Boys' day out

As we do a couple of times a year, Tom and I had a train day out, this time with my old friend Malcolm and his train-mad son James. They live near Middlesbrough, and James' preferred location for trainspotting is Northallerton, so that's where we agreed to meet.

HST heading (a long way) north

We could have got there in half the time by car (heated seat, choice of music etc.), but in the spirit of the day, we decided to get up at the crack of dawn and head off by train, via Leeds. The day started well, as the the train from Ribblehead had a trolley on board, and they were stocking our favourite shortbread.

After an easy journey, we met Malcolm and James on the platform, and spent 40 minutes or so watching trains. We could see why James liked Northallerton - not many trains stop there, and the non-stopping trains go through flat out (125 mph), which is quite an experience when you're standing 3 feet away. It was mostly Virgin East Coast HSTs and electrics and Cross Country Voyagers, but there were some others too - a couple of freight trains and, best of all, British Doctor Yellow.

Ballast train

Our fingers and feet were soon frozen, so we walked the half mile or so to Northallerton High Street and had lunch in a nice old cafe that's been there for 130 years - macaroni cheese and a lovely brownie for Tom, and a posh fish finger sandwich for me. Pretty good, but not up to the standard of the awesome specimen I had in Penzance last summer.



After a quick mooch round the market, we headed back to the station for some more trains, and I managed to hone my skills of taking photographs of trains at speed. The next step is to practice on racing motorbikes - a much trickier proposition as they're both faster and smaller.

The sky suddenly darkened and we could see some foul weather headed our way, so we jumped on an HST and headed to York. When in York ... head to the railway museum. So we did a quick lap of the museum, which is always a pleasure, and then caught a Transpennine service to Leeds. Sadly, Leeds seemed full of groups of drunks, but we had a quick half at The Brewery Tap, struggled up to Wasabi to buy some sushi, and then headed back to the station to get our train home. As usual, Tom's bento was completely gone by Shipley. How does he do it?

The theme of the day

We rolled the car home from freezing Ribblehead, by which point, it was time for the boy to head to bed. A fun day out - I always enjoy our train days out. We've invited Malcolm and James over for a similar day at Carnforth next time.