Leeds return diagram 1975

[Mickey]

When I eventually made it in no.2 gang as a secondman at Kings Cross during the summer of 1975 for one week only I was booked on a Kings Cross-Leeds-Kings Cross diagram a main line run. Previous to being in no.2 gang I was in no.3 gang 'the Doncaster link' with a regular driver a Scottish bloke who lived at Hatfield so I had already had a number of main line trips down the ECML and back earlier in 1975. With the 'Leeds job' from memory I think we went down road on a blue livered class 47 every weekday morning departing Kings Cross at 11:00 am (possibly from no.7 platform from memory?) and from memory a stop at Doncaster and then on departing 'Donny' turning off the ECML north of Doncaster and then travelling across the branch to Leeds and possibly arriving at Leeds sometime around 1:45 pm that afternoon?. Then several hours to kill in the Leeds train crews messroom before working the return journey back Up road from Leeds into King's Cross this time with a class 55 Deltic on the front. We departed Leeds at about 4:50 pm late in the afternoon and being the summertime it was a daylight run all the way back rolling back into Kings Cross at about 7:00 pm as the sun was slowly sinking behind St Pancras station. The journey across the branch in both directions between Leeds and Doncaster was quite boring being basically a double-track line throughout with the only mechanical s/box that I remember seeing being a level crossing box at Bentley on the outskirts of Doncaster with the whole branch signalled by colour light signals throughout. Anyway once back on the ECML proper it was a quick stop at 'Donny' again and then 'right away' Kings Cross!. Anyway no signal-checks as we passed through places such as Rossington, Retford, Newark and once through Grantham the climb to High Dyke and into and through Stoke tunnel and then out the other side passing Stoke s/box (100 miles from Kings Cross) and then 'flying down' Stoke bank probably doing over the ton before the railway levels out around Tallington and the outer approaches to Peterborough come into view although I can't recall if we stopped at Peterborough or if we passed straight through (not a booked stop) anyway once through Peterborough the final 76 miles laying ahead of us passing places such as Yaxley, Holme, Connington, Abbots Ripton, Huntingdon, Offord, St Neots, Tempsford, Sandy, Biggleswade, Arlesey, Three Counties, Hitchin, Stevenage, Knebworth, Woolmer Green, Welwyn North, Welwyn Garden City, Hatfield, Brookmans Park, Potters Bar, Hadley Wood, New Barnet, Oakleigh Park, New Southgate, Wood Green, Hornsey, Harringay and Finsbury Park before arriving up one of the main line platforms at Kings Cross and a 'thirst quenching' pint of bitter in the Kings Cross BRSA club at the forefront of my teenage my mind ha ha ha..

Postscript A couple of months after this Leeds return job I left KIng's Cross loco in September 1975 for good.