A windy 2 days

This will cover two days, namely the 19/20th September. On the Wednesday I was booked on the 11am from London St Pancras to Sheffield. The day began well. I got the front seat on the Docklands Light Railway

I duly arrived at St Pancras station, I never to be amazed by the station, even if its more of a shopping mall in places.

I got on to my train to Sheffield a class 222. On this service I was asked to produce my senior rail card, which is in my missing or stolen wallet. I did manage to waffle my way out of it. I only got away with it as it was a single ticket. It was a close call especially as I could have been asked to pay the full fare.

My onward journey was onto York. Once again I was asked for my rail card. This time the conductor was satisfied with my online account details. As we approached York, I got a hint of the problems that lay ahead. The train, which was due to go to Newcastle, was terminated at York as trees had blocked the line in the Durham area. At York there was an air of chaos as it became obvious that nothing could go north of Darlington. I was expecting a long wait for my train back to London. However it was not as long as I feared. An additional train was put on, I was only delayed by about 15mins or so.

The next day I was due to travel to Edinburgh from London Kings Cross. The electric wires were still down in the Durham area. As a consequence there was only one train an hour to Edinburgh. My train the 11am was still running, but it was combined with the cancelled 10.30. The train was packed. Moreover, the reserved seating was all over the place. I was booked in coach M ( first class), but was told I would be in coach L. I got a seat, but first class was full and standing. We left 5 mins late, made addtional stops. As the train was so full we spent extra time in the station. We ended up 50 mins late in Edinburgh. The onboard staff were amazing given the difficulties they had to encounter. All made for an intersting two days.