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2022 US Trip – Day 2 (Terminal 2 to 3 at Heathrow Airport and a Quick Couple of Lounge Visits)

I don’t often do much transiting at Heathrow, but today I was going from Terminal 2 where my Aer Lingus flight landed to Terminal 3 where my American Airlines flight was departing. I had four hours or so deliberately in the schedule when planning this (so that I could enjoy the lounges), and despite the potential delays from the Queen’s funeral, that schedule worked out.

Here’s the transfer bus stop within T2 with a sign saying that there are regular buses every ten minutes. Anyway, 24 minutes later the bus arrived. Another couple were getting edgy as their flight was quite close in terms of time, whereas I was losing lounge time. Obviously mine was the most important situation that needed resolving, but I didn’t say anything.

Wooo, here comes the bus. The process was all quick from there, with another security check required because that’s what UK airports do, but there was a minimal delay with that and I was through and into the lounges within fifteen minutes of that bus setting off.

I do take decadent photos to surprise and delight readers…. This is one of the bathroom units at Cathay Pacific, which also has shower facilities. Note all the complimentary stuff in the little boxes, but I decided to just take the toothpaste as I’ve decided to keep my bag as light as possible during this trip. Fully refreshed, it was time for food.

I’ve written about the T3 lounges many times before on this blog, so a search will help any readers wanting to read my previous missives. In short, Oneworld status passengers can use the BA, American Airlines, Cathay Pacific and Qantas lounges regardless of which Oneworld airline they are travelling with, although the American Airlines one is currently closed. This is the menu from the Cathay Pacific lounge, where food is cooked to order, although there’s a self-service British section as well.

I went for the BBQ fried pork rice although with my regular order of the Mix Dimsum basket. As ever, it was delicious, as was the Guinness which is the first time I’ve seen that in this lounge.

I then rushed off (there’s no time to waste on days such as this) to the Qantas lounge as I’m just a little obsessed with their salt and pepper squid, but here’s the rest of the menu options. I’m not travelling next year so will lose my silver Oneworld status, but I’ll likely be getting it back soon enough in 2024 as I can’t miss out on the delights of menus like this. Yes, there’s more to life than this, but this is a bloody useful contribution to it.

Beautiful, melt in the mouth stuff…..

I remained in the Qantas lounge until it was time for my flight and I was slightly surprised to see that the majority of everyone there was watching the build-up to the Queen’s funeral on the lounge’s TVs. By nature of the lounge, most of the people there seemed to be Australian and some people had built themselves almost like little nests packed with food and drink where they could watch proceedings from. It was a reminder to me of the level of interest that people around the world have in the life and work of Queen Elizabeth II.

It was a lovely few hours, but I had a plane to New York to catch…..

September 21, 2022
2022 US Trip – Day 2 (American Airlines Flight from Heathrow T3 to JFK T8)

Suitably refreshed after visits to the Qantas and Cathay Pacific lounges, it was time to board the American Airlines flight from Heathrow T3 to JFK T8. See, I did tell readers that this trip would eventually get to the US! There was strict adherence to boarding by groups, despite the best efforts of some passengers to try and get on earlier than the group number on their ticket. The staff member said “group 3 now and anyone from groups 1 and 2 yet to board” and a passenger said to her “does that include group 8?” to which she replied that no it didn’t. Boarding was sluggish though, the flight departed 45 minutes late given the slow boarding and stowing of bags.

I had a bulkhead seat which gave me plenty of space and legroom. The aircraft was a Boeing 777-300, registration N722AN, which has been operated by American Airlines since they acquired it new in 2013. I was happy with this seat which I had been able to book for free before the flight, it felt comfortable on what was an entirely full flight. Apparently there was just one empty seat on the flight and that was someone at the airport who had cleared security but gone missing. I could hear the crew member say that he was likely asleep in a lounge and that it was too late to get anyone on stand-by onto the aircraft to replace him. With American Airlines, you can see how many people are on stand-by for each class and they got nearly everyone on board.

Legroom on the other seats looked manageable, but not entirely comfortable, especially if someone reclined into that space. I didn’t have to worry about that issue fortunately and I think the person behind with child was likely relieved that I didn’t recline either.

I didn’t use the in-flight entertainment as not much seemed particularly interesting, despite their claims of hundreds of hours of content with something for every taste. I did though watch an episode of the US version of The Office before getting bored and reverting back to podcasts.

The main meal service, I went for the chicken, green beans and starch option, although I was puzzled as to what that starch was. There was also a salad with dressing, a roll, crackers with cheese and then a carrot cake. I thought it was entirely satisfactory, nothing exceptional and the starch didn’t sound overly appetising, but it all tasted OK and it kept me amused for fifteen minutes or so.

I went for American Airlines over British Airways as they offer Dr. Pepper and have air vents. Simple things and simple minds….

In between naps, I went for Sprite as I managed to run them out of Dr. Pepper. I had quite a lot of little naps during my flight. Fortunately, there were power points on board so I had everything fully charged, and still had chance to lend the charger to my neighbour (on the plane, not in Norwich) as they couldn’t get theirs to work.

The personable crew member came to offer everyone an ice cream, mentioning to give it twenty minutes as it was so hard. He took a long time getting through the cabin as he kept talking to passengers, I got the impression that he rather liked his job, or he certainly looked like he did judging by his interactions. Indeed, all of the American Airlines crew were friendly, informal and they seemed to work well as a team, it give a positive ambience to the arrangements.

The breakfast options were beef or vegetarian pockets. Everyone else seemed to be going for the vegetarian one, but I was brave and went for beef and the crew member commented on my bravery. Not the most encouraging thing to say after ordering a meal, but the food was fine, although it was mostly pocket and not much beef.

A little girl came to talk to me as she wanted to look at my phone and see photos of my children. After checking her parents were content with this plan, which they were as they were trying to deal with a crying young baby, I checked she would be satisfied just with photos of a friend’s children. She was and we then went through hundreds of photos of Liam’s children who she decided that she liked. She thought Liam’s girl was her favourite as she looked the naughtiest.

The problem with airbridges is that it makes it hard to take photos, as opposed to when passengers are allowed to walk down steps. Anyway, the aircraft is in the photo to the left and that’ll have to do. There were a ridiculous 45 minute wait on the ground to get a stand, before another ninety minute wait at border control. They didn’t try any interrogation on this occasion, the officer just checked if I was in the US for tourism or business. I remember when a border control agent asked me a few years ago if I believed in the JFK rumours that he was killed by the secret service, which is quite a tricky question to know how to answer when arriving tired into a new country.

Anyway, the flight had made good time and there were no delays to the services I had taken during the time because of the Queen’s funeral which was potentially going to impact operations at Heathrow. It had been a good day.

This is terminal 8 where American Airlines and British Airways are combining operations, after many years for BA at Terminal 7. There’s a fair chunk of construction work going on at the moment and there’s going to be one large Oneworld lounge, albeit separated into three sections depending on class (of the flight, not of the individual) and loyalty scheme status. This model is likely to become more common I suspect, it feels odd that there are four Oneworld lounges at Heathrow T3, much as I like that situation.

September 21, 2022
2022 US Trip – Day 1 (BA Flight from Heathrow to Dublin)

The sun shines through the terminal windows at T5 lighting up the delights of Gate A9, which was fortunately not the bus gate (which is A10). The boarding process was all orderly and no-one stood in front of the queueing area, which made things much easier for the staff. Although the flight is to Dublin, this is effectively a domestic flight for purposes of border security, the staff don’t need to check passports at the gate, it’s just a photo image they take and that’s an automated process.

I boarded early, but the flight transpired to be relatively busy. It’s aircraft G-EUOF, an Airbus A319 which British Airways have had since October 2001. They really get their money’s worth from these aircraft, it’s doing six flights today, from Geneva to Heathrow, from Heathrow to Dublin, from Dublin to Heathrow, from Heathrow to Madrid, from Madrid to Heathrow and from Heathrow to Amsterdam.

My exit row seat, with the middle seat not being filled on the flight. I fell asleep soon after boarding, fortunately waking just as they handed out the water and cereal bar (which are still in my bag) before having another little sleep. Very restful. This is the big advantage in British Airways over Ryanair or WizzAir, who bang and clank down the aisle trying to sell things. It’s not the fault of the hard-working crew at these airlines, just the model in which they have to work. It was the usual professionally operated flight, the pilots were reassuring and gave useful announcements, whilst the crew were endlessly polite and efficient.

Safely in Dublin, arriving around five minutes early.

There are only six Play aircraft, the relatively new budget airline which operates from Iceland.

The border control process at Dublin is easy for UK passport holders. They do no checks on the passport on their computers, they just check that it’s a UK passport and that the image looks like the passenger in front of them. I think I was at the desk for around three seconds, it was almost as good as being in Schengen, not that that’s looking likely for the UK in the next few decades.

September 20, 2022
2022 US Trip – Day 2 (Aer Lingus Flight from Dublin Terminal 2 to London Heathrow Terminal 2)

As is just about visible for anyone zooming into the image to look at the screen, I arrived at the gate at 05:29 for my 06:30 flight. I left the lounge at 05:28 thinking it might take twenty minutes to get to the gate. It didn’t. I refuse to ever be realistic in case the one time that I’m not, I’ll be delayed somehow en route and miss my flight.

Here’s the Aer Lingus flight having landed into Heathrow T2, as I couldn’t get a photo in Dublin. The aircraft was at capacity and I boarded towards the end (no status with Aer Lingus) which didn’t much matter as I had an aisle seat. Nothing is provided free of charge on Aer Lingus in terms of refreshments, but there is a trolley going around selling food and drink. I can’t add much detail to the flight since I was asleep for the entirety of it, but I’m sure it was lovely.

For reference (more mine than anyone else), this was an A320, registration EI-DVE, which Aer Lingus have operated since they acquired in new in 2007.

It felt appropriate to land at Heathrow T2 on the day of the Queen’s funeral, as this is the Queen’s Terminal. Despite dire warnings from Aer Lingus about delays on the day of the funeral, including trying to get me to change my flight, everything went to clockwork in terms of the flights. Although to be fair to Aer Lingus, they did have to cancel some of their flights later on during the day, so the situation probably felt quite fluid last week.

September 20, 2022
2022 US Trip – Day 1 (Getting to Heathrow T5)

Well, we’re off (I say we, it’s just me on this trip) and the first part of the expedition was getting to Heathrow T5. Luckily my ever-ready friend Liam was willing to take me to Heathrow T5, avoiding a potentially expensive hotel which I would have only been in for a short period of time.

As Liam has an electric car we had to factor a couple of charging points, with the first meant to be at Harlow. However, a horde of taxi drivers (is that the correct name?) were using the facilities and we would have been quite some time waiting for them. They’re not in the photo, I didn’t want to look rude by taking a photo of them. There seem to be ever more electric charging points being added to the network, but it’s still not comprehensive coverage and there’s little protection from a queue of taxi drivers wanting to use them.

We drove on a bit and found what seemed a slightly ridiculous set-up at a business park which seemed in the dark to be in the middle of nowhere. I’m sure it’s very vibrant in the day, but it felt rather shady at night.

Car charging doesn’t get any more decadent than this. Parking is free on Sunday, so I got a ticket printed from the machine in case we were meant to have one. I didn’t expect to see a parking attendant though at this time of the morning.

All was going very well, Liam’s had checked the app of where people were charging and that saw us glide into our second location at Gerrards Cross in Buckinghamshire. He went off to get a coffee for £1, a perk that you get when charging cars at BP petrol stations it seems. After 25 minutes or so, we were good to to.

Heathrow annoys me, it doesn’t let you walk in, it has scrapped the free travel zone and it now charges for drop offs. Far from ideal, but they do at least allow free drop-offs at the long-stay car parking. You get 29 minutes to park there for free, with buses operating every ten minutes or so. Liam, who built some of Heathrow T5, was pleased to see that this is on the site of his former works car park. I did wonder where to get the bus from at first, then Liam realised that it was the huge big bus shelter at the entrance to the car park, which is a very sensible place to put it.

I was busy taking photos having just got to the bus stop when I realised that the bus to T5 was coming to the stop, Liam had timed the drop-off perfectly. So, it’s quite a blurry photo, but the driver had a big smile and seemed unnervingly content for 04:30 in the morning.

It’s only a five minute or so journey on the bus to Heathrow T5, so in terms of drop-offs, it is convenient and saves paying the £5 fee.

Some professional signage there. But the service was timely, the bus was clean and it’s fast and efficient, so definitely worth considering for those who want to avoid the Heathrow drop-off charges. I’m not sure if you’re meant to, but you could actually just avoid paying for the TFL bus into Heathrow T5 and just get on this bus from the long-stay car park.

My obligatory “welcome to our home” photo, which has again come out blurry. I didn’t get the sleep that I had hoped for, which is also not ideal, but I’ll muddle on by. I’m not going directly to the United States, that’s not until tomorrow, I’m first going to Dublin.

Heathrow is commemorating HM Queen Elizabeth II in numerous ways, including on these large signs.

Timing wise, this was all rather lovely, the security process took around twelve minutes and I arrived at the entrance to the lounge one minute before it opened at 05:00. Liam is getting very good at this timing thing (he has been known to cut things far too fine) and it was very kind of him to do the dropping off. Hopefully he has good fortune using the chargers on his way back to Norwich.

September 18, 2022
2022 US Trip – Day 1 (BA Galleries South Lounge Heathrow T5)

Liam’s impressive timing meant that I got to the airport at a perfect time, not too early (my usual style) and not too late (his usual style). I arrived at the Heathrow T5 BA lounge complex at 04:59, one minute before it opened. Very handy.

I was the first person into Galleries South lounge, that’s never happened before. I can’t claim it’s something that I should get a badge for, but it did let me get some photos without other passengers cluttering them up. This is the main food area in this photo where they were laying out breakfast.

One of the seating areas, this one is just behind where passengers enter the lounge. These lounges do sprawl and there are three of these Galleries Lounges for BA customers at T5, two in the main terminal and one at B Gates (plus the First Class Lounge and the Concorde Room, which are too decadent for me).

The seating area at the end of the lounge which overlooks south security, with the cinema room off to the right.

And my favourite seating area, high chairs and power points, very convenient for my laptop arrangement.

Another photo at the back of the lounge. You used to be able to overlook security until they put that sea of grey over the windows, which is understandable, but I did used to like watching it.

One of the coffee stations and sets of beer fridges, where I was pleased to see that Brewdog Jet Stream was available. I had a few espressos to wake me up, although I’m not sure that they worked that well.

The cinema room.

I only had one beer as it was a bit early. I was pleased to see that the lounge had burnt the bacon, which is good as that’s just how I like it. Those sausage patties are very moreish as well. The BA food offering has definitely improved recently at this lounge (and non burnt bacon was also available).

Some healthy eating. Along with some grapes.

Anyway, my three hours in the lounge was very productive, although I was a little sleepy. The lounge was starting to get very busy when I left, so I was pleased with my timing.

I’ve photographed this before, but it’s just an iconic image and so I thought I’d have another image of it.

September 18, 2022
Tuesday – The Bulmer Stone – Darlington’s Oldest Landmark (Part Four)

As some bonus footage, or whatever anyone would like to call it, I felt the need to mention the Bulmer Stone located on Northgate. This is named after Willy Bulmer, a former Borough Crier, who would shout the latest news and gossip out all about Darlington. Apparently it used to be said in the town that “no other town or city in the world has a more ancient monument in its midst”, which is certainly an aspirational statement for this rock. It’s a bit hidden away behind the railings, but to the town, it is an important lump of granite. I don’t think there’s any legend along the lines of “if the rock is stolen, then the town’s market falls down”, but perhaps there should be to add some extra intrigue to it.

And the nearby information board. It’s recommended (by me) to have a quick look at it, but I wouldn’t take kids there for a day out or anything.

[NB, the rest of this ‘riveting’ series of posts will be continued in 2023, as the US trip posts will have take priority. I hope that my loyal reader(s) aren’t too disappointed]

September 17, 2022
Tuesday – Quick Visit to Bishop Auckland (Part Three)

Setting off from Shildon railway station after my visit to the Locomotion museum, which has been here since 1825 and its siting here led to a great expansion of the village during the nineteenth century. Unfortunately, there’s not much here in terms of station infrastructure, even slow and steady improvements over just under 200 years should have seen more facilities. The nearby museum has though helped usage of the station and that is likely to increase from the expansion of Locomotion.

It’s a short rail journey into Bishop Auckland along the route of a line which is also original from the beginnings of the Stockton & Darlington Railway.

I don’t think that I’ve visited Bishop Auckland before and the main street from the railway station didn’t look anything particularly exciting, but then this rather grand and lovely market square appeared into view.

I thought as though I might as well pop into the JD Wetherspoon, the Stanley Jefferson. I clearly don’t know my comedy history as I assumed that this was some Victorian benefactor to the town, but instead:

“The Laurel Room, in Bishop Auckland Town Hall, is named after Stan Laurel. Born Stanley Jefferson, Stan Laurel is better known as the thin half of the famous double-act Laurel and Hardy. Stan’s parents managed the town’s Theatre Royal. Stan was christened here and, in 1903, attended the grammar school.”

Not overly decadent, but entirely satisfactory and there were also numerous power points to keep my devices charged. I seem to focus too much on that, but I can’t be one of those care-free people in life who wouldn’t collapse into a state of nervous tension if their phone died.

The pub seems well reviewed, but of course not everyone is surprised and delighted. I liked this one:

“4 Regular Real Ale enthusiasts Abbott Ale being our favourite. Today, no Abbott next choice 2 were pulled then off. Next choice also off. When we questioned it we were told “Well we don’t sell much Real Ale on weekends it’s mostly SHOTS ” !!!. What a load of insulting rubbish!!”

I make no comment on Abbot Ale as that would be cheap, but I was amused about the “on weekends it’s mostly shots”. I know a pub that was run like that…. Ah for the days of selling Apple Sourz.

St. Anne’s Church which is Grade II listed, but is relatively late for a town’s main church, with the building having been designed by William Thompson and dating from between 1846 and 1848. It was though built on the site of a former medieval chapel, but it’s not currently in good shape and is on the Heritage at Risk Register. It received funding a few years ago from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Historic England but another project is needed to secure the building.

The town’s war memorial, which was moved a few years ago from its previous location on Station Approach.

A line was added in 1982 to note the Falkland Islands war. It’s a beautiful monument and in a nice area of the town, although those steps could do with a bit of tidying up.

Auckland Tower, which I had though was something to do with the fire service, but it’s actually a 29 metre high viewing tower. It was designed by Nìall McLaughlin and is meant to look modern but also to reflect the design of historic buildings. It has sweeping views over the castle and the Wetherspoons.

The town grew up from when in 1183 the Prince Bishops of Durham built their country retreat here, which later became Auckland Castle.

The entrance to the gateway, this area certainly feels salubrious.

The gateway from outside.

And a nearly identical photo of the gateway, this time taken from within the castle estate. The gateway was constructed in 1760 and was designed by Sir Thomas Robinson of Rokeby for Bishop William Trevor.

A rather glorious building, I can’t say I’ve seen one which has combined building materials like this.

One of the external walls to the castle.

And the reason I took the previous photo is that this interesting heritage board shows what they discovered on this site during recent archaeological digs.

Looking over to the gardens.

The entrance to the castle, which is open to the public during the day and there’s plenty to see during a visit looking at their web-site. If I come back to Bishop Auckland, I think I’d like to look around these buildings. I understand that the town feels it needs a major economic boost and it’s trying to create something of a tourist attraction of this castle, and other projects such as the aforementioned viewing tower and the gardens. They are aiming to encourage people to stay for a couple of days, rather than just briefly popping to the town. So, in short, trying to get people not to do what I did. The castle is still owned by the church and they use part of the site as offices.

Back in the market square and I was slightly surprised seeing such a grand building being used by Sports Direct (not that there’s anything wrong with that, but in a wealthier town it would likely by tea rooms or something). There were a fair few empty shops in the town and it didn’t have a vibrant atmosphere, despite all of the heritage and history all around.

Bondgate, a quaint street which is more what I’d expect from a provincial town and this was once the retail heart of Bishop Auckland. Shops down here are mostly independent retailers, similar to The Lanes in Norwich, something a little different from the usual number of chains.

Back on Newgate Street, walking back to the railway station.

I was rather taken by this building (not Heron Foods, but the former Lloyds) and it would probably make an interesting place to live, especially if there’s access to the bank’s former vault.

The number of shops to let is visible in this photo, there were probably around twenty along Newgate Street.

The town’s railway station (not Halfords, the building in the middle of the photo) which was opened in the 1980s after they had demolished the previous one. It was (in my view at least) yet another sad chapter in the history of British Rail, the demolition of a grand 1867 railway station to be replaced with a completely inadequate replacement. There are lots of photos of the old station, which is buried underneath Halfords and the other retail units, at http://disused-stations.org.uk/b/bishop_auckland/index.shtml.

The inadequate station is open for limited hours and for the rest of the time, passengers have to walk around the side to get access to the platforms.

The end of the line for the rail network, although the line continues on for 18 miles to Eastgate station as a heritage railway set-up. It closed long ago for passengers, in 1953, but freight services continued until 1992 which is why the line wasn’t entirely lost. Full credit for the heritage railway keeping it open, but this should ideally be opened to passenger services once again, and that has been suggested as part of the Government’s Restoring the Railways project. As it’s a very marginal constituency, it has a decent chance and I understand funding has been made available for a feasibility study.

With that the train to Darlington came in, another efficient Northern service. I had enjoyed Bishop Auckland, but I had expected it to be wealthier and not have quite so many empty retail units. However, they clearly have lots of exciting plans for tourists and I’d like to spend longer in the town.

Back in Darlington, ready for another peaceful night in the Mercure with the drinks in my little fridge being handily restocked again. And I got to use my welcome drink on a free Extra Smooth Ale from John Smith’s, albeit a little belatedly. How lovely (well, quite lovely in terms of the drink).

September 17, 2022
Tuesday – Second Railway Museum of the Day, Locomotion at Shildon (Part Two)

One railway museum is likely enough for one day, but in addition to visiting the Head of Steam in Darlington, it seemed worthwhile to get off the train en route to Bishop Auckland to have a look around the Locomotion museum. This name change confused me slightly (actually quite a lot), I thought that it was known as the National Railway Museum at Shildon, which seems rather more appropriate to me, but there we go. There are more photos at https://flickr.com/photos/julianwhite-uk/albums/72177720302071941 should anyone be catatonically bored.

It’s a short walk along the track (not literally along it, there’s a path to the side) from Shildon railway station to the museum and I thought I’d visit for an hour before catching the next train that would take me to Bishop Auckland.

The museum, opened by the then local MP and Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2004. They’re undergoing a large modernisation project which will see more exhibition space given how popular the museum has become. I very much like how easy it is to access by rail and as part of the modernisation project they’re restoring some of the other station buildings. There’s more about this project at https://www.locomotion.org.uk/about-us/our-future-vision-2025.

At the moment the museum is effectively a large shed full of locomotives, carriages and some other related items. They have very few smaller items relating to railway history, they’re mostly at the National Railway Museum in York.

This is Lyon, the Hetton colliery locomotive, although I feel that I’ve introduced it as if it’s something from Thomas the Tank Engine. It was probably built in 1852 and improved a bit in 1882 when they rebuilt it, remaining in service until the early twentieth century. It was an important part of the 1925 centenary of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, an event organised by LNER, but I think they thought at the time that it was older than it was. The museum is hedging its bets by having both dates on there, the 1820s and the 1850s, with a possibility that this is a genuine George Stephenson locomotive.

A Maglev railway car from 1984 which glided from Birmingham International Airport to Birmingham Exhibition Centre and it’s hard to think of anywhere more glamorous that they could have installed it. Quite excitingly, this was the first Maglev railway in the world, although it was a bit rickety and expensive to repair so they decommissioned it in 1995. As an aside, I’ve been on the Shanghai Maglev train, which is quite phenomenal at 268 mph (431 kmph) and is so fast that by the time it reaches full speed it has to start slowing down again. If that train fell off the track, it would launch itself hundreds of metres away. Well, that’s my best guess, I’m not an engineer to make such calculations, but as a journey I remember it being very smooth. I digress though, I don’t think the Birmingham one went as quickly.

I hadn’t planned to take so many photos, although that is usually the case, but there were plenty of shiny things to distract me in the museum. This is a Waterloo & City carriage from when the line opened in 1898, which is handily my favourite London Underground line. This carriage was constructed in Woolwich by Siemens Brothers, relations of the founders of the German company. It remained in use on the line until May 1968 and it was only retired then because of electrical burnout. It then apparently went to Brighton, for reasons I’m unaware of but perhaps they just thought it deserved a little holiday, before becoming part of the national railway collection.

Here’s a nice red fire engine, dating from 1880 and this was used by the staff at Gateshead Railway Works.

Composite 31, which sounds like a discussion point at Labour’s party conference, dates from 1846 and there’s a first and second class section. The board notes that anyone in third class would have a much worse journey, as the carriage often didn’t have a roof, didn’t have seats and was packed full of people. Perhaps I won’t moan quite so much when Greater Anglia put the Stansted Express rolling stock on the London to Norwich mainline. Although I probably will.

Timothy Hackworth, who lived locally and who was important in building the local railway (more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Hackworth), with what is left of his Sans Pareil original locomotive. This was presented to the Patent Office Museum in 1864, which in turn became the Science Museum and then it went to the National Railway Museum. It’s interesting how these things evolve, there was a lack of foresight in creating a national railway museum in the late nineteenth century and they were partly inspired by Nuremberg’s railway museum which had just opened. GWR got bored of waiting and after having saved their early North Star locomotive for display, they instead cut it up in 1906. They realised this wasn’t ideal when a museum opened, so in 1925 they stuck some bits of the original they found back together as part of a replica. That replica is now in the Great Western Railway museum in Swindon and I can’t remember if I even knew there was such a thing, but I now want to go there.

A prettier version of Sans Pareil, a replica which shows how colourful the original might have been. The locomotive means “without equal” and the original dates from 1829 whilst the replica is from 1980.

A good old Intercity branded British Railways Mark 1 carriage, although it dates from 1964 which predates that branding.

I don’t like corridor trains and I’m glad British Rail got rid of them and there aren’t any on services today in the UK (other than on heritage, preservation and private railways). They still have them in some European countries, including Poland and Ukraine, although I think they’re being phased out in Poland. I think the Ukrainians are busy with other things at the moment to be fair.

This is an early tilting train, the APT-E (Advanced Passenger Train Experimental) produced in 1972. ASLEF were horrified at it and their drivers were banned from using it. British Rail decided they’d test it for a few years, which they did and in 1976 they sent it to the National Railway Museum for preservation. But, they didn’t stop there and didn’t give up, the engineers then developed APT-P (Advanced Passenger Train Prototype) which was tested until the mid 1980s when it was scrapped due to a lack of money in British Rail. They did sell some of their technology to Fiat Ferroviaria for use in their development of the Pendolino train, so we helpfully supported another country’s tilting train technology.

TC (Trailer Car) which was attached to the APT-E, more of which at http://www.apt-e.org/onthemove/tc2.htm.

I mentioned that earlier in the day I had been to the Head of Seam Museum at Darlington North Road railway station and there was some sadness when they lost the Locomotion No. 1 locomotive which had been there between 1975 and 2021. I thought it was a little unnecessary of this museum to call it back from loan so they could put it on display here, as they’ve got rather enough trains of their own to play with. It did though mean I still got to see this early steam locomotive which was built by George Stephenson and Robert Stephenson in 1825. It’s heavily restored now (I often wonder how much of the original I’m ever looking at with these things), but some bits of it are original and from when it pulled the first train on the Stockton and Darlington Railway, making it the first locomotive on a public railway anywhere in the world. I think that’s some claim to fame. It sped along at 15 mph, which I think is about the speed that the Greater Anglia train manages on the East Suffolk line today.

I was of course impressed at this historic piece of metal, but the museum has just placed it amongst their other trains and I don’t think they’ve made much of it. The Locomotion museum seemingly upset a fair few residents of Darlington over this and they’ve promised to lend it back to the Head of Steam museum in the run-up to 2025 when it’s 200 years old. Anyway, enough of my stirring up a local argument about where to store an old train….

As it was very hot, yet again, I decided to go to the museum’s cafe where they have reclaimed train seats to get a Feast. Such decadence….

Anyway, I very much enjoyed this museum, although I only had less than an hour there, although that was enough to see a good selection of locomotives and other exhibits. There’s no admission charge, a policy in common with the Science Museum and the National Railway Museum, so that was a bonus. I took far more photos than I had expected and there was certainly enough to see to make a visit last a couple of hours. BTW, the Feast was delicious if anyone wondered.

September 14, 2022
Monday – Former JD Wetherspoon in Middlesbrough and Meander Back to Darlington (Part Two)

After a lingering visit at one of the craft beer bars in Middlesbrough, I thought I might as well tick off the second JD Wetherspoon outlet in the town, which is the Swatters Carr. One again, I’ll pinch the pub’s history from their web-site:

“This has been a public house for more than a century. Mostly, the three-storey building (which extends along Victoria Road) was the Empire (not to be confused with the nearby Empire Theatre – now a nightclub). The Empire was originally named the Empire Hotel. The building is recorded in the 1891 census as the Swatters Carr Hotel Public House – Swatters (or Swathers) Carr after the isolated farmhouse, first recorded on a map dated 1618.”

Something of an art installation with some history, I thought that this was suitably quirky. The pub is one of the better reviewed pubs in the JD Wetherspoon chain and I thought it seemed well managed and organised. It’s a large venue, but it was clean, comfortable and peaceful. My laptop and I were quite content here for some time.

I was pleased to see that the pub had Plum Porter from Titanic Brewery on, so I had a half of that for not much more than £1. I made another mental note to go and visit some pubs owned by Titanic, mostly around the Stoke area, perhaps I’ll do that in 2024.

This enormous building was opened in July 1923 as the Elite Cinema, designed by James Forbes and with 1,900 seats. As with so many other cinemas, it couldn’t sustain sufficient trade in the 1980s and it was converted into the Crown Bingo Hall. That didn’t last long and it was turned into a pub in 1996 and I can only imagine that JD Wetherspoon had a think about getting involved, but it later on became operated by Stonegate as the Crown pub. They rather abandoned it in January 2015 by flogging it off to a property developer and it has been slowly falling into dereliction over recent years. The council is currently making warning noises that they’ll compulsorily purchase it if nothing is done soon, which seems the most sensible plan. At least the council are suggesting that they won’t countenance its demolition, which is perhaps what the property developers had hoped would happen. Urban explorers visited the building a couple of years ago, there’s a lot worth saving but it’ll cost a fortune to fix that up. I trust that no little incidents will happen to the building which would justify it being demolished.

The former Masham Hotel and what a beautiful frontage for a building, although sadly it’s no longer a pub. The former nineteenth century pub closed a couple of decades ago and was initially turned into shops and is now in use as an office.

The same pub company and a not dissimilar frontage to the Masham (not least as it was done by the same designers, Kitching and Lee in the 1920s), with a similar fate of this no longer being a pub. It’s a little sad, but this one closed its doors as a licensed premises in the late 1990s, although there has been talk of giving it another go as a pub. I hope they do, it just feels like a pub with character.

I was quite intrigued by the Isaac Wilson pub for a number of reasons, it’s a converted courthouse built in 1901 on the site of a Quaker burial ground, which is also named after a Quaker who opposed drinking. I bet he’d be thrilled. It’s also a former JD Wetherspoon pub and they closed it in 2017 and sold it to another company.

What I was a little surprised by is that the new owners have effectively just kept running it in exactly the same way, so even five years later it looks the same as it did other than there’s now a pool table and darts board. I can’t complain about that, if I took over a former JD Wetherspoon pub, I’d do the minimum possible, just paint out the old signs and leave everything else. So the signage, tables, carpet, bar and even pictures are unchanged. The new operator is Tees Inns, who also operate the former JD Wetherspoon King Johns Tavern pub in Hartlepool.

The pub had maintained low prices and I went for half a pint of the York Chocolate Stout from Rudgate Brewery, a reliable beer which was well kept. The team member was friendly, politely querying why I was ordering halves, but he was satisfied with my answer that it lets me visit twice the number of pubs. I can’t say that I struggled to find a table, but to be fair, late Monday afternoons aren’t really the peak trading time for pubs.

The frontage of the railway station, currently undergoing what looks like quite a restoration.

This feels like a proper railway station, it almost felt like a castle in the tunnels under the platforms.

I did comment yesterday on the random foliage on the platform, but to be fair, they have made a big effort elsewhere in the railway station.

I always like to see a board about history and I’m especially pleased to see them in railway stations. I suspect that I really should get out more….

And what a lovely waiting area, there’s a hint of decadence here.

I’m not sure why I was disappointed by the platforms, I think it’s just that other parts of the railway station felt like they were dripping in heritage and this just looked like most other stations.

My Northern train back to Darlington. On time, clean and efficient.

The photo is because I liked the Ukrainian flag. I still regret not going back to the country this January when I had chance, but I hope to return as soon as is even vaguely possible.

What looks like a random photo….

But I took the photo there because I was standing where this window is marked out in what was the Manor House, a grand and substantial building overlooking the river. The property had originally been built in the twelfth century and it was used by the Bishops of Durham. I think they fancied having a property in a rather grander place and so it fell into disrepair before it was demolished in 1808. The site was then turned into a workhouse for the poor, but this and the remains of some buildings from the manor house that had survived were all pulled down in the late nineteenth century.

In their place, Luck’s Square and Luck’s Terrace had been built on part of the manor house’s land.

However, in the 1960s this too was pulled down, as they wanted the land to build themselves a nice new Town Hall. Although, being honest, it looks a little like it was near to falling down anyway. It’s a much nicer area now, there are benches overlooking the river and it’s rather peaceful. The calmness does hide just how much this site has changed in usage over the last two centuries, from a grand manor house to a rickety building that needed pulling down, then a workhouse, then terraced housing and now the large green area outside the town hall.

And after all that excitement, I went back to the Mercure hotel that I was staying in, pleased to note that they had restocked all the free welcome drinks in the fridge. How really rather lovely.

September 13, 2022