East Midlands Rover Ticket - September 2017

The East Midlands Rover ticket covers a vast area of the UK rail network. During a week in September I spent time with three fellow enthusiasts using this ticket to its full effect. Because of allowable travel area we decided to spend two days based in Doncaster and the rest of the week based in Nottingham. This gave us more range and interest from our tickets. The full priced East Midlands Rover is £111(discounts are available for those with Railcards) and the ticket valid for seven consecutive days, this works out at £15.80 a day. The Rover is valid after 09:00 in the morning and can be used with Virgin East Coast, East Midlands Trains, Cross Country, Northern Trains, and First Hull Trains. Because of the freedom to travel we also had allowable time each day to explore towns and cities covered by the ticket. Further images taken during the week can also be found on the Building/ Architecture pages and Light Rail pages of this website.
![]() The map to the left is the official East Midlands Ticket coverage map which can be downloaded from the National Rail Website, the map on the right shows the locations we managed to visit ourselves during the week long visit to the East Midlands Area.
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Day 1: 10th September 2017
The first day of our trip was spent getting to Doncaster from Taunton. After catching a GWR HST service to London Paddington, we crossed London by Tube, and caught the 13:48 Grand Central service at far as York. Our Grand Central service did not stop at Doncaster so we had planned a short break in York before we then returned south back to Doncaster with Virgin East Coast.
Day 2: 11th September 2017

Day 2 of our trip saw us awake to a few hours of torrential rain from a slow moving overnight storm which had passed through the area. Thankfully this cleared through and by mid day the sun was out providing some excellent lighting. Our planned route for the day two took us from Doncaster through to Scunthorpe, Barnetby, Grimsby and Cleethorpes and back. Sadley we did not make our planned connection at Cleethorpes to also visit Barton-on-Humber so we returned on an earlier service to Doncaster where the late afternoon sun provided some wonderful light for photography of passing trains.
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Day 3: 12th September 2017
The 12th September provided a clear moving to capture some of the pre 09:00 trains passing through Doncaster. The station is served by Northern Trains, First Hull Trains, Grand Central, Virgin East Coast, and Cross Country and is also busy with freight trains from many locations around the UK. For our third day of travel we decided to visit Lincoln from Doncaster via Retford and then return to Doncaster before taking an afternoon trip down the East Coast Mainline to Peterborough and Grantham.
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Day 4: 13th September 2017
Day 4 was changeover day which meant having checked out of one hotel in Doncaster then travelling with luggage until 14:00 until we were able to check in at the next hotel in Nottingham. Here we were able to off load our baggage before then heading out for an afternoon of travel. The 13th September saw us visit Grantham, Peterborough, Nottingham and Matlock.
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Day 5: 14th September 2017
Having a new base in Nottinghamshire provided us with a new central radius to work from each day. The wide and varied locations we were able to visit each day were roughly planned out each night, to give us scope to change that plan should we wish. Day five our trip allowed us to visit Derby, Stoke on Trent, Sheffield, Meadowhall, Worksop and back to Nottingham via The Robin Hood line.
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Former EWS Class 37 No.37411 no longer operates on the mainline, however when the locomotive was cut up it's cab was saved for prosperity and now resides in the Alexandra Hotel Car Park in Derby, which is a short walk from Derby Station. The hotel also features many other railway memorabilia items such as signs, signals, name boards and even a station bench.
Day 6: 15th September 2017
Our sixth full day on the rails exploring the East Midlands saw us visit Market Harborough, Bedford, Bletchley, Leicester, East Midlands Parkway, Beeston, Attenborough before returning to Nottingham. The weather strugged during the morning period but provided some good periods of light for the afternoon and evening.
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Day 7: 15th September 2017
Our last day on the rails of the East Midlands saw the most amount of miles covered and places visited. Once a week on a Saturday there's on particular line in the UK which is only served on a Saturday. Brigg (located between Gainsborough and Barnetby) does not get a service during the week. We opted to travel from Nottingham to Sheffield before picking up the Cleethorpes service from Sheffield via Worksop to Barnetby before returning to Lincoln and Nottingham.
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Day 8: 17th September 2017
The 17th September was our last day in the East Midlands and saw us return home to the South West. We caught a service direct to London St Pancras from Nottingham before transferring back to London Paddington using the tube and picking up a GWR service back to the South West.