The sands shift again

I wrote in January about changes to this year's travel plans, and since then there have been even more "events, dear boy ..." which have blown us even further off track but I think we'll come out all right in the end! The big disaster was the phone call from Great Rail Journeys saying that our planned, booked and deposit-paid escorted holiday in the Swiss Alps was cancelled owing to too few others booking it. That was to have been the big one this year. Alternatives were offered but none fitted our diaries ... yet.

Randolph Hotel, Oxford, beyond St Mary
Magdelen Church

The already scuppered spring holiday in the South of France, meanwhile, was replaced by a short break in Oxford which, while not the same sort of holiday was nonetheless very enjoyable and was an adventure of a sort because we had never explored Oxford before, only ever visiting it for a specific reason: the next blog post will describe this trip.

After much thought and leafing through the Great Rail Journeys catalogue we decided to shift the South of France trip to the diary slot where the Swiss Alps had been going to be, and the voucher the company had sent us by way of compensation could be used to pay for it if we used their tailor-made service to book it, which would also save me a lot of work putting the trip together. So I have made the phone call and await the draft itinerary: let its see how it works out. The idea is to travel direct from St Pancras International by Eurostar to Marseille and trip out from there to Cannes and Nice, then move on to Avignon and return direct from there: stays in London will be needed both ways because of the early start and late finish.

Still intact, although so far only the accommodation in Chichester is actually booked, is yet another summer holiday in the South of England - there is more to plan yet.

The Alps can await next summer, by which time we shall no longer be tied to school holidays, for the first time since I married a teacher  in 1980! That might just make it work.

UPDATE: The email message arrived today with the draft itinerary. It looked fine to me, and although I had a few queries a quick phone call to Great Rail Journeys Independent had them resolved by this evening and I shall telephone tomorrow and book the holiday! Now to research the Côte d'Azur and find out how we'll be spending our time, and we can do something in London on the way back, too.

UPDATE: The holiday is now booked, possibly cheaper than I could have booked it myself, and I have started a Pinterest board to help in planning the trip! We shall travel on the through Eurostar from London to Marseille, then move on to Nice and finally a night in Avignon begore getting the Eurostar home.

UPDATE: Rail tickets for the South of England trip have also now been booked, out via a night in Bristol, home via a day in Brighton. Should be good if weather is as expected. And the Oxford trip has now been blogged!

Change at East Grinstead for Sheffield Park

Station stop at Riddlesdown: tunnel beckons!

We were staying with friends in Croydon (I really must write sometime about getting there!) when the idea of visiting the nearby preserved Bluebell Railway came up in conversation. An extension had recently been completed which connected the line to the national rail network at East Grinstead and so it had become another of the preserved, steam-operated lines that could be visited by rail, or even used for travel, if you happen to be visiting the places on its route (we had done this with the Dartmouth Steam Railway when travelling to Dartmouth via Paignton).

We began with the tram from their home to East Croydon station, using our Oyster cards for the fare payment, then bought a group day-return ticket for the four of us to East Grinstead and back - I had not known of this ticket and was advised of it by the clerk: it cheaper than buying four separate tickets even though two of us had a Two Together railcard.

Train loco running round at East Grinstead platform 3

The journey through arcadian Surrey into Sussex was very pleasant, along the east side of a valley in the bottom of which ran the A23 Brighton road and along the other side the branch line through Kenley to Caterham. East Grinstead main line station has a new building, and out of this station we turned right and walked the short distance to the adjacent steam railway station ticket office and bought our tickets and collected a timetable for our day on the preserved railway. These were rover tickets enabling us to travel back and forth between the stations as we wished. Our train was waiting at the platform and its locomotive running round, ready to haul it back to Sheffield Park.

The train was soon on its way along the newly-reopened northern section of this intensely rural branch line and paused at Kingscote station, restored in 1959 British Railways style, but we stayed on here and travelled through here and the next station at Horsted Keynes, restored as in the 1920s in Southern Railway style. It is here that the restoration of the line's carriages takes place, and they have a fine collection of coaches from various eras. The Bluebell Railway is licensed for civil marriage ceremonies and a wedding was taking place on the other platform at Horsted Keynes as we passed through. This station has an odd layout where the track between two of the platforms is single, with access to the train from both sides. And the platforms are numbered towards the entrance and not away from it as usual. A very quirky place, which we visited later in the day.

The current terminus at Sheffield Park: train of BR Mk1
coaches just arrived at platform and passengers making
their way to lunch

A northbound train came in from the other direction and our train moved on towards Sheffield Park, the end of the preserved line. None of these stations ever saw much traffic when in service but are very attractive and are now busy all summer with visitors enjoying the line which really goes nowhere much at all! Sheffield Park station was built really for the nearby stately home from which it takes its name, the home of Lord Sheffield,  and has been restored as it would have been in the 1880s, as originally decorated by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway which built it. It was lunchtime and we repaired to the Bessemer Arms for beer and sandwiches, and then spent some time looking around the locomotive collection in the nearby loco shed and the museum on the other platform.

Carriage restoration at Horsted Keynes

Our next train back as far as Horsted Keynes was hauled by an ancient LBSCR locomotive and was composed of wooden-bodied Metropolitan Railway coaches, very much older than the British Railways Mk1 standard coaches on which we had arrived. At Horsted Keynes we looked around the workshops in which further examples of wooden-bodied coaches were being restored, original components being used as much as possible, with new timber used where the original was beyond re-use. A very great deal of work is needed on each vehicle, mostly by volunteers.


And so back to East Grinstead and the next Southern Trains electric to East Croydon and the tram back to where we were staying.

Useful oddities

Occasionally we get some odd train times in our timetable, such as the two early morning trains direct to Norwich from  Nottingham via our local station in Stamford, Lincs. Any other time you'd have to change at Ely or Peterborough from Stamford, and there is no equivalent direct service in the other direction. It is primarily there for the convenience of East Midlands Trains, getting their train sets in the right place for the day's service, and presumably there is some reason why these cannot take their normal route via Grantham. For Oakham and Stamford it provides a slightly beefed-up service to Peterborough just when we need it in the morning to take onward connections to London and elsewhere.

Train to Nottingham stands at Spalding station, last of the day

The oddity in the other direction which does provide, if ever you should need it, a direct train to Nottingham, is an extension of the last service from Spalding to Peterborough, again probably for the convenience of the train company in getting its train set back to base after the day's work, but again providing a useful extra connection at Peterborough. For me, who just now and again need to go to Spalding in an evening, it also provides a through train home, avoiding the dreary wait for a connection at Peterborough after all the coffee bars have closed!

Take, for instance, a school governors' training session in Spalding last year. The simple option is just to get in the car, as we are in the habit of doing in Lincolnshire, and driving the 20 miles or so. Easy Takes about half an hour plus parking time, and as this was at a hotel there was a car park provided. The option I prefer is to take the train to Peterborough, change for Spalding and walk to the meeting from the station. Takes a bit longer but not much, costs quite a bit less for those of us using a Senior Railcard (and about the same for anyone not using one) and is much more relaxing, allowing me to read or do other things on the way, which I did.

At the end of the meeting I walked back to the station and caught the through train to Stamford: this does take about the same time as driving, although, of course, there is the walk at either end, but then I do not spend any of my week at a gym "working out," I just "walk out" instead! I am sure I spend no more time walking to and from stations than those who drive spend at gyms trying to make up for not walking anywhere!

I'd be the first to agree that we do not have enough train services, especially at night. Spalding's timetable is especially poor, particularly in the Lincoln direction, and Stamford's is only a little better. It works, but only just (see my post on spending an evening in London) and we do need more frequent trains and a longer operating day. But it is better than a lot of people think, and it is perfectly feasible and even preferable at times to leave the car at home and take the train: maybe if more of us did this the train companies might be inclined to make more of the service.