Welland" was green and the river itself, in spate from the melting snow, was silver in the low winter sun. The view was well worth the longer journey.
We reached Leicester. The trains were in chaos, but the crowds were mostly of Leicester Tigers fans happy after the victory over Gloucester and I met Colin Davies on the station.
Eventually I gave up waiting for East Midlands Trains and caught a bus home
I had the joys of Welland viaduct travelling back from Bedford last year - although that was due to scheduled Sunday engineering work.
ReplyDeletehttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/leicestershire/8526734.stm
ReplyDelete"Train breakdown delays passengers in Leicestershire. Passengers were later able to continue their journey on a different train. Up to 200 passengers were forced to leave a train when it broke down and started leaking fuel in Leicestershire."
Report on-line from a passenger caught in this said they were told that the train had hit an obstacle on the line, puncturing a fuel tank and doing other damage. Also the reporter said that, as usual, mitigation activity for other passengers was chaotic,such as trying to cram passengers from one already over full train into an already over full train.