Trips 13th & 14th January

 Trips 13th & 14th January

Last couple day trips of January before a couple of overnight trips to Scotland later this month.

13th January – A Day trip to Exmouth

This was a bit of a late idea booking after last Sunday where I randomly looked up prices & times for diverted IETs (for the novelty of an IET on the Hawkeridge curve & from Westbury towards Bath), when I noticed a bit of an oddity of a Paddington – Exeter service which was nonstop Bristol Temple Meads to Exeter, not even Taunton.  As it took longer than the services going direct to Exeter via Castle Cary, I managed to get some reasonably priced advances (not sure if they were part of the GWR sale) to Exeter for me & mum (making use of our 2 together railcard), extending to Exmouth was only an extra 50p so made sense.

The day began with the 07:59 service from Grateley, a later start than usual for me on a Saturday but today was a bit laid back as a busy 159108 rolled in from Honiton to take us towards Reading (diverted from Waterloo due to an engineering block between Basingstoke & Woking).  At Reading with around 80 minutes to kill before our booked train we headed to a nearby Wetherspoons for breakfast before heading back towards the station via a couple of shops and Forbury Gardens.  What I like about Reading are the various colours of buses and maybe one of these days I will have a day on the various bus routes within Reading.

Reading Bus 431 (YN14 MYA) on Friar Road, Reading working a route 24

Anyhow we returned to the station, headed towards platform 8 and waited a few minutes before 802102 rolled in from London.  Quite busy but we managed to get a table seat facing forward (the train was in reverse formation so our reserved seats in coach A were facing backwards, and that coach was quite busy).  It was a gentle run towards Newbury, then towards Pewsey the time spent looking out of the window at the passing scenery (and various floods), the train slowed right down for the tight curve near Westbury to join the line towards Trowbridge then had the first call at Bath (Reading was listed as pick-up only) where the coach we were in emptied out quite well.  The train continued to Bristol Temple Meads for a brief dwell before setting off towards Exeter, felt strange being on a GWR service which didn’t go via Weston Super Mare and not calling at Taunton. The service only slowed down near Tiverton where it looked like this train had caught up with the Paignton bound service in front.

Arrival into Exeter was near enough on time, as we headed towards platform 1 to board 166209 for the run towards Exmouth, sitting on the river side of the train for the views after Topsham.  At Exmouth we headed for a gentle walk towards the river side but didn’t hang around for long due to the chilly winds before heading towards the town centre with the bus stop outside the cinema turning down the faster (and more frequent) route 57 for the route 58 for Exeter.  Ran with Stagecoach bus 36237 it was reasonably busy.  This was a bit of a longer route going via the villages of Woodbury, the Nine Oaks business park & Clyst St Mary picking up a few passengers along the way (although most boarding on the shared section with other bus routes).  Some heavy traffic as it reached the outskirts of Exeter and the M5 junction before heading into the city centre bus station.  An enjoyable route of looking out of the window in East Devon.

166209 at Exmouth Station

We had a gentle walk from the bus station towards Exeter St Davids, involving a steep flight of steps on Peep Lane (I would not want to climb them!) and onto the 16:25 service for Basingstoke with 159013 & 159019 to take us to Salisbury, stepping back to board 159009 on the 18:47 stopper for Reading.  For some reason the tickets on the 17:25 service was nearly double in price (just shy off the flexible rate ticket).  Thankfully we didn’t have long to wait at Salisbury for the stopper to roll in so we could take a seat in the warmth before the masses boarded.  Once back at Grateley we had a gentle walk home to relax after an enjoyable day trip.  It had been a few years since I last travelled on the section of line from Bristol to Taunton and doing it on a fast train sure beats a stopper or an overcrowded voyager (also ticks off another section of the GWR network for coverage by IET leaving just the Weston loop & the summer only Carmarthen to Pembroke Dock routes).

159009 at Salisbury Station

14th January – Exploring Gosport & Fareham

With Basingstoke closed for engineering works I decided it would be a good day to visit Gosport to explore the remains of the old railway line before a coastal path walk & an old canal.  The weather was looking fine, a bit chilly but not as cold as it had been during the week.  Anyhow the day began with a gentle drive to Romsey parking up in the library car park for free parking and a short walk to the station for 158883 on the 08:39 service towards Southampton Central.  The train lost a bit of time outside Southampton waiting for a platform to become available due to congestion (a pair of voyagers were on platform 1, the Portsmouth stopper blocking platform 2, a Winchester service on P3 and a Weymouth on P4.  I was glad I wasn’t going towards Weymouth as the connection would have been missed as the 158 got in around 7 minutes late once the late running Winchester service had departed.

Anyhow I popped out of the station, confusing the gate line staff whose concept of break of journey doesn’t exist (“this isn’t Fareham”) to visit Tesco to grab some items for lunch to save some time for later.  I returned to the station to board a busy 444030 & 444042 on a diverted London train for the slow trip to Fareham (does it say something that the Southern replacement bus which departed at a similar time from Southampton and called at Swanwick was only a minute slower to Fareham?).  I exited the station and headed towards the bus stop on the opposite side of the A27 to await the next Eclipse service.

221121 at Southampton Central

I didn’t have long to wait before the next First operated E1 bus rolled in (bus 63417, a Wright StreetLite) which soon joined the unguided busway which runs along the track bed of the former Fareham – Gosport branch line.  Quite speedy (unless you got stuck behind a cyclist) and I alighted from the bus at the Brune Medical Centre stop, the first stop after it re-joined the regular roads, doing a small loop towards the Leisure Centre to pick up a path which ran alongside the busway before carrying on along the old railway route (where the busway rises to join the B3334 road).  The sun was quite low in the sky (at least it wasn’t raining) as I headed along the busy mixed used path passing the remains of Fort Brockhurst station and towards the triangle where the Stokes Bay branch branched off.  I continued along the path to reach the site of the old Gosport station, now housing before doing a U-turn back towards the triangle to follow the Stokes Bay branch towards the end near Fort Road.

After reaching the end of the old railway line, it was a short walk alongside the road to reach the old military road towards Fort Gilkicker (which is currently having a lot of work done to it) reaching the beach to start my sea-front walk heading away from the old fort towards Stokes Bay.  I headed towards the shingle beach of the Browndown military training area which was hard to walk at times due to the depth of shingle but was quite remote and scenic in places.

Browndown Beach, Gosport

I reached the end of the Browndown beach back onto smooth tarmac, pausing at a handy bench for lunch and a short break before continuing along the beach path towards Lee on the Solent where I did have a potential exit point (with a bus) but decided to carry on, watching various light aircraft taking off from the Solent Airport.  Around Hill Head the coastal path moved inland due to the tide being in and blocking the path across the beach before it dropped back down to join the sea front once more at the beautiful Hill Head beach.  Next up was the busy Hill Head harbour (a few little sailing boards getting ready to launch to make the most of the sunshine) then Titchfield Haven Beach near the Nature reserve.  This is where I headed away from the seafront, picking up a path alongside the old Titchfield Canal.

Waterfront at Hill Head

This path was quite pretty in places, also quite muddy as well.  Very peaceful once it moved away from Meon Road running alongside the nature reserve giving some nice views of nature.  An enjoyable walk, other than some areas where the old canal had burst its banks flooding the towpath with some thick mud where I needed to be careful not to slip over (I was glad when one particularly bad section came to an end and the path turned into tarmac for a farm access road).  I reached the canal car park at Titchfield, carrying on along the canal into an area of some heavy flooding.  In hindsight I should have done another U-turn to try and find an alternative route to reach the village centre but I was foolish and carried on into the floods, with water overtopping my walking boots before reaching St Peters Church and a short road to reach the bus stop on Mill Street in the village centre where it was a short wait for the next X4 (bound for Portsmouth, with First’s 35115) for the short run towards Fareham railway station (don’t think the driver sees many Fareham Plusbus tickets).

I had a short walk from the bus stop to the railway station, taking a seat onto a Cardiff bound 158747 & 158951 for an extra bonus as I was aiming for the Weymouth train to connect with a 158 at Southampton but I was running earlier than expected.  I took a seat on this service, plugged my phone into my power bank (as the plug sockets weren’t working and I didn’t fancy moving to find another seat).  Half an hour (or so) later the train arrived at Romsey, with a short walk back to my car where I changed from my wet walking boots & socks into a fresh pair of socks and trainers to drive home, swinging via the Co-Op in Stockbridge for a random supply raid (ending up with various items which were reduced to clear to have chicken burger for dinner rather than a planned pizza).  I was glad to get home and out of the wet & muddy clothes (my legs were a bit muddy), but it was an enjoyable walk, various scenery from old railway line to sea and a rural canal.

Titchfield Canal Path

Thanks for reading :) 😃