91130 at Peterborough

An interesting journey North today. Youngshanks checked our train times online. Our local train was showing 20 minutes late - our change to the Edinburgh train at Peterborough has 9 minutes to spare - we were going to miss it.

If we drove to Stevenage there was the possibility of getting a train to Peterborough that would make our change. But that train was in 20 minutes and on a good day it's a 15 minute drive to Stevenage. Today wasn't a good day, but as Youngshanks dropped us at the entrance and we blagged our way past a flustered ticket inspector we made it by just one minute.

At Peterborough our Edinburgh train (91130) was hit by the same problems out of Kings Cross as the local trains were suffering. It arrived 20 minutes late, but still well before the local connection we should have been on. So we're still ahead of the game, at least we were until the train came to a complete halt south of Durham. It had lost power. Power restored it limped on to Newcastle at which point it was terminated and we all had to get off and onto the Aberdeen diesel that had been stuck behind us. A busy train now carrying two loads of passengers but at least we got a seat. Arrival in Edinburgh was 40 minutes late, which meant we'd missed our Perth connection and as they run hourly we ended up an hour late - which means we get our ticket fully refunded. That'll do nicely thanks, and thanks to Youngshanks for the dash to Stevenage. Without that we may well still be travelling.