Gricing With Grandad

Whilst my railway interests involve mostly around smaller steam locos, I do have an interest in some diesels, in particular a perversion for DMUs and Railcars. This is an interest I share with my Dad. Dad was a schoolboy commuting between Harrogate and Leeds when the Derby Lightweight DMUs were first introduced in the 1950’s. As a child I remember the last years of the Swindon built 120s through our local station on the Lincoln line and my early trainspotting trips coincided with the last years of the class 101 and 108 DMUs. 

The Great Central Railway is relatively close to us, but it’s been several years since I last visited and I’d yet to sample the old quarry line of the Mountsorrel branch. Replacing two bridges meant that March running on the GC took the form of Mountsorrel to Leicester trips using Iris and one of their class 101 DMUs. 

Dad said he was going over on Saturday so I joined him with Annabel. I’ve enjoyed several trips on Iris at Ecclesbourne, but whilst Annabel had read about Daisy in her Thomas books, this was her first chance to experience a trip on a ‘Daisy’. 

We met at Rothley where we were met by the daffodils in bloom with Iris and the blue 104. With sunshine and showers, we managed a trip on each of them, a couple of runs down the branch, a trip round the museum and even an ice cream. A good day out for all of us. We even got the prime seat on Iris, sat on the front row behind the driver seeing where we were going, which we all enjoyed.

Iris arrives at a daffodil strewn Rothley.

Crossing each other on the double track just north of  Rothley.

Breath in! One of the bridges on the Mountsorrel branch.

Gricing with Grandad.

Bye bye Daisy. Iris heads for Leicester North for the last time that day and we headed home.