14th – 16th January: A Trip to Scotland
This trip was more to treat my mum with a late Christmas present (where I had some surprises in store for her); she had always wanted to go on the sleeper so I decided a weekend away in Edinburgh would be good as a treat. Thankfully the weather was kind to us over the weekend, which is always a bonus to making a better trip.
Friday
The trip began with driving to Andover for the 16:38 service, taken one stop to Basingstoke where we broke our journey to pop to Sainsburys & KFC for some supplies (and dinner). We returned back to the station with a XC service taken to Reading before a pair of 387s for the run to Paddington. Down to the underground with the Bakerloo taken to Baker Street followed by the Jubilee line to North Greenwich, where we walked to the Emirates Air Line building to take a pod across the water to the Royal Docks.
This is something on my wishlist for a while, as where I’ve done the dangleway heading southbound during the day back in 2014, I’ve never done it at night when the speed is reduced and the views are the various lights of East London. I would recommend it, although it is quite expensive for the journey, but it’s a tourist attraction so that sort of price is to be expected.
Views from Emirates Air Line
We walked to the Royal Victoria DLR station for a short wait for a service towards Tower Gateway where we bailed at Limehouse, before a Bank bound train took us to Bank. A busy Northern line service took us north from Bank towards Euston where we exited the underground and had a short walk in the local area before heading into the First Class Lounge to relax before the sleeper began to board.
Old Euston Underground station building
Dud 92018 was at the front of the train as we located the coach we were in, after being moved from one coach to another, thankfully into the same room number (rather than being dumped into a room over the wheels). The breakfast options were limited, having to select it when we checked in before boarding, and it was served to the room (no option of having it sat in the lounge car, nor the little menu card which you hang on the door allowing time to consider the options available). Anyhow departure was on time, and the journey to Carstairs was uneventful.
92018 at London Euston.
Saturday
The trip to Edinburgh behind 92010 was also uneventful and after having my bacon roll, we exited the train at Edinburgh and decided to do a short walk to waste some time before catching a pair of 385s to Glasgow Queen Street. A trip on the Subway followed before a little walk around Glasgow, including the wonderful Glasgow Central. We made the mistake of popping into the St Enoch shopping centre to visit the toilet, for they had a long one-way system to reach said toilets (going via the car parking area! I wonder how many visitors simply ignore the no-entry sign to go up to the toilets via the “Exit” stairs).
We returned back to Glasgow Queen Street, and onto a pair of 334s for the slightly longer but more scenic (in my eyes) route back to Edinburgh, going via Bathgate. As suspected for a service reduced to 2tph instead of the pre Covid 4tph, it got very busy after Bathgate itself (in my eyes I would run extra trains from Bathgate to Edinburgh). We arrived back at Edinburgh and headed to Boots for some lunch before deciding what to do, either more tourist stuff or a spin on the Fife Circle for some more scenery for mum to look at. We headed for a 170 which was on a Fife Circle service, taking a seat in the first class area for the extra comfort for the trip towards Kirkcaldy then remaining on board round the “inner circle” alighting at North Queensferry.
A lovely 170 heading north at North Queensferry
I fired up the maps and we headed for a gentle walk up the hill towards a community centre, carrying on reaching some steps down to the Forth Road Bridge to walk across the water to reach South Queensferry. Since the newer bridge opened a couple years ago the old bridge is effectively a bus lane with a mixed use path on both sides. Lucky for us the eastern side was open, which gives views of the Forth Rail Bridge. As expected the path was quite busy with both walkers & cyclists, although I was surprised at how low the fence was, especially compared to other big bridges I’ve walked across where the fence was higher due to the suicide risk.
Forth Rail Bridge.
I would recommend the walk across the Forth Road Bridge, as it’s a nice linear walk between two stations which do have a frequent service (4tph), just don’t do it if it be windy! Anyhow we reached South Queensferry, and headed on a path towards Dalmeny station. This is an area on my list to have another explore for a couple old railway lines, but that can wait for another day. We caught a 170 for a single stop to Edinburgh Gateway, transferring to the trams meeting up with Dan. An Edinburgh tram took us a couple stops to Ingliston Park & Ride, where we had a short wait for a Skyline 200 bus to take us to a bus stop in the Clermiston area of the city, where we checked into the hotel for the night.
After checking in, we headed on a route 26 bus to the Glebe Road bus stop to visit a Toby for dinner and a good social catch up. Afterwards we returned to the hotel on another route 26 bus and relaxed for the remainder of the evening.
Sunday
A glance of RTT in the morning found that my last 385 was out today, and with a bonus of working Edinburgh – Glasgow Queen Street services (rather than a Glasgow Central via Shotts stopper), so that was on my list to try and get done this morning. Before that we took a route 21 bus to Duke Street in Leith to visit Spoons for breakfast. After a nice breakfast it was to the Foot of the Walk bus stop to await a route 22 bus to take us towards Edinburgh Waverley station itself. It’s good to see the tram works in process for the extension to Newhaven, and for me good to be back in an area I’ve been in a few times over the years due to staying in a hotel in this area.
Anyways, the bus took us to Edinburgh Waverley and after a short wait we went down to the platform to await the arrival of the pair of 385s from Glasgow. I was happy when winner 385101 was on the Glasgow end of the train, which allowed me to tick off the class (also my last Scotrail unit needed). We took this 385 to Linlithgow, where I & mum headed up a hill to visit the canal as a time wasting move (also time away from having to wear a mask).
385101 at Edinburgh, my last of the class to tick off for rideage
We returned to the station to catch a 3 coach 385 to Edinburgh Park (and coming to think about it, my last “Abellio Scotrail” operated service as the next time I’m in Scotland, whenever that may be, will be the new government run operated). Next up was a tram to St Andrews Square, where after popping via Sainsburys we said farewell to Dan and headed towards the First Class lounge at Edinburgh, for this was the second of my surprises for mum, for we would be heading back to London on the posh seats.
The First Class Lounge was a nice area to relax when waiting for the train from Inverness, which for me was an extra bonus of winner 800109, my last of the 9 coach 800s. We took a seat in First Class, on one of the very few tables for 2 (most of the other seats were single airline style seats or tables of 4), this also gave the bonus of being on the coastal side of the ECML for the scenic section when it runs alongside the water. First Class was quite busy from Edinburgh, but we got fed (Chicken Sandwich) and watered soon after departure.
800109 arrives at Edinburgh
I noticed this train was running on diesel from Berwick upon Tweed, I suspect something to do with the wires in this area not having enough power to support more electric trains. At Newcastle there was a reasonable turnover of passengers for the run towards London, darkness falling around Doncaster (but the line south of Doncaster is quite boring in my eyes). Due to engineering works this train was diverting via Cambridge after Peterborough, so I had the novelty of a 800 on the line towards Ely, before heading towards Cambridge North where we sat for 6 minutes to allow a stopper go in front (also a Thameslink stopper from Cambridge).
The section between Cambridge & Stevenage was slow due to being stuck behind the stopper, but thankfully once back on the ECML proper it was speed towards London, arriving a couple minutes ahead of schedule. Certainly going first class was nicer than standard class, but first class on an Azuma is nothing compared to what it used to be like on the HSTs or an Mk4. We headed straight to the underground onto a Victoria Line service which sat at Kings Cross for a few minutes due to some sort of issue (the driver did say something, but the speakers were crap).
Thankfully this train got going for the run to Oxford Circus and a 7 minute wait for a Bakerloo train, which was taken to Waterloo. We made it in good time to catch the first train I was hoping for, the 20:05 Weymouth, which due to engineering works was going on the magical mystery tour of Staines. Thankfully we didn’t get caught up in issues which happened a couple hours previously and only lost a few minutes on the slow crawl before reaching Woking.
After Woking, it was a speedy run to Basingstoke, where we had a short wait on the platform before a 159 rolled in from the sidings to form a Salisbury stopper. We took this 159 to Andover for a short walk to the car with a drive home, I was glad the slow diverts were over for the day, but the end of a nice little weekend getaway to Scotland. Mum was happy with the trip and for me that is all that mattered. I think the next time we go to Edinburgh/Glasgow we will stay for a couple days, solely for a day without carrying around luggage.
View of Durham from ECML
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