Sunday 11th October 2026.
A trip to Newcastle by rail was made today as a family to see what turned out to be an EXCELLENT live performance of Mrs Doubtfire at the Theatre Royal.
It was another day for the railway at its best; all went very smoothly despite the unusual presence of Police at Alnmouth for an unknown reason on arrival, but our train (TPE 802 209 on 9N09) was running just a minute or so down, and whilst fairly well filled, our table of four was reserved as it should have been and we took our seats for the journey into Newcastle on this spectacular stretch of line.
The train was clean and well-presented, and the on-board staff were very friendly when checking tickets, and encouragingly this was done in both directions with digital tickets and railcard being scanned.
Arrival into Newcastle was timely (did not note exact arrival time) and to assist my other half in finding a venue in the Stephenson Quarter, a trip out of Central via the Western exit (adjacent to the former Platform 12) was required.
En-route the station map was found; it is somewhat (in my opinion) unhelpfully positioned well away from the main thoroughfare in/out of the station, near to the currently closed male toilets, that are undergoing a much needed refurbishment.
If this map could be more centrally placed such as in the Portico or similar it could be much more accessible for those unfamiliar with the layout of Central Station?
Western Entrance – Good, but a southern entrance much needed.
This is the view looking into Central Station from outside of the western entrance (with the Centre of Life behind me as photographer). This new entrance is a significantly shorter route to venues to the south of Central Station in the revived ‘Stephenson Quarter’, our destination being the Crowne Plaza hotel visible to the right of the image below compared to the ‘long way round’ via the Portico.
This area of Newcastle, once the home of locomotive building under Robert Stephenson and Hawthorn, is now redeveloped into hotels and other businesses; and therefore, a southern entrance to Central Station could boost this area further, and especially provide more routes down onto the Quayside, as well as potentially finding a new use for the NER water tower to the rear of Central Station.
There is a clip of railway historian Tim Dunn exploring inside the water tower included below:
To the Theatre!
After a bit of time exploring Newcastle with the kids, a spot of lunch as a pre-show cuppa, it was time to head into the Theatre Royal for the 2pm start of Mrs Doubtfire.
All in all it was a BRILLIANT show and one I would thoroughly recommend to anyone who enjoys the iconic Mrs Doubtfire film from 1993! I would like to give my personal thanks to all involved in it, you’re all amazing and well done on such a great performance!
The train home
After a good number of hours in Newcastle, with two hours ahead of the show to make a day of it, and the show itself, it was all too quickly time to head home again.
An unusual site at Central Station was the ‘Blue Pullman’ HST set from Fort William to Leicester standing briefly in Platform 3.
The train home was again using TPE, this time being 802 207 on 9S17 which ran bang on time, and arrived back into Alnmouth for the final leg home by car.
A thoroughly enjoyable day, with two enjoyable and fault free trips to the Toon and back courtesy of Transpennine Express – well done to all involved!
Keep up the good work, RH.
