Prologue
I
own a OnePlus 6T and use the same for clicking photos and recording videos for
my YouTube channel. I dropped it on the 28th of December while on my
way to get a booster dose and the screen cracked. I had a nicely planned New
Year’s Eve ahead and I was forced to use my backup Redmi 6A and borrow my
friend’s DSLR for clicking photos. For the unintroduced, a three-year-old Redmi
6A can take up to 100 seconds to open WhatsApp and much more to find my way on
Google Maps. My situation has hopefully been well established.
Story
For New Year’s Eve, I had booked a Heritage Train
ticket on the Grand Central Railway which would go up and down the line from
Loughborough to Leicester North hauled by a Steam and a Diesel locomotive.
Being an avid Railfan, ending 2021 and beginning 2022 on a steam hauled train
in the United Kingdom was somewhat a dream come true.
From Birmingham, I took a train
around Noon to Leicester. I walked about half a mile to Kayal, a Kerala based
restaurant in the City Centre. After enjoying a sumptuous Utthappam, Appam, and
Kadala Curry, I took a city bus to Leicester North, a station that is slightly
out of the town. I knew that the last of the daily Steam Train Service was
scheduled at 15:45 Hrs and would drop me at Loughborough for about £9.
The train arrived around 15:30 Hrs
and the steam loco was reversed to take it back to Loughborough. While the
incoming train had a good crowd, I was lucky to enjoy a completely empty train
on the return. Thus began my adventure for the evening, which lasted longer
than I expected it to. The train chugged along at speeds which are comparable
with many routes in India, but much slower than in the UK. However, the icing
on the cake was the open window on the door, from where one could lean out
enjoy the breeze. That is something I have absolutely missed from India and
Indian Railways.
At Loughborough, I had about two and
half hours to while around. I got into a conversation with a fellow Railfan who
had driven down to click some Steam Engines. Being a local, he knew the rules
around well. He took me on a visit to the Steam Shed, which was a few hundred
meters north of the station. Being winter, it was quite dark, and I couldn’t
click as many pictures as I would have loved to. However, I ended up spotting
The Tornado, one of the most famous Steam Locomotives of England, currently at
Loughborough for repair of Flat Wheels. Bad lighting meant I had to be content
with drooling at the sight of it and clicking some bad photographs. Lack of a
tripod was adequately regretted.
By 18:30 Hrs, people had started
coming to the station to board The Night Rider service, on which I also
possessed a ticket. A slight lack of planning by the Grand Central Railway
meant that the Steam Loco was attached at the rear and the Diesel loco at the
front. This meant that the steam engine was always outside the platform and
almost nearly unclickable under any form of lighting.
Figure 2 - The Night Rider Train to 2022
The train departed at 19:00 Hrs. The
ride to Leicester was about 40 minutes. The train was supposed to do the route
up and down four times in the evening, with New Year being celebrated at
Leicester on its fourth and final trip. While it does sound pretty boring to
most readers, the trip was actually fun with people singing and dancing as the
train ran through the night.
By 20:00 Hrs, the passengers were
served a hot dinner with both Vegan and Meat options available. For someone,
who has not exactly enjoyed British food in the 4 months in England, I actually
felt the food was pretty amazing for the £7 we paid for it. The cost of the train
ticket was £14 with the food separately paid for. There was also a Dining Car
where one could buy alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks for very nominal prices.
Figure 3 - Dinner Served on Train
On its final trip, the train reached
Leicester at 23:45 Hrs and all the passengers alighted to enjoy the advent of
the New Year. Firecrackers over the city of Leicester were absolutely
phenomenal and induced happy moments in all. As the countdown to the New Year
hit 0 and the clock struck 0000 Hrs, the railway station reverberated with the
honks of the Steam and Diesel Engines. The hooting of the passengers along with
the locomotives added cheer to the moments.
The train left Leicester around
quarter past midnight and arrived Loughborough with the clock showing five
minutes to 01:00 Hrs. I was now faced with the daunting task of returning to
Birmingham in the middle of the night. I have still not come to terms with the
fact that public transport nearly shuts shop in the night in UK. There are
literally no trains running between midnight and 05:00 Hrs in the morning.
Google Maps confirmed my plight that
there were no buses or trains available to Birmingham till morning. Most of the
pubs closed by 02:00 Hrs, which meant I really did not have a place to spend
the night. I started looking for other cities I could try to reach in the next
couple of hours, from where I could further reach Birmingham in the morning. Nottingham
is to the North-West of Loughborough while Birmingham is to the South-West. For
all practical purposes, I would be travelling in the opposite direction but
what choice did I have anyway.
At 02:15 Hrs, there was a bus to
Nottingham from Loughborough. However, the bus would not come inside
Loughborough, rather I had to walk about 2.5 miles outside the town on the
highway to board it. With no confirmation of the existence of such a bus stop
but no other idea available, I decided to walk the distance. My worst scenarios
were getting mugged and such a bus stop not existing. I could still get mugged
inside the city and if there was no bus stop, I could always walk back. I would
have at least spent a couple of hours waiting for dawn.
At 01:50 hours, I reached a bus stop
in the middle of nowhere, yet saw a glimmer of hope. Google Maps had mentioned
that a bus service operated by Megabus would stop here. The bus stop had a
poster of Megabus welcoming the passengers on board their service. At least I
now knew that the bus might actually come.
Figure 4 - The Bus Stop in the Middle of Nowhere
At 02:10 Hrs, the bus came on the
opposite side, took a U turn at the roundabout, and came to a halt just a few
feet from where I stood. The bus driver however stated that I couldn’t buy
tickets on the bus and had to pre-book it. In India, one could always hand some
cash to the driver and board the bus, given that I was only going to travel for
45 minutes. The bus was pretty empty too. However, UK being UK, uk how exactly
it would have panned out. I had to book tickets on the spot, in the website. We
have already established that I was using a super slow phone. Furthermore,
Megabus was not letting me reserve till Nottingham but only till Mansfield,
which was further North of Nottingham. The bus driver didn’t mind and I was
happy paying £10 for the ride. My phone, however, made sure I barely completed
the booking before the scheduled departure of the bus. The driver was firm in
not waiting even a minute more.
The bus dropped me at Nottingham by
03:05 Hrs. The interesting part about Nottingham is that the bus stop is adjacent
to the main railway station. There also exists a tram stop on top of the
railway station. There was no need to walk around the city to find transport.
The downside to this was, transport started at 05:00 Hrs, a good two hours
away. I had already been up for more than 20 hours and I was not sure about
surviving much more. It had been fun for until then, but it was going to get
bad. Not having company to chat up and have fun with, was quite demoralizing.
The first direct train to Birmingham
was at half past eight. There was a bus service to London Victoria at 04:35,
which had a halt at Birmingham and London Heathrow. This time, I decided to
book the bus in advance. As usual, it didn’t let me book till Birmingham. The
ticket to London Heathrow costed £24. The sight of it gave me all the energy to
stay up till 08:00 Hrs and catch the train. A random thought occurred, and I
checked the price till London Victoria. A throw of stone into the sky, but that
costed only £10. Quickly booking the tickets, I started counting sheep to spend
the next hour trying not to sleep. I did keep an alarm for 04:15 Hrs and pinged
a friend in India to call me at the same time as a backup. I need not have
worried though. The wind was blowing just cold enough to make sure I can’t
sleep on the sides of the road.
For the next 30 minutes, I wandered
around Nottingham railway station. I would have been fine if a random guy
hadn’t come up telling me how his friend got stabbed in the City Centre after a
brawl in the New Year party. I could understand his despair, but it was giving
me the shivers. He wanted to show me a video of the stabbing he had just
received, which I had to politely decline. I didn’t want nightmares and the
sight of blood causes enough problems in my system. Thankfully though, the
station had its vending machines powered and I could buy a couple of chocolates
and something to drink. These were godsent as they helped me feel good and not
absolutely hate myself for not planning a return journey in advance.
At a quarter past four, my friend
called up and I talked to her for about 10 minutes when the bus arrived. I knew
there wasn’t going to be anyone around to wake me this time. I had to keep an
alarm for 05:20 Hrs if I didn’t want to miss Birmingham. I don’t remember a
minute after I placed my phone back in the pocket. I randomly woke up to a jerk
on the bus and heard my alarm ringing at the same time. I knew it was Digbeth
and I clammed out of the bus groggily as my brain had completely shut down.
Walking up to Grand Central, it wasn’t much of a shock to realize I didn’t have
any trains on the Cross City line till 08:00 Hrs to Selly Oak. The bus service
was in place and I reached Selly Oak at 06:10 Hrs, reaching my room by 06:20
Hrs. The bus journey from Grand Central to Selly Oak involved a lady giving a
sermon about the importance of Jesus Christ to save humanity in 2022. I would
have honestly preferred Jesus Christ telling her to shut up, as I needed some
peace and quiet.
20 minutes after reaching my room, I
was sleeping like a corpse and by the time I woke up, the sun had already set.
Sometimes, you don’t need to travel across continents to get Jetlagged. A bus
journey across the night to Birmingham via Nottingham can do wonders to screw
up your schedule. The journey was a mix of fun and craziness, kabhi khushie,
kabhi ghum.
