THE GEN: THE JOLLY FISHERMAN

That name sounds a bit familiar.

So it should. It dates back to a GNR poster from 1908 advertising Skegness as a holiday destination, and named trains to the resort, especially on summer Saturdays, have been using it since.

I sense Class 20s might be mentioned soon.

Amazing intuition! Yes indeed, modern(ish) gricers will associate the title with pairs of ‘Choppers’ and

Mk.1 coaches on sunny (and not so sunny) Saturdays in the 1980s.

Lovely jubbly, but what’s that got do with this year?

EMR has been keen to keep the tradition going and in recent years has run HSTs instead. The fact that it has disposed of its ‘125’ fleet hasn’t dampened its enthusiasm and this summer, two summer Saturday pairs have run from Derby with, wait for it… Adelantes.

Oh dear. That doesn’t sound very jolly.

Rail Express is always hopeful, but based on our experience of the last return working this year on September 3, (09.23 ex-Derby and 13.44 return), we won’t be rushing back with our buckets and spades. The interior of four-car No. 180110 was in poor condition, with rather tatty and historic First Group seat covers, and the HVAC units in the leading coach not working properly, blowing out superheated and supercooled air to separate bays respectively. EMR is looking forward to handing these units back when its shiny new Hitachi trains arrive, so appears not to be expending too much TLC on the Adelantes.

Were there any fishermen (jolly or otherwise) aboard?

Not as far as we could tell. Nor fisherwomen, neither. The outward trip was lightly loaded, but the return was packed, mainly with families including young children, for whom the cramped conditions of the Adelante weren’t ideal. The nigh-on three-hour journey out started well, but ran late from Nottingham due to problems sourcing a driver to take the train forward that even EMR seemed to be confused about. The return ran more smoothly.

Will future iterations of the service feature IET-style trains then?

You’ll have to ask EMR about that.