24th – 26th September – A weekend trip to Blackpool

24^th – 26^th September – A weekend trip to Blackpool

My mum had always wanted to see the Blackpool Illuminations, after a tragic event earlier in the summer; I decided to treat her with a weekend trip to Blackpool so she can see the lights and have a weekend out of the house.

 

Friday

 

Due to engineering works on the Saturday, I decided it would be better to head up to London on the Friday night, staying in a hotel to reduce the replacement bus from Andover towards Guildford.  It also gave my mum a chance to visit the Paddington Bear statue at Paddington.  After some research I had booked the Premier Inn at Wembley Stadium as it was the cheapest option with good transport links for Euston on the Saturday morning.

 

The trip began with driving to Andover on the Friday evening (solely to assist on the Sunday, as we could just drive straight home rather than waiting for the train after we got dropped off by the replacement bus).  I noticed the work around the freight area is nearly complete, as the first train of the trip arrived with a single 159 taken to Basingstoke where we went to the nearby KFC for some dinner (eating it on a bench on platform 4).

 

A GBRf 66 passing Basingstoke to pass the time

The next train was a 165 which was taken to Reading, as we sat in the declassified first class area as darkness slowly fell, a short wait at Reading before a busy pair of 800s rolled in from Swansea which took us towards Paddington, rolling into platform 2.  A short walk took us towards platform 1 to look at the statue of the bear, before heading to the underground, jumping on the first train heading north, this being a Queens Park terminator, solely to get out of the warmth of the underground station.

 

This also turned out to be a good move, as it gave us a connection with an Overground service at Queens Park, with a 4 coach 710 taken to Wembley Central, and a short walk to the Premier Inn where we got checked in, dropping off the bags and headed out for a gentle walk around the stadium area itself, doing a loop of the stadium.

 

An Arch at some random football stadium

 

In my eyes it’s an area of contrast; one side is all residential apartment/leisure buildings mixed up with the designer outlet mall plus the old Wembley Arena, but walk around and you get industrial buildings (a cement works & warehouses).  We returned back at the hotel to relax for the remainder of the evening, the shower not being that powerful (but I find those showers above baths which uses the same mixer as the taps never seen to be as powerful as standalone shower units). 

 

The hotel was decent enough, a bit of noise from a nearby room as they returned from a night out, but hardly any outside noise, the AC took a while to get working but eventually cooled the room nicely. I will say in the morning I’ve had worse views to wake up to!

 

Saturday

 

An early start as we walked back towards Wembley Central station (I have no idea why we didn’t just use Wembley Stadium station itself, in hindsight), swinging via a Sainsburys Local along the way to pick up some breakfast.  At Wembley Central we had a 10 minute wait before the next London Euston service would arrive, and this was a required 5 coach 710/3 (another one bites the dust).  We took this unit all the way to Euston, which was quite busy so we headed outside for some fresh(ish) air before the Crewe train.

 

Heading back into the station and towards platform 12 where RTT was suggesting the Crewe train would be departing from.  I noticed a Manchester train looking very busy with kickball fans so I was glad we weren’t on that service.  The 350s rolled in and it was a 350/1 on the rear (happy days) and a horrible 3+2 seated 350/2 on the front (something which is completely unsuitable for such a lengthy journey, especially as it lacks tables).  Needless to say we sat in the front coach of the 350/1 which was reasonably busy throughout the journey northbound towards Crewe.  A ticket check after Rugby sounded like the guard caught at least 3 passengers out without tickets in the coach we were in, but other than that check that was the only time we saw the guard.

 

The journey continued towards Crewe, nothing unusual happening along the way (although I will say there was a couple females wearing clothing which appeared to be a bit on the tight side, especially as one seemed to have forgotten to wear a bra under that tight top).  At Crewe it was a short walk over to platform 5 where we boarded a busy 9 coach Pendo, heading to coach A where it was quieter (Crewe was the first stop and we all know that some passengers will simply board the first available coach rather than walking too far).  A speedy run towards Manchester Piccadilly where the train arrived a couple minutes ahead of schedule and we had a short walk over to platform 14 which had some delays caused by an EMR service from Norwich emptying out.

 

Next leg of the journey would be the final heavy rail service of the day with a pair of 331s (where RTT was only suggesting it was a single unit). This was another quite busy service but we managed to get a table in the front coach for the run all the way to Blackpool North, where all the passengers were sent via a side gate out of the station.  We headed towards the large Sainsburys next to the station to grab lunch and made our slow way towards the sea front, going onto the North Pier with our tourist hats firmly on.

 

Blackpool Tower from the North Pier

 

After lunch was consumed on the North Pier, we returned to land and walked along the sea front towards Central Pier, before heading towards the guest house in the area near York Street (Foxhall Village was the name of the place I stayed).  We checked into the guest house, before doing a bit of shopping, swinging via a Chinese restaurant to reserve a table for later before heading back towards the tramway.  The initial idea was to head North but that tram was wedged out so we decided not to board, and instead headed south on another tram.

 

At Starr Gate we had a walk towards the sea front and along the path which was nice and quiet (compared to the main centre).  We headed back to the tramway at Harrow Place to take another tram a couple stops north to South Pier to have an explore of that area (going onto the beach to walk underneath the pier before walking onto the pier itself).  After the explore of the area around South Pier we headed back towards the Central Pier tram stop to head towards the restaurant (Red Pepper) for a lovely Chinese meal.

 

The sandy beach near Starr Gate

 

Darkness had fallen as we departed the restaurant, heading back towards the sea front dodging the many cars which had been parked everywhere (for the fireworks show), a little explore of Central Pier was cut short due to it being extremely busy so we headed along the sea front to reach Manchester Street tram stop to take a tram to Starr Gate, solely as a time wasting move before the booked Illuminations tram.

 

The northbound platform at Starr Gate was very busy, so we decided to take a walk towards Squires Gate station, solely for a couple photos to allow the crowds to go down on the tram platform.  The road traffic was just chaotic with long queues heading towards the lights, with some traffic lights being turned off with manual traffic control.  We returned back to Starr Gate station where it was quieter and waited for a tram to arrive, one arrived and disappeared towards the depot, before another arrival which transferred to the opposite platform but waited a good 10 minutes before departing.

 

Squires Gate Station from road bridge

 

This busy tram was taken a few stops to Pleasure Beach, departing rather busy, as we headed towards the loop where the Illuminations “Western Train” was waiting.  We were booked on the 21:10 departure but due to the excessive crowds from the fireworks, the heritage trams were suspended for safety reasons, so the tram was the previous departure.  We got let on and given a seat in the “train” section as it departed heading slowly northbound, having to keep stopping due to people stepping out in front of it due to the end of the fireworks.

 

Blackpool Tram 010 at Pleasure Beach

 

The good thing with the slow running is all the better to see the lights with and it did speed up after North Pier. Judging by the crowds waiting at all the stations, the next few regular trams would have been completely wedged out.  The tram controlled north passing all the posher looking hotels and towards the loop at Little Bispham for a slow turn to head back south, stopping off at a couple of the stops for anybody to alight (which I think a few did, due to the late running of the service & crowding in the centre of town).

 

My mum and I, stayed on the tram to the end at Pleasure Beach, the service going a bit faster now the worse of the crowds had gone, where it would go out again (for the delayed 21:10).  We headed towards the regular tram stop and waited 25 minutes for the next northbound service, which was busy when we boarded and extremely busy by the time it reached Central Pier (and looked like another tram was behind it, but as the Blackpool Tram stops don’t have any “next service” screens, the trams turn up when they want to [looking at the printed timetable, this time of night it was meant to be every 10 minutes].

 

Blackpool Western Train "Tram" at Pleasure Beach

After alighting from the tram at Central Pier, we made our way back towards the guest house, to relax for the remainder of the evening and after a busy day.

 

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Sunday

 

Morning arrived, and after sorting out the bags, we checked out of the guest house and headed to a nearby Café for a cooked breakfast.  After this was consumed we headed towards the Central Pier to explore the pier when it was quiet, walking right to the end before coming back to land.  I made a stupid mistake in assuming the pick-up point of a coastal heritage tour was at Pleasure Beach, so we headed towards Pleasure Beach and after a walk around the area, headed towards the loop.

 

Blackpool High Tide Organ

 

I looked at my emails, discovered that the pick-up point was actually North Pier and headed back to the tram stop, but sadly due to a gap by the time the next tram arrived to take us to North Pier the booked open top boat-tram which was meant to go all the way to Fleetwood had already departed.  However the kind staff allowed us onto a “prom” tour, operated by “Bolton 66”, a double decker tram which had a lot of character (first built in 1901).

 

The “Prom” tours follow the route taken by the Illuminations tour, towards the loop after Little Bispham to come back south, with a running race happening on the road alongside the tram tracks (a 10K).  The old tram continued southwards to do the loop south of Pleasure Beach before returning towards the North Pier stop where we exited the tram and I managed to get a couple photos before it departed back towards Little Bispham.

 

Blackpool Tram "Bolton 66" at North Pier Stop

 

With a couple hours to make our way back towards Blackpool North station, we decided it would be a good time to head towards the North Pier to have some lunch from a cafe before making our slow way back towards the station, swinging via the large Sainsburys for a drink.  We entered Blackpool North and took a seat watching as the queue for the York train grew and grew, but once boarding started (around 10 minutes before departure) we headed to the front coach which was empty.  Looked like most of the crowd did the usual boarding at the first available set of doors!

 

We took this 3 coach 195 to Preston where we had around 30 minutes to wait before the next London bound Avanti service which called at Crewe.  I was a bit shocked that nobody was sitting in our reserved seats on a table in coach B, but sadly the plug sockets were deader than a dodo.  A reasonably busy 11 coach Pendo which did empty out at Crewe (as this one goes on a tour of the West Midlands it gets overtaken by 2 more Pendos from Crewe and even the Trent Valley semifast!).  We made our way over to platform 7, but my luck had run out for the next London Euston train was a pair of 350/2s, 8 coaches of luxurious 3+2 seating.

 

195125 at Preston

 

The train did get quite busy (at least in the front coach), although where the guard did make an appearance he had no ticket machine to catch several people boarding at Stafford heading towards Rugeley, a couple who did a sudden U-turn when they saw him at the front of the train at Stafford.  It was delayed by around 7 minutes due to being held at Milton Keynes for a late running Pendo from Manchester, but nothing out of the ordinary happened.

 

At Euston it was straight towards the underground and onto the Northern line to Waterloo, where we popped to Tesco for some dinner before making our way back to the station.  We were aiming for the 19:30 Portsmouth train to take us to Guildford, but both the 19:00 Portsmouth stopper & 19:04 Weymouth service were delayed, so we jumped onto a busy pair of 450s on the Portsmouth train, finding an empty bay in the front coach where we had the food as the train headed towards Guildford via Cobham [due to everybody’s favourite, engineering works].

 

Once we exited Guildford station and found our way to the replacement bus stops (which had been marked up in zones to where the buses were meant to go), it was a scene of chaos with crowds waiting for buses which were either running late or not running at all.  A few rolled in, but all were heading towards Woking, a little service bus rolled in for somewhere else (Weybridge I think).  Eventually a coach rolled in with someone asking the driver where he was going “Basingstoke” before people started to board before the poor member of staff trying to deal with it came over to get them off the bus for it was for Overton, Whitchurch & Andover passengers first of all.

 

 

Not a replacement bus, but an old tram!

 

We managed to get onto the coach, and it was quite a decent coach for the interior (other than reading lights which couldn’t be turned off), decent legroom with the seats.  Other than making use of the A331 to reach the M3 I have no idea on the route as I was too busy reading someone on my tablet!  At Basingstoke the bus got lost trying to follow a couple road diverts due to a couple places being closed for road works, which lost time, so by the time it eventually reached Andover I think the train was pulling out (a few attempted to run across to the station from the bus stop, but I think looking at RTT it was in vain.  As that was the last train which went beyond Salisbury I suspect there would be a few taxi claims!

 

So in  way we were lucky that I decided to drive to the station on Friday, as it meant we could simply walk back towards the car, dump the bags in the boot (change my walking boots to some old trainers) and drive home, no needing to wait for the next train.  Overall a nice little weekend trip to Blackpool, as away from the centre of town where it’s drunk central it is a nice little town, bit of history with the piers, old trams and some nice beaches.  We got lucky with the weather as it was still warm and dry when we were at Blackpool, Sunday morning was a bit windy but the sun soon came out to play.

 

Beach at the far end of the Central Pier looking north.

18th September – A trip to South Wales

 18^th September – A trip to South Wales

With a Saturday with nothing booked, after looking at a few options I decided on taking a little day trip towards South Wales, solely to revisit some stations I needed for photographs, along with having a nice walk.  I had a rough plan for the day, but that didn’t last long due to various cancellations.

 

The day began with an early morning drive to Salisbury, to catch the 06:40 SWR service towards Bristol Temple Meads, which gave a tight connection with a Bristol – Cardiff service, but as the ECS from the depot was running late, the connection to a pair of Turbos was easily made as I took a seat in the front coach (because most of the crowd waiting for the train were at the opposite end, I had a private coach until Newport).  The 166+165 combo took me towards Cardiff Central where I headed towards platform 6 to catch the next train towards Merthyr Tydfil, a single 150 which was lightly loaded.

 

The 150 took me along the line towards the town of Merthyr Tydfil, quite scenic in places, but I was glad to alight at the end, solely due to the automatic announcements being turned on.  A minute long announcement about “travel safe” stuff after every station does get annoying after a while, and after exiting the station I popped to the nearby Tesco to grab items for lunch to save me a job for later.

 

A 150 at Merthyr Tydfil.

 

My main walk of the day began as I made my way slowly towards the river Taff, getting lost due to construction work closing the “River Walk” passageway from one of the shopping areas to the river.  I eventually gained access to the river near the fire station before heading in a southern direction following the Taff Trail, crossing over the river on “St Tydfil’s Bridge” and doing a short dogleg to access the path.  I continued along the path as it followed the river passing a leisure centre before heading away from the river passing behind a leisure park & a really old looking Travelodge.

 

Weir on the River Taff in Merthyr Tydfil[

Continuing with my walk as it went underneath an old railway bridge and was quite nice with the trees, mostly all tarmac as it crossed some minor roads along the way reaching the area near Pentre-Bach where I went down from the path to head towards the station for a couple photos before I headed back towards the path (up a steep hill) to continue heading south along the path.  The next settlement I reached was the area around Troed-y-Rhiw, which was another station I headed down from the Taff Trail to reach for some photos, including one of a train departing heading north.

 

A 150 departing Troed-y-Rhiw

 

After the brief visit to the station, I retraced my tracks back up the hill to reach the Taff Trail, continuing along the path, passing some workmen doing some work (the path along here does seem like it used to be an old railway line).  Eventually I reached the village of Aberfan, known sadly for a disease nearly 55 years ago when a coal colliery spoil pile collapsed killing 144 people.  I had a moment of reflection in the memorial gardens, having learnt about the disease at secondary school many years ago.  After the moment of reflection, I returned back to the Taff Trail path.

 

I continued my walk along the path, coming off the Taff Trail to head down towards the River Taff, passing what looked like an old railway bridge which had been removed.  Crossing the river and a brief climb saw me reaching Merthyr Vale, the passing loop on the line.  I joined a footpath which ran alongside the railway line, crossing over at a bridge (which I guess at some point in the past used to be a foot crossing of the railway).  Continuing my walk, I joined the alignment of the old “Merthyr Tramroad”, signposted as the “Trevithick Trail”, one of the earliest places for railway history, complete with original stone sleepers on the ground.

 

Trackbed of the old Tramroad

 

With the river (sadly hidden by many trees) to my right hand side and the railway high on an embankment on the left I continued along the tramroad path, as the Taff Trail rejoined the path I was on.  Soon I reached an area where a poorly marked path went up a hill to reach Quakers Yard station for a photograph, before heading back to the path to continue my walk along the old Tramroad.  I went underneath a lovely looking railway viaduct (where the railway went over the River Taff & a valley), but sadly due to the trees photos I attempted to take turned out to be a bit rubbish.

 

I continued on the road, as it followed the river in a large loop, reaching a residential area, continuing along a path as it crossed the River Taff once again, and going underneath a couple road bridges before I reached Abercynon station, the end of my large walk.  I passed the site where I think where the old Abercynon North station was located, before reaching the island platform at Abercynon catching a busy 150 to Pontypridd.

 

Quakers Yard Station from foot crossing

 

Due to signalling issues around Mountain Ash the Aberdare line had been reduced to hourly (something with the signalling not allowing the trains to pass at Mountain Ash), so my original idea for a short walk between stations on the Aberdare line went into the pile to do at a future date as I took a 150 towards Aberdare (noticing the speed of the electrification with poles popping up).  During the 5 minute dwell at Mountain Ash I jumped out for a quick photograph (it will do for now!), before heading to Aberdare.  I wonder if the line beyond Aberdare towards the old Tower Colliery will ever get reopened to passenger use with a couple more stations built along the line, although I guess the big limiting factor will be the single track.

 

I returned to the 150 for the run back along the Aberdare branch to reach Pontypridd, changing over platforms (after going via the Tesco Express located outside the station for some more drink), and boarding a Treherbert bound 150.  However this train got cancelled due to an obstruction on the track near Porth, so my little plan to grab the stations I needed on that line went into the bin, as it started to rain.  I crossed back over to platform 2 at Pontypridd watching as the 150 I was just on reversing back towards the crossover to the south of the station to access platform 1 to get it out of the way.

 

Another 150 went through the station ECS, before an empty 150 rolled in from the loop towards Abercynon (would have been from Aberdare), as I took it towards Cardiff Central, changing over to platform 0 to board a 3 coach 170 bound for Ebbw Vale Town.  The front coaches were busy but the rear former first class area only had 2 passengers in, so I took a seat in comfort for the run towards Rogerstone, where once more I set out for a walk, this time back towards Pye Corner.

 

A 170 departs Rogerstone bound for Ebbw Vale

 

I went a slightly longer route (compared to going via the road) from the housing estate to reach a bridge over the River Ebbw where I joined a footpath which ran alongside the river bank, going underneath a busy sounding road and reaching a large recently built housing estate (Jubilee Park I think it was called), the footpath came to an end as I joined a mixed use path, but this path dropped behind a flood defence wall so sadly no decent views of the river were available.  I continued along this path, coming to an end before joining the road, and because I had time I decided to swing via a Co-Op in the hope of getting something for dinner, but alas they didn’t have anything I liked left.

 

After leaving the Co-Op I continued my walk, going over the A467 dual carriageway and walking along another road which went over the railway and reaching Pye Corner station, arriving just as the next northbound train was arriving which allowed me to grab a photo of it departing, before taking a nice bench seat and relaxing (my legs were telling me they had enough).  The 170 I had earlier returned, this time there was nobody in the former 1^st class area as I took a seat for the run back to Cardiff Central.

 

I exited the station once more, swinging via Tesco to grab something to eat for dinner, before returning back to the station.  I decided on a little time wasting move with a Taunton bound HST for the run to Bristol Temple Meads (better than just hanging at Cardiff for an extra 30 minutes for a 3 coach 166).  At Bristol I waited for the 166 to arrive (sadly a charter train from Penzance got caught behind a late running stopper from Taunton meaning it wouldn’t arrive until after the 166 from Cardiff would have done).

 

43027 at Bristol Temple Meads

 

The only issue I have with trains at Bristol Temple Meads is that there doesn’t seem to be a standard stop mark, but I got lucky with the 166 as it stopped close to where I was standing, also the rear former 1^st class area was unlocked so I took a better seat with a table (where I could eat my dinner I got from Cardiff earlier).  The guard caught out a chancer who had boarded at Bath without a ticket (who was heading towards Trowbridge and looked a bit drugged up).  An unexpected unit swap happened at Westbury as we got told to change to another 166 which was waiting on platform 1 as I joined several others in heading into the rear FC area (including one family with 2 youngish kids).

 

All was going well until a member of off-duty staff marched in, shouting at passengers to “GET OUT” of the area, resulting in the kids bursting into tears.  To make things worse he did a disappearing act (I guess he buggered off to the front FC area away from a group of loud kickball drunks heading back home).  There are ways of asking people nicely to move so they could have their own private section (because ya know, they can’t be sitting with the general public on a train as it’s highly dangerous, even though if the train was a 158 they would have to), but the attitude of that member of staff was truly rotten.  On the complete contrast the guard was ever so nice with her duties and when she saw nobody was in the rear FC area she released the door allowing that family to get a seat.

 

Anyhow, the train continued along the way to Salisbury, where I alighted, having a short walk back to the car to drive home, where it featured someone who must have wanted to smell my socks I took off and put in the car boot along with my boots based on how close he was driving (I tend to change from my walking boots to a pair of trainers when driving, and normally socks as well after a long day).  Overall a good day, I did what I had planned to do (although my rough plan had myself doing Ebbw Vale first), the stations I need on the Treherbert branch & Ebbw Vale itself will get done on a long weekend based in Cardiff.  Although Treherbert will need to be done on the Friday to avoid a rail replacement bus from Radyr.

 

Scenery from Taff Trail near Troed-y-Rhiw

 

10 – 12th September – North Wales & Stratford Greenway

 10 – 12^th September – North Wales & Stratford Greenway

 

Back in May time I called off a trip towards the Conwy Valley due to it being closed due to flooding on the Friday and it was going to be a bit of a risk if it reopened on the Saturday (in the end I booked a trip to Manchester on the Saturday), so this would be a bit of a recovery from that trip.  I changed the plan around a bit with a trip to Holyhead replaced with a walk from Llandudno (to Llandudno Junction), which allowed me to save money on tickets.

Friday

The trip began with the 17:59 service from Grateley, with a reasonably loaded single 159 taking me to Basingstoke, where I changed to platform 5 to board the 165 on the Reading stopper (taking up a seat in the declassified first class section for that bit of extra comfort).  The heavily delayed Reading Green Park station seems to be coming along well with the foot/overbridge being built.  At Reading I had a short walk to board a pair of busy voyagers on the Manchester service for the run to Oxford where a good number of the passengers alighted from the train, some exited the station but a fair few remained on the platform to await the GWR Hereford service (which skips Reading), a 9 coach 802.

 

I took a seat in the front coach (no engine, making it a bit like standard premium!) and it was very quiet (5 others in the coach after it departed Oxford).  I spent the time on my tablet as darkness had fallen, as I was weighing up the options for how to get to Birmingham, NRE was being helpful in saying that both the Snow Hills Line stopper & Hereford – Birmingham trains were cancelled (whereas the stopper was running, but terminating short at Birmingham Snow Hill, and the train from Hereford was starting from Worcester Shrub Hill).  However the XC connection would have been onto a 2 coach 170 from Cardiff, where the previous Cardiff – Nottingham had been cancelled so I would dread to think how busy that would have been.

 

In the end I alighted from the 802 at Worcester Foregate Street and walked back towards Worcester Shrub Hill, being a bit foolish going via the canal, although I suspect the railway viaduct over the canal might make for some half decent photos in the daylight.  Eventually I reached Worcester Shrub Hill and waited for the train to roll in from the middle siding, for it was a hired in Chiltern 172/1 on the fast Birmingham service.

 

Hired in Chiltern 172102 at Worcester Shrub Hill

 

The reason for wanting to do this particular service is that it’s one of those late evening oddities which go via Kidderminster to use the chord at Smethwick to approach Birmingham New Street from the Smethwick direction (not like I needed the track, more of a novelty of a 172 at Smethwick Rolfe Street).  As it started at Shrub Hill loadings in my coach could be counted on one hand so a relaxing last train of the day, other than some delays before it joined the WCML at Smethwick caused by other trains being delayed.

 

At Birmingham New Street, it was a short walk to get checked into the Easy Hotel, sadly not getting a good room this time round.  The AC wasn’t working and felt like I was right above the pub so was a bit noisy (although thankfully the pub closed after midnight).  When I was in bed researching my moves for the Saturday I noticed the first train from Birmingham gave a connection to a Shrewsbury – Holyhead train, as previously that train departed Shrewsbury 2 minutes after the train from Birmingham would arrive, an unofficial connection.  This allowed me to make a last minute change of plan.

 

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Saturday – North Wales

 

After getting some early morning supplies from the Tesco Metro in Birmingham city centre, my day began with the 06:24 service towards Aberystwyth, which was unusually formed of a 150 (at Shrewsbury it swapped over with a Aberystwyth – Birmingham 158 so that the 158 could return towards the coast).  I took this 150 to Shrewsbury, having a bit of nice engine noise on the fast section after Wolverhampton, and at Shrewsbury I swapped over to the 175 working the retimed 07:26 Holyhead train which was a 2 coach 175.

 

The train got quite busy along the way to Chester (where Chester Races were happening), and had a large passenger turnover at Chester, before it headed towards the North Wales Coast, a line which is pretty in parts (where it runs alongside the sea).  I alighted from the 175 at Llandudno Junction where it used platform 4, after swinging via the ticket office to buy my 2 zone North Wales Rover,  I jumped onto another 2 coach 175 for the run to Llandudno (where I couldn’t help thinking a 2 coach 175 for the shuttles is slightly overkill for a short journey).

 

I exited the station at Llandudno and headed for a gentle walk towards the sea front, doing a short loop before heading back to the station to board the same unit to take me back to Llandudno Junction, where I couldn’t help noticing how busy platform 3 was getting, with announcements saying they expected the train to be extremely busy and for it to be full & standing after Rhyl.  At least Transport for Wales ran it as a 3 coach service, but for me I was waiting for the 150 to roll in from Llandudno to take me towards the Conwy Valley.

 

Llandudno Bay at Llandudno

 

The 150 rolled in from Llandudno and was lightly loaded, as I took a seat for the scenic run towards Betws-y-Coed, a place I wanted to revisit as the last time I visited it was a dark October morning.  The village was very busy with tourists, but I located a little footpath which follows the river Conwy circling the outside of a golf course.  A pleasant little path with areas with good views of the river, however before it reached the railway bridge the path was closed so I had to take another footpath to come back towards the station area, before heading towards a little bridge in the village centre to waste a bit of time.

 

The platform got quite busy before the train returned, but I got a seat on the return as I requested the stop of Dolgarrog, a station rebuilt in the last couple years due to the previous station getting damaged in some floods.  However due to an old railway bridge across the river being closed by the water company for being unsafe has cut the station off from the village it is meant to serve.  There is an upmarket 5 star hotel nearby Dolgarrog station, plus a handful of houses, but other than that nothing.  The road near the station was pretty much constant with traffic (60mph with no pavement so not somewhere you want to walk along).  [There was 2 people who boarded the train at Dolgarrog, the same pair I'm pretty sure alighted at Dolgarrog heading south, no idea who they might have been]

 

150 departing Dolgarrog

 

After a little walk to the closed bridge, I returned to a nice bench on Dolgarrog station, and relaxed for the hour fester, before the 150 returned.  This time I remained on the 150 all the way to the end of the line at Blaenau Ffestiniog, the landscape changing massively after the long tunnel, as well as the weather as it started to rain.  This change in the weather meant I cut down my little walk around the village, but I still managed to get to a bridge to photograph the overgrown line towards the disused power station (which I would imagine saved this line from getting axed in the 60s & 80s).

 

A 150 at Blaenau Ffestiniog

 

I returned to the 150, sheltering from the rain waiting for departure time (as unlike other services, the 14:35 arrival sits at the station for 20-odd minutes allowing time for a little explore, other services tend to depart straight away).  I remained on this 150 all the way to Llandudno, picking up quite a few passengers along the way, but emptying out at Llandudno Junction, this time the train went into platform 1 at Llandudno which allowed me to tick off all 3 platforms at the station, as I set off on foot for another walk.

 

This time I headed away from Llandudno station, heading towards the Great Orme, passing the base station of the Great Orme tramway (a job for another day), and onto a footpath which gave wonderful views of the town & West Shore, before I came back down to sea level for a walk on a path alongside the West Shore beach, going onto the beach a couple times.  I think I made a wrong turning at some point as the path went sandy and at the bottom of a sandbank, but it gave good views of the water.  I continued heading along the path as it reached Deganwy.  [Another thing, when I was walking towards the tramway, I walked along a street with many B&Bs, all were showing "No vacancies" to show how popular this area is for Domestic Holidaymakers)]

 

Worth the climb

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I continued along the path, although this time it went between the Deganwy Marina & the railway line before the waterfront was regained, with the railway to one side and the River Conwy to the other side.  The railway was lost as the path went round the headland and over the Conwy Tunnel (for the North Wales Expressway), before reaching the main railway line, which was crossed via a footbridge as I continued walking alongside the River Conwy to reach the car park of the RSPB Conwy nature reserve, the end of my river walking.

 

175003 departs Deganwy Station

 

 

Onto the road, as I headed towards a nearby McDonalds for something to eat, and via Iceland for a bottle of drink, before reaching Llandudno Junction station, using a shortcut not shown on Google Maps.  An enjoyable little walk along the water, but it was time to put my mask back on and wait for a late running Shrewsbury service, formed of a 158 & a 153.  The 153 is one of those which have been refurnished inside (former GA unit) but hasn’t had the large toilet unit fitted (the original toilet remains in place, but locked out of use).

 

Llandudno Junction from road bridge

 

I sat in the 153 as it was quieter (in terms of passenger loadings) for the run towards Chester, where once more there was a good turnover of passengers as the train departed towards Wrexham rather full of race goers in various states of drunk.  I alighted from the train at Wrexham General to have another short walk, this time heading towards Wrexham Central for a photograph of the stations (which is currently only served by a handful of trains a day as most of the Bidston services turn round at Wrexham General).  After grabbing the photographs I returned to Wrexham General and relaxed for a 3 coach 175 to roll in from Chester.

 

This is a service which starts at Chester and sits at Wrexham for nearly 5 minutes, shame they couldn’t push back the departure from Chester to allow it an official connection with a train from Holyhead (rather than an unofficial & very tight +2).  The front couple coaches were busy with race goers but the rear coach was strangely lightly loaded as I took a seat and relaxed again, catching up with some internet browsing until I reached Shrewsbury for my final train of the day, a reasonably busy 158 from the Cambrian for the run to Birmingham New Street (it was quiet in the front coach on departure, rear coach looked to be busy as it was the closest to the buffers).

 

The 158 took me to Birmingham New Street with no real issues, other than being held up outside Wolverhampton for a late running XC Voyager to go in front.  At New Street it was a short walk from the platforms to reach the hotel where after a shower I relaxed for the remainder of the evening.

 

Wrexham Central "Station"

 

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Sunday – Stratford Greenway Walk

 

I started the day by trying out breakfast from the Tim Horton’s near New Street, before heading to Birmingham Snow Hill to board the first Stratford on Avon train, the one which runs non-stop to Stratford Parkway (and is quite good fun to speed along the Whitlock’s End line).  Today this was a 5 coach service, and I think I had the rear 3 coach unit pretty much all to myself for the run to Stratford Parkway, where I exited the train and started my walk by heading towards the canal.

 

I joined the canal and headed along the towpath, the service quality started off a bit rough before it went tarmac on the outskirts of the town, I carried on underneath the railway bridges (one in use, the other I assume used to be for the goods area).  My canal walk ended near the Premier Inn near the station, where I headed onto the road heading towards the station, joining a narrow footpath leading towards a mixed used path section on the old track bed which took me towards a roundabout and a busy road (which I believe got built on the old railway line).

 

Stratford Canal in Stratford Upon Avon

 

A short section of walking on a pavement before the walking route went away from the main-road to a residential street before re-joining the main-road near another roundabout, where the sign posted Stratford Greenway began, a mixed use path on the old track-bed towards Long Marston.  The path was busy in places (especially at the racecourse end) but soon it went a bit quiet with only the odd cyclist passing.  Some nice views along the way of the countryside and platform at an old station (Milcote I believe), certainly a nice little walk along a disused railway line.

 

Soon I had reached the end of the greenway at Long Marston, where there was some old tracks still within the road surface, but I was still a few miles away from my final destination of Honeybourne, and when I was looking at the map I marked out a route along various footpaths which would take me towards Honeybourne, so I headed along the road for a short section before locating the start of the footpath.

 

Old tracks in the road near Long Marston

 

Straight away the path wasn’t the best, slightly overgrown hedges and long grass, but it only got worse as I carried on.  I came across broken stiles, navigate hidden wooden planks across ditches, and trying to find the right direction as the path went across fields with no real evidence on the ground where the path actually went (OS Map open on my phone as I walked along to make sure I was heading in the right direction).  Eventually the first section was complete as I reached the village of Broad Marston, for a short break before carrying on.

 

The second section from Broad Marston started off better, for it was marked out and had stiles which weren’t broken; although the hedges were a bit overgrown in places as I reached the bottom of the railway embankment and some woods.  I continued along the path as it climbed a small hill before a downhill section as I reached the road on the outskirts of Honeybourne.  I went underneath both the Long Marston branch & mainline, ignoring a footpath on the left to carry on with the road (looked overgrown and I was getting hungry), before going via a housing estate to reach a Co-Op for some lunch.

 

After my shopping trip I headed towards the station, crossing over to the London bound platform to have my lunch on a nice bench, and resting my legs.  There was an idiotic youth who couldn’t be bothered crossing the railway via the footbridge and crossed it by jumping from the platforms onto the tracks (his girlfriend sounded like she wasn’t impressed), but soon a 9 coach 802 arrived from Hereford to take me towards Oxford, where I jumped off the train for another short walk.

800004 departs Honeybourne

 

 

Due to engineering works there was buses north of Oxford towards Leamington today, also from Andover towards Gillingham so I worked with the timetable to board the next XC service from Oxford to Basingstoke as it would make no difference to the timings.  I exited Oxford station and headed towards the Oxford Canal for a gentle walk north towards a place called Port Meadow.  I carried on with a footpath at the southern end to meet up with the River Thames to walk back towards the station.

 

Although I did mess up and come off the Thames Path earlier than I was meant to (original plan was to come off to go underneath the railway to come up near the site of the old swing bridge on the Sheepwash Channel, but instead I came up on the Roger Dudham Way road, behind the back of Oxford station (near the peak time exit), doing a short loop underneath the railway at the southern end of the station to re-enter, the end of a little loop.  Oxford is a place on my list to revisit again, for the history of the area.

 

Two Arriva operated TOCs side by Side at Oxford

Anyhow the voyagers were already on the platform, idling away as I headed towards a coach near the rear (as they were a lot quieter than the ones near the entrance), grabbing a table seat in a coach with 2 other passengers for the run towards Reading, reversing and heading towards Basingstoke.  At Basingstoke I hung around on the platform waiting for the 159 to arrive from London. The train arrived around 5 minutes ahead of schedule, and as expected it was very busy.  I ended up sitting on a fold down seat in one of the wheelchair areas for the run to Andover.

 

I exited the station at Andover and headed towards the replacement buses, but unusually there was only one bus (in previous times there had been 2 or more, with one running non-stop to Gillingham), a service bus from “South West Coaches” which departed pretty much full.  A bus with no legroom and the driver following the Sat Nav instructions on how to reach Grateley station, going via the A303 (I guess it is the fastest route due to a higher speed limit, but most bus drivers tend to go on the A343 out of Andover).  Nobody boarded the bus and 1 other passenger alighted with me in the empty car park, as I walked slowly home to relax the remainder of the evening, the end of another weekend trip away.

 

South West Coaches Replacement Bus