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