Today’s been full of planning for next week’s around Britain rail trip, mainly because of the Covid restrictions which mean I’ve got to be much more structured this year – especially when it come to some long-distance services where reservations are compulsory. The ability to ‘turn up and go’ has been restricted so I’ve got to be careful what I plan otherwise I could find myself stuck miles from where I’ve booked hotels. Of course, that’s unlikely, but I’m not going to risk it.

So, for once I’ve had to go to the station in advance to buy my ticket in order to book certain reservations in order to ensure the trip I’ve planned doesn’t fall apart in the first couple of days.

So much has changed on the railways since 2018 (and that’s without Covid) that I’m really looking forward to the adventure. I also get to travel on a couple of lines I’ve never travelled on before – and there aren’t many of those!

Of course, the ability to lean out of train windows to take pictures has (almost) disappeared, which means I won’t be recreating the picture of the day…

I took this shot on the 12th August 2003 whilst I was on a press trip with Virgin Trains on what was (and still is) the UK’s longest single train trip – from Aberdeen to Penzance. It was a hugely enjoyable (if marathon) event as we’d got to get to Aberdeen – and then get back from Penzance! The journey took us over three of the most iconic railway bridges in the UK. The Tay, Forth and Tamar bridges. I was lucky enough to experience two of them from the cab of the trains.

On the way through Cornwall we were presented with the most amazing sunset, which resulted in this picture, which I snapped from the window of the HST as we snaked around the Cornish curves.

The picture was such a hit that Virgin Trains used it in their in-house magazine and RAIL magazine used it as part of an article I wrote about the trip.

Sadly, there’s no chance of recreating it next week…

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