Left turn, or right turn?

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Saturday - I was in Carlisle.  See previous posts.  But for this week?   Left turn for England, or right turn for Scotland as I go into Carlisle Citadel.



I turned right ... headed up for Scotland on a 4 day out of 8 "Spirit of Scotland" ... currently in Wick.  A study of passenger flows and single track lines with passing places - some dynamic.  The distraction of beautiful scenery.  At the end of this week and over the weekend, I've 4 day of my day job in Motherwell and Coatbridge where I'll be relived of the distraction of the lovely countryside around me.  Return home around the end of the weekend.   Planning as I go.

[Red Squirrel]

While you're there, give my regards to Riverseafingal:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhVmMQtamTE

If you do go, see if any of the buses have trunnion-mounted wheels. I never trust a bus unless it has trunnion-mounted wheels...

[stuving]

Here's another crunch decision - inside the car park in front of gare de Lyon-Perrache, and too late to pick another exit if you really want to go somewhere a lot closer. What the signs don't say (but then French road signs don't) is that right is the A6, and left the A7. It's really the same autoroute, it just redenominates itself at this point. Picture taken in 1988!

[PhilWakely]

Saturday - I was in Carlisle.  See previous posts.  But for this week?   Left turn for England, or right turn for Scotland as I go into Carlisle Citadel.



I turned right ... headed up for Scotland on a 4 day out of 8 "Spirit of Scotland" ... currently in Wick.  A study of passenger flows and single track lines with passing places - some dynamic.  The distraction of beautiful scenery.  At the end of this week and over the weekend, I've 4 day of my day job in Motherwell and Coatbridge where I'll be relived of the distraction of the lovely countryside around me.  Return home around the end of the weekend.   Planning as I go.

I took advantage of a Spirit of Scotland rover last week, purely for leisure purposes - taking in all of the main lines north of the Glasgow-Edinburgh corridor (with the exception of Crianlarich to Oban) and was impressed by the level of use of all of the lines. My only disappointment was the mayhem on the line to Mallaig around Glenfinnan. The four coaches (pair of 156s) were already rammed, but when the TM^‡(resolve) announced "We will shortly be crossing the world famous Glenfinnan Viaduct, which you will see on the left hand side", it would not have surprised me if the unit toppled over as everybody piled over to the LHS^▸ (Locomotive Hauled Stock) with their iPads and cameras to get a view of the viaduct.

As for the Far North Line from Inverness to Wick/Thurso, I may only have limited opportunities to travel over it, but I'll never tire of the journey.

[grahame]

I took advantage of a Spirit of Scotland rover last week, purely for leisure purposes - taking in all of the main lines north of the Glasgow-Edinburgh corridor (with the exception of Crianlarich to Oban) and was impressed by the level of use of all of the lines. My only disappointment was the mayhem on the line to Mallaig around Glenfinnan. The four coaches (pair of 156s) were already rammed, but when the TM^‡(resolve) announced "We will shortly be crossing the world famous Glenfinnan Viaduct, which you will see on the left hand side", it would not have surprised me if the unit toppled over as everybody piled over to the LHS^▸ (Locomotive Hauled Stock) with their iPads and cameras to get a view of the viaduct.

As for the Far North Line from Inverness to Wick/Thurso, I may only have limited opportunities to travel over it, but I'll never tire of the journey.

I have just a couple of days to "kill" between last weekend in Carlisle and work up here (not quite as far up as I am) and have also taken a four day spirit.  Watching things like what's being done at the stations and how dynamic loops are working, keeping an eye out at both the tourist and local regular traffic (unscientifically) on the trains I'm using and listening to staff as to how things are going with Abellio.  Meeting some interesting people, seeing some remote spots.

[martyjon]

Lovely scenery in Scotland. Travelled to Fort William and Mallaig a few times, once we saw a Golden Eagle swoop down and make a kill. Did Crainlarich to Oban once with a ferry ride from Oban to Mull and across Mull to Ffinport (I think) and the one vehicle/foot ferry across to Iona, very tranquil. Inverness to Wick line Travels through so remote  countryside and from Georgemas Junction we boarded a coach to Scrabster for the ferry to Stromness where we had a one night stay in Kirkwall after an evening tour of part of the Orkneys followed by a further morning tour of the other half of the islands we didn't cover the previous evening. The Italian Chapel is a very lovely building, built by Italian POWs who were billetted on the islands during/after WW2 and is lovingly maintained by the locals to this day, the Churchill Barriers (causeways) are also a relic of WW2 which were built to connect island close to each other to prevent German U-boats sneaking through the islands as a way of avoiding detection on their way to/from the Atlantic and German ports. The only line I have not "bagged" is the stretch from Georgemas Junction to Thurso. With my nephew and his family now settled in their new Glasgow home they now have plenty of room to put up visiting family members so I may visit Scotland more frequently in the future.

[PhilWakely]

I took advantage of a Spirit of Scotland (8 in 15) rover last week, purely for leisure purposes - taking in all of the main lines north of the Glasgow-Edinburgh corridor (with the exception of Crianlarich to Oban) and was impressed by the level of use of all of the lines. My only disappointment was the mayhem on the line to Mallaig around Glenfinnan. The four coaches (pair of 156s) were already rammed, but when the TM^‡(resolve) announced "We will shortly be crossing the world famous Glenfinnan Viaduct, which you will see on the left hand side", it would not have surprised me if the unit toppled over as everybody piled over to the LHS^▸ (Locomotive Hauled Stock) with their iPads and cameras to get a view of the viaduct.

As for the Far North Line from Inverness to Wick/Thurso, I may only have limited opportunities to travel over it, but I'll never tire of the journey.

Just to expand on the details of my tour......
Day 0 - Caledonian Sleeper to Fort William;
Day 1 - Fort William to Mallaig;
           ferry to Armadale;
           bus to Portree. (both ferry and bus included in the Spirit of Scotland railrover.
Whilst bringing in much needed cash to the railway, sadly Harry Potter has ruined the Mallaig line for the casual tourist. Also, some very poor management decisions by Caledonian MacBayne with the Mallaig-Armadale ferry crossing has virtually killed tourism on the Sleat Peninsula of Skye. The combination of piers, weather and tides mean it's a particularly awkward crossing to run to a regular schedule. Some years back Calmac had a new ferry built that was designed specifically to cope with these unusual conditions. (MV Coruisk, built in Devon by the way!) Unfortunately, about 3 years ago, someone in a management position reassigned it to run out of Oban instead, and so the two ferries now used to make this crossing are utterly unable to keep to their scheduled sailings and cancellations occur regularly. Hence, tour operators who used the ferry, now use the bridge instead. To compound matters, because the ferries are so unreliable, the bus company regularly cuts services to Armadale ferry terminal.

I was extremely fortunate and got to Portree 'just two hours later than planned' as my planned ferry crossing had been cancelled. The last bus also failed to turn up, so I and the plenty of other bods waiting had to get taxis to Portree

Day 2: bus Portree to Kyle of Lochalsh;
           Kyle of Lochalsh to Wick via Dingwall.
Day 3: Wick to Inverurie via Inverness;
Day 4: Inverurie to Aberdeen (bustitution from Dyce to Aberdeen)
           Aberdeen to Edinburgh Waverley
           Waverley to Tweedbank
           Tweedbank to Dalmeny (yes, there is a through service!)
Day 5: completely rescheduled due to massive power outage affecting pretty much all of the signalling in Fife! Everything between 0700 and 1030 either cancelled or severely delayed, with one exception - the 'Posh Persons' Royal Scotsman train that ran exactly to schedule, overtaking several severely delayed commuter trains
          Dalmeny to Inverkeithing
          Inverkeithing to Haymarket
          Haymarket to Dundee via Perth
          Dundee to Inverness via Perth.
Day 6: Inverness to Kings Cross 1st Class on the last ever VTEC Highland Chieftain.

Barring the challenges on the first day, it was an excellent week, with wonderful scenery; excellent B&Bs; pleasant train crew (I even met a TM who had moved north after a number of years plying his trade between Exmouth and Paignton/Barnstaple!)
 

[eXPassenger]

... the Churchill Barriers (causeways) are also a relic of WW2 which were built to connect island close to each other to prevent German U-boats sneaking through the islands as a way of avoiding detection on their way to/from the Atlantic and German ports.

The Churchill Barriers were built to protect the naval base of Scapa Flow after U 47 penetrated the existing barriers and sank HMS Royal Oak.

[grahame]

Back - exhausted - Saturday night from a week in Scotland.   Visited Tweedbank, Kyle of Lochalsh, Wick and Thurso, and did 2 days of work in Coatbridge.  Then back to a RailFuture event on Saturday in Trowbridge before going home.

Really interesting to see how the rest of the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) (primarily Scotland) compares to the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) area - and I note many of the same problems.   Just written to a contact:

The Internet has brought information about delays and cancellations to the forefront where in the past such data would have only been known to those effected, and I wondered just how much the current nationwide issues compared to the lower volume of noise in the past are due to the information age.   

Then I travelled - staring Wednesday with appointments along the way - from Wick to Melksham, arriving back Saturday.   Schedule was 9 trains.  Only one was caught and ran as scheduled.  Four were cancelled; two were missed as a result of cancellations. Two turned in to bus journeys … twice we were turfed out of a train having joined it because of last minute issues.   Two lots of “ran bus significant delays”.  Just ONE train was caught on time as planned and ran more or less to time.

Looking back 10 days ...

22. 6 Melksham to Westbury
Westbury to Taunton
Taunton to Paddington
Paddington to Euston (205 bus)
Euston to Carlisle (circa 20 late)

24.6 Carlisle to Edinburgh
Edinburgh to Tweedbank
Tweedbank to Edinburgh
Edinburgh to Inverness

25.6 Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh
Kyle of Lochalsh to Dingwall
Dingwall to Wick

26.6 Wick to Georgemas (all trains on this trip circa 15 late due to congestion of line / Heritage and freight both running of far north)
Georegmas to Altnabraec
Altnabraec to Wick

27.6 Wick to Inverness (Bus due to cancelled train)
Inverness to Perth (set swap due to overheat driver's cab; then delay due to overheated engines)
Perth to Glasgow QS (train later than intended, and that delayed by congestion)

28.6 Glasgow Central to Motherwell
Motherwell to Coatbridge (lift in car)
Coatbridge Central to Glasgow Central (about 20 late)

29.6 Glasgow Queen Street to High Street (5 late)
High Street to Coatbridge Sunnyside (6 late)
Coatbridge to Glasgow (lift in car)
Glasgow to Carlisle

30.6 Carlisle to Worlverhampton (change of plans - London train cancelled)
Wolverhampton to Reading
Reading to Westbury (change of plans - Bristol train cancelled)
Westbury to Trowbridge (on a very delayed train)
Trowbridge to Melksham (bus; train cancelled)

No train journey yesterday - my planned train was cancelled and I aborted my trip.

In both the bus replacements, I was "on my own" - no advise from train operator to make the switch, nor any cross ticket acceptance in place.