Around Britain by Rail

[Bringback309s]

Set myself a challenge - travel around the edge of Britain, staying as near to the coast as possible. Not allowed to travel the same route more than once even in the opposite direction. No travelling at daft hours! It looks like this could be done with a hotel each evening. I live in Colchester but you could easily make your start / end anywhere en-route. The days here go from Monday to Sunday next week - extra changes are shown in the text. Thoughts?

 

[postye]

Set myself a challenge - travel around the edge of Britain, staying as near to the coast as possible. Not allowed to travel the same route more than once even in the opposite direction. No travelling at daft hours! It looks like this could be done with a hotel each evening. I live in Colchester but you could easily make your start / end anywhere en-route. The days here go from Monday to Sunday next week - extra changes are shown in the text. Thoughts?

Surely there is a double back between Partick and Dalmuir?
The 1431 from queen street runs via yoked as does the 1502(1504) Dalmuir-Motherwell

 

[AndrewR232]

Surely there is a double back between Partick and Dalmuir?
The 1431 from queen street runs via yoked as does the 1502(1504) Dalmuir-Motherwell

I agree. Both run through Partick and Hyndland in any case.

 

[postye]

Although if you really wanted to do Dalmuir you could do
1426 Queen st-Anniesland 1445
1454 Anniesland-Dalmuir (via Westerton) 1506
1532 Dalmuir-Glasgow central 1555

 

[higthomas]

Looks good, although I feel slightly upset that you're not doing the absolute closest route to the coast (e.g. Glasgow to Kilmarnock direct rather than via Troon and as far as I can tell not going via the Vale of Glamorgan line (Not to mention technicalities)) But I do understand time and inclanation can put pay to such things. Also you have a fairly large double back between Hatfield & Stainforth and Doncaster.

But overall cool idea!

 

[Bringback309s]

Thanks for the replies guys, I loosely based it on national maps. I'm going to fine tune it as people spot discrepancies - cheers!

Then I may actually purchase a rail rover and do it!

 

[D841 Roebuck]

This is something I've thought of trying myself.

I worked out a provisional route a couple of years ago. It was a bit more convoluted than the original post, used buses to fill such gaps as Dumfries to Stranraer, Largs to Wemyss Bay, Cleethorpes to Skegness and Kings Lynn to Sheringham amongst others. Also, from memory, the following ferries were also used: Fleetwood to Knott End (for a bus to Lancaster); North Shields to South Shields; Felixstowe to Harwich; Tilbury to Gravesend; Portsmouth to Ryde; Freshwater to Lymington; Exmouth to Starcross; StMawes to Falmouth; Birkenhead to Liverpool.

Various heritage railways were also included, from Grosmont to Pickering, Hythe to New Romney, the Isle of Widget, Minehead to Taunton and Porthmadog to Caernarfon. Start and finish point was Blackpool Tower, so the trip started and finished on trams.

As I recall, it took about four weeks (or five, if the nuclear option of using post buses from Garve to Thurso via Ullapool was selected.

It's on my to do list, but in small chunks!

 

[37038]

Is the blindingly obvious option that's being missed here not the famous Skye move?

Round via Aberdeen to Inverness and across to Kyle, bus to Portree/Armadale for ferry to Mallaig then back down the WHL. Could quite easily push the boundaries of this with ferry routes!

One rather mad suggestion would be using CalMac for...
Wemyss Bay-Rothesay
(Bus>Rhubodach)
Rhubodach-Colintraive
(Bus>Portavadie)
Portavadie-Tarbert
(Bus>Claonaig)
Claonaig-Lochranza
(Bus>Brodick)
Brodick-Ardrossan

World's most convoluted route between Wemyss and Ardrossan and probably not doable in a day but certainly keep you closer to the coast

 

[Bletchleyite]

You can get closer to the coast than Ormskirk. Preston-Burscough Jn-walk-Burscough Br-Southport-Liverpool would be better

 

[Techniquest]

You've also got a double back going up from Hull to Scarborough then Scarborough to wherever (I view the forum on my mobile) as you do Seamer to Scarborough then cover it again going back out!