06:30.

God, aren’t the days getting shorter fast? I could swear it was still light this time last week! Now, when I opened the living room curtains dawn was only just beginning to break. Right now it’s time to pack a lunch, guzzle some coffee and prepare to head off to Newcastle for the start of today’s adventure which takes in a border crossing for a brief foray to Scotland and short turnaround in Edinburgh. Feel free to pop back to see how the trip unfolds before I return home tonight.

08:00.

I’m on my way…

The weather in the Calder valley’s cold and wet this morning so Dawn kindly offered to give me a lift to the station on her way into work. I was in plenty of time to catch my train – only to find it was running 20 late due to problems at a level crossing en-route. Having looked at my options I decided to avoid the packed next service to York and catch the local shuttle to Huddersfield which arrives a few minutes before a TPE service to Newcastle. Winner! 

 

Plus, going this way gives me chance to see progress on the TRU upgrade work.

08:35.

Well, that plan didn’t work! Late running and defensive driving meant my Northern service pulled into Huddersfield just as the TPE was leaving!

On the bright side, I was ahead of schedule anyway and another TPE to York was 12 mins behind. Plus, I had time to get a few shots of the station. The main part of the roof is now hidden by scaffolding and the old wooden cafe and waiting room’s completely disappeared.

09:00.

We’ve departed Leeds, where this 3 car 185 emptied out, leaving me with a table bay to myself. Looking at the TRU work en-route its clear there’s been an awful lot of muck moved since I last passed. There’s even a short section of new track outside Deighton, although it’s not connected to anything. At Ravensthorpe, where a new embankment and bridges will be built there’s a lot of ground stablisation going on. Dozens of concrete piles have been driven into the existing ground level. I need to have another wander with the camera when time permits.

10:10.

My time at York was brief, with nothing worth photographing as the station was empty of anything of interest and the weather gloomy. Timekeeping wasn’t great either. Cross-Country and LNER services were due in a few minutes apart. Either could take me to Newcastle. As it was the LNER ran to time so won. Having watched rainstorms scud over the vale of York the weather here around Darlington’s brightened up. I’m optimistic that it’ll stay dry all the way to Scotland now.

18:15.

Right, where was I? Sorry about the gap but it’s been a very busy day where I’ve been doing something different to my usual. I’ve been working for a certain open access operator, filming vox pops at Newcastle, aboard trains and at Edinburgh. It’s a little out of the ordinary for me as I’ve been wielding a microphone not a camera, but a change is as good as a rest as the old saying goes. I’ve actually rather enjoyed it, but stopping random members of the public and asking them questions about rail travel isn’t to everyone’s taste. I had the advantage of working with a very experienced cameraman (Sean) who seems happy with the results, which bodes well.

Now I’m back at Newcastle. I’ll blog more later when I’m on the train home.

19:45.

Homeward bound, and it’s a gorgeous evening that makes me wish I was lineside somewhere, but you can’t have everything.    Newcastle station was interesting as we weren’t the only camera team there. Far fom it – the place was awash with them due to filming in progress for a TV series called ‘Piano’. A boom camera and 5 roving cameras were filming participants and crowds alike, with host Claudia Winkleman centre stage.

20:45.

Almost home. I did stop off on the way for a swift pint in the station bar at Durham between trains. It’s a lovely place with lots of outside seating under the station roof  if you fancy a bit of trainspotting with your beer. Inside is a great place to while away a winter’s eve.

Having caught  TPE service back to Leeds I’m now on the last leg aboard a Northern 158 from Hull.

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

08:15.

I can’t quite believe that this trip is over and all that remains for me to do now is get home. Last week was a heck of a time for all sorts of reasons that will become clear in my forthcoming RAIL articles, although readers of this blog will have several clues.

Right now, I’m kicking back in my hotel for a little while, letting the Scottish breakfast I’ve just consumed settle before I go out for a walk. I have a couple of hours before the train leaves and the weather isn’t as bad as predicted. We’ve certainly got low cloud and rain, but it comes in short bursts rather than the constant sheets I was expecting. In some ways it’s a shame I’ve got to head back so soon. Originally, I’d intended to hang around for another day, but the weather changed those plans. Besides I have a lot of writing and picture editing to do now.

I’ll be blogging on and off through my return. The 10:10 to Glasgow is the same 4-car set I arrived on yesterday so I should have no problem finding a table bay to set up the ‘mobile office’ and Scotrail’s onboard wifi has good coverage – even up here.

In the meantime, here’s how the view from my hotel window looks this morning.

08:30.

Bugger! I’d no sooner prepared to go out than the rain arrived! Now my view looks like this.

There’s one consolation. I wasn’t out walking when this little lot arrived. I’d have got soaked!

10:10.

We’re off – and with a lot more passengers that yesterday. The front of the train’s already around half-full. Several dozen came off the inbound 09:38 service, which has earned its keep. I never did get that walk, the rain never abated. In fact, it got worse. We had a torrential downpour just before we left which meant we have some very damp passengers.

It’s a shame about the weather as I’d like to have taken some pictures around Mallaig as I don’t have any. I’ve been trying to work out when I was last here. It’s so long ago that I don’t have any pictures as I didn’t have a decent camera. That makes is somewhere around 1987. I’ve always meant to come back but never found the time or the reason even though I come up this way once a year, but on that occasion my time’s not my own.

11:10.

We’ve just passed the ‘Jacobite’ at Gelnfinnan station, although I doubt I’ll get used to seeing a ‘Black 5’ steam loco hauling a mixed rake of Mk 2 and 4 coaches! Soon after we passed over the Glenfinnan viaduct, heavily featured in the ‘Harry Potter’ films. It’s become a mecca for the films fans. There must have been at least 100-150 people there in waterproofs and pac-a-macs to watch the steam train pass. Of course, for railway orientated people the viaduct is synonymous with another name, ‘Concrete Bob’ McAlpine.

11:17.

We’re now stopped at Loch Eil. The rain’s stopped and the suns doing its best to put in an appearance.

12:15.

The train’s left Fort William bound for Glasgow. I’d guess 80% full. I’m now sharing my table with a young Swedish Couple who’re in the UK for a couple of weeks to go walking and attend the world sci-fi convention in Glasgow.

The rain’s eased again now, which is a shame in some ways. Beautiful as Scotland is, there’s something special about seeing the mountains in heavy rain as little streams become torrents, rivulets spring up everywhere and the rivers turn into raging peaty-white water. Fantastic to watch.

14:00.

Our train has now left Crianlarich as a 6-car. The 2 car train from Oban has been joined on to the back. The operation took longer as both trains were late, but at least the delay gave the nicotine addicts and vapers time to indulge. The weather’s not improved any, in fact it’s got worse, with constant (if light) rain and heavy, low cloud obscuring most of the views.

18:30.

Sorry for the gap but I’m struggling with wifi on my current train.

I arrived in Glasgow 15 mins late and had just enough time for a quick pint with an old friend and retired railwayman who gave me some background to some of the things I’ve experienced during my travels.

Now I’m on Avanti’s 17:30 to Euston – a trip that isn’t going well. We’re currently crawling along at 40mph just North of Lockerbie due to an emergency speed restriction, which I can only assume is down to the poor weather. The Pendo’s poorly too. Coach C (the buffet car) has knackered air conditioning so no passengers are allowed to sit in it. The buffet staff are taking short shifts to avoid them melting.

19:55.

Ho hum, we’ll shortly be arriving into Lancaster some 18 minutes late due to an emergency speed restriction North of Lockerbie that caused us to crawl along at 45mph for several miles. I’m assuming this was due to flooding as the weather on the way South has proved to be awful thanks to heavy rain. The dark skies and lack of light have made the day feel more like a winter at dusk rather than 19:00 on an August evening.

Fortunately (depending which way you look at it) I had a 45 minute fester between trains at Preston, so the delay’s merely cut that wasted time down.

20:50.

Re-arrange the words ‘bunny, a, happy, not’.

I stepped off my late-running Pendolino at Preston and looked for the platform my Halifax bound train would be leaving from – only to find that it had been cancelled at short notice. Now what to do? I’d looked at other options via Wigan and Warrington that would have got me home at almost the same time, but they were dependent on the Glasgow train being on time – and that was leaving as I looked. I quick scan of my options via various websites left me with no option. I’ve got to catch the 21:11 to Manchester Victoria, pray it’s not late – and connect 7 minutes later with the Leeds service. finally getting home at 22:37. Deep joy. A quick phone call to Dawn outlining the situation means my lovely, understanding other half will still be there at the station to pick me up.

I’m a staunch defender of the railways – as regular readers know. But I won’t defend the indefensible and from an ordinary passengers perspective this lack of service, punctuality and reliability simply isn’t good enough.

Sadly, I have no great confidence in the new Labour Government to fix the problems as I don’t think they really understand them. To them, ownership is what matters, but ownership isn’t the problem.

Let’s see what happens next. Meanwhile, have another old Metro-Cammell DMU. Only this time not in Scotland!

21:20.

I’m on the move again, just not on the route I wanted. I’m ensconced on a very quiet Northern Class 195 on a Barrow-in-Furness to Manchester Victoria diagram. It only stops at Chorley and Bolton so I’m optimistic I’ll make my connection.

I must admit that Preston station surprised me somewhat. I arrived well before 21:00 yet most of the stations food outlets seemed to have shut shop. The (hideously expensive) bar was closed, as were most of the coffee shops. So, really the facilities for passengers weren’t great at all. OK – you could argue being saved from being chinged for overpriced food and drink is no bad thing, but if you’ve not had the perspicacity to bring your own (or you don’t know how the railways work) what are your options? I can see why Tesco’s have recently opened an ‘Express’ outlet just across the road.

2240.

The frustration continues (as does the swearing under my breath). My ‘fast’ train worked swimmingly until we got to Bolton, after which it began to crawl. I can only assume that it was trapped behind a stopping service. The delay minutes continued to mount as we got closer to Manchester. To add insult to injury this train was due in on platform 6 whilst my connection was due to depart from platform 1 – the opposite side of the station. I had seven minutes to make the connection, so of course my train was seven minutes late. I waved it goodbye from the footbridge between the platforms. Now I’m on the one behind it, the 22:29 to Leeds which gets into Sowerby bridge at 23:08, an hour and 20 minutes after I should have been home. Poor Dawn’s been on standby to pick me up most of the evening.

I can’t say I’m sad to be seeing the back of trains for a few days…

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312