Adventures in Bassetlaw

Set off today to do a bit more station surveying. Those of you who follow my ramblings will know of my disquiet that the first train to the east of Sheffield on the Worksop line, on a sunday, is at 13:48. I had occasion to take this train and one thing I hadn't realised about it is that it runs fast to Worksop. My plan was to de-train at Kiveton Bridge, and take to the Chesterfield Canal into Worksop so I could check out Shireoaks and Worksop stations. However, I discovered that the 13:48 is actually FAST to Worksop. The first slow one leaves at 14:01 although I didn't twig that when looking at the departure boards. In the other direction, the first train from Worksop to Sheffield leaves at 15:01 on a sunday - small wonder then that people drive to Sheffield or Maadowhall for their shopping & sightseeing. Hardly what you would expect of a European city though is it?

Nevertheless a 20 minute journey time to Worksop was a pleasure and I decided to head on to Gainsborough to have a look at the stations there. Gainsborough Lea Rd is actually a Central Trains (CT) (shortly to be handed over to the East Midland Franchise) although more Northern Trains (NT) stop there than CT. Gainsborough Central, on the other hand, is a NT station, but actually no trains stop there at all. This is the most desolate station I've visited on the Northern network, located next to a steel stockholder and up a litter-infested track. However, there are signs of what we call re-generation in Gainsborough, with a shopping and leisure centre being build next to the station, so perhaps it will rise again one day. Surreally, there are oil derricks bobbing up and down next to the station.

So I headed out of town on the A631, which does have a cycle route alongside, starting off as bumpy pavement but getting a bit more professional -looking when the road turns into a dual carriageway. My attempt to use a bit of "old road" turned out to be a disaster when I came to a railway with no way across so I had to retrace my pedals. The A620, with some bits of off-road, took me down to Retford - the town has made a bit of an attempt to create a cycle route along the Chesterfield canal, but really, could do better.

Turning up at the station, I heard a train to Sheffield announced , so thought I might as well hop on and get down to Worksop to get with my original plan. This was a mistake. First-ly, the announcement had stated the wrong platform , so although I knew which platform the Sheffield train should go from I met a bunch of people off to find platform 1 - the fast platform for GNER expresses - then some people who had stayed uneasily on the right platform. Shortly after another anouncement advised us to switch to the opposite platform - always a pleasure whwen lugging a bike. A bunch of local youths had appropriated the adjacent field for a spot of off-road motorbiking, and I was joined by a chav family with double whining brats and yapping lap-dog (makes a change from child-killing pitbull I suppose) so the wait was less than relaxing. Anyway half an hour later the train arrived, already packed. No time left for a nice run along the canal, so back to Shef I went.