Jon Searles' photos with the keyword: great north eastern railway

I took this on my first visit to Edinburgh in 1998, and initially it didn't make the cut for Flickr, but I now realise that it closely resembles many other peoples' work, including that which is well-regarded, so now I've finally included it.

I took this on one of my many trips to London, and until I found it in my collection a few weeks ago I had forgotten completely that I had it. I figure it should fit nicely into the various rail-oriented groups on Flickr, and interest a number of people, so why not post it? :-)

This was more or less certainly not taken in 2000, as I have no record of any trips to York in 2000, so the copyright date is wrong. It's probably like that because I had this photo in with my 2000-2001 darkroom stuff. I do I recall taking it while I was on a research trip to York, after going there had become routine but before I actually started living there (2002-2004).

This may raise the eyebrows of some British trainspotters, who are constantly hunting this one-of-a-kind (and quite old, being built by British Railways Engineering in 1987) experimental electric, yet never finding it. The well-informed know that it's usually at Doncaster, working as a stationary power unit rather than a locomotive, although I once spotted it working a service in King's Cross back in 1999. Here it wasn't doing anything, being instead a display during the Doncaster 150 celebrations. The other locomotives around it are interesting, too, even if they're far less rare.

Here's another shot of "East Lothian," allowing you to see the number and name.

Services from London King's Cross to Leeds, while not as long a haul as services to Newcastle and Edinburgh, are nevertheless run by GNER with Intercity 225 high-speed trainsets. 225s, while matched sets, are not actually EMUs, but loco-hauled, and all of the locomotives but one (89001 "Avocet") are Class 91 electrics, although sometimes a Class 90 will substitute on the Leeds services since they're far from as fast as the Newcastle and Edinburgh services. Most of the Class 91s have names, this one being #91106 "East Lothian."

Here's an additional bonus shot of my departure from King's Cross, which I forgot in include earlier. I hope you like it. Notice that in addition to the Intercity 225s, there's also an older Intercity 125 peeking out. GNER use them to serve cities north of Edinburgh that don't have electrification.

I again apologize for the sloppy composition of this photo. I often get my timing wrong at 100 m.p.h. This may be the fastest flat crossing in the world, and no, they haven't stopped using these things, whatever ignorant people on the internet say.

Here's another mostly-ugly photo of Grantham, with yet another ugly shopping centre in the foreground, with the nicer, older buildings in the distance.

This was when we got to Grantham, a nice town but like Peterborough blighted by ugly car-oriented buildings. On the plus side, you can see the steeple of St. Wulfram's Church in the background.

Here's my second Class 66 shot, even more desperate than the first, but actually better in some ways.

If anyone can help me with the location of this and the next shot, I would be grateful. I didn't note the location, but took the shot because I wasn't sure if I had any shots of BGRf Class 66 freight diesels yet. In any case, here's a wild shot taken out of the side of my Intercity 225 going 125 m.p.h., or something close to that, on the way to Peterborough.

Jumping way, way ahead in my story, this was after I arrived at King's Cross and got my camera out again. The Intercity 225 in the foreground would take me to Leeds.