Doing it for Hee Haw – A trip to SPT land
I suspect only the Scottish readers might get the reference in the title, but anyhow in my quest to board & alight at every station in Great Britain, it comes to a visit to Glasgow to grab some odds & sods which I employed use of my legs over the past few years to walk between stations, a plan was made and I shall start at Glasgow Central, picking up my Daytripper scratch card ticket from the ticket office and heading to the low level platforms for a low mileage 318 to Airbles where I needed to alight. A short connection for a 320 & 318 combo to Newton, then a pair of 314s to Croftfoot, with a time wasting move back to Newton on a 318.
I remained on the same 318 for the trip back towards Kings Park to alight at Shawlands for a short wait for a 320 for the 30 chain leap back to Pollokshaws East, before returning clockwise to Maxwell Park to clear the “Cathcart” lines. A short walk through the park and along some posh looking houses to reach Dumbreck on the Paisley Canal line for a short wait for a 314 to Crookston before returning to Mosspark, a good thing I decided to change my plan as it was originally going to be a fast walk between these stations but I noticed a footbridge at Mosspark station was fenced off. Another 314 took me to the end of the line at Paisley Canal before returning me to Glasgow Central where I had a short time to grab some lunch from a nearby Boots.
Across to the “Gilmour” line platforms at Glasgow Central for some more 314 based noise (I for one will miss the PEPs when they get retired) to Hillington West which is pretty much a guaranteed 30 minute fester due to the half hourly services passing each other here, not a lot around the station so after a walk in the area I returned to the shelter to read my newspaper whilst awaiting a 380 on the next Gourock stopper. I did have a walk avoidance move built in, however that was based on the 380 keeping to time as it was a plus 3, so when the service departed Port Glasgow a couple minutes late (world’s largest pushchair being loaded), I bailed at Bogston and walked alongside the busy main road to Cartsdyke. A quick couple moves followed both involving 314s on tiny leaps with a stopper to Greenock Central followed by a fast to Greenock West, making a tight connection to a fast 314 back towards Paisley Gilmour Street (oh that was very good fun indeed).
314209 departs Hillington West
I needed a PNB so it was across to a service from Ayr to make use of the toilet, remaining on the same 380 for the long run to Ardrossan South Beach. A fast walk took me to Ardossan Town where I made a connection for another 380 for a time wasting move back towards Saltcoats, returning to Ardossan Harbour on the next service (getting lucky as it appeared the following couple services had been cancelled). A quick visit to Asda for someone cold before returning to the 380 for the run back towards Paisley Gilmour Street, crossing the platform for a linear leap to Port Glasgow on a low mileage 314, waiting a few minutes for another 314 to take me onto the single track branch line towards Wemyss Bay. However before I could reach the Bay I bailed at Drumforchar for a short wait for another service back to Whinhill before a rare sight of a 380 on the next Wemyss Bay service, which made use of the Dunrod loop for some microgricing. I noticed the old IBM business park has been flattened, so unless something is built in its place I suspect that station might get closed (or become limited served).
380101 arrives into Whinhill
After a quick visit to the magnificent station of Wemyss Bay it was back to Glasgow Central where I did have a highly hopeful connection to an East Kilbride service which was sadly missed due to this 380 arriving on top of a service from Ayr, but never mind it was onto my split plan of heading towards Alexandra Parade, so it was a short walk across the city to Queen Street, and due to the rebuilding the main entrance to the low level platforms is via platform 2 at Queen Street, and sitting on one of the platforms was the 20:00 to Edinburgh formed of a pair of 385s, which called at Croy...
...A slight delay to my plan it was for a spirited run to Croy (these things can accelerate although for the 10 minutes I was on board I can’t make any judgement calls). I made a tight connection to a 170 from the Stirling direction which was put into the Gartshore loop after Croy to allow a late running service from Aberdeen to pass. Back into Queen Street and it was time for some dinner before a 320 took me to Alexandra Parade for a short walk along the street back to Duke Street for my first 334 of the day to Partick where I said farewell to the national rail network to head underground. Annoyingly just missing a clockwise service which meant a 8 minute wait for a service to Kelvinbridge (used the station before as I stayed in a hotel in this area a couple years ago, but that was before I logged light rail), before a hop to St George’s Cross (required for alighting), and finally a leap to Cowdandens to walk to some student accommodation which gets used during the summer months as a cheap & cheerful youth hostel.
Former IBM buildings
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On the Sunday, after a good nights kip (hardly any outside noise), I walked up and down a steep hill to Charing Cross for a pair of 334s on a leap to Queen Street before walking across to Glasgow Central for a visit to Bellshill on a vocal 320, which due to engineering works went via Queens Park for the novelty of a daytime non-stop run and use of the Newton south connecting line. A short wait at Bellshill (as a 390 crawled past looking a bit lost) a pair of 320s returned me to Glasgow Central, this time going nonstop via Maxwell Park.
390151 passes Bellshill
A quick connection at Glasgow Central took me onto a pair of 156s to Busby for a final walk back towards Clarkston, and when the 156s returned from East Kilbride pretty much clears the Central Belt, other than Breich. So it was back to Glasgow Central for a walk across to Queen Street (for Euston was closed forcing a trip via the ECML, I decided to play it safe and board the 11:30 instead of the 12:00 service as this gave me 40 minutes in Edinburgh, and it was a pair of 365s which made things better.
156431 arrives into Clarkston Station
Around 50 minutes later I was in Edinburgh and faced a walk nearly to North Berwick to ID the front 43 of the 13:00 service, which was reasonably loaded until Peterborough where it got busy. A couple minutes late into Kings Cross, however I was sat next to someone who was in no hurry to finish watching her phone and an episode of Loveless Island. A hop to Oxford Circus found the Bakerloo had been closed due to someone going for a walk on the tracks at Marylebone, so to Victoria with a 377 to Clapham Junction to board the ex-18:15 Waterloo – Salisbury, a service which on a normal Sunday I would avoid due to it being very busy and mainly because it doesn’t call at Grateley, however thanks to the strike timetable it was calling there today, so I got home around an hour earlier than I was expecting.
Anyhow a productive weekend trip to Glasgow, I did everything I was hoping to do, with the bonus of my first couple 385s into my book