GB RailRover – Day 7

Oban
Oban

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 DepTrain NoJourneyPlan ArrNRT Miles
08:571Y22Oban to Glasgow Q St11:56101.5
12:032W73Glasgow Q st to Anniesland12:224.25
12:302L04Anniesland to Glasgow Central12:434
13:131L91Glasgow Central to Carlisle15:39115.5
15:471M15Carlisle to Euston19:12299
19:452P63London Waterloo to Guildford20:2330.25
20:461V65Guildford to Sandhurst21:1214.25

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.

Fraoch Eilean Castle Loch Awe
Fraoch Eilean Castle Loch Awe

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

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 5

197104 at Shrewsbury
197104 at Shrewsbury

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 DepTrain NoJourneyPlan ArrNRT Miles
08:152M04Llandrinod to Shrewsbury09:4651.75
10:241D12Shrewsbury to Wrexham General11:0129.75
11:202J60Wrexham General to Wrexham Central11:240.5
11:292F66Wrexham Central to Bidston12:3227.5
12:362W24Bidston to Liverpool Lime Street12:534.75
13:152F58Liverpool Lime St to Wigan North Western14:0420
14:261S62Wigan NW to Lancaster14:5736.25
15:021C57Lancaster to Barrow in Furness16:0534.75
16:112C35Barrow in Furness to Carlisle18:4185.25
18:492A46Carlisle to Newcastle20:1661.75

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.

777 at Bidston
777 at Bidston

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.

Grange over Sands
Grange over Sands

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.