10th – 12th May – Weekend away in Cheshire

 10th – 12th May – Weekend away in Cheshire

Originally this trip would have involved staying overnight on the Sunday to come back on the Monday, but due to keeping an eye on my annual leave, the day I had in mind for the Monday got shifted for that BLS tour on the Friday the week before.  A 2-night stay in my usual shared house in Crewe with several ideas of what I could do, although like with many trips it would depend on the weather.

10th May – Onwards to Crewe… via Birmingham.

The trip began with the 17:59 service from Grateley formed of 159001 which lost around 15 minutes at Overton due to signalling issues in the Basingstoke area, thankfully it made it through Basingstoke and made up some of the time with a storming run to Waterloo.  I headed towards the underground jumping onto a Northern line set formed of 51706 & 51546 with those dreaded words “being held here a couple minutes to regulate service levels”, not what I wanted to hear as I needed to catch the 19:56 Birmingham train due to cancellations on the services via the Trent Valley.

It was one of those days where with the benefit of hindsight I should have attempted the tight connection at Andover considering the 17:37 service was running a couple of minutes late when I checked before finishing work which would have given me a bit more time in London, maybe even making the 18:46 train to Crewe which was delayed by 30 minutes due to earlier delays on the WCML, but hey-ho.  Anyhow this hot Northern line service took me to Euston where eventually I escaped the maze of passageways (and what felt like hundreds of slow-moving passengers), arriving at the main concourse just as the 19:56 service was getting announced as it was late arriving from Northampton.

Into the large crowd of passengers heading towards the train with the platform screens shouting out “platform closing” causing even more of a rush, I managed to walk fast towards the front of the train formed of 350262 & 350264 and into the former 1st class area of 262 which made things a bit more bearable on this pair of 3+2 seated units.  The train was quite slow departing Euston, only really getting up to speed after Wembley, losing some more time between Cheddington & Leighton Buzzard where it crossed from the fasts to the slows so by the time it reached Northampton it was around 18 minutes late.  Thankfully Northampton did have a 15 dwell, so the delay was cut back to 5 minutes, time it never made back up on the slow run into Birmingham New Street, where I transferred to platform 4 to board 350106 on a Crewe terminator, busy at the rear but quiet at the front.

Nothing much happened along the way to Crewe via Wolverhampton, arriving at Crewe early (as I think this train is booked to run along the slow lines between Stafford & Crewe and it used the fast lines).  I arrived a few minutes ahead of the Highland Sleeper making for an interesting photo (sadly I didn’t see anything of the Northern Lights).  Good thing I didn’t wait round for the 21:46 service for Crewe as that lost 30 minutes south of Milton Keynes and looked like ran nonstop from Rugby to Crewe, replacement taxis would have been busy for the stations between Rugby & Stafford considering 3 trains in a row were cancelled.

92028 at Crewe

I made my way to the shared house, sorted out my rucksack and was thankful I didn’t have an early pre-6am alarm clock this time round as I was aiming for the 08:10 TfW service towards South Wales.  A bit of a stressful journey compared to usual, just shows how faster the Crewe trains are compared to the Birmingham trains.

11th May – Shropshire Union Canal towards Gnosall & Nantwich

The idea for today was to return to the Shropshire Union Canal (the former Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal) to walk from the town of Market Drayton towards Gnosall where there was a handy bus route on the Stafford – Telford service (this canal took a bit of planning to take into account points in which to break walks owing to the highly rural nature).  After Gnosall I did have a couple of rough plans to walk an old canal in Newport (Staffordshire) or an old railway line in the south of Shrewsbury as both were along the bus route.

Anyhow the day began with the 08:10 service towards Carmarthen formed of winner 197122, where I took a seat in the future ‘Standard Plus’ section of the train (or whatever TfW is going to be branding it) which in all fairness was quite decent in terms of seating.  Not the fastest of trips to Shrewsbury (even though it was nonstop) as it slowed for what I presume were level crossings along the way.  I alighted at Shrewsbury, swung via the toilets at the station and once outside went via Tesco Express to grab lunch before making my way to the bus station which was reasonable enough although not somewhere I would want to be on a super warm day as I suspect it would get hot in the enclosed sections.

Shrewsbury Bus Station

The next Arriva run 2 hourly route 64 service (Shrewsbury – Market Drayton – Hanley) rolled in a few minutes late with bus 3694 (an Optare Versa) departing late as it headed away from Shrewsbury town centre going via Harlescott then following the A53 via several Shropshire villages, detouring from the main road to serve Hodnet and the MOD accommodation at Buntingdale before reaching the small bus station area in Market Drayton, alongside the next bus towards Shrewsbury plus a town route bus run by Lakeside Coaches.  I decided to alight from the bus in the town centre to make my way towards the canal near Talbot Wharf turning south to begin my walk.

The canal soon turned rural (in terms of fields and woodland) with the towpath being quite variable in surface (from tarmac to dried mud & grass), the worse section was in the Tyrley cutting simply because it hadn't had a chance for the sun to hit it (due to thick woodland).  I climbed the Tyrley lock flight which was quite busy with boats using them and continued south passing underneath bridge 58 which was quite tall.  My walk came to a stop when I hit a major landslip in a cutting, and after doing a short spot of bending around a branch spotted a couple more slips further round the bend decided that I could go no further south.  Seems it's not just the railway which has suffered from the wet winter.  Annoyingly it was in an area with no alternative, so I did a U-turn to head back towards Market Drayton with plan B forming.

Landslip on Shropshire Union Canal towpath between Tyrley & Woodseaves

Plan B involved walking north towards Nantwich, ironically something I did have planned for the Monday before having to cut my stay back.  Back via the swampy area near Tyrley Locks and towards Market Drayton, passing the wharf (and a couple of lovely old buildings) and onto a section of canal which had a “learn to fish” event on.  I was back into countryside, mix of woodland & open fields with birds singing away, pausing to have my lunch on a handy bench in the shade for it was like someone had turned up the heating as the sun was quite warm.

The towpath flipped sides (canal on the left-hand side as I walked north) meaning shade was a bit more limited compared to earlier, however it did mean the patches of mud had vanished.  I continued north as the canal skirted round Adderley carrying on passing into Cheshire and reached the 15 lock flight dropping the canal into the Cheshire Plain.  After Audlem my walked continued, passing the remains of a railway bridge which once carried the Nantwich - Market Drayton line.  The countryside was beautiful as it was peaceful, and it was good to see the canal was being used by boaters.  I reached the outskirts of Nantwich going underneath the Crewe - Shrewsbury railway line where the rural grass path turned more solid, and I ended the walk near Marsh Lane meeting up with my coverage of the canal further north.

Shropshire Union Canal in the Audlem area

The hot weather had taken its toll on my water supply as I had managed to get through 2 and a half litres of liquid and was in need for more as I made my way towards the large Morrisons near Nantwich station to grab something cold (picked up a carton of apple juice which didn't make it out of the car park).  After Morrisons I headed towards the little bus station in Nantwich where I had just missed a Stagecoach service for Crewe with the next option being a D&G when I noticed the less frequent route 39 service to Crewe run by Mikro Coaches which goes on a more scenic route via villages to the south (Wybunbury, Shavington) with a former Morebus Wright Eclipse (HF54 HHJ) doing the lightly loaded service.

This bus took me to the recently opened bus station in Crewe (although I had no experience with the previous bus station in which to make a comparison), and with time in hand I made my way towards the railway station, swinging via the accommodation to swap the second carton of juice with my bottle of pop I put in the fridge in the morning (so was nice and cold).  At Crewe station it was onto winner 197116 to Shrewsbury making a connection onto a late running Loco hauled set with DVT 82230 leading and 67022 pushing for the trip back to Crewe, crossing off coverage of the Crewe – Shrewsbury line for 67+Mk4 coverage (one regret is not doing a 67+Mk4 to Holyhead when they ran during the day).

67022 at Crewe Railway Station

Anyhow it felt strange ending the day at half seven as I headed back to the house, swinging via a takeaway for a cheeseburger meal deal box (as a treat) and relaxed for the rest of the night after a much-needed shower.  I suspect the blockade to the towpath won’t be a quick fix due to the location so that section of the Shropshire Union will go back onto the back burner until the Canal & River Trust website lists it as fixed, at the same time I noticed another towpath closure listed on the website near the Wolverhampton end of the canal so that section will need to wait as well.  

Anyhow an enjoyable walk in the sunshine, even if a bit unplanned, topped off with a random bus route in the Crewe area.

12th May – Trent & Mersey Canal from Fradley to Burton

I had a few ideas in my head for this Sunday, some of them got scrapped due to the Northampton loop being closed, one got scrapped due to a towpath being closed.  With one eye on the weather forecast potentially turning wet in the afternoon I decided on filling in a gap on the Trent & Mersey Canal from Fradley Junction towards Burton on Trent, linking up with the two walks I did a couple of weeks previously (meaning the remaining gaps can be done with trains rather than buses).

I checked out of the shared house, heading towards Crewe station via the Tesco Express at the garage for some breakfast items plus something for lunch before going to platform 12 awaiting the first southbound LNR service to roll in from the sidings to the south of the station, unlike 2 weeks ago this was only a 8 coach set rather than a 12 coach, and sadly it was 350236 leading 350242, all the luxurious 3+2 seating with no tables nor sockets outside the former 1st class areas, which is where I ended up on 350236 for the run to Lichfield Trent Valley, walking to the bus stop for the next Diamond route 12E service for Burton formed of an Scania Irizar (30990) which unlike 2 weeks ago also had passengers on it!

Rear of Diamond Bus 30990 (YN64 FWU) in Fradley on a route 12E

This bus took me to Fradley village, alighting near the canal bridge where my walk began, walking along Hay End Lane to join the Coventry canal at Gorse Lane, to carry on to Fradley Junction where it meets the Trent & Mersey Canal.  This time I turned right (rather than left) passing Fradley Pool Nature Reserve and a busy looking café.  The first section was along a solid towpath leading to Alrewas before the towpath turned more rural as the canal joined with the river Trent to the north of Alrewas.

The canal split from the river a short distance later carrying on towards Wychnor Bridge where the canal started to run alongside the busy A38 dual carriageway along a section which wasn't the nicest due to being quite narrow with the danger of nettles and thorn bushes lying in wait.  I continued along the canal, trying my best to drown out the traffic noise reaching Barton Marina where a short distance later the canal did move away from the main road towards Branston Water Park on the outskirts of Burton on Trent where the rural towpath changed to the recently upgraded gravel towpath.  Personally, I prefer the rural grass compared to gravel due to my boots seemingly having magnets inside which attract stones

Trent & Mersey Canal between Alrewas & Wychnor

I carried on (after pausing for lunch) heading towards the Shobnall Leisure complex which is where I reached a couple of weeks previously as it was close (to a point) to the station.  I departed from the canal towpath in what felt like hotter weather than the day before (and more humid), passing the railway station and heading to a nearby large Sainsburys for both extra food and a cold carton of juice.  I had the option to walking back to the railway station for a XC 170 or waiting round for the next X12 bus to Lichfield.  I decided to head back to the railway station for the air conditioned 170108 to Tamworth (busy but I got a seat at the front).  At Tamworth I hung around for the next southbound LNR service because the connections are rubbish, this turned out to be another pair of 350/2s with 350252 leading 350244.  Amazingly I got a seat in the former 1st class area of 350244 to give my phone a charge and to allow me to watch some videos.  Alrewas is somewhere on my list to return to, to visit the National Memorial Arboretum.

Nothing unusual happened along the way south, other than losing a couple of minutes between Nuneaton & Rugby due to getting put onto the fast line with a slow running freight service.  Arrival in Euston was a couple of minutes late as a result, nothing too major compared to other services.  As I had 75 minutes to reach Waterloo for the 18:45 service to Salisbury and the sun was shining I decided to head to Waterloo on foot (saves paying out for the underground).  At Waterloo it was onto 158888 leading 159006 on a 5-coach formation with nothing out of the ordinary happening along the way to Grateley, where I had a short walk home.  An enjoyable (other than the section of narrow towpath close to the A38) walk along the Trent & Mersey Canal, leaving Willington to Shardlow [and the river Trent towards Long Eaton], Stone to Rugeley and the short section between Lostock Gralam & Elworth (for Sandbach station).  Hopefully something I can do this year to ‘clear’ another canal for walking.

158888 at London Waterloo

Anyhow I spent the rest of Sunday relaxing as my body was a bit tired due to the heat, more photos can be found on my Flickr account, thanks for reading.  Back to a couple weeks of day trips including another double headed Branch Line Society Railtour over the bank holiday weekend.  Now spring is here the canals have opened up a bit more as I wouldn’t have wanted to walk either canal in the winter months where the towpaths could have been muddy in places.   Anyhow I leave you with a photo of some Goslings:

Goslings along the Trent & Mersey Canal in Burton Upon Trent

Trips 3-6th May 2024

 Trips 3-6th May 2024

3rd May - Return of the Shedi Tour

When this late notice tour came out in early April, I decided it was worth doing as it would be a nice little day out with the bonus of some hopefully winning locos.  The day for me began with the 07:27 service for Waterloo formed of 159004, 159018 & 159104 which I took to Basingstoke popping out of the station to grab some supplies for lunch before catching a reasonably busy 221141 to Southampton Airport Parkway (which emptied out at Winchester).  I had a few minutes at Southampton Airport before 158880 took me the mile and a bit to Eastleigh where I popped out of the station for a little stroll to waste some time before the charter would depart.

33012 (D6515) rolled into the station with the London Transport 4TC set (Mk1 coaches) and I took my seat in coach D on the bouncy bench seat with has a lot more legroom than on a Mk2 coach.  33012 departed heading towards Chandlers Ford before going via Romsey and taking the Laverstock curve to head towards Basingstoke via Andover where a second pick up was made.  After Basingstoke the train continued towards Reading making use of the Oxford Road curve to head towards Tilehurst after Reading West before carrying on towards Didcot Parkway where another pick up was made as well as a 15-minute break for pathing.

33012 (D6515) at Eastleigh Station

After Didcot Parkway the train continued towards Oxford going into the Hinksey Yard to the south of the city for the first reversal of the day with DB Cargo’s 66205 & 66114 attaching to the rear, both were winners for me as the train headed back towards Didcot bypassing the station using the west curve to head towards Swindon and the Golden Valley line to Gloucester where there was a longer break for the locos to change in the rain (the charter causing a bit of chaos with late running services being forced to use alternative platforms, oops).

66205 & 66114 detached and headed back light engine towards Didcot where Freightliner’s 59005 arrived (running late due to earlier issues) to attach to the front of the train to head into Wales, running via the loop near Lydney and towards Cardiff going via platform 4 at Newport (well it is a BLS tour, so all the random crossovers).  At Cardiff the train arrived at a busy platform 2 causing more chaos as we had a longer (around 90 minutes) break, time I spent having a little stroll towards Bute Park & Blackweir Fields returning to the station via Cardiff Castle and Boots to grab some dinner items.

Bute Docks Feeder Canal within Bute Park, Cardiff

Back at Cardiff Central and back onto the charter with 33012 back in control for the run towards Bristol Parkway, pausing for 15 minutes outside Severn Tunnel Junction for some GWR services to go in front before heading underground (via the loop between Severn Tunnel Junction & the tunnel, plus via the loop before Pilning where the train got held for a late running London train to pass.  At Bristol Parkway the train reversed in the passenger loop with Freightliner’s 66541 attaching onto 59005 for the run towards Westbury where they detached from the train, with an unexpected trip via the Bathampton loop.

Another reversal in Westbury with 33012 (which did make a lovely noise) as the train made its way towards Reading via Newbury, however sadly darkness had fallen at this point so my time of looking out of the window was over.  The train went via the loop in Hungerford and arrived at platform 3 at Reading for the final loco to join with GBRf’s 66797, one of the recent(ish) European imports.  Thankfully a set-down at Basingstoke was added soon after the tour went live to allow me to take the charter to Basingstoke (originally it was nonstop to Eastleigh), giving me around 30 minutes at Basingstoke before 159012 & 159013 rolled in from London to take me back to Grateley and a gentle walk home, sorting my bag out ready for an early start on the Saturday morning (and not a lot of sleep).

66797 at Basingstoke Station

An enjoyable relaxing tour towards Cardiff via Gloucester, nice to see the BLS doing a “Super Raffle” with tickets at £10 for some ‘money can’t buy’ prizes (cab rides, guided tours of depots, trip on Caroline (the inspection saloon)) rather than doing it as a silent auction like on previous tours for Martin House, giving a better chance to win for those not flushed with a spare few hundred pounds.

4th May - May the Fourth Be with You Tour

Day 2 of the BLS tours involving the London Transport 4TC set and 33012 and it was an early start for me with a drive to Eastleigh railway station arriving with plenty of time to spare before 73136 rolled in with 33012 on the rear, sadly a dud loco from a tiny trip on the overnight GBRf tour in 2021 (from Kensington Olympia to Acton Yard).  Since the day before coach D had swapped ends to be behind the 73 rather than the 33 and this tour was a lot quieter than the Friday’s tour, my estimate was that coach D was half full, giving people the chance to spread out a bit more.

73136 at Eastleigh Station

Anyhow the first destination for today was towards Portsmouth Harbour for a brief break (and pick up of passengers) before 33012 taking over with the run towards Westbury via Southampton’s Up Goods Loop, sadly this is where the train lost some time due to having to wait for a late running Portsmouth – Cardiff service before it could continue.  At Westbury there was a surprise as Freightliner had provided not just 1 class 59 loco, nor 2 but a trio of 59s, all 3 were winners for me with 59202 leading 59101 & 59104 with all 3 powering (so at this point there was more locos than coaches!).

Sadly, the earlier delay into Westbury meant a late departure and following a Bristol stopper which only increased the delay.  A trip via the Goods loop between Bath & Oldfield Park before the train continued towards Bristol Temple Meads going on the non-platform line alongside platform 14 and onwards to the loop after Yatton where the train was looped for a Plymouth bound XC service.  The train continued as booked via Weston Super Mare before carrying on to Taunton & Tiverton Parkway where it was put into the loop at the former Tiverton Junction station for some GWR services to pass.

59101 (Village of Whatley) at Westbury Station (BLS Charter)

After the loop it was onwards to Exeter St Davids where I was surprised they didn’t hold us outside the station to allow the 13:25 service for Waterloo to depart first but the 59s went in first for a brief stop to allow some passengers to alight before climbing the hill towards Exeter Central reaching a point between Exeter Central & St James Park with 73136 firing up to haul the train into the bay platform at Exeter Central causing the 13:25 to Waterloo to be 12 minutes late and causing a bit of delays for the next few hours on the West of England line.

Anyhow at Exeter Central, we had around an hour break, time for a little stroll and visit of Boots to pick up items for dinner before I returned to the train.  The 59s had detached and headed back towards the quarries leaving 33012 to take the train forward towards Waterloo, with pauses at Honiton, Chard loop & Gillingham due to pathing requirements on the mostly single-track line between Exeter & Salisbury.

73136 alongside 159009 at Honiton Station

The first set down was made at Salisbury with a handful of passengers alighting before the train continued towards London Waterloo with a further pause at Basingstoke & Farnborough before a fast run to platform 17 at Waterloo, time for a quick visit to Sainsburys for something cold and fizzy to try and keep myself awake.  73136 was back in charge and running on electric heading towards Eastleigh going via Twickenham, Woking & Guildford, the train did empty out a bit more at Waterloo allowing more time to spread out as darkness had fallen.

A brief pause at Havant to drop off some passengers (I suspect those who boarded at Portsmouth) before the train carried on towards Eastleigh where it terminated, a nice run behind 73136 arriving near enough on time.  A short walk back to my car before driving home, getting a bit lost heading out of Eastleigh as I turned left instead of going straight on (ending up joining the M3 at junction 13 rather than junction 12), unlike in the morning I decided to play it a bit safer and stuck to the motorway & dual carriageways to reach Andover before heading back to Grateley.

33012 (D6515) at London Waterloo

It had been a long couple of days which had taken its toil on my body as I headed to bed for a relaxing Sunday (other than an eye test), a planned local area walk being paused due to the rain arriving.

6th May – Birmingham & Fazeley Canal Walk

The Birmingham & Fazeley canal runs from the centre of Birmingham via Aston & Minworth towards the small town of Fazeley (on the outskirts of Tamworth) via a couple small villages and countryside.  I had previously walked the section from Old Turn Junction towards Aston in various sections so today I decided to focus on the section from Aston towards Fazeley where I could make the most of the £2 bus fares rather than paying out whatever XC want for a train from Tamworth (or Wilnecote).

My day began with the 05:59 service from Grateley to Basingstoke formed of 158886 & 159015 where I had a short wait before 221139 & 220018 rolled in from Southampton (diverted via Laverstock due to engineering works between Winchester & Basingstoke) arriving a good 10 minutes ahead of schedule so it was nice to take a seat in an empty coach on the 221 for the run towards Banbury, the coach only filling up after Oxford and even them it was quieter compared to usual.  At Banbury it was another short wait before the next Chiltern service formed of 168218, 168328 & 168327 and I took a seat in one of the former TPE units which again was lightly loaded (bank holidays for you).

At Dorridge my good friend Jules joined me as we had a short catchup and continued towards Birmingham Moor Street, heading to New Street via Tesco to grab some supplies for lunch and jumping on 350246 working a Walsall stopper.  This took us to Aston where we began the walk heading out of the station, crossing the road and up a short road to pick up the canal.  The first section took us towards Salford Junction where the Birmingham & Fazeley canal meets up with the Tame Valley & Grand Union Canal underneath the Gravelly Hill Interchange.  We continued moving away from the M6 and roughly running alongside the A38 towards the Bromford & Tyburn area of the city of Birmingham.  The towpath quality in this section was quite good, but I think we were both thankful when the canal moved away from the main road in the Minworth area, crossing underneath the Sutton Park freight line.

350246 departs Aston Station

After Minworth the canal turned more rural heading towards Curdworth with the towpath also changing from solid to more rural canal.  Some beautiful areas along this walk with birds singing and a short tunnel in the village of Curdworth itself.  After crossing underneath the M6 Toll the canal ran close to the M42 but was still quite beautiful.  We reached Bodymoor Heath, passing a busy looking pub and entering an area close to the Kingsbury Water Park with various pools on the right-hand side as the canal started to head north.

This area was very peaceful heading past the various lakes near Cliff and towards Drayton Bassett, passing the Drayton Manor Footbridge with the castellated towers with spiral staircases inside.   A quirky bit of architecture.  We continued beyond the footbridge and back into a more urban landscape reading the end of the Birmingham & Fazeley canal at Fazeley Junction where it meets the Coventry Canal.  We joined the Coventry Canal for a short section to end the walk near Fazeley Town Hall to await the next Arriva route 110 bus between Tamworth & Birmingham, formed of a busy double decker 4411 as it headed towards Mile Oak before following the A453 towards Whitehouse Common and diverting to serve Raddicap Heath & Sutton Coldfield.  Due to a group of youths at the back of the bus playing some sort of noise which they probably believed was music we jumped off in Sutton Coldfield making our way to the station to board 323207 to Birmingham New Street.

Drayton Turret Foot Bridge over the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal between Drayton Bassett & Fazeley

After a visit to the toilets (the one on the 323 was locked out of use), we headed outside the station, following the tram tracks towards St Chad, the trams having some delays.  At St Chads we took tram 51 to Grand Central New Street station and headed for a Shrewsbury service formed of 196106 to take us slowly to Wolverhampton (seemed to be some signalling issues around Sandwell & Dudley).  After a brief break 196111 took us to Smethwick Galton Bridge (I was hoping for a pair of 2 coach 196s but hey ho).  At Galton Bridge we headed to the Snow Hill line platforms to take 172345 & 172008 the short distance to the Hawthorns before tram 49 took us to Bull Street.

A supply raid at the shops outside Snow Hill before taking 172217 & 172212 to Solihull (so Jules could grab his bike), we parted ways at Solihull as I boarded a reasonably busy 168217 & 168107 to Banbury for a short wait for a busy 220002 (was glad to have had a seat reserved, but it did empty out somewhat at Oxford).  This train terminated early at Reading, so it was across to platform 2 to take a seat on 165104 working the stopper to Basingstoke thankfully not costing me any time as it gave a nice connection into 159015 working the next Salisbury stopper.  This 159 took me back to Grateley which judging by the roads had quite a bit of rain, back home to relax for the remainder of my bank holiday Monday.

172008 departing The Hawthorns Station

It was an enjoyable walk with a good friend along a beautiful canal, also good to have a little catch-up ready for a stressful week at work.  The two rail tours on Friday & Saturday were also good for looking out of the window.  Some more photos can be found on my Flickr, link is *here*.  Thanks for reading, next week sees a return to Cheshire.

25th – 28th April, Long weekend based in Crewe.

 25th – 28th April, Long weekend based in Crewe.

Another long weekend in the shared house in Crewe with a focus on some old railway lines having swapped a planned Shropshire Union canal walk for another trip.

25th April – Onwards to Crewe

The trip began with a very tight connection with the 17:37 from Andover driving there after work and after swinging home, only as the 17:59 from Grateley was showing as cancelled for some unknown reason.  I was glad to have picked up my tickets the day before as otherwise I wouldn’t have made it as the train formed of 159008, 159103 & 159107 was rolling into the station at Andover just as I went underneath the subway.  Far too close for comfort, but I managed to get a spare table seat near the rear of the train and settled down to relax with some videos.

Nothing unusual happened along the way and the train arrived at London Waterloo near enough on time, the rain seemingly ended when I headed out of the station (at first to waste some time before 19:00 where I would get a discount fare for the underground) but decided to walk to Euston, dodging the various puddles and theatre goers.  At Euston I arrived in good time, making my way towards the platform the 19:46 to Crewe was departing from, and as soon as an Avanti service departed from the opposite platform the barrier was opened and passengers were allowed onto the train.  350372 & 350252 was on this service, made busier as the 18:46 service got spun at Milton Keynes.

350372 at London Euston

The 350s departed quite busy, even at the front of the train (I was in the extra legroom table seat) slowly emptying out as time went on, but including myself there was at least 4 passengers in the front coach doing the service end to end.  Arrival into Crewe was around 5 minutes late due to congestion at the London end, so not the biggest delays I’ve had on London Northwestern.  I made my way to the shared house (via the Tesco Express at the Esso garage to grab some breakfast items and dodging various idiotic cyclists riding on pavements with no lights and in dark clothing, they will only blame others if they dash out in front of a car/lorry without looking at junctions and the driver doesn’t see them).

Anyhow at the shared house, I made use of the fridge, turning down the offer for food from one of the other residents and sorted my rucksack out in the single room, getting ready for a long day on the Friday.

26th April – Churnet Valley & Great Northern Rail walks.

The Churnet Valley line once ran from Uttoxeter to North Rode (in Cheshire) and was a victim of cuts in the early 60s with part of the line preserved by the Churnet Valley Railway.  The part of the line which has been turned into a mixed used path runs for around 5 miles between the village of Oakamoor to the village of Denstone via Alton.  It is one of those old railway line walks which takes some thinking on how to reach as Denstone gets an hourly bus service between Derby & Uttoxeter (the Swift) Oakamoor is limited to 1 weekday only bus between Stoke/Hanley to Uttoxeter with a handful of additional bus services ran to serve Alton Towers when the theme park is open.  Oddly this bus route (the D&G operated 32A doesn’t show on Google Maps which I felt was a bit strange considering it serves Alton Towers.

Anyhow the day for me began with an early morning stroll towards Crewe bus station, a lot has changed since my last visit a year ago with a new multi storey carpark being built (although not like there is a shortage of car parking spaces in Crewe) with the new bus station looking nearly complete.  Anyhow it was onto the First operated route 3 service to Hanley Bus Station (with bus 63117) on this service via Alsager, Kidsgrove & the northern towns making up the city of Stoke on Trent.  At the bus station I headed to a nearby large Tesco Extra to buy some lunch items and to make use of the toilet.  I returned to the bus station at Hanley with various colourful buses floating around (both from First and D&G, sadly the sun was in an annoying angle which limited my photo taking chances.

D&G Bus 173 (YJ59 GHH) near Hanley bus station on a route 24

The 08:45 service to Uttoxeter arrived a few minutes late, in the hands of an Enviro200 fleet 781 and departed around 10 minutes late due to a large passenger flow with nearly every seat taken.  A few alighted along the way as it headed away from Stoke on Trent towards the pretty looking town of Cheadle before heading towards Oakamoor via some narrow country roads which some steep hills & corners.  I was the only person to alight in Oakamoor (I suspect most of the passengers on the bus were for Alton Towers, making use of the £2 single fares on this route), and my walk began.

I headed away from the village centre into a park area near the river Churnet, taking a photo of the old bridge over the river before picking up the route of the old railway line, doing a small double back towards the portal of the sealed-up tunnel before picking up the railway route passing the remains of the platforms at Oakamoor station.  The path quality was quite reasonable, a bit muddy in places but nothing that major and soon I reached nirvana, an area where if I paused the only sound, I could hear was the birds singing and the sound of the river running close-by.  Some beautiful woodland as well, I was in a happy place.  I continued to reach the former Alton (Towers) station (renamed in the 1950s when the theme park opened) where the station building is now a holiday let.

Alton Towers Station on Churnet Valley Line

After Alton the path turned a bit more muddy due to being shared with a farm, but that only lasted a few minutes before returning to reasonable as I put my foot down as I made a mistake with the bus times at Denstone as I misread the timetable and had 15 minutes past the hour in my head which is the time for the buses towards Uttoxeter, towards Derby it was on the hour.  Mixed up with being 15 minutes late to start the walk meant I was in risk of missing the bus screwing up my plans.  Thankfully I made it to Denstone with time to spare after pausing for some more photos of this lovely peaceful area, passing the remains of Denstone station and onto the road towards the bus stop used by Derby bound buses.  Although I could have hung back a bit more as the next bus was running around 5 minutes late.

The next Trentbarton operated "Swift" route rolled in with a Wright Eclipse (fleet 736) as I took a seat near the rear as the bus headed away from Denstone towards Ashbourne (with a good turnover of passengers and a place I plan to return to when I walk the old railway line from Pomeroy.  After Ashbourne the bus picked up the A52 road heading towards Derby via some smaller villages and I alighted at the entrance to Markeaton Park (just before the bus reached the A38) to begin my second walk.

Bus Shelter near the Tavern in Denstone

The first section of this walk was alongside the A38 "Kingsway" road before picking up cycle route 54 towards Mackworth Park and Mickleover Meadows.  A short section of walking on the road of a housing estate before picking up the start of the Great Northern Greenway near the former Mickleover Railway Station (the buildings remain in private arms, no idea if anything remains of the platforms as that’s private land).  This path runs along part of the former Great Northern Railway’s Derbyshire and Staffordshire extension (running from Burton towards Derby (Friargate) then Nottingham (via the Bennerley Viaduct)).

Onto the old railway line path which was quite busy with other users for the first mile or so, the path headed into the countryside leaving the Mickleover area of Derby behind and turning quite nice with the bird song and views. The cycle path split just before the bridge underneath the A516 with route 68 heading away from the old railway line (signposted for Ashbourne) with route 54 heading under the bridge and back to the old railway line (the original line being lost for the road development).  The old railway line passed the settlement of Etwall with no evidence of the former station (other than a simple sign).

The path continued away from Etwall, going underneath the busy A50 (Derby Bypass) coming to an end on the outskirts of Hilton, near to where the railway used to join with the Derby – Stoke line near Egginton Junction (where a manual level crossing is located).  The railway path at an end, I headed along the “Hilton Greenway” path towards the village, picking a bus stop near Nene Way, a bus stop which annoyingly had poor mobile data signal so I didn’t see that the bus was running 20-odd minutes late (had I known I would have continued a bit further).  Eventually the “Villager” bus rolled up with Trent Barton’s 740 as I took a seat on board (making use of the USB sockets for a quick charge) with the bus heading away from Hilton towards Hatton, crossing the railway line and into Tutbury before heading towards Rolleston on Dove which is where I alighted.

Former Great Northern Railway line between Mickleover & Etwall (Great Northern Greenway)

My 3rd and final walk originally was only going to be a short walk along a section of the old Great Northern line.  This is branded as the Jinny Nature Trail, passing the remains of Rolleston on Dove station (which has been turned into a flower garden).  The old railway line path here is only just over a mile long as it reached Stretton, passing the remains of Stretton and Claymills station (although nothing really remains other than signs).  The rest of the Great Northern line has been lost to modern developments and in hindsight I ought to have finished it in Stretton and caught the Villager bus towards Derby (where another section of the old Great Northern route is available to explore in the Breadsall area of the city but that can wait for another day.

For some reason I decided to continue a bit further going underneath the A38 and onto the Trent & Mersey Canal, and after checking timings decided to walk towards Burton along a recently upgraded section of towpath (all the gravel) reaching the Shobnall area of Burton before heading back towards Stretton via the “Kingfisher Trail”, a cycle path running parallel to the canal so a bit different than just doubling back along the gravel path.

Trent & Mersey Canal between Burton Upon Trent & Willington

Back at Stretton I rejoined the canal towpath which changed from gravel to a more solid surface, heading away from Burton with the towpath upgrade works in process as I reached an area where the soil had been dug out ready for the hard surface to be installed as the towpath headed underneath the A5121.  This section of canal was quite noisy as it ran close to the A38 road (which was quite busy with traffic).  The towpath soon turned to grass & a bit of mud (nothing that serious) as my legs were starting to feel the pain (at this point I would say I was over 20 miles for the day).  The final push towards the village of Willington where after swinging via the little Co-Op I headed to the limited served station to collapse on the bench, being thankful it wasn’t raining as the waiting shelters had disappeared.

The walk along the canal was quite good nearer the end (once it moved away from the main road), and is another section of the Trent & Mersey covered, as a busy 170636 rolled in from the Birmingham direction to take me one stop to Derby for a reasonable connection to 170530 on the next Crewe service which I took to Uttoxeter to meet up with a dear old friend for a meal & brief catchup in the Spoons.  I returned to Uttoxeter station an hour later to catch 170501 to Crewe, arriving at just after 9pm which was late enough for me.  After swinging via the Tesco at the garage (noticing the bar area in the former Best Western hotel was open, since finding out that hotel has reopened).  Back to the shared house, bumping into everybody else staying there that evening (quite unusual to bump into people from the other 3 rooms at the same time) as I put my sandwich in the fridge, having a quick shower and relaxing my sore legs.

170639 arriving at Willington Station

27th April – Railways in Newark & High Marnham

Another early start (yay!) with the 06:07(odd) EMR service from Crewe my ride towards Nottingham with 170502 and featuring a very proactive & friendly guard (I’ve been on some EMR services where the guard has basically hidden away in the back cab).  My first idea for today was to take this 170 all the way to Newark to change for a bus towards Sutton on Trent for another bus, until I noticed the timetable on the Marshalls (of Sutton on Trent) website saying it was a guaranteed connection from the bus an hour later (on the likes of Google Maps it has both buses departing at the same time so doesn’t show up as a connection).  However, along the way from Crewe I had another idea and booked a bus on the Nottsbus Connect service from Newark Castle around 09:30.

With this in mind I changed at Nottingham heading to the little Tesco near to the station to grab some lunch items before taking 222011 to East Midlands Parkway returning towards Nottingham with 158862 with 170513 on the rear locked out of use, which detached at Nottingham.  The 158 was quite busy as it headed to Newark Castle and I was glad to have alighted before the Newark massive boarded.  I headed towards the bus stop near to the station which is where the app was suggesting the minibus was due to arrive for today, I was sampling my first ever “Demand Responsive Transport” service.

My taxi for Cotham, Nottsbus on Demand minibus RX71 TNN near Newark Castle Station

The Nottsbus Connect had recently expanded to cover the area to the south of Newark replacing a couple of limited-service bus routes, and hence making things a lot easier to reach the village of Cotham (which previously had a bus service running twice a week).  This is where a short (5 mile) path starts which makes use of the former Great Northern (it’s that company again!) route from Newark to Bottesford, the section south of Cotham not being available for public access with the cycle route which makes use of it (64) going via country roads towards Bingham.  Anyhow I had a private minibus (RX71 TNN) for the journey to Cotham with the driver only having one more booking for the day so far, still for me at least it was free as there is an offer on the website giving the first booking for free.

Anyhow the minibus dropped me in the small village centre (near the old bus shelter & disused phone box) as I headed along the road to the old railway bridge, picking up the route of the railway as it headed in a northern direction towards Newark.  It was surprisingly busy with other users including a running club (I presume making use of it being traffic free as a way to doing timed practise runs).  Some beautiful peaceful countryside before I reached the outskirts of Newark with Balderton, passing a lake (used for fishing) and towards the ECML where for the last half a mile the path runs alongside the ECML coming to an end with a disused platform at Newark Northgate station.  An enjoyable walk in the countryside, certainly made a lot easier with that demand bus service at the southern end to avoid doubling back or walking along country-roads/footpaths to reach Bottesford.

800209 passing Newark Northgate Station

I headed towards the centre of Newark, getting lost looking for the Morrisons (to make use of the toilets and to grab some supplies) before making my way to the modern looking bus station for the next route 37 service for Retford, run by Marshalls of Sutton on Trent so a new operator for me with an Optare Versa running (OP86) running late as the 37s interwork with a route 77 Newark town bus and traffic was awful.  Took 10 minutes from the bus station to the railway station but thankfully the connection in North Muskham to the 2 hourly “Nottsbus Connect” 339 service (with a little Optare Solo OP128) being my private bus going via some little villages (Cromwell, Carlton on Trent, Suton on Trent) to Low Marnham alighting at the bus stop on Gracefield Lane.

Rear of Marshalls of Sutton-on-Trent Bus YJ60 LRX near Low Marnham on a route 339

The first section of my second walk was a mile walking along the road towards Fledborough, thankfully not the busiest of roads, as I picked up the route of the former “Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway” route which ran from Lincoln towards Sheffield & Chesterfield.  This section is close to the end of the High Marnham Test Track running from Shirebrook to the former High Marnham power station.  Another one of those cycle paths which seemingly end in a random place this being route 647 (leading into route 64 near Harby).

I left the road dropping onto the route of the old railway line, passing the overgrown remains of Fledborough railway station and reaching the long Fledborough Viaduct which crosses the Trent (and many fields).  This area was another peaceful line with some nice views of the countryside passing the remains of Clifton railway station (one platform & the buildings now a private house).  This line heading near enough straight east the first main settlement reached was Skellingthorpe where the path does move away from the old railway line in parts.  No evidence of the former station remains other than a sign saying “station was here” as I headed on the final section leading towards a path running alongside the busy A46 over the railway [Lincoln – Gainsborough line] and Foss Navigation before dropping down onto the towpath alongside this small canal.

Side View of Fledborough Viaduct

Had timings been better I was toying with heading towards Saxilby along the canal but the connection at Lincoln is a bit rubbish between trains from Saxilby to trains for Nottingham so instead headed towards Lincoln along a bit of a disappointment as the path was at the bottom of a bank so there was hardly any decent views of the Foss Navigation.  Ah well, as I moved a bit faster on seeing the timings with the potential of making an earlier train from Lincoln (which had the big advantage of starting at Lincoln rather than Grimsby).  Anyhow I reached Brayford Pool with many (many) tourists out enjoying the weather as I reached Lincoln station just after the train arrived from Nottingham.  Another enjoyable old railway line path, lots of countryside fresh air and a place to think clearly.

The footbridge to platform 4/5 at Lincoln is very narrow and unsuitable for the passenger loadings at this city centre station, as I took a seat on a very busy 158846 with a rough plan at the Nottingham end to intercept my last 170 needed for mileage at Bingham.  However, that plan went into the bin as the 158 departed 5 minutes late and only got later, reaching Newark 10 minutes late forcing a rethink as I bailed out and headed to Waitrose to have a nosey to see if they had anything of interest (other than a bottle of pop as I was thirsty)

158846 at Newark Castle Station

For lack of a better plan, I decided to ditch the 170 for another day and instead take a seat on 170506 (with 170516 on the rear locked out of use until Nottingham due to short platforms) for the long and slow journey towards Crewe.  Something I won’t be doing again in a hurry!  Anyhow at Crewe I boarded winner 197005 for the spin out to Wem, returning to Crewe on a late running 158821 & 158819 on the stopper (local door only due to short platforms and lack of SDO).  I left the station, swinging via Tiger Bite to grab a burger meal box (as I didn’t fancy a pizza and was quite hungry), eating the food in the lounge area of the house (which unlike the previous night was quiet, with only a contractor whom is staying there for 3 weeks when on a job hanging around).  A good day with two different old railway line walks covered, part of me was tempted to leave the Lincoln walk for another day and head towards Bingham to try and cover the “Bingham Linear Park” but that can wait for another trip (after-all that isn’t going anywhere soon and doesn’t require buses).  Weather wise I got lucky as heavy rain was forecasted for Lincoln around lunchtime but I think that stayed mostly to the south as I only had a couple of short drizzles at times along the walk but nothing that major nor long lasting.

28th April – An ever-changing plan for ever changing weather.

My original idea for today was going to take the first London bound LNR service to Northampton to change for a bus towards Weedon Bec to walk the Grand Union canal towards Daventry (following off with a short disused railway line in the Daventry area) before taking a bus to Northampton.  Or taking that first train to Milton Keynes for a bus to Newport Pagnell to walk the old railway line path to Wolverton for another train to Leighton Buzzard for the canal walk to Tring.  However, both ideas soon were put aside due to forecast heavy rain in that general area.  At one point I was considering doing a little day return towards Liverpool to see if any winning 777s were out and about but when I woke up on Sunday morning, I couldn’t drum up the energy to head to Liverpool.

I eventually made it out of bed, checking out of the shared house and headed to the station via the Tesco garage for breakfast (and lunch), as based on the forecast the rain would clear up around Lichfield later that morning with most of the wet stuff staying to the south (using the predicted weather map on the Met Office website).  I boarded a triple 350 formed of 350252, 350372 & 350246 taking a seat in the 350/3 looking up a couple of options, deciding to bail at Lichfield Trent Valley and making a reasonably fast paced walk to the bus stop on the A5127 for a Diamond operated route 12E service for Burton on Trent (with bus 31417, an Enviro200) being my private ride to the village of Fradley where my walk began.  Thankfully the rain had mostly ceased at this point with only a couple shorter showers.  As far as I could tell the 12E service is the stopper for Burton with a faster X12 service running in front of it (which runs fast along the A38).

350246 departing Lichfield Trent Valley Station

The first section of my walk took me along the Coventry Canal towards Fradley Junction where this canal joins up with the Trent & Mersey Canal and I was still trying to decide to turn right to head towards Burton or to turn left to head towards Rugeley, for both were about the same sort of distance however the trip towards Burton involved a couple of miles where the canal runs near enough parallel to the A38 dual carriageway (which wouldn’t be that much fun) so I decided to head towards Rugeley, passing a small marina with a decent quality towpath heading towards a rural area.  The decent towpath lasted a couple of miles before turning more rural on this beautiful woodland canal as it headed towards Bromley Hayes then towards Handsacre where the countryside element became more urban.  I went underneath the WCML near Armitage (a bridge I dread to think how many times I’ve crossed over it) and carried on as the canal returned to more rural, although not as quiet as the section near Fradley.

Soon I reached the outskirts of Rugeley and the hard surface towpath returned, although a case of dodging the odd puddle due to the recent rain.  I paused for a few minutes near the railway bridge carrying the Chase line over the canal for a photo of a train between the Rugeley stations before carrying on ending my walk along the canal at Station Road, and headed towards Rugeley Trent Valley station.  Another section of the Trent & Mersey canal walked but it was time to sit on a bench, have my late lunch and rest my feet whilst watching passing trains.

350374 crossing the Trent & Mersey Canal in Rugeley

Time for me to play Desiro Roulette with the next London bound service, getting lucky with 350105 leading 350262, I even got a decent table seat in the /1 as my phone went on charge and I settled down to relax for the trip to London.  Nothing unusual happening along the way other than a short delay caused by late running Avanti services getting put ahead near Rugby.  Arrival into Euston gave me around an hour to get to Waterloo for the next Andover service, so I set off on foot with some beautiful sunshine (and evidence of some serious rain with the mild flooding near Euston Road).

At Waterloo, it was onto 159002 & 159022 to form the next Andover service as it was replacement buses in the Salisbury area today.  A busy service this and soon I was at Andover and into an organised system where passengers for Gillingham were directed towards one coach, passengers for Salisbury for another coach and passengers for Grateley & Tisbury told to wait in the middle.  I was expecting a single decker bus from Newbury & District or South West Coaches to roll in to form the ‘stopper’ but it turned out to be a Transit Minibus (HN16 VDO) where I didn’t manage to catch the operator.  Departed Andover with 5 passengers on board, 2 (including myself) were for Grateley the other 3 for Tisbury, I guess making sense using a minibus on the country lanes near Tisbury.

Rear of Minibus HN16 VDO at Grateley Station on a rail replacement service

Anyhow I soon walked home, and relaxed for the rest of the evening, resting my feet which were showing signs of having enough walking for the weekend.  An enjoyable weekend away with some nice old railway lines explored as well as parts of the Trent & Mersey canal.  Unusually for me a weekend with no train cancellations or major delays causing replans.  Thanks for reading, more photos can be found on my Flickr.  May is another busy month featuring 4 railtours and one overnight trip to Crewe [which was previously another Friday – Monday stay but I’ve had to cut it down to Friday – Sunday due to the Railtour on the first Friday in May.

19th – 22nd April – Long weekend in Scotland

 19th – 22nd April – Long weekend in Scotland

It was a return to Scotland and my first visit of the year to Glasgow, making use of the reasonably priced guest house in Hamilton for accommodation with several ideas floating in my head at what to do on both the Saturday and also Sunday (I had booked this before I found out the WCML was closed on the Sunday which was a close call due to how much LNER want for trains these days).

19th April – Sleeper to Dalmuir

When I was booking tickets on the sleeper, the cost was the same to Glasgow as it was to Dalmuir on the highlander (even with the hassle of changing coaches at Edinburgh), so I decided to book on the Highlander for the chance of scoring a diesel loco for haulage.  The trip began like many of my trips did with the 17:59 from Grateley formed of a reasonably busy 159005 for the trip to London Waterloo, nothing unusual happening along the way other than arriving a good 7 minutes early (I presume a train this service was booked to follow, after Woking was either delayed or not running).

As I had a couple of hours to kill, I decided on my usual time-wasting stroll towards Euston via Holborn (it might not be the shortest, but I find it’s the easiest to follow without fear of missing a junction etc).  At Euston I found myself a seat and relaxed ready for the sleeper to get announced as boarding from platform 1.  92018 was up front (which seems to be my stalker as I’ve had this loco for the past couple of sleeper trips) and I found my seat in the rearmost coach.

My sleep was the usual mixed bag of light sleep, not helped by a couple of drinkers (bottle of wine each) deciding to have a catch-up talking quite loudly, it’s a sleeper coach not a nightclub.  Didn’t help that at the start the temperature was reasonable if not a touch too warm before the seated coach did it’s usual and go into “Height of Spanish Summer” mode making it a wee bit chilly.

159005 at London Waterloo

20th April – Canal Walking in Falkirk

I noticed something was up when I woke up on the outskirts of Edinburgh with the train running around an hour late, lost time in the Lockerbie area according to RTT.  A bit chaotic at Edinburgh where I would guess 75% of the passengers in the Aberdeen seats were due to change (thankfully not the pair of loud people).  We were eventually allowed off and told to head towards platform 2 and I hung back for a couple of photos.  Eventually 92018 returned pushing the Fort William seated coach & lounge car with winner 66304 & 73970 attaching to the front (annoyingly my last Sleeper 73 was on the Inverness portion, close but no cigar).

Anyhow the Fort William portion departed Edinburgh 56 minutes late, so I was expecting it to run direct towards Dalmuir via Falkirk & Maryhill to recover some lost time and to save it getting stuck behind a stopping service on the 2-track route via Bathgate.  I was surprised when it turned left at Newbridge Junction to go via Bathgate recovering no time and losing time as it got caught up behind a Balloch stopper in the Coatbridge area.  I was even more surprised when it didn’t stop at Glasgow Queen Street.  Originally, I was due to stay on to Dumbarton Central but decided to bail at Dalmuir (where the train stops for a crew change) for a better connection to the city centre.  Arrival was 71 minutes late so I would receive a 100% refund for the journey (email received before midday to automatically claim the money back).

66304 alongside 73967 at Edinburgh Waverley

At Dalmuir I crossed over to board 334015 & 334002 on an Edinburgh service for the nonstop run to Hyndland via Yoker, alighting at Partick where I headed to the Subway (via the ticket office to get a day ticket which is included in the price of a Roundabout).  Lady luck must have been shining a light as the first train I saw was winner subway unit 304, one of the new (3rd Generation) subway units built by Stadler.  Seats were a bit harder compared to the 2nd Generation units, but acceleration was quite good.  One thing I did notice was a short delay between the door release buzzer sounding and the doors opening, all be a couple of seconds.

I took 304 to Cowcaddens keeping my eyes on the inner circle but they were all 2nd Gen sets.  124, 205 & 125 took me to Buchanan Street followed by 120, 207 & 106 to St Enoch where I exited the Subway swinging via Tesco for some supplies (breakfast) and headed to Glasgow Queen Street, narrowly missing an Alloa train.  I was in two minds at what part of the canal to walk, either starting from Polmont or Larbert to walk towards Croy or start at Croy to walk towards the Falkirk Wheel where I had two options.  In the end I decided to start at Polmont catching 385123 & 385121 on the next Edinburgh service to begin my walk in the sunshine.

Glasgow Subway Set 304 departs Cowcaddens

From Polmont station I headed south towards Brightons to pick up the Union canal and headed west towards the various villages which made up Falkirk.  A decent towpath surface (nice tarmac) with some nice views once away from the built-up area and into countryside where the only sound was the passing trains on the Falkirk High line.  In the Glen Village area, I reached Falkirk tunnel which is 630 metres long taking the canal underneath Prospect Hill, coming out near Falkirk High station.  An interesting tunnel for the rocks not being covered over, although a bit wet.

After the tunnel the canal runs close to the railway line heading towards the Tamfourhill area of Falkirk before turning right underneath the railway at Rough Castle Tunnel and towards the Falkirk Wheel.  This wheel drops the canal 24 metres towards the Forth & Clyde canal via a rotating boat lift which was built in the late 90s when the canals were linked together once more.  A wonderful piece of engineering and something which had been on my list to visit for years.  I was lucky to catch the wheel turning twice, positioning myself on the hill to the rear of the wheel and then for the usual tourist location at the front of the wheel near the visitors’ centre.

Falkirk Wheel turning (from visitor centre)

This is where the Union canal flows meets the Forth & Clyde canal as I turned left to cross over the railway (Croy/Cumbernauld - Camelon/Larbert) and headed along the tarmac path towards Bonnybridge.  Then via some smaller settlements in a mostly rural setting (with some beautiful scenery).  I decided to break for lunch on an aqueduct over the Bonny Water near the M80 bridge (as this canal does lack benches).  After lunch I continued along a long section where the canal was quite wide (reminded me a bit like a river) with countryside both sides turning into woodlands.  My walk along the canal came to an end when I reached Auchinstarry near Kilsyth (which is the point I started my rather long walk last September towards Bowling).

An enjoyable walk along the canal in beautiful sunshine, as I made my way up a long hill towards Croy village then Croy station itself, and onto a stopper to Glasgow formed of 385039 & 385032 which I took to Glasgow Queen Street.  I crossed via the city centre (via a shop for a bottle of drink as my bottle of water was nearly finished).  At Glasgow Central I took a seat on 380102 working the Barrhead stopper to sample an electric train over this recently wired-up route (with East Kilbride to follow, why can't the English be as good with overhead wiring as the Scottish?).

380102 at Barrhead Station

I returned to Glasgow Central on 156503 & 156510 on a nonstop service, switching over to 380002 on a Newton via Shawlands service to take me to Newton.  A random time-wasting spin back to Cambuslang on 318260 & 318250 before 320316 & 320315 took me to Hamilton Central where after a little trip via the Cadzow Glen Park (which was quite peaceful & pretty with woodland) I ended up at the guest house to check myself in and to drop off some weight from my rucksack.

Exiting the guest house, I decided against a little stroll via the Clyde Walkway path towards Blantyre and instead do a little random trip to Hamilton West... via Glasgow city centre.  This is where things went wrong as there was nothing showing as unusual at Hamilton Central other than a Larkhall train being cancelled as I took 320401 to Motherwell followed by 385107 to Glasgow Central nonstop via Bellshill, a station in a bit of chaos underneath due to an attempted murder at Hyndland.

Cadzow Glen, Hamilton

I headed to the low-level platform, unusually the gateline was wide open with no staff to be seen with a train on the northbound platform.  I noticed on the signal diagram there was 2 trains in front as empty so was presuming one of those would be put in service after reversing at Exhibition Centre.  One of those trains stopped on the platform with a rush of passengers but departed empty much to the annoyance of the passengers with a second service going through nonstop.  All the meanwhile there was no announcements, and the only member of staff I saw was a cleaner picking up rubbish.

Eventually the train on the northbound platform departed and I noticed the 3rd train changing head code from a 5XYY to a 2XYY at Anderston station and eventually rocked up at a platform which was dangerously overcrowded. 320318 & 320309 was the very overcrowded train to take me to Hamilton West where I headed to a large Sainsburys (and Morrisons) for a late dinner and to grab some supplies for the weekend (big bottles of flavoured water).  I understand things might happen, but it seemed like ScotRail simply put up the white flag when it came to running services south of the river when the line was blocked north.

320309 at Hamilton West Station

Back to the guest house and after sorting out my bag ready for the Sunday I did some bits on the tablet before heading to sleep having checked the weather beforehand.

21st April – An unexpected trip to Oban

My original ideas for the Sunday walk was either the disused railway line from the Glengarnock area towards Paisley [along the former Lochwinnoch Loop Line & the disused path of the Paisley Canal line] or the walk from Balloch towards Dumbarton along the path next to the river Leven before following a disused railway path towards Kilpatrick.  However, both ideas got put back on the burner when I woke up on Sunday to find heavy rain forecasted (which wasn’t there on the Saturday night), so for the lack of a better idea I headed to Hamilton Central station, swinging via the town centre area and taking 320401 on the first train to Glasgow Central.

Along the way I was looking at a couple of ideas and picked up a little trip to Oban, the fare wasn’t that bad for a day return, and it had been a few years since I last adventured onto the Oban branch, plus I would get to sample a 153 on the return (so woof!).  But first after arriving at Glasgow Queen Street it was onto a busy Aberdeen bound HST with 43136 leading 43147 for the trip to Lenzie because randomly this train calls at Lenzie before running nonstop towards Larbert), so a bit of a novelty to alight from a HST at little old Lenzie, a place I will need to return to one of these days as there are a couple disused railway line paths on my radar (towards Strathblane & Glenboig).

43147 at Lenzie Station

Back to Glasgow Queen Street with 385032 walking to Central to take 320413 & 318259 to Partick where I visited the Morrisons outside the station before heading to the Subway, just to waste some time and to get out of the rain.  I jumped on the first outer service to Kelvinhall (formed of units 128, 107 & 111) where I got lucky with the first inner service being winner 306 which I took to Kinning Park, taking the same trio back to Cessnock.  As I saw another winner set out on the outer loop, I took sets 121, 206 & 133 to Shields Road, but before 307 rocked up winner 302 unexpectedly popped up on the next inner service which I took to Hillhead.  Finally taking winner 307 to Buchanan Street to get another one of the new Glasgow Subway units into my book.  Not bad for a Sunday morning.

I exited the subway at Buchanan Street, making my slow way towards Queen Street picking up my tickets for Oban and making my way across to the train.  156450 was leading 156493 & 156500 which would split at Crianlarich with the rear 4 coaches carrying on to Fort William (and Mallaig).  I took a seat in the front coach which was rather cold and relaxed for the enjoyable little trip on the West Highlands Line towards Oban, looking out of the window at the amazing scenery along the way.  The rain had been replaced with some beautiful sunshine and was nice and warm when the train arrived at Oban going into platform ‘3’ (the one next to the Premier Inn).  This was a bit surprising because for some reason I had in my head that Oban was one of those stations like Paignton where you could arrive at one platform (4) but not depart from it due to the signalling with the unit shunting across to platform 3 once the other service had gone.  I have no idea why I had that in my head.

Oban Bay

After a brief explore of Oban, I joined the queue to board the next Glasgow train which was departing from the rarer platform 4 (Oban is a bit like Bridlington in having platform numbers a bit messed up from olden days where it had more platforms).  156476 was leading 153380 and because the premium fare to sit in the 153 “Active Travel” unit has been suspended I decided to sit in the 153.  Sitting on the opposite side to enjoy looking out of the window on the way back towards Glasgow.  I alighted from the train at Dalmuir to change platforms to board a Larkhall bound service which surprisingly was 334023 & 334010, I did this to avoid having a fast walk between the two Glasgow stations, I saw at the rear of 010 not really knowing how busy it would get after Glasgow Central.

156476 at Oban

I took these 334s to Hamilton Central (part of me was tempted to stay on to Larkhall for the novelty of the Larkhall branch on a 334) but I headed back to the guest house, dropping off my rucksack before heading out to visit a pizza takeaway I used last year, munching on said pizza near an old water fountain before making my way back to the guest house to sort my bag out ready for an early start on the Monday.  An enjoyable day looking out of the window on the Oban service, the bonus of platform ‘4’, shame the weather in the morning was a bit rubbish but it is what it is.

334010 at Hamilton Central Station

22nd April – Back to the Union Canal & heading home.

I checked out of the guest house early morning making my way to Hamilton Central to pick up my ticket, jumping onto a Cumbernauld bound 320320 & 320412 to take me to Motherwell where I had a 29-minute fester for the morning Cross Country service, the time spent relaxing on a bench watching commuters.  220001 rolled in from Glasgow to take me to Haymarket, where it was easy to grab a seat in coach F.  The main reason I wanted to do this service is that it uses the platform avoiding line at Carstairs when heading towards Edinburgh (with my little BLS hat on, although that is probably the wrong name for that line).

At Haymarket I changed trains to 385005 & 385029 to take me to Linlithgow to begin my latest walk, doing another section of the Union Canal.  Easy to access the canal from the station.  As it headed via the town of Linlithgow before going into the countryside crossing over the river Avon on the 2nd longest aqueduct in Britain (although the towpath in this area wasn't the nicest to walk compared to the smooth tarmac leading up to it).  A place I want to revisit as there seems to be a path running alongside the river back towards Linlithgow.

Top of the Avon Aqueduct on Union Canal

My walk along the canal continued with some lovely countryside views mixed with some views of industry at Grangemouth.  The canal ran close to the railway as it headed towards Polmont, reaching the point where I joined the towpath on the Saturday.  I headed down the hill to reach Polmont station with a few minutes to spare to take 385105 & 385109 to Glasgow Queen Street.  An enjoyable short walk, another section of the Union canal covered leaving just the long section between Linlithgow & Edinburgh Park to do (which hopefully I can do in June when I'm in Scotland for a few days on a Central Scotland Ranger).

Anyhow to the trains, as the pair of 385s took me to Glasgow, where I headed downstairs to jump on 320317 & 318270 to take me to Partick where I visited the Morrisons close to the station for lunch & also to grab supplies for dinner before heading to the subway.  I took set 132, 118 & 130 to Kelvinhall (for the island platform, making it easier to monitor both sides at once).  Sadly, my luck wasn’t with me as everything was all the older gen 2 sets with only 302 out of the newer units.  Once 302 did a complete circuit I jumped on it to Ibrox before taking 106, 207 & 120 to St Enoch, exiting the system with just over an hour before my booked train to London.

Glasgow Subway Set 120 at St Enoch

To waste time, I just pottered about the city, visiting a couple of shops without buying anything (other than a bottle of pop from Poundland).  The inbound for my booked train home was running late due to earlier signalling issues around Milton Keynes so it was a bit chaotic when it came to board 390121 as I ignored my reserved seat and headed towards coach G, changing to coach U as the socket at my chosen table wasn’t working.  I settled down with music playing as the Pendo headed south, departing around 19 minutes late, time it never regained (it got down to 15 minutes after Warrington but lost time around Crewe due to following a voyager until Stafford.

Arrival into Euston was around 20 minutes late (so a little bit of money back from delay repay) and I had a stroll towards Waterloo as my legs needed moving.  I arrived with time to spare for the 20:20 service formed of 159106 & 159103 to take me to Grateley, to have a gentle walk home to relax and sort out my rucksack.  I always forget how scenic the northern section of the WCML is when it runs via the Scottish borders & Lake District.  More photos are on my Flickr but I will leave you with this photo of the countryside near Polmont with hills in the background and Grangemouth.  Thanks for reading

View from the Union Canal in the Polmont area