Dry Run to Durham on 17th July 2010

I couldn't resist this opportunity to go to Durham. I had taken advantage of an offer from East Coast offering tickets from King's Cross for just £9. It's less than a London Travelcard so very good value. I had done a lot of planning, as usual, for this trip and I had a GPS, several maps and a timetable with me. I left the house having kissed goodbye to Carolyn at just gone 8.35am and got the 336 bus, which conveniently stops outside my house, at 8.45am. Got to Bromley South at just after 9.00am and jumped on the fast train to London Victoria which was standing at the platform. I could have waited for the next train, which was my timetabled one, but this meant I had a few minutes in hand further along the journey.

I had to stand up all the way, which I fully expected, but I felt sorry for a young girl who was struggling to hold a double bass or possibly a cello as the train was rocking about. In the end she strapped it to a hand rail and stood in the first class section of the carriage, which I thought was a bit cheeky. It was only 17 minutes to London Victoria, according to my watch, which is very good going.

Got off at Victoria and headed for the underground. It’s usually packed but today it was quite reasonable. The tube from Victoria to King’s Cross is only about 10 minutes. As I had got the earlier train I had some time in hand so I explored St. Pancras Station which is joined to King’s Cross by a walkway. I was quite impressed with the station itself, which was very spacious and light, but the signage was appalling. The destination boards were faded and looked like the old 1980s style efforts.

For a new station I thought this was a bit of a let down. The choice of restaurants and other eating places was very good though and I thought to myself that I might eat here one day. St. Pancras is really two stations in one because the Eurostar now leaves from here as well as the normal domestic services to the midlands. I explored as much as I could without making myself late for my train.

I walked back the way I came in and found my way to King’s Cross which is a lot smaller than St Pancras. It was also quite crowded but I managed to explore a bit without bumping into too many people. I found out where the toilets were and also found that King’s Cross now has a platform 0. This is very strange, because I don’t remember it from the last time I was here, about three years ago. It seemed a long wait for my train but eventually the destination board for the 10.40 to Newcastle changed to from ‘Being Prepared’ to ‘Now Boarding’. As I made my way along the platform a row of East Coast staff blocked off the flow of passengers and inspected our tickets manually. They weren’t the politest bunch of people in the world and the bloke who dealt with me looked like a nightclub bouncer. He let me through but not without looking at me as if I had just been scraped off his boot. Ticket barriers are much more friendly.

I easily found Coach F, seat 50A, and put my rucksack in the overhead thingy. There is never enough luggage space on these trains and the carriage luggage compartment only contained enough space for 3 or 4 big cases. Some people were using the space by the disabled toilet to put their cases, even though there was a notice telling them not to do this. Just as I was about to settle down, a family of three people arrived at my table. A man, woman and a small child about 4 or 5 years of age. The woman was struggling with her case so I offered to help but she declined, quite dismissively. Then I asked the bloke if he wanted me to let him in to the window seat and he grunted, so I let him in. This really set the tone for the 3 hour journey to Durham.

It was my own fault for not taking enough to occupy me on the train. I only had a mobile phone and a GPS to amuse me. The entire journey consisted of having to listen to the woman telling the child that he couldn’t have his popcorn unless he ate his sandwich first, and the child crying because he didn’t want to. The bloke made it worse by eating the popcorn in front of the child and teasing him. It was quite amusing for the first few minutes but after 3 hours I was getting very irritated. After Darlington I moved seats to an ‘airline’ one and had the rucksack on my lap. There were quite a few distressed passengers on the train because there was no trolley service and I was convinced that people were eyeing up my sandwiches and biscuits. Perhaps paranoia had set in.

I was glad to get off at Durham. The coach had seemed really cramped and claustrophobic. East Coast really do pack ‘em in. Having said that, it only cost me 9 quid so I can’t really complain. When I got off the train at 1.35pm I looked for the ‘Open University’ signs on the platform like the OU residential schools website said there would be. There was sod all, so I went through the barriers to the bog, and after walking up and down the platform for a bit, ventured outside. There were a few people standing outside the ticket office and I heard a woman say to a bloke ‘are you an OU student’ and the bloke replied ‘yes’. The woman then sarcastically said ‘I thought so, the sweatshirt gave it away – good move’, and then turned her back on him. I hope she was a social studies student, I wouldn’t like to spend a week with that.

I got a bit confused leaving the station and my GPS couldn’t get a lock so I walked in the wrong direction for a bit before realising my mistake. When I walked back past the station the people had gone. I think some had got into a red taxi and the others walked towards a bus stop, but I wasn’t entirely certain. I walked out of the station approach and followed the route given to me by the GPS, which was now working. I stopped to admire the view of Durham for a bit, it really is a beautiful city.


I had to cross a main road by a roundabout and then walk down some cobbled streets heavily laden with shoppers. I couldn’t walk as fast as I would have liked and found it difficult to stop and take photographs without being bumped into, but I did my best. Once I got out of the shopping area things improved and I could get up a good speed. I headed south towards the University of Durham Science Park but the road I wanted to go down had some security barriers and I didn’t fancy negotiating with the bloke on duty. Strictly speaking, I had no business to be there on this occasion, so I didn’t want to push my luck.

I decided to approach Grey College from the front. I managed to walk up what seemed like a very sleep hill and eventually made it, although I was feeling pretty tired and hot at this point. There were some temporary AA signs telling drivers where the Residential Schools were, which was good. I walked slightly further up the hill and reached what I assumed was the residential block where I took some more photos. I wanted to walk along some of the internal footpaths but looking at my watch I realised that I was running short of time so I started to make my way back. I took a different route because I wanted to see more of Durham, but having panicked a bit because of the time shortage, didn’t take as many photos as I would have liked.

I got back to Durham station in plenty of time, and having done a bit more exploring of the station, found out that in order to get from one platform to the other it is necessary to go out of the station and then go back in again using a different road. Very odd. It confused me for quite a while until I realised what was going on. I changed my shirt on the station platform, as I needed to freshen up a bit, and had some more lunch while waiting for the train home. According to the destination board it was running about six minutes late.

While I was waiting I saw two student types, one male and one female, loitering by the ticket barriers. The girl was holding up an A4 sheet of white paper. I walked towards her and could see that it had the words ‘Open University Residential School’ on it. The type was about 16 point (probably Arial) with an OU logo, in black and white, at the top right hand corner, about 2cm by 3cm. Too small too late, I thought. It was gone 3.30pm and registration had closed. How anybody was expected to see that from the platform is anybody’s guess. The girl quickly scurried off and the bloke just stood there waiting for non existent students. I went back to the platform and within a few minutes my train had arrived, which was the 15.42 to King’s Cross. It arrived at exactly 15.48.

I quickly found my seat, by coincidence also Coach F 50A, and sat down. There were already 3 other people at my table. A very friendly Indian girl on my right, and a young couple facing me. She sounded French and he sounded American or Canadian. All were in their early twenties. They seemed more friendly than the Addams Family I had on the way up, but kept themselves to themselves nonetheless. The journey home always seems quicker than the journey going and this was no exception. Despite the train leaving Durham a bit later than scheduled it arrived at King’s Cross on time, at exactly 19.09.

The tube was practically empty at that time in the evening and it was a reasonably pleasant ride to London Victoria where I got the fast train to Bromley South without much of a wait. There was a couple of old drunks on the train who were a bit loud going to Maidstone East, but they were inoffensive. By the time I got to Bromley I was very tired so I wanted to get home as soon as possible. Instead of waiting for the 336 bus I decided to get the first bus that came along and walk a bit. After about 10 minutes a 261 came so I got on it. I got off at Southover and walked to my house. When I got in at 8.20pm my wife Carolyn was there to greet me and after a sit down and a slash, I had my dinner. I was glad to get home but I really enjoyed the day. Durham is the furthest I have ever been on my own and I managed it without incident. It has definitely given me the confidence to do SXR207 next year because I now know that the travel arrangements are by no means insurmountable, even for a geezer like me.