Whitnet Railways

Swanage Railway 7.9.24

9 September 20248 September 2024 by admin

Purpose of the trip

I have previously been advised that T3 563 will be in service today on the Swanage Railway. I first saw this locomotive in (I think) the very early 70’s at Clapham Transport Museum – certainly before I went to University in 1972. A stylish Victorian product by William Adams (built in the long closed Nine Elms locomotive works) most of the class had been withdrawn by 1933 but three survivors soldiered on with 563 being refettled for light steaming duties at the 100th anniversary celebrations at Waterloo Station in 1948.

Then as part of the National Collection the locomotive was loaned for stage productions of “The Railway Children” making it to Canada before return to the UK and a decision by the Science Museum that it could be transferred to the ownership of the Swanage Railway Trust in 2017 after three years of negotiation. Subsequently the locomotive underwent a very full overhaul and rebuilding at the Flour Mill in South Wales and I have made very modest contributions to the work undertaken leading to the locomotive returning to active service in October 2023. I was unable to participate in the launch then and I have been waiting for a date when I am able to travel behind the locomotive.

Use in recent months has allegedly been limited as 563 was unable to leave the Swanage loco shed as the turntable immediately outside the shed had been damaged when being used by a Bulleid Pacific and the turntable needed repairs before it could be crossed. However given the age of the locomotive it cannot be expected to be in regular service compared to more modern locos – and at the moment the Swanage Railway works on a one engine in steam service with the second service being provided by either a DMU or class 33 on a rake of coaches. No doubt the economics limit the use of steam.

Factually I do know that in early 2024 563 caused some lineside fires and a spark arrestor was to be added before it could return to active service – so it may be a combination of reasons has been responsible for it being a rare sight in recent months. Today it is so wet that the chance of a lineside fire even without a spark arrestor must be close to nil!

Operations on the Day

I join the 10:40 train at Norden (the station closest to Wareham and where there is extensive parking as there is no longer a service to and from Wareham unlike my last [undocumented] visit, aided by the service being 5 minutes or so late as the timing was a bit close!

South of Corfe Castle there is a rising gradient of 1 in 80 heading towards Swanage and the loco briefly loses her footing on the damp rails and slips but it is soon brought under control. The steam service operates between 5 and 10 minutes late for the rest of the day whilst I am travelling and this imposes a similar delay on the diesel service as they cross at Harmans Cross.

At Swanage there is a rapid run around and we head back along the line and with a load of five well occupied coaches the locomotive certainly seems to be able to cope well. We do not get any later – although it is steadily getting wetter. I hop off at Corfe Castle to take some photos and then take the return trip to Swanage where this time I leave the station to go to the nearby overbridge to be able to take some photos as it departs on the 12:40 service. As 563 departs a brake van trip also leaves the other platform which to my mind does not enhance the photographs – but in reality a sunny day is needed for that.

I take the next diesel service to Corfe and await 563 arriving from Swanage for some final photos then take the service to Norden where I leave the train and after some final photos head for home.

Costs / Ticket Checks

£27.50 for the line rover plus £4 for parking – with a need to return to the car to put the ticket in the window. Ticket checked on the first train but no further inspections thereafter.

Rolling Stock

Mark 1s throughout. A number of toilets were out of use – that may have just been my bad luck – the stock on this line has a problem in that they do not have any significant under cover storage. A few years ago there was a plan to provide a facility at the Wytch Farm oil facility at Furzebrook which had closed for rail extraction being replaced by pipelines. However the site is protected by various conservation laws and the planning permission for the site required the removal of the rail facilities when no longer needed and no new permission could be granted to the railway for much needed coach storage (and potentially locomotive works which are currently “off-railway”. So stock maintenance is very difficult for the line.

Summary

Bluebell Railway 20.8.24

27 August 202421 August 2024 by admin

The last documented trip I made to the Bluebell Railway was some ten years ago at the very start of this record. This time around I was accompanied by my grandson, Max, who has been with me on some other undocumented outings to railways down the years. I did make a brief visit in 2015 but only travelled over part of the line and for once did not feel welcomed as they were unable to easily sell me the right tickets.

The initial plan was to do the entire trip by rail as I did last time – after all if the line runs to East Grinstead then making use of the National Rail connection means no driving. However someone, somewhere has not realised that to do so a decent service is needed. An unlikely two minute connection at Redhill (given the GWR operation to that point) and a rather stupid hourly only service to East Grinstead off-peak giving a very poor connections at both East Croydon and at East Grinstead mean that driving is vastly more attractive – when are the TOCs going to realise that leisure travel means having proper off peak timetables again – after all it now dominates. So we arrive by car at Sheffield Park – just like the vast majority of my other visits over the years

In steam are Sir Archibald Sinclair and Camelot. The first is hauling our 10:30 departure from Sheffield Park which is the Mark I rake. We travel up to East Grinstead and then return to Horsted Keynes. With Max being older (and costing me full fare!!) I can point out the meaning of the gradient posts and the different styles of the stations from the eras they represent as well as the replacement brickwork on platform 5 at Horsted Keynes and the branch to Haywards Heath.

At Horsted Keynes we cross the platform to where the second rake of much older vehicles is waiting behind Camelot and I choose to travel in LC&DR 114 which is the oldest vehicle running today.

The coach was originally on a six wheel chassis but at present is running on a new four wheel chassis built for its return to operation from a previous life as a cottage in Devon.

Sir Archibald Sinclair has only recently returned to the railway’s available roster and makes light work of the trip. Camelot on the lighter set does sound like it is being worked slightly harder and certainly the ride on four wheels is at points rougher than in a bogie carriage.

Being the school holidays the railway has a decent number of travellers but I would say that it could be busier. Max now travels on an adult ticket whilst at least my fare is a member’s fare and we are on rovers which seems to be the norm these days.

A reminder that the Bluebell is often used for filming – this resides at Horsted Keynes.

After lunch we go into Steam Works and I can introduce Max to Stepney – closing on 150 years old – and amongst others Birch Grove – a loco I would dearly love to see return to service but accept that it is unlikely in my lifetime now. Outside the shed is new build “Beachy Head” – the Atlantic built around an ex-GN boiler which has taken nearly 40 years to go from a bright idea to a locomotive in service. She formally returned to service a few days after we visited the railway – at this time there was the odd wisp of steam so she was being readied for the big day.

London 1.8.24

26 August 20242 August 2024 by admin

Purpose of the trip

Every so often I go to London – in recent years there seems to have been new infrastructure to visit with trips along the Elizabeth Line, the overground extension to Barking Riverside, underground extension to Nine Elms and the new route through Bank where the narrow platform has been abandoned to enable greater capacity (although with Working From Home it may be many years before it is needed).

Today is a little different and my main aim is to travel on Mail Rail – the remnant of the railway that used to run from Paddington in the West to Whitechapel in the East to enable mail to be moved around without adding to London’s traffic.

Among the exhibits is a remnant of a much earlier pneumatic railway with a car from that line which ran between 1863 and 1874 – although with limited success – which has been found in recent times. A lost railway and one of which I was unaware.

The Mail Rail train completes a loop around the remaining network of lines under Mount Pleasant which was a major sorting office with traffic coming from the connected main line rail companies and then rerouted back to the termini for despatch to their destination. Before my trip I had not found a map of the route (so with thanks to Dave Cross) his blog has a map and I would concur that the trip operated around something that felt like that layout.

Being a single traveller I was given a “compartment” to myself at the very rear of the train so could not see along the line – although being underground there is not a lot to see – but then originally passengers were not carried. The train stops at various platforms to enable videos to be played telling the story of the line and how the postal workers moved the mail around between the trains and conveyor belts to platforms or sorting offices and it was pretty continuous with mail volumes so much higher than current levels.

River Thanes — Obligatory view from Blackfriars over the Thames

Having travelled around the line I walked back to Farringdon and caught a Thameslink to Blackfriars and travelled one stop to Monument. Many, many years ago I walked the warren of passages which link Bank and Monument. However since then the Docklands Light Railway has opened and today I wanted to travel on the latter. It is further than I remember – but that could just be my memory!

The DLR has one entry in PSUL and so although I think I have been that way before I travel to Lewisham from Bank to ensure that I cover the curve concerned.

At Lewisham I walk over the the National Rail station and take up residence at the end of platform 1 so that I can photograph the trains as they pass over the crossovers at that end of the station. This enables me to get a decent selection of side shots of the various types operating on SouthEastern. I am highly conscious that I do not have decent side shots of earlier rolling stock showing the underframes – so although there is far less visible detail these days I now should be able to find an example of just about all classes in the photos – one advantage of digital is that there is minimal cost whilst historically every shutter press had a significant cost.

Finally having upset the station staff by my presence (I was ordered away from the end of the platform) I catch a train into Waterloo East. I believe we run to time but it strikes me as very slow as we trundle into London Bridge. Then the peak timetable only offers a half hourly service to Farnborough – which feels frankly like not enough given the way the car park is filling up these days – it is more occupied than it was before the additional deck was put in place and we had a better service then.

GB RailRover Summary

2 June 20242 June 2024 by admin

Roll up of the Daily Summaries

Day	No of services used	Routing	NRT mileages	Lost time
Day 1 Part 1	2	London - Edinburgh	400	0
Day 1 Part 2	9	Edinburgh - Tweedbank - Glasgow N - Inverness	363.75	0
Day 2	3	Inverness - Far North - Aberdeen	458.25	0 overall
Day 3	4 (plan was 1)	Aberdeen - Penzance	787	84 minutes
Day 4	13 (plan was 12)	Penzance - Llandrinod Wells	406.25	44 minutes overall 26 late at end of the day
Day 5	10	Llandrinod Wells - Newcastle	352.25	0
Day 6	7	Newcastle - Glasgow - Oban	392	0
Day 7	7	Oban - Sandhurst	568.75	0 (Some in to Euston)
Totals	55		3728.25

Highlights

Not encountering a delay which ruined the overall plan – so out there a lot of good work is happening to ensure that the railways run and largely run to time.

Getting a meal on an LNER train when my catering plan for the day was limited – on a train I had not planned to catch.

Scenery – Dawlish Coast, Northumbrian Coast, St Ives branch, Cumbrian Coast (and Hills), Oban branch in the evening sunlight, Northumberland, Heart of Wales line, Flow Country.

New track – many miles and some odds and ends in terms of passenger lines – all of the Far North has now been covered, all of Cornwall plus other pieces such as Barrow in Furness station line. Lines where passenger services have returned – notably Tweedbank, Anniesland, Glenrothes-with-Thornton, Cardiff to Bridgend (Okehampton was never contemplated as I have previously been to Meldon Quarry).

Lowlights

The cancellation of the Cross Country service from Aberdeen. It runs once a day so you would think that Cross Country would move heaven and earth to ensure it runs.

The need to swap units at Llantwryd Wells as without that the points failure would not have been a problem. That caused real concern. I have no doubt that there was a good engineering reason but the staff could and should have done more to keep us informed.

The recurrent problem where Scotrail seem unable to get doors open at terminal stations a decent amount of time prior to departure – in the worst case opening them at the timetable departure time. This is simply not good enough and it was evident on at least three departures – something is wrong somewhere for this to recur.

Cross Country – the overloading on the couple of services I used was significant – mid-week and not in the holiday season. I know a few more units are coming – but the services no longer radiate to Portsmouth, Brighton, Kent Coast or other destinations and it is all a long way from the promises of Operation Princess – much more capacity appears to be needed given the predominance of leisure travel.

Value for Money

The ticket was £599.25 and I covered 3728.25 miles – so that is around 16p per mile which I reckon is pretty good value. The total cost including hotels, meals and so on took to the cost to around 50p per mile, so not excessive. I might be a little more discerning over hotels and costs next time – but I say beware of Premier Inn offering rooms for around £50 – none of the bookings were less £120 and several were higher. I reckon their advertising is by the same team that advertise on behalf of DFS. If you do get a bargain out of Premier Inn let me know how please.

Next Year

A plan will be devised. There are a lot of railways south of Glasgow (particularly if Stranraer re-opens) to be covered which will take some time. Leven has re-opened. There is the Merseyrail network to cover and then the network between Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds. Plus the completely revamped lines in South Wales will need to be addressed. However so much of that does not have first class that a standard class ticket may be the solution.

And a need to revisit past railtours as they are not necessarily correctly recorded in my earlier records.

GB RailRover – Day 7

26 August 202421 May 2024 by admin

Plan for the day

The target for the day is to get home before the ticket expires. On an earlier rover I was not checking the time sufficiently carefully and ended up 30 miles from home and needed rescuing by car, which my father kindly executed. The plan is relatively simple:

Plan Dep	Train No	Journey	Plan Arr	NRT Miles
08:57	1Y22	Oban to Glasgow Q St	11:56	101.5
12:03	2W73	Glasgow Q st to Anniesland	12:22	4.25
12:30	2L04	Anniesland to Glasgow Central	12:43	4
13:13	1L91	Glasgow Central to Carlisle	15:39	115.5
15:47	1M15	Carlisle to Euston	19:12	299
19:45	2P63	London Waterloo to Guildford	20:23	30.25
20:46	1V65	Guildford to Sandhurst	21:12	14.25

Notes:
As before my thanks to Real Time Trains for the material in the links.

Operations on the Day

I suppose a die-hard enthusiast would (like the Heart of Wales line) have taken the very early service out of Oban – I am too old for such action. The light does not work so well on the surroundings as it did last night but it remains another attractive landscape through which to travel which of course retraces all the way to Glasgow Queen Street.

An unusual way to reach Glasgow Central is to take the local service to Anniesland using a chord which closed in 1985 and was lifted in 1988. By 2005 the tide had turned and the chord was relaid and the line re-opened. For me a wander along the platform to the other face and I can catch a train into Glasgow Central Low Level.

320321 at Anniesland

Here there are a large number of people waiting with queues on the far side for main line services and what appears to be standard operating practice of not opening platforms to passengers until the very last possible moment. This might have been compounded by a late platform change. RealTime Trains was advising (until after we departed) that we would be leaving from Platform 7 – but at a very late stage the train is advertised from platform 6 so for some reason I suspect a unit swap was undertaken.

Travelling on an overnight service many years we were routed via Kilmarnock I was told subsequently – but knew nothing of it, so I am taking the opportunity today to do it in daylight as a different way of reaching Carlisle. We head through the southern outskirts of the City and then into the countryside – the stations are well spaced in the countryside and we head through an area of the Borders country which I have never visited – more new attractive countryside. A number of stations along the line were re-opened in 1994 adding to the usage but even now given the paucity of the population the usage remains low.

At Carlisle I walk to the front of the incoming train and board first class for the high speed journey into London Euston. We are more or less to time until just before Watford Junction when we come to a stand and then run 8 to 9 minutes late until we arrive at Euston. It is highly disappointing that my travel time is not a meal service – just light bites – I had hoped I might get something decent to compare with my LNER experience earlier in the holiday. It remains a pity that these units are hobbled at 125mph and are not running at their design speeds of 140mph. And in Europe similar units are running at even higher speeds.

The Northern line soon delivers me to Waterloo and I am able to catch a train 15 minutes earlier than planned and then the onward hourly service home – where unusually I am able to travel first class.

Rolling Stock

The Pendolinos have undergone a fairly heavy mid-life refurbishment and the units are in generally good order and the fleet is looking good and generally performing well.

GWR (unusually as I rarely like much of what they do – my local line timetable is the evidence of my hatred) is a prime example of how other operators should work. A small bay adjacent to the cab with a small number of better seats isolated from the remainder of the train provides a better and branded first class environment. Why can other non-metro operators not do this on longer time services – four hours is NOT a metro service, why not fit a few first class seats and take the extra money? Why throw money away?

As an example the line via Kilmarnock and Dumfries is through a lot of countryside – so why no first class on the trains.

Ticket Checks

Travelling first class from Guildford home I was a little surprised not to have a ticket check but otherwise checks again a little thin – but then I was on some trains for some distance.

Summary

Another day when there was a small amount of late running – but the delays did not knock onto causing delays to reaching the eventual destination on time. Again today has gone well and the last 569 miles (plus the Underground) and many people have made it all work extremely well.

GB RailRover – Day 6

2 June 202420 May 2024 by admin

800102 at Newcastle

Plan for the day

Quite often Sundays see routes disrupted due to engineering works and so it was important to find ways of using the day and also not getting held up – plus I have never been to Oban by train as far as I can remember. Which delivered this plan:

Plan Dep	Train No	Journey	Plan Arr	NRT Miles
08:45	1S03	Newcastle to Edinburgh	10:27	124.5
10:35	2Y14	Edinburgh to North Berwick	11:09	29.25
11:20	2Y13	North Berwick to Edinburgh	11:52	29.25
12:17	2K01	Edinburgh to Glenrothes with Thornton	13:14	30.75
13:20	2G02	Glenrothes to Edinburgh Haymarket	14:16	29.5
14:30	2Y45	E Haymarket to Glasgow C	15:59	47.25
18:21	1Y27	Glasgow Q St to Oban	21:24	101.5

Notes:
As before my thanks to Real Time Trains for the material in the links.

Operations on the Day

Having spent the night in Newcastle an Azuma soon has me back in Edinburgh; it is misty this morning so the views are not so good as earlier in the week. A very early plan for the week had me spending an additional night in Edinburgh to cover some local services – and this return allows those to be covered.

I leave Edinburgh in the direction from which I arrived as I am heading to North Berwick for a little section of new track down the branch line before re-visiting Edinburgh once again and I then take two trips over the Forth Bridge as I circumnavigate the Fife Circle – there are few trains around the circle during the week but are common at the weekend and so I cover the curve into Glenrothes-with-Thornton. This section re-opened to passenger traffic in 1989 with the station being constructed in 1992 with the oddity that the two platforms are both capable of bi-directional operation. A return visit to this area will be required from June 2024 when the branch to Leven is re-opened to passenger traffic but these are to be routed by the coastal route so not covering the west to north curve at Thornton Junction.

Dodge of the day when planning the detail was to detrain at Haymarket and consequently make a connection onto the next service without having to run around like a headless chicken – simply up to the concourse and down the other side – if I had thought about it I might even have had time for a cup of coffee but better safe than sorry!

I leave Edinburgh (Haymarket) for the last time on this holiday by another one of the routes to Glasgow – this time via Shotts which is less developed than the route via Bathgate take earlier in the trip. The train rolls into Glasgow Central and originally my plan was to use my time here to traverse the Glasgow subway and see the new trains currently being introduced.

However I will be arriving in Oban far too late to eat. The meal last night was poor – and I have not had a really decent meal since Inverness. A little review of restaurant possibilities throws up a branch of the Gaucho chain conveniently half way between Central and Queen Street stations! As it is mid-afternoon the absence of a booking is not a problem (earlier visits to Scotland had taught me that without a booking you can rapidly be turned away from many restaurants so care is needed). An excellent steak (far better than one in the Station Hotel Aberdeen) and a glass of Rioja are very welcome given my travels. I sit and reflect on how excellent most of the time keeping has been over recent days and a decent meal is far better than travelling around the Glasgow Subway – so another return visit is needed – also to cover most of the rail lines south of the Clyde.

Never having previously been outside a station in Glasgow it is a pleasant walk through the City Centre and the distance between the two main stations is perhaps less than anticipated.

A hugely disappointing event then happened. The unit for the Oban working is obviously standing on platform 5 for the 18:21 departure. The gates and announcement are made at about 18:19 – so there is a mad dash of passengers with a fair degree of luggage, bikes and so forth. And finally at 18:21 the train doors are opened. Given that there are signs indicating that doors will be closed 30 seconds prior to departure this treatment of passengers is simply wrong. There is mad panic as people scramble aboard and try to find seats. I guess incorrectly and sit on the “wrong” side of the train in the rush. Departure happens at 18:23.

Scotrail this is the second time today when doors open too close to departure time (the train to North Berwick being the other one). It cannot aid running off on time services and is far from best treatment for passengers. If you cannot ensure staff are in the right place to allow earlier door opening at terminals then you are not planning correctly.

We again depart out through the north west districts of Glasgow which were visited earlier in the week and then take the line the north-west. So again I run past the northern edge of the River Clyde and it then passes alongside Gare Loch and Loch Long for an extended distance. The views then switch to the other side as are running along Loch Lomond, with a slightly different viewpoint to the road which is right on the edge of the Loch. At Crianlarich the line splits and we head off to the left and running close to the A85 Old Military Road and the River Lochy which we follow until we pick up the River Orchy which feeds Loch Awe. We then turn up to Loch Etive which we track to Connel Ferry, long replaced by a bridge, before running southwards and then north to run into the much simplified Oban station. We pass the Royal Scotsman train running away from Oban.

Oban is much reduced and my hotel resides on the former freight depot – but allows bags to be dumped before a drink in an adjacent public house.

Rolling Stock

The Azuma gave a good ride back across the border and the only real question is if they are worth what they have cost as they are expensive.

Scotrail units are not overly clean – hence some photos showing light streaks from the muck on the windows. Internally they are not too bad given the usage.

All generally in good order with class 156 units to Crianlarich and a single unit to Oban. Generally good loadings on most services – the early Azuma to Edinburgh was lightly loaded but to my slight surprise the train to North Berwick was well loaded as were the other local trains. It looked like the majority of passengers on the Oban service were actually going all the way with few leaving at intermediate stations. I remain of the opinion that ensuring trains can be accessed a few minutes before departure from the commencing terminal so that people can be seated before the journey commences is a good thing.

Ticket Checks

A little sparse today compared with some of the ticket checking undertaken earlier in the week by Scotrail – but still in evidence.

Summary

This turned out to be an excellent way to pass a Sunday avoiding any delays due to engineering. Inevitably wonderful scenery on the line to Oban – even being sat on the wrong side for the best of it. The evening sun lighting up the Highland hillsides beautifully.

GB RailRover – Day 5

2 June 202419 May 2024 by admin

Plan for the day

In the very original plan for today it was intended to cover the line between Castleford and York but the TransPennine upgrade which is in process meant that this had to be abandoned – but there is always another, far more attractive way of reaching Newcastle:

Plan Dep	Train No	Journey	Plan Arr	NRT Miles
08:15	2M04	Llandrinod to Shrewsbury	09:46	51.75
10:24	1D12	Shrewsbury to Wrexham General	11:01	29.75
11:20	2J60	Wrexham General to Wrexham Central	11:24	0.5
11:29	2F66	Wrexham Central to Bidston	12:32	27.5
12:36	2W24	Bidston to Liverpool Lime Street	12:53	4.75
13:15	2F58	Liverpool Lime St to Wigan North Western	14:04	20
14:26	1S62	Wigan NW to Lancaster	14:57	36.25
15:02	1C57	Lancaster to Barrow in Furness	16:05	34.75
16:11	2C35	Barrow in Furness to Carlisle	18:41	85.25
18:49	2A46	Carlisle to Newcastle	20:16	61.75

Notes:
As before my thanks to Real Time Trains for the material in the links.

Operations on the Day

A bacon sandwich in the hotel where they kindly arrange to open the kitchen early and I am on the platform ready for the train onwards to Shrewsbury which started some hours earlier at Swansea. Any points problems have been fixed as it rolls in on time.

New track never previously covered from here to the junction with the line to Craven Arms. Shrewsbury to Wrexham has been covered previously but the Borderlands line between Dee Marsh Junction and Bidston is probably new track (I certainly cannot remember covering it). There is some uncertainty about how and why I might have visited this area previously which will need some more research.

At Bidston I am briefly on a third rail network into Liverpool Lime Street where it is a long walk upstairs to take new track (again) to Wigan NW where I join the WCML and an Avanti service for the trip to Lancaster. I cannot be bothered to walk to the back of the train and instead join one of the Standard Premium coaches – which are also marked first class. This is an uninspiring bodge up – which the train staff are seeking to market and yet on ECML they are filling first class. It is unclear what Avanti are trying to achieve by re-introducing a “second class” – deliver a proper first class solution and garner the additional revenue – many other operators could do that too simply by providing some better seating for first class. The apparently forced removal of first class on many trains is hard to fathom.

At Lancaster I have a few minutes before the Cumbrian Coast line service to Barrow in Furness so can pick up a coffee once I find the relevant outlet as the place seems to be covered in scaffolding hiding all signage. The onward train is running late and the guard offers advice on where to be to access the subway at Barrow in Furness to catch the train onto the rest of the Cumbrian Coast – but he is pretty certain that the connection will be held as they are used to delays.

As ever the journey along the coast through Grange-over-Sands is stunning – yet another supremely picturesque view available from the trains in this country – especially with the sun shining on it as it is today.

My previous visit used the cut off from Dalton Junction to Park South Junction so going through Barrow-in-Furness station is a first. At Ravenglass the L’il Ratty is in evidence and thereafter it is new track for the rest of the day. We subsequently cross West Country Braunton leading a railtour and the conductor gives fair warning.

The trip north along the coast to Maryport not only has attractive scenery – the hills of the Lake District on one side and the sea on the other make for some lovely views although the bulk of the former nuclear station at Sellafield which is now the centre of decommissioning of the first generation of nuclear power stations is perhaps less attractive.

Beyond Maryport we turn inland to Carlisle. Some of the route is single track north of Sellafield but with many level crossings and ancient signalling systems the line remains expensive to operate. Loadings are good on this train all the way to Carlisle.

In the original plans the connection at Carlisle was around five minutes into the next service but this has eased and I was easily able to shift across the station in time for the onward journey through Northumberland. Again this is attractive countryside as we head through Haltwhistle and Hexham to reach Newcastle where a hotel and dinner await.

Rolling Stock

More or less from the sublime to the ridiculous – a class 153 to start the day, an almost new class 777 on the third rail, Pendolino on the WCML and Northern units around the Cumbrian Coast and across Northumberland. Most of the trains seemed to have decent loading and apart from odd minutes here and there generally running pretty close to time.

The Class 777 units are now working a good proportion of the Merseyrail network and my brief experience shows that they are capable of doing a good job. There is a problem with the battery units because no-one could work out how to extend the third rail – a sad reflection on the inability of the modern railways to stand up for themselves with no-one even attempting a safety case for the extension to Headbolt Lane.

It was also a brand new 197 unit on the Borderlands line – it should be former A stock / Vivarail conversion but these are not achieving the required level of reliability as yet.

Ticket Checks

Nothing on Avanti West Coast at all but at least one check on most services – although I am pretty sure that some other travellers underpaid on the Borderlands line – and they only paid to Bidston but were apparently going on into Liverpool for the football judging by the discussion!

Summary

Hugely attractive scenery particularly around the Cumbrian Coast and then across Northumberland. The sun shone most of the time so it was actually quite warm on some of the trains.

GB RailRover – Day 4

2 June 202418 May 2024 by admin

Plan for the day

The plan for Friday is to mop up some branch lines and to head back in a northerly direction:

Plan Dep	Train No	Journey	Plan Arr	NRT Miles
06:58	2A03	Penzance to St Ives	07:18	10
07:32	2A04	St Ives to St Erth	07:44	4.25
07:47	2U14	St Erth to Truro	08:18	20
08:45	2F70	Truro to Falmouth Docks	09:09	12.25
09:15	2T70	Falmouth Docks to Truro	09:42	12.25
09:53	1A82	Truro to Exeter	12:12	105.75
12:27	1S49	Exeter St Davids to Bristol Temple Meads	13:27	76.25
13:46	2K34	BTM to Severn Beach	14:23	13.5
15:01	2K37	Severn Beach to BTM	15:43	13.5
15:57	1F20	BTM to Cardiff Central	16:45	38.25
16:56	1V44	Cardiff Central to Swansea	18:11	47.5
18:19	2M12	Swansea to Llandrinod	20:48	69.75

Notes:
As before my thanks to Real Time Trains for the material in the links.

Operations on the Day

The day starts well – breakfast on the Penzance Quay at Sullivans – and even though it is 6:30 in the morning the sun is shining and they have outdoor seats and it is a great way to start the day! A couple of weeks later even Rishi Sunak is using it after using the sleeper!

First up is the little line to St Ives – the first service of the day uses the through connection and then the unit gets locked into the branch for the rest of the day until the final working in the evening with the token being collected from the signal box briefly after serving St Erth station. Whilst the beach at Carbis Bay is unoccupied this early the train is seeing a number of users besides myself.

The timetables work fairly well at this point and re-joining main line after the branch perambulation means that I can take first class to Truro where I disembark for the second new branch line of the day to Falmouth Docks.

Picking up the main line service again at Truro is straightforward and there are then announcements that there are possible problems in the Weston-Super-Mare area and I am conscious that the service to Severn Beach sometimes interworks to and from Weston and therefore that my timings may be disrupted. In addition I remain aware of the possibility that the Cross Country planned to Bristol Temple Meads would be heavily loaded after the experience yesterday.

So a further replan of the next part of the journey is undertaken.

Plan Dep	Headcode	Route	Plan Arr	NRT miles
09:53	1A82	Truro to Tiverton Parkway	12:29	122.25
12:40	1S49	Tiverton Parkway - Bristol Parkway	13:43	65.75
14:05	1B15	Bristol Parkway - Cardiff Central	14:37	33.5
14:50	2Y55	Cardiff Central - Barry Island	15:24	9.25
15:26	2M42	Barry Island - Barry	15:30	0.75
16:05	2E40	Barry - Bridgend	16:38	19.0
16:58	1B19	Bridgend - Swansea	17:30	27.25
18:19	2M12	Swansea - Llandrinod	20:48	69.75

NRT only provides distances via Weston-super-Mare (presumably because there are no stations on the avoiding line). The loop line is about four miles and the avoiding line is less so the above mileage is slightly overstated, subsequent digging in the Sectional Appendices identify that the direct route is physically a mile shorter than the loop via the town so not overly significant.

So I lose the mileage to Severn Beach and add the rather modest distance to Barry Island from Barry having passed over this route before it was added back into the passenger network in June 2005. It also eases a slightly tight connection at Swansea which might have been problematic. I did not subsequently check the trips I would have taken – but better safe than sorry.

I therefore stay on the GWR service to Tiverton Parkway and then pick up a Cross Country service to Bristol Parkway (which I had planned to catch at Exeter but decided to stay put to minimise time on Cross Country). The Cross Country service is well laden again and we are held for a few minutes before coming to a rest at Bristol Parkway.

My train westwards is delayed by a slow freight which has been pathed in front of the service and we lose a few more minutes on the journey through the Severn tunnel and into Cardiff Central. The various perturbations seem to have hit GWR again today.

TfW class 150 for the journey down to Barry Docks where the adjacent fun fair is undergoing pre-season maintenance. There is a large multi-generational family traveling together from Cardiff on this service and they disembark en masse and seek to exit the station – except that they don’t and they rejoin the service (as do I watching closely). Once we get back to Barry they all disembark again and this time the leave the station. Looks like they went a stop too far.

I have time to walk to the far end of the platform and observe the new trains currently stabled in the new stabling point at Barry having recovered the site from the former preservation railway. The trains are due to enter service in the near future as the local valley lines are upgraded.

A further 150 takes me onto Bridgend along the line re-instated to passengers in 2005 and using terminal platform 1A at Bridgend (avoiding the hated platform 0 designation used elsewhere). The next service is running late and loses time all the way from Swindon as it heads to Bridgend. I had hoped to use the time in Swansea to find something hot to eat as a takeaway on the next journey as I fear that dinner at my destination will be limited. Quickly poking my nose outside the station shows no obvious take aways and with time now limited I return to the station – but cannot join the waiting train as the crew are not there.

A celebrity is spotted on the service into Swansea – the actress Sian Phillips is identified leaving the train and heading off along the platform – she comes from South Wales originally.

It is a long time since I last traversed the Heart of Wales line but I do recall some stunning scenery – it is still there but much of the line now runs through an effective tree-lined route and the scenery is therefore hard to see – the trees have been allowed to grow here (and elsewhere) so the views are simply impossible to see.

153382 at Swansea before heading to Llanrtrwyd Wells

The service on this line is thin and is to be reduced in December – and yet the trains are well loaded and one wonders if running a more frequent service might raise more revenue than the marginal costs. Unfortunately these days such approaches are rare.

All is going well until we get towards Llanwrtyd Wells where these days the two crews swap over with the Shrewsbury crew returning home and the Swansea crew doing likewise. Except that tonight each crew has decided that they want to take their own train home and all the passengers on the two trains have to walk along the train, over the foot crossing and join the other unit.

The unit on which I arrived heads off happily back to Swansea. However we remain stationary. And now the potential impact on my ability to get anything to eat is starting to worry me. The northern set of points had been reset to allow the other unit to depart north after our arrival and apparently nothing would now change them to enable us to move off to the north. If the decision to swap units had been conveyed to the signalling team the points need not have been changed after our arrival (although possibly they had to to permit the other unit to enter the loop). So until permission is obtained to hand crank the points and that has been done we cannot leave. Over 30 minutes late. In the December timetable change the crossing point will move to Llandrinod Wells because there is a larger population and it is not so remote – so one wonders just how often this happens.

Going downhill we recover some time but the only place to get food has already stopped cooking fish and there are a couple of fishcakes. Why do the Welsh give up so early?

At least I am able to book into my hotel, eat the fishcakes (not particularly palatable either), and catch up on the score as Southampton are playing the second leg of the play offs which they win.

Rolling Stock

A real mixture today with modern inter city stock and class 150 units at the other extreme. Services generally well loaded – even the Heart of Wales line unit is well loaded on the departure from Swansea and Llanelli as it takes passengers home up the line having had a day out.

Ticket Checks

Very mixed – obviously checked on the branch lines but little evidence on the main line trains.

Summary

Not a good day for time keeping. Obviously the initial cancellation of the planned Cross Country service which was the planned highpoint of the entire trip. Then GWR seemed to have a problem in the Swindon area delaying trains and then the problem with TfW / Network Rail at Llanwtryd Wells which is presumably down to equipment failure – but it took the edge of the good running enjoyed over the other days and indeed on the decent times on other trains today.

GB RailRover – Day 3

1 June 202417 May 2024 by admin

I7C at Inverness for Aberdeen - 43021 — I7C at Inverness for Aberdeen – 43021

Plan for the day

The plan for today is to take the longest single working on the railway from Aberdeen to Penzance:

Plan Dep	Train No	Journey	Plan Arr	NRT Miles
08:20	1V60	Aberdeen to Penzance	21:36	785

Notes:
As before my thanks to Real Time Trains for the material in the links.

Operations on the Day

I finish having breakfast in the hotel and then check my train – it has been cancelled (it is later re-instated from Edinburgh south) but I have already missed a train to Edinburgh which would connect into the service – so a new plan was rapidly constructed – Cross Country themselves suggest an Edinburgh – London service and a Cross Country to Plymouth and local service to Penzance.

I work up a new plan:

Plan Dep	Train No	Journey	Plan Arr	NRT Miles
09:04	1B74	Aberdeen - Edinburgh	11:22	130.5
11:30	1E13	Edinburgh - York	13:54	204.5
14:44	1V62	York - Plymouth	20:49	372.50
21:17	1C92	Plymouth - Penzance	22:59	79.5

The through train is unique in the UK – the longest single train working and was always the centrepiece of the holiday – to join in Aberdeen and walk off in Penzance – a long day but staying on the move all day. So that has been ruined. And for no obvious reason I note that whilst Cross Country tout their service as covering 785 miles the NRT mileages for the spit I am following is 787. NRT mileages are adjusted to a quarter mile and I assume that explains the difference (NRT does not have a mileage table for Cross Country – that has to come from the individual routes and RealTime Trains do not seem to have mileage on all detailed train plans although their website does say they are on the majority).

When using the online planners even if you leave Aberdeen on the original through train you are told to change at Haymarket and catch a train down the West Coast and you get to the destination sooner than staying on it! And if I had stayed on the LNER service from Edinburgh to Kings Cross and then travelled west from Paddington I would have been earlier than my actual arrival. So Cross Country the service is slow and so no-one is actually recommended to use it from end to end!

Turning to my actual journey the trip down the East Coast of Scotland and across the Tay and Forth Bridges was one I had not previously taken so entirely new and the sun is shining so the countryside can be seen as we head south. I benefit from the luxury once again of I7C (HST) first class which is in good order although these sets appear not to have hugely reliable wifi – on a couple there is simply no signal and inevitably in the wilds of Scotland often no transmitter with which to connect even if it is working on the train. Never mind it is very pleasant to watch the world passing by and of course the crossings of the Tay and Firth of Forth are excellent.

Checking on the LNER train from Inverness I can see it was running late so hopefully giving me additional connection time – but we come to a stand having passed Haymarket and I watch the London train go past on the other line and we trail it into Edinburgh station only slightly late on platform 17 – but it is a long walk and I need to negotiate the gateline (which the rover ticket no longer works) followed by a mad rush to platform 2 before boarding – and I then have a long walk through to the first class.

LNER first class team are welcoming and I settle in a seat which is reserved from Newcastle onwards so know I will have to move – but at least I can see the coastline as we head south. I spend some time rechecking my options – and decide that I will leave at York and take the Cross Country service so sticking to the original route – but at the cost of at least an hour on arrival time. At Newcastle I move seats to one reserved from Edinburgh to London but has been empty all of the way and so it seems reasonable to sit there.

Lunch is taken and this solves the meal problem for the day – I had always been worried that finding anything to eat in Penzance tonight would be impossible.

Far too soon we are in York and at this point I am only about 15 minutes behind the train I originally planned to catch – but it is just passing Church Fenton as it powers to Penzance. It eventually arrives in Penzance about three minutes late.

Announcements and the number of passengers waiting at York imply the train will be well loaded – I find a seat but I can see people are standing and later in the journey first class is declassified – even though there are only three seats available and the catering facility is at the rear of the unit (first is at the front) and has no way of getting through the the train. Whilst reference is made to a previous service cancellation there cannot be many from north of Edinburgh who are now on this train to cause this level of overloading. I think it is Tiverton Parkway before the first class is reclassified.

The scenery on this section is dominated by the run along Dawlish – the third time recently and it remains magnificent and on the original plan I would have had the equally magnificent Northumberland coast on the same train.

The 1803 from Paddington leaves Plymouth on time but we are delayed at Bodmin Parkway and roll into Penzance a minute late – but nearly 90 minutes later than the original plan. The hotel is an uphill 10 minute walk and much to my surprise they have waited for me. I just want to have a bath and get to bed!

Rolling Stock

By a long way the best was of course Scotrail’s I7C in terms of comfort. Catering and comfort was not bad on the LNER service to York. Loading on the Cross Country is way beyond acceptable – and the Cross Country practice of allowing seat reservations to commence during the journey (which led to people, including me, constantly having to change seats as they were initially available) remains an unwanted “improvement” for most travellers. Cross Country definitively needs longer trains urgently. Adding a coach with a pantograph and a transformer which can feed the power to the tracks whilst under the wires (and on the third rail too) would be a huge expense but a good solution.

I did not use the first class into Cornwall – it was at the rear of the train and I could not face adding the inevitable walk back and then forwards at Penzance to the exit.

Ticket Checks

Oddly I am not entirely sure that LNER undertook a ticket check and Cross Country did before the train became overloaded. If GWR did it was pretty cursory.

Summary

Obviously a massive disappointment not to sit on a Cross Country Voyager for the entire day – in some senses! The route was traversed, a decent meal supplied by LNER and the obvious scenic sections remained. Having failed to use the train once it will not feature high in my priority list for the future – there remains much more of the National network to cover.

GB RailRover – Day 2

1 June 202416 May 2024 by admin

Plan for the day

The plan for Wednesday is to head north from Inverness as far as the train can go; once there to come back and then go on to Aberdeen:

Plan Dep	Train No	Journey	Plan Arr	NRT Miles
07:00	2H61	Inverness to Wick	11:31	175
12:34	2H62	Wick to Inverness	17:08	175
17:13	1A26	Inverness to Aberdeen	19:36	108.25

Notes:
As before my thanks to Real Time Trains for the material in the links.

Operations on the Day

An early start this morning as it takes a long time to get to the Far North! As far as Dingwall I am on previously explored track having travelled to Kyle of Lochalsh and over to Skye using the ferry (long before the bridge was constructed). However the onward route to Thurso and Wick is all new ground.

I have been this way since that trip by car – but the rail line takes a very different route particularly north of Helmsdale where the road stays close to the coast and my route today goes inland. Rail is now at a huge disadvantage to road in journey time as the rail route has to go inland first to Beauly whilst the road traverses the Kessock Bridge and again near Dornoch where the road has a bridge whilst the trains go inland to Bonar Bridge to cross the Kyle of Sutherland. The former is perhaps less of a problem than the latter which adds a lot to the journey time.

Weather is much improved this morning and there are decent loadings on the service as we head North. With the request stops on the line now having modern facilities to alert train crew to waiting passengers we go through most of them at close to line speed so easing the pressure on the driver. Dunrobin Castle is an exception as a number of passengers alight there to visit the castle.

Train crews exchange at Lairg with those on the southbound unit taking us onwards and our crew taking charge of the unit heading towards Inverness.

Spotted several times today is a new countryside adornment. About three or four times today a digger is randomly “abandoned” in the corner of a field adjacent to the line. All of them seem left with no obvious digging work to undertake and no staff anywhere near. Quite why or what they represent remains a mystery. It seems like a lot of expensive machinery to leave almost lying around – although with the low level of population they are unlikely to go anywhere.

The route is far more rural and heavily populated by sheep (and some cows). In nearly every case the low service frequency means that we are given a display, particularly by lambs and calves, of how fast they can run from the noisy machine which might be about to enter the field and chase them around. Older ewes are less prone to run, staring at the mad antics of their offspring as they make a run for it. Needless to say the ewes have seen it all before – probably yesterday.

Once the line has turned inland at Helmsdale much of the route is over the Flow Country which is new to me. it is an extensive blanket bog system of peat which acts as a significant way of addressing the climate change and is currently seeking World Heritage site classification – a decision is awaited.

At the far end of the line the train reverses at Georgemas Junction before heading to the furthermost north station of Thurso and then heading back to Wick where lunch is acquired in a very conveniently located Coop. An hour after arrival a new train crew starts us up with a journey to Thurso before again reversing at Georgemas Junction and retracing our earlier steps.

On the return journey we have a long period where it appears a TSR has been imposed since our outward journey and we lose time. We steadily recover the time as our journey continues until we reach Connell Ferry where the time is largely lost as a large coach party leaves us and we are late into Inverness.

Jump off near the front of the train and run around to the departure platform for the train to Aberdeen and jump on the first door where the guard is standing. A two minute connection and I make it. Quite why the train leaves at that time I am not sure as a couple of stations down the line it has to await a working in the other direction before entering a single line section. Another I7C unit so very comfortable for this run.

Lovely countryside through here and in addition to the other wildlife there is a hare which runs briefly and then sits upright with huge ears in a ploughed field. More deer too. It looks like good farming country.

The hotel in Aberdeen is immediately outside the station and is at the very least convenient.

Rolling Stock

The lack of refreshments both ways to Wick is a slight problem and something on the service to Aberdeen would have been welcome – a huge coffee deficit today. No first class on the Far North line – but a decent loading particularly on the southbound journey with the coach tour of pensioners who had presumably gone north on the coach so were making a one way journey on 158. As already mentioned the I7C to Aberdeen was very comfortable.

Ticket Checks

The crews on the Far North line carried out checks plus there was a check on the way to Aberdeen. Scotrail are good at regular ticket checks.

Summary

An absolutely wonderful day for the scenery – nine hours on one unit with a brief break in Wick was somewhat boring – but apart from the resulting tight connection in Inverness it was a lovely day to see the scenery.