Good afternoon!
one of Greater Anglia's new FLIRT trains
rather nifty they are too
we're in Norfolk, on the Breckland line
i'm currently at Attleborough
but that is not today's ultimate destination
today's ultimate destination
is to tick off ...
... another request stop, as we do ... Spooner Row
that's a Number 13
it's a long worl from Attleborough to Spooner Row
it's about an hour fifteen according to Google Maps
and there i saw there was a bus, so i thought "i'll get the bus"
this is what they call a sign-less bus stop
look there's a layby but there's no ...
... anyway, so the station
is over here!
yeah, so Spooner Row only get
three trains a day
two in the morning, heading towards Norwich
and one in the evening that's come out of Norwich
so it's quite tricky to get to
which is why i went to Attleborough first
and why i'm now heading down this road, walking along
through the flat Norfolk countryside
to get to Spooner Row, but we'll discuss the timetable
when we get there
and in the distance i can see the tell-tale flashing
red light of a level, is that a level crossing?
thinkk it is - oh, and there goes the train
Spooner Row!
ok woah!
low winter sun
i'm on the westbound platform
they're staggered so the eastbound platform is on that side
so you can see the raised hump we'll go there in a second
you can see the track going way into the distance
and that is kinda goregous
and later, in abour an hours time
when the sun is properly setting
yeah there's gonna be either an awesome shot of a train going through fast
or a sihouette coming out that way, we'll get that
when we were here
in June ... it was Shippea Hill day
so that was June 3rd 2017, for every station
and we noted then, our guard told us
that Spooner Row on the eastbound has got a very low platform
there's a massive step down
so that was a momemt when i went to every station
westbound platform i found a network route map, local map
i will go for a wander down town in a minute
because i think there's a nice pub
there's not a lot!
i mean there's really nothing
on the westbound platform
this isnt' a video in my least used series
this is a video in my request stop series
but i'm still gonna point out facilities can't help but note
you've got TWO help points
Greater Anglia ...
why does Spooner Row have two help points?
that's just greedy. give one to a station that doesn't have one
and onto the eastbound platform
and there's a nice little cottage here
i was gonna say, maybe the original station cottage
but then if you read the wikipedia article
it says that the original station buildings burnt down
back in the 1970's, and here
i'm just about to put my foot
onto the raised
platformy hump that as you would have seen from the clip from 2017
still isn't high enough
for when trains stop here
althought that was with the old
150's, one five six
i wonder if the new Flirt trains
deal with that any better
to do that i'd have to be on one of the moring trains, and today
i'm getting about the sixteen - i think it's four forty five
out of that platform so i'm getting
train out, and obviously
nice old ... signal box as well, closed many years ago
i do hate it when the camera does that
i mean i'm just fortunate the camera hasn't dropped to the ground
and broken the camera
just imagine i'd walked ... a dramatic walking up shot it would have been
that would have been good
i'm just thinking
i haven't seen, there was that station poster on the other side
there's no timetables here
there's nothing that says it's a request stop
there's no dot matrix, there'no ...
there's no, train. time. information.
even shippea hill
has a poster, saying what times
the trains are, and i can't find one here
at Spooner Row
i've come to the south side
there's a gorgeous church, over there
there's the boar pub, just here
and apart from that, there is nothing else
there's a few houses!
but there's no, there's no corner shop
there's no post office
you normally get like a village post office, none of that
nowhere to get a cup of tea, nothing else
going on, in Spooner Row
oooh, i take it all back!
as i've walked back from the pub and the church
i can now see from this side
there's the information board!
with! the route map, and the timetables
and the 'welcome to spooner row'
this is a request stop
it's here
including old black and white photos
of what the station used to look like
to talk about the trains here at Spooner Row
Mondays to Friday's weekends even worse
Monday's to Friday's it get three trains a day
two in the morning, they have come from Ely Cambridge way
heading down towards Norwich
and then one, ONE! back in the evening
out of Norwich, here's the fascinating thing
if you look at the timetable
the 0809 in the morning to Norwich
has got an 'X' by it, it's a request
but the 0921 ... isn't!
it's a stopper, it's a you-must-stop-here
and the one i'm getting back the 1643 is a request, but
interesting that that one
one of the two in the morning, isn't a request stop
straight in the ... low sun
here's one i made earlier, on the train
on the way up, which is why i was consulting the timetable
and i drew this, amazing map
which i shall put on screen now to show it because i don't want to have to redraw this
but i was looking at the whole of the line, from Ely
down to Norwich ... Shippea Hill
is just like the hardest one to do 'cause it only gets
one train Monday to Fridays although it gets two trains
in each direction on a Saturday if you want to return to Shippea HIll
you can only do it on a Saturday
Lakenheath is just impossible because there's no weekday service
but those two are the hardest ones to do
at somepoint i recognise i've got to do Shippea Hill and Lakenheath ... Brandon gets
a semi-regular service
but only Greater Anglia
Thetford interestingly gets a fairly regular service
Harling and Eccles - Harling Road and Eccles Road
they're really hard to do, again
they're like here Spooner Row, they get two trains in the morning
and they get two trains in the evening, but one of those trains in the evening
is an East Midlands train
so Harling Road and Eccles Road are fascinating
'cause they're served by East Midlands, westbound only
Attleborough gets a very regular service, that's quite a big town
so all the GA service stop there, then you've got here
which is spooner row as we've already discovered
two eastbound in the morning
and one westbound in the evening, and then Wymondham
again, quite a big town gets a regular service
i'm saving Wymondham
for when i get to 200,000 subscribers on my Youtube, cause Wyndonham
in the latest ORR stats
got just over two hundred thousands passengers a year
the sun is setting, i feel like i've done and said
all there is to do at Spooner Row
which ain't much, so we just
wait for the train!
and that is it, that's how to do Spooner Row, request stop done!
there's a link in the description to my request stop map showing all the request stops in Great Britain
download it .. thanks for watching press Subscribe - see ya!