Now Hemel is one of the early London ring New Towns and the station, built to serve the original village, is not ever so convenient for the town centre (though I’ve known worse), but it is on the same side of the town as the place to which I was to travel. It is on the West Coast Main Line, the former LNWR line to Birmingham and the north-west, and is served by semi-fast trains between London Euston and Birmingham New Street, which also have stops at, among others, Northampton and Nuneaton. Northampton is not far away but there is no direct public transport to there from Stamford, so that was not an option; Nuneaton does have hourly trains from Stamford but the connections are more concerned with getting people to the north-west and so, given also that all the trains involved are only semi-fasts, it takes longer to travel via Nuneaton than via Peterborough and London, and so it was that, booking in advance as usual via the East Coast website, I found myself on another brief adventure. An adventure because (1) it was to a place I’d never been and (2) used trains I’d never used before. The only other train I’d ever caught from Euston was the Caledonian Sleeper described in the very first of these articles. The Birmingham semi-fasts I used to use in the seventies, but only the five miles at the other end of the line, and the service was very different in those days, too.
Departure from Stamford was on the 14:00 train to Peterborough on the Sunday of the SKDC Chairman’s Civic Service at All Saints, so the civic reception nibbles provided my light lunch, dinner being the first thing on the schedule at the training course that evening. It was a warm, sunny afternoon and the ride to London from Peterborough was delightful. I still had some preparatory reading to do for the course: huge advantage of travelling by train was that I did not have to get all this finished before I left as I’d have had to if driving. Given the amount of activity that weekend, that was just as well. For luggage I took all the week’s clothes in my wheeled case, and my briefcase has a loop on the back that slides over the extended handle of the case, so I could pull both along at once. Ideal business luggage (bought for the purpose, of course).
The advance ticket required a specific train to be used, and plenty of time was allowed for the change of station in London: it did include Underground but I did not use that as Euston is only a short walk from King’s Cross. I sat in the sunshine outside a café at Euston and drank coffee while awaiting the time for my train to Hemel Hempstead and then made my way to the platform. Not so many years ago London was very quiet on Sundays. Not any more: the station and the café were heaving with people and the train, eight high-density suburban coaches, was full. Not uncomfortably so, but anyone getting on at the last moment would have had to search hard for a seat. I was amazed. Sunday tea-time and the world seemed to be at Euston.
The hill was not steep but it was unrelenting. And the sun was shining and it was hot. And I had two cases, albeit on wheels but they still had to be lifted up the hill. Jolly good exercise. I was almost there when a passing taxi stopped and offered me a lift. It was carrying someone else for the course and she was paying - although I did provide the tip! Checked in and straight to the shower!
And so to Peterborough and the change of train for Stamford, magazine material almost complete!
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