After doing some research in prices for accommodation & travel (avoiding engineering works on the ECML) this was the first weekend I could try and visit the recently opened station of East Linton between Drem & Dunbar on the ECML. As well as doing some exploring of the Scottish capital as thankfully the weather was showing as being dry which is always a bonus on these long-distance trips as I didn’t need to come up with a back-up plan.
26th January – Southern to Hemel & Sleeper to Scotland
The trip began with the 17:59 service from Grateley with 159022 doing the honours on this reasonably busy service as I sat back and watched some videos for the run to Waterloo with nothing really happening along the way (one of those routine journeys which fade away into memory shortly afterwards). Once into Waterloo, after swinging via Sainsburys for some dinner items I headed into the open air with a gentle stroll towards Euston, going via Holborn. It might not necessarily be the quickest but it’s the easiest in terms of straight lines. Only issue I have with walking in London is some of the lawless cyclists who deem red lights as strictly optional, especially when they dress in dark clothes and think lights are also optional, so you need to be careful when crossing some of the road junctions.
40 minutes (or thereabouts) later I had arrived at Euston, seeing the horrible new advertising screen for the first time (since it became live). Such a horrid station with crowds gathering round the remaining departure screens with one set seemingly turned into a “there are replacement buses between X & Y on Sunday” information screen rather than displaying the departures. Anyhow rant over and I headed towards platform 8 with my original plan going into the bin as there had been a set-swap with the all-day diagram of 730s as the 20:24 to Bletchley was duds 730011 + 730013, so I returned to one of the waiting areas to have my dinner and engage in people watching with the usual crowd surge when an Avanti for Wolverhampton/Liverpool etc was announced. One of these days there will be a tragic accident in that stampede.
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| Ratp Group (London) Bus VH45113 (BT13 YWL) at Euston bus station on a route 18 |
Anyhow the inbound for the 20:54 Bletchley service had rolled in from Milton Keynes Central which was formed of winners 730014 & 730005 as I took a seat at the front of 730014 where it was nice and quiet (compared to nearer the rear of the service). The 21:06 to Milton Keynes was formed of 730019 running solo which I didn’t thankfully need so it was back to my original plan as I took 014+005 to Hemel Hempstead. Remaining on platform 3 as 377701 was right behind the 730s on one of the limited Southern extensions to Hemel Hempstead as part of the old Milton Keynes service (sadly a victim of post Covid related cutbacks). This service had been on my wants list for a while as unusually it departs Hemel Hempstead from platform 3 heading south, doing the crossover in the process (my BLS hat firmly on).
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| 377701 at Hemel Hempstead Station |
As this service departs Hemel a couple of minutes after a Euston stopper it was very lightly loaded (I counted 3 passengers including myself). It was also a bit slow due to following that stopper as I took it to Watford Junction, but the random novelty of Southern at Hemel Hempstead was into my little book. I was toying with taking an Overground service to Bushey as it was originally showing as platform 1 but was relocated to platform 4, the only Overground platform I’ve got a note of using at Watford Junction, so it was back towards platform 9 and a short wait in the chilly air before 350247 & 350243 rolled in on the stopper from Milton Keynes (best place for the 350/2s). I managed to get a seat in the former 1st class area on 243 for the run into Euston where it ran into the rear of another 350/2 (to form a 12-coach set for Northampton) and I headed back towards the concourse area to wait for the Lowland sleeper to get announced for boarding. Eventually it started to board with 92018 up front (again!), and I located my seat in the Edinburgh seated portion which was quite nice temperature wise. Sadly, I was joined by a couple of office workers who decided they wanted to have a nice catch-up until 01:30, talking quite loudly about work & personal lives (who was currently seeing whom etc). But worse was the temperature of the coach dropping from being quite reasonable to “Height of Spanish Summer” mode with the AC seemingly on full power, I was cold even with my winter coat on.
27th January – Walking the Water of Leith Walkway & East Linton
The sleeper arrived at Edinburgh Waverley near enough on time, maybe a few minutes ahead of schedule with 92028 up front. After visiting the toilets in the station for a short freshen up and swinging via Sainsburys for breakfast items I headed out of the station, and to a bus stop on Waterloo Place to await the next route 44 Lothian service for the village of Balerno in the Southwest of the city. Lothian bus 615 took me towards the High School stop in Balerno which is near to the start of the Water of Leith Walkway, on a slow ride (many stops close together) via Haymarket, Slateford, Juniper Green & Currie. After a quick photo of the river from Balerno bridge I started my walk.
The first section of this walk was along the old alignment of the Balerno Loop railway line, although there was not much in the way of remains of the former life, other than an old loading platform in the Juniper Green area. Anyhow the path was decent quality (mostly tarmac) as it followed the river close to the A70 road with various access points along the route. Going underneath the busy sounding Edinburgh Bypass to reach the city itself where the path moved away from the A70 and towards the area where Colinton Station once was and the Colinton Tunnel which has been painted inside.
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| Colinton Railway Tunnel, Edinburgh (Water of Leith Walkway) |
This is the point where the walkway splits into two alternative routes, either following the river itself or staying on the railway path. I remained on the railway path as I didn’t know what the paths near the river would have been like as I continued along the railway line reaching the end of the path as it crossed the Union Canal and reaching the fence alongside the Carstairs - Edinburgh railway line. I did a U-turn back along the disused railway line coming away near Colinton Dell to cross the river and onto a woodland path. Dodging a couple of fallen trees before reaching the unusual Craiglockhart Grotto building (with a wonderful view of a waterfall behind it). I soon reached the end of the Colinton & Craiglockhart Dells section of the walk as it crossed the A70 near the Water of Leith Visitor Centre.
I crossed the road, and underneath the Slateford Aqueduct carrying the Union Canal and Slateford Viaduct carrying the railway line and onto a busier section of the walkway as it followed the curves of the river passing some industrial units to reach Gorgie Road. After crossing this road, the walk continued towards Saughton Park where I did a little bit of exploring of the Gardens.
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| Saughton Park Bandstand, Edinburgh |
After I re-joined the marked walkway, I returned to the side of the river as it went underneath both the railway line & tram line near Murrayfield stadium. My walk continued with the stadium on my right side and river on the left towards Roseburn Public Park with a short section of road walking before dropping down into a valley (where I had to put my jumper back on after removing it earlier in the walk). This next section was quite scenic as well as being more peaceful, as I went underneath the Coltbridge Viaduct (formally used by a railway line now a mixed used path between Haymarket & Newhaven). The path continued in a quiet area as I bumped into my West Midlands based friend (Jan) who was also up in Edinburgh this weekend.
The next section of the walkway was busier in terms of other walkers (and a few joggers) as it headed towards the Dean area of the city, going underneath the impressive Dean Bridge and passing St Bernard's Well as the walkway continued into the Stockbridge area of the city which was a good place to stop for some lunch. After lunch we continued along the Walkway towards the Canonmills area of the city where we took a break away from the river path to walk the Warriston Path, a path along the old Edinburgh, Leith and Newhaven Railway route in the north of the city.
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| Water of Leith in the Dean Village area of Edinburgh |
We took this old railway line path (Goldenacre Path) towards the north in the area of the former Trinity Junctin and these days where it meets up with the Newhaven - Haymarket walking route. At this junction we took the Chancelot Path to where it meets the track of the disused Powderhall branch line (which I wonder if one day will get converted into another 'active travel' path towards the Restalrig area of the city). After reaching the end of the old railway route we reached the riverside path to head around the edge of St Marks Park and onto Warriston Road, underneath the railway viaduct to come back onto the old railway line to walk towards a Tesco and the Rodney Street Tunnel leading towards the former Scotland Street station and the closed off Scotland Street tunnel.
At the Scotland Street tunnel, after a couple of photos, we headed back towards the viaduct (via Tesco for a PNB) picking up the old railway line path towards the remains of Bonnington railway station where we departed from the old railway route to re-join the path running alongside the Water of Leith on a loop of the river. This path re-joined the old railway line route near the former Junction Road railway station with a short detour onto Coburg Street due a path closure. We followed the Water of Leith walkway as it headed into Leith town centre with some lovely old buildings alongside the route, reaching the end of the Walkway path (sadly the sign had been attacked by someone with a spray can).
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| Remains of Bonnington railway station, Edinburgh |
We carried on towards the docks area, heading towards Victoria quay and the Albert Dock Basin, meeting the tram tracks which we followed towards Ocean Terminal. The Trams were quite bunched up this afternoon, so Google Maps suggested using a number 10 bus towards Pilrig Gardens as the fastest route to the guest house we were both staying at (completely unplanned, we just happened to book the same place as it was the best value for money). Lothian bus 372 took us towards this bus-stop (not normally served by the route 10, but served as the bus was on a diversional route with road works). We located the guesthouse (Edinburgh House Hotel), getting checked in and dropping off stuff (and for me a change of clothes) before heading back out to the same bus stop for a busy route 11 service (Lothian bus 1126) towards Princes Street where we had a walk to Edinburgh Waverley station jumping onto the Dunbar service.
A reasonably busy 380103 was on this Dunbar service, although it did empty out a lot at Musselburgh. I didn't see how busy Wallyford was but there was a good 20 or so passengers who alighted with us at the new East Linton station. Quite good for a new station in my eyes, certainly seeing some use, unlike Reston. After having a little walk around the station area (this is an area on my list to revisit later in the year to walk part of the John Muir Way linking East Linton with North Berwick). Anyhow back at the station and it was onto a late running 380103 back towards Edinburgh Waverley where we headed towards the tram stop at St Andrews Square and onto tram 265 to the Foot of the Walk stop outside Spoons in Leith.
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| 380103 at East Linton Station |
For the lack of a better idea for dinner, we headed into the Wetherspoons, getting lucky with locating an empty table and having food. After dinner we headed back to the tram stop with tram 256 for the short hop to Balfour Street before heading to the guest house on foot, where I relaxed for the remainder of the evening in a very peaceful room. I enjoyed my walk along the Water of Leith Walkway, the scenery was changing, path condition was mostly decent with good signage along the way for the short sections where walking on the road was required.
28th January – Union Canal & back home
I had a couple of ideas of what to do this morning as I was booked onto the 12:20 service to London as I managed to get a reasonably cheap split advance. The first was some more of the disused railway line paths in the Leith area, second was the Innocence Railway Path but in the end, I decided it was a good chance to start with my coverage of the Union Canal. The Union Canal runs from Edinburgh towards Falkirk (where it meets the Forth & Clyde canal with the Falkirk Wheel) and in my rough idea file I’ve got it split into 3 sections.
The day began checking out of the Edinburgh House Hotel, certainly somewhere I would use again if the price was right (so come on down;)). We headed towards the tram stop at Balfour Street and boarded tram 270 for the reasonable length run to the Edinburgh Park station stop (I prefer these trams on the section beyond Haymarket where they can get up to some reasonable speed). Before heading towards the canal, we headed towards the big Tesco to grab some breakfast items (always strange being in a large Tesco at 08:30 on a Sunday morning)
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| Edinburgh Tram 259 at Balfour Street |
Visit to Tesco complete it was to the Cultins Road, passing a Royal Mail place to reach the Union Canal, where we joined the towpath to follow the canal as it ran close to the Edinburgh Bypass before heading east towards Wester Hailes & Kingsknowe. The towpath was good quality, bit narrow in places but good to see it being well used by other walkers, joggers, cyclists & even members of what seemed to be a university club. We passed underneath the railway line on a section I previously walked back in 2016 when the level crossing at Kingsknowe station was closed. We continued near to the area I was on the Saturday with the old Balerno loop railway line, crossing over the Water of Leith on the Slateford Aqueduct and carrying on the canal.
In the Harrison Park area, we took a break from the canal to head towards a path which ran along the old railway route from Slateford towards Princes Street near the former Merchiston railway station. The first section is now an access road for the Slateford Network Rail depot (which for a dead-end path was quite busy) with the second section (after a U-turn back to the remains of the platforms at Merchiston) in some woods to reach Dundee Terrace where I headed back towards the canal to pick up where we left to carry on towards the end of the canal at Lochrin Basin with many modern buildings which has replaced most of the historic buildings from when the canal was working (rather than a leisure canal). We headed onto the roads to reach Edinburgh Waverley as I grabbed some lunch saying farewell to Jan who was heading towards Glasgow to pick up his train towards Stafford and I located my seat on 801228. The canal was a nice little walk, decent towpath, with views of housing of the suburbs of Edinburgh (as well as some open spaces.
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| Leamington Lift Bridge on the Union Canal in Edinburgh |
I took my seat at the table near the doorway between standard & first (the one which says “Standard Class” which causes confusion as normal passengers walk through thinking more standard class seats are beyond only to find 1st class), at the start I had a university student opposite me on the table (the sort who can’t sit properly) but she moved after a ticket check. This service had an unusual calling pattern of Morpeth, Newcastle, Durham, York & Grantham and only really got busy after Grantham (where I suspect was passengers from Nottingham avoiding the replacement buses). Nice for another fast run on the ECML and the short delay it had from a speed restriction in Scotland with high gusts of wind was made up by York. Anyhow as I had just over an hour before the next train from Waterloo towards Grateley I decided to save some money and walk to Waterloo going mostly straight with some smaller detours in the Holborn area due to roadworks.
40 minutes later I arrived at Waterloo and onto the 17:45 service to Salisbury which was formed of a triple 159 tonight (159005, 159004 & 159018) and was lightly loaded in coach 3 of 9 as I settled down to relax for the uneventful run to Hampshire, followed with a gentle walk home. The weekend was a nice little getaway, the main mission was to visit East Linton plus I managed to do some walking within Edinburgh due to the dry weather. Some more photos can be found on my Flickr album located here Flickr Album: Thanks for reading, I will leave you with an image of the Thames from Waterloo Bridge.
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| River Thames from Waterloo Bridge |
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