The furthest you've travelled for a day by train?

A few years back I did this: Canberra - Sydney - Coffs Harbour, Left Canberra at 6am and got to Coffs Harbour at about 10pm. Changed trains at Sydney onto the Australian XPT (HST) to Coffs Harbour (it was a direct train from Sydney to Brisbane I think, I aim to travel to Brisbane from Canberra by train in the future!)

Day return, can't think I've done further than Reading-Nottingham.

If we're doing one way, then London-Florence, London-Lisbon or Vienna-London, all overnight but under 24 h. Daytime only, Inverness to Reading or London to Hendaye.

Burton - Tamworth via Norttingham, Norwich, London, Salisbury and Exeter.

The most recent long journey I've done is Singer - Dalmeny and back (63 miles one-way, 126 miles in total) back in April. The purpose of the trip was to photograph the Forth Bridges.

By far the longest trip I've done in the past few years is Clydebank - Dumfries - Singer (94 miles one way, 95 miles on the return - a total of 189 miles). The reason this trip was made back in February 2013 was to pick up our new puppy, Alfie.

Anyone willing to try boarding the northbound highland sleeper at Preston one Friday, heading for Madrid via Edinburgh, KX, Paris and Barcelona? Praying the RER is working.

Must be around 1900 miles in one day.

In 1974 I managed a day out and back from Aberdeen to Kyle of Lochalsh. Only had about 30 minutes at Kyle for refereshments before catching the train back. However, I was cheating a bit as it was not possible to do return the trip by passenger in one day, offically!

I had intended staying over night at Kyle but as luck had it I managed a cab ride from Achnsheen to Kyle and when I explained the situation the driver allowed me to travel back with him and his secondman on the afternoon freight and so managed to get back to Inverness with plenty of time to catch the train for Aberdeen, where again, as luck had it, I knew the driver and he allowed me to travel with him in the DMU cab back to Aberdeen. A very memorable trip, plus I got some cine filming fom Inverness to Kyle in too. Here is the proof....

http://youtu.be/-xEXM6E_LAI

This year my longest out and back trips were between Didcot and Whaley Bridge and walking the old Cromford & High peak trail as far as Bunsell Incline and back again. A good 6-7 hours walk and 9-10 hours on the train. The next outing was Train to Whaley Bridge, bus to top of Bunsell incline (Goyt's Lane) and walk south over the track bed to Burbage, bus into Buxton and train back home.

The last trip was Train from Didcot o Macclesfield, bus to Ladmanlow (Buxton). Walk the C&HP track bed to south of Harpur Hill, bus into Buxton and train back home. All very long days out and back. Ejoyed every minute of them.

Bald Rick said:

Stockholm to Narvik. On one train. Strictly speaking in two days, but less than 24 hours.

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Oh sorry for off-topic question; was that on the sleeper or daytime train? I can't see any direct trains on the SJ site. Maybe I should ask you in pm.

Probably Didcot to Regensburg via Paddington, St Pancras, Brussels and Frankfurt.
Or possibly Barking to Carlisle (via the Settle and Carlisle line) and back to Barking (via WCML)

I have done Chester-Cardiff Central-Filton Abbey Wood-Weymouth-Brockenhurst-Lymington Pier-Brockenhurst-Southampton Central-Bristol Temple Mead-Birmingham NS-Chester-Capenhurst, the day before I did Chester-Birmingham New Street-Exeter SD-Lostwithiel-Exeter SD-Taunton-Paignton-Newton Abbot-Stafford-Crewe-Chester-Capenhurst. I have also done Capenhurst-Chester-Warrington-Glasgow Cen-full circuit of the clocky orange-Glasgow QS-Edinburgh-York-Liverpoo Lime-Capenhurst.

Last week I did Hooton-Liverpool Lime-York-Newcastle-Edinburgh via Carlisle-Carlisle-Crewe-Chester-Capenhurst.

in 1989 I did Chelmsford - Norwich - Peterborough - Leeds - Carlisle - Euston, walk to Euston Square Circle line to Liverpool St then train to Chelmsford.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
in 1996 I did Southport - Liverpool Central, walk to Lime Street then train to Paignton - Birmingham New Street- Paddington underground to Liverpool Street then train to Chelmsford.

This was done only fairly recently
http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=103153

From that, my longest was Dewsbury - York - Edinburgh - Glasgow (via AB line) - London Euston - Manchester Piccadilly - Dewsbury - a total of about 900 miles IIRC

Did Kings Cross to Aberdeen and back (plus the Underground from / to my local station) in 1992.

Full itinery was
Kings Cross to Edinburgh (0615 Kings Cross - Edinburgh)....90028 + mk4s.....393 miles 12 chains
Edinburgh to Kirkcaldy via Cowdenbeath (1115 Fife Circle).150262................36 miles 65 chains
Kirkcaldy to Aberdeen (1210 Edinburgh - Aberdeen)..........158715..............104 miles 44 chains
Aberdeen to Kings Cross (1455 Aberdeen - Kings Cross......43120 + 43108....523 miles 46 chains

Crossover said:

This was done only fairly recently
http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=103153

From that, my longest was Dewsbury - York - Edinburgh - Glasgow (via AB line) - London Euston - Manchester Piccadilly - Dewsbury - a total of about 900 miles IIRC

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That thread was about the maximum possible, this is what people have done.

So many different qualifiers for this thread! However let's choose just a few!

Maximum miles in a 24 hour period:

1,083 miles and 20 chains. Starting from Cardiff Central to Abergavenny, then HST to London via Evesham, over to Cardiff and back to Paddington, over to Swansea and back, then finishing with Paddington to Swansea via Bath Spa, Dr Days Curve, reversal at Bristol Parkway then to Cardiff, then Ninian Park before returning to the mainline to Swansea.

That started at 0400, finished at approximately 0217 the following day.

On an ALR in 2011, though, I managed even more than that, around 1,103 miles, but that was over a 27 hour or so period. No doubt there's higher figures than that in my 2011 or 2012 ALR records but none of them fit truely the 24 hour period.

Longest single journey in a day:

March 2007 (or at least so the general consensus is at this time, one day I'll find out for sure so I can fix the incredibly BIG gap in my RailMiles!):

Hereford > Newport > London Paddington > Circle line Paddington to Kings Cross St Pancras > London Kings Cross > Inverness

With delays caused by signalling problems at Darlington, which had a knock-on effect on the Highland Mainline, we were at least 36 minutes late arriving into Inverness. I have it stuck in my head we arrived at 2044 and were due at 2008. I can't honestly remember for sure what time I left Hereford somewhere between 0745 and 0845 is all I can remember at the moment (for some reasons the notes from my trip, one of the biggest of all time, are missing and have been for years) so let's call it 0844 leaving Hereford and a 12 hour trip. As I don't have it logged on RailMiles, I don't have exact figures but I'd estimate that to be a fair bit over 700 miles.

I would have used my travel back from Scotland to Hereford from last week (weighing in around 570 miles, not including all the leaps around London between arriving and leaving), but strictly speaking the journey didn't start in Edinburgh, it started in Dunblane, so doesn't count.

I'm also struggling to think of anything else where I was heading in one direction, with no doubling back or returning the same day. Definitely by rail only, that one's taking some beating.

Highest mileage day return trip:

After much finding, and no doubt there's better in my records but my recording of moves was poor for a long time, the best I can find currently is 406 miles and 23 chains on 18th October 2005. Swansea > Newport > London Paddington (I have no idea why I changed HSTs!), coming back on one HST Paddington to Swansea. The same day I have it logged as having 313117 from Clapham Junction to Willesden Junction (no logged journey of how I got to Clapham Junction!) then the Bakerloo line to Harrow and Wealdstone for 321419 back to Euston with Silverlink.

That'll have to do I'm afraid, I could be here for a long time otherwise!

The most I have done in a day is Stoke-on-Trent to Perth and then back to Crewe which was 631 miles I think.

dfurn said:

Oh sorry for off-topic question; was that on the sleeper or daytime train? I can't see any direct trains on the SJ site. Maybe I should ask you in pm.

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The answer is Yes!

Train left Stockholm early evening, compartment was converted from seats to couchettes en route around 2100, and back again the following morning. Arrived Narvik mid afternoon next day. Not sure if it still runs, it was run by Connex rather than SJ last time I was in Stockholm a decade ago.

I took it to mean midnight-midnight.

My Bristol Glasgow return via Padd and KGX was just that.

(Started on the up Night Riviera at 03XX and got back to TM at 22XX)

According to RAILMILES, the total comes out at

1122 miles 38 chains.

(Checking this in my haulage log made me realise that I had KGX-Waverley down as 390 instead of 393 as well....)

I've been inspired by this thread to start to plan a charity based challenge, to see what maximum miles can be travelled in the UK in a 24 hour period using scheduled trains BUT with no backtracking and no need to start and end in the same place

If you look back to page 2 of this thread EM2 did this in 2009 and clocked i believe 1343 miles!!!

My analysis , that i can currently see from the NRT says that you can do 1450 miles-ish in an (almost) exact 24 hours...here's how

Ashford International 05:15 - London St Pancras 05:53
London Euston 06:16 - Stockport 08:16
Stockport 08:28 - Sheffield 09:08
Sheffield 09:29 - London St Pancras 11:30
London Kings Cross 12:00 - Edinburgh Waverley 16:22
Edinburgh Waverley 16:30 - Glasgow Queen Street 17:22
Glasgow Central 17:40 - Birmingham New Street 21:50
Birmingham New Street 22:04 - Reading 23:45
Reading 00:37 - Plymouth 05:14!

This i realise does back track at stockport to edgeley junc, dore junction to sheffield station and potentially at reading throat...so this figure may come down to about 1440 miles. There's also a fighting chance the sleeper may arrive into Plymouth by 05:15...but the idea for charity would be to start a stopwatch from moving off from Ashford and then see where we are at 24 hours later.

My plan is to do this for charity next year (probably May/June)...so I'm after forum expert thoughts if you can see any longer miles combinations....there's a fair few that come in to 1200 or so miles...but i'm struggling to find a combination that breaks 1500 unique miles in 24 hours.

The above would involve some hairy connections...but with running i think doable!!

Any thoughts welcome

Is anyone willing to try something like this even though it takes 2 days?

Exeter St David's-London Paddington-London Kings Cross-Inverness-London Euston (Sleeper)-London Waterloo-Exeter St David's.

fishquinn said:

Is anyone willing to try something like this even though it takes 2 days?

Exeter St David's-London Paddington-London Kings Cross-Inverness-London Euston (Sleeper)-London Waterloo-Exeter St David's.

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Back in my youth certainly, these days not a chance.

fishquinn said:

Is anyone willing to try something like this even though it takes 2 days?

Exeter St David's-London Paddington-London Kings Cross-Inverness-London Euston (Sleeper)-London Waterloo-Exeter St David's.

Click to expand...

Back in June 2010 I did Land's End to John O'Groats and back via London by train ( with taxi for the extremities where the rails don't reach ) for charity in 49 hours 49 minutes...

Evotista - a very interesting idea; if you can knock it into shape with a view to doing it for charity I'll introduce you to one of my connections in the railway who helped plan my recent Sleeper Train Challenge. Suggest you don't publicise precise details too much in case you get a copycat pinching it from you first...

In the UK - Swansea to Edinburgh on an excursion - MK2D and a 47 (no heat from Swansea at 4 am ! - loco changed at Cardiff thank God) - and back - around £7 I recall.

I could probably do in theory:

Salisbury 5:12 to Waterloo 6:49
Euston 7:30 to Glasgow Central 12:01
Probably be able to get Glasgow Central to Queen Street in via Patrick.
Glasgow Queen 12:41 to Stonehaven 14:52
Stonehaven 15:09 to Kings Cross 22:18
Waterloo 23:40 to Salisbury 01:10

Regarding the 24hr unique mileage challenge as posed by EM2 and evotista:

I think the key is to maintain a decent average speed from midnight to 6am. Probably using the WCML sleeper is the best way to do this, even if it means no high speed WCML during the day.

2153 MAR - STP 2321 (91 mi 20 ch)
Walk to Euston
2350 EUS - EDB 0722 (400 mi 36 ch)
0730 EDB - KGX 1151 (393 mi 13 ch)
Jog to St. Pancras
1158 STP - DBY 1323 (128 mi 25 ch)
1328 DBY - TAU 1614 (176 mi 14 ch, - 14 ch backtracking to Derby London Road Jn)
1630 TAU - PAD 1821 (143 mi 48 ch, - 4 mi 55 ch backtracking to Cogload Jn)
Walk to Marylebone
1915 MYB - BMO 2103 (111 mi 56 ch)
Walk to Birmingham New Street
2115 BHM - STA 2152 (28 mi 15 ch, - 39 ch backtracking from Stafford Trent Valley Jn)

Total: 1467 mi 39 ch

Some tight connections there!

fishquinn said:

Is anyone willing to try something like this even though it takes 2 days?

Exeter St David's-London Paddington-London Kings Cross-Inverness-London Euston (Sleeper)-London Waterloo-Exeter St David's.

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Did Slough-Paddington-Euston-Glasgow Central-Glasgow Queen Street (Sleeper)-Inverness (Sleeper)-Kyle of Lochalsh-Inverness-Glasgow Queen Street-Glasgow Central (Sleeper)-Bristol (Sleeper)-Plymouth-St Erth-St Ives-St Erth-Reading-Burnham (Bucks). Started at 14:10 on a Friday after finishing early turn in Slough and arrived back in Burnham approx 56 hours later on the Sunday night. Back at work on day turn Monday. Done in 1979.

Bald Rick said:

Stockholm to Narvik. On one train. Strictly speaking in two days, but less than 24 hours.

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Always wanted to do that journey. One day

I did Hamburg to Hove a year ago

Left Hamburg 0650 changed at Cologne, then onto Brussels, Eurostar to London, tube to Victoria, train to Hove, then 1 stop to Aldrington and got home at 1830.

Quite a pleasant day really, the weather was nice and the view always interesting apart from the tunnel

Mine is Nottingham-Grantham-Edinburgh-Crewe-Nottingham c619 miles.
At Crewe I helped an elderly lady off with her luggage. She was en route from Wick to Derby and we had quite a chat, the late Queen Mother was her next door neighbour.....

DiscoStu said:

Always wanted to do that journey. One day

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To be honest, you get sick of pine trees very quickly. The highlight of the trip was the blonde manager of tourist info at Narvik. I don't suppose she's still there.