Awry
East Midlands Railway crest a Derby Station Some days one's plans go awry and that is how it was for me today. I wanted a little adventure that would include a six mile walk in the Staffordshire countryside west of Derby. My initial target was a small market town called Uttoxeter - somewhere I had never been before. Rather than driving down there, I decided to travel by train and booked a return ticket last night. It would involve changing trains at Derby. I arrived in Derby at the scheduled time but then heard an announcement over the tannoy: "The 11.26 train to Crewe via Uttoxeter has been cancelled". I walked out of Derby railway station and headed for the bus station but as luck would have it I had just missed the bus to Uttoxeter so headed back to the railway station, intending to catch the 12.26 train. Derby ram sculpture by Michael Pegler I sat by platform 4A reading a novel and was so engrossed that when my train pulled up I was in a slight panic. I put the novel ...