A day out in the east of england

My first blog (ever) 30.12.11
Thanks to First Capital Connect and their  5 free tickets, I've been out and about again today. After a start at 4.30am this morning (not my usual time to get up), to get a friends mother to Luton Airport for 6am for an 8am flight back to Belgrade. So I decided that I should go off on a trip to Peterborough via Cambridge and Ely. 8.09 from Ash Vale, up to Waterloo and across to Kings Cross on the Northern and Victoria lines. From Kings Cross it was off on the 09.45 service to Kings Lynn, which is actually a good service, only taking  1 hour 5 minutes to get to Ely. Where there is a varity of TOC's (FCC, East Midlands and National Express) and various freight companies passing through the area.

 FCC 365540 at Ely on an earlier visit.
So from Ely at 10.58, it was on to a National Express East Anglia service with 170207. On the way across those low lying Fens of Cambridgeshire, where the soil is coal black, we passed a couple of passenger services going towards Ely. As well as some freight trains heading east, including class 70 70007 on a container, or is it an inter modal service?

Peterborough, is a good place to watch the railway world, with not only the services going across country, from east to west, but also those charging (ok, not all charging) up and down the East Coast mainline. My assumption for it being a good place, is borne out by the number of young and not so young (in fact, more not so young) railway enthusiast around the station, even on a cool December day.

Freightliner class 66 no. 66526, which had followed me from Ely.

Eurocargo Class 66 no. 66010 with a side body sticker, under the rear cab window, detailing the locomotives European loco details.

East Midland Trains class 158 no. 158854 on a Liverpool to Norwich service with Freightliner loco 66598 away in the distance.

For a southern rail man like myself, Peterborough is well worth a visit once in a while. Giving me a taste of the north, well ok the east and midlands, with a splash of the north. But in addition to these long haul services, from East Anglia to the North west and London to Scotland. There are the local services for the area too, from Doncaster/Lincoln to Peterborough where East Midland trains operate their one car class 153 units.

East Midland Trains Class 153 no. 153313 on a Peterborough to Lincoln service.

So after such an early start to the day,  I'm now off to chill and sleep. But I hope to be out and about on the rails again soon. And in the meantime, I may download here a few other pics from my collections.

Cheers
Paul