Felix's Unstructured Trips

Esker-pades · 1 Nov 2018

I thought (as have a couple of others) that it would be nice to stick my trip reports that I already write for my blog up here for people to read.

I'm currently in the middle of a "mission" to visit all the stations in the UK with ORR figures of <1000 passengers per year. I also visit a lot of other small stations that I think are of interest, as well as some other trips that I feel are worthy of a report.

This thread will contain all the reports that I write for my blog. They may be slightly abridged and they can't contain all the pictures that I take and upload for the blog post.

A link to the blog is available in my signature.

RailUK Forums

Esker-pades · 1 Nov 2018

Trip #1: Breich (The Project has Begun) - Visited on the 16th of September 2017
Original Post: https://felixunstructured.weebly.com/lusblog/breich-the-project-has-begun

Introduction
The Shotts line is one of the many routes from Edinburgh to Glasgow. It is not the fastest, and certainly is not the most popular. However, it does link various semi-important places in the Lothian and Strathclyde areas such as Calder, Livingstone and Shotts. Such a commuter line is not where one would expect to find stations with so few passengers as Breich does. Most people don't even know it exists. A glance at a map says nothing about its current status. The many commuters of the line don't view it as anything special either. Because of the differences in station usage between the stations (example: Carfin and West Calder), trains often run through lesser-used stations meaning that most commuters pay little attention as their train trundles past another little platform. Or they assume it is disused. The only things that alert one to the lack of train service is the banner on the station information page on national rail enquires and the timetable.

The Facts
Breich station opened in 1869. It currently lies near a fairly major crossroads and about half a mile from the little village of Breich (itself named after Breich Water, which is nearby). It has always been comparatively small to most of the rest of the stations on the Shotts Line, but has remained open for all of nearly 150 years. During First ScotRail's ownership, Breich had about 6 trains a day (none on Sundays), 3 in each direction. This was cut to 3 (2 to Glasgow, 1 to Edinburgh) and then to the current level of 2 (1 in each direction). They operate Monday to Saturday, with no Sunday service. The usage has remained very low (around 100 since 2010). The current level is the lowest it has been recently, at only 48 (April 2016-2017). The highest recorded was the 2015/16 period (138).
Network Rail propose to close the station. This is not because of the low numbers (or not purely because of the low numbers), but mainly because the cost to improve the station along with the rest of the Shotts line to prepare for electrification is too high. The footbridge that links the Edinburgh platform to the Glasgow platform and the rest of the world would have to be replaced, the cost of which does not justify the low usage. Hence, closure.
However, it was decided a couple of months after the visit that Breich would not shut and instead Network Rail would work with the surrounding community to increase the service and passenger numbers.

Getting to Breich Station
It requires planning. Because of the way the trains are spaced out, it is very unlikely that one would want to buy a return ticket and wait for the 2nd train of the day. This is because the departures are at 08:04 (Glasgow Central to Edinburgh Waverley) and 18:38 (Edinburgh Waverley to Glasgow Central). Over 10 hours of waiting is tedious. Therefore, other transport or walking is required. There is an hourly bus that runs through Breich, linking the actual village (about a 10 minute walk back down the track along an A road). This saves the walk (only 2 miles, but it is along an A road) to nearby Addiewell. Plus, Addiewell is one of those stations that only gets half the services stopping at it. The bus moves on to West Calder. I chose the only departure of the day from Edinburgh Waverley which is at 17:58 on a Saturday, arriving at Breich at 18:38.
Buying the tickets requires a person. The ticket machines won't sell return tickets because it is impossible to do that. However, returning from West Calder (which is between Breich and Edinburgh) is an acceptable use of the ticket. “You know, you won't be able to get back from there tonight” explained the ticket office man. I doubt they sell many tickets to Breich. It's possibly some form of novelty when they do. “Yeah, I got one of those mad rail enthusiasts going to Breich. What? Yeah, I know. What a dick.” I can do ticket office banter.
I armed myself with a pasty (because it's a train for goodness sake) and moped around on platform 9W until 156504 crawled in. Doing these unusual train journeys always excites me as to what the conductor will say. The more conversational will make a comment about you actually doing that mad thing that most people don't, while the rest will just check off the ticket as their job entails. Having asked if Breich was a request stop (which it isn't – although one late night train (at about 21:15) did stop at Breich on request before the new 2 trains a day minimal timetable came in), I went back to blocking out beer and shouting. (Edinburgh to Glasgow service on a Saturday evening? What does one expect?)
However, what Breich station does mean is that the conductor only opens one set of doors. This time she chose the very back set, because she can retreat into the unused cab at the back of the train, away from the general public. It's what I would do. Having made my way to the back over people's bicycles, legs and rubbish, it was explained “there's a big step onto the platform so watch yourself”. For step, read jump. This is the gap that met me (picture below). Having got off (safely), I waived my thanks to the retreating conductor, watched my train depart (into the sun, which was annoying given the picture taking requirement) and then surveyed the station around me.

Breich Station
It is wonderful. The quaint gravel platforms, the old wooden footbridge and waiting shelters, the invasion of plants onto the platform. The solitude is perfect. As I walked away for the first time up a little path (to the left of the picture above), I had to go back. I spent 30 minutes wandering the platforms, talking to myself about how brilliant it was and exploring parts of the station that probably haven't seen feet in years. I mean, with a maximum of 4 coach trains stopping and the low usage, nobody will have stood at the end in a long time. Except nutters like me. It bears all the hallmarks of a station left on its own. One can see the creeping vegetation for yourself. Both the Edinburgh ends of the platforms are pretty inaccessible without straying quite close to the edge. (Don't do it with passing trains type thing.)
However, like with all places it seems, the modern ways creep in. It appears ScotRail could not allow me 30 minutes without another “See it. Say it. Sorted.” BTP announcement over the tannoy. And, let me tell you, I have not jumped so much at an automated announcement before. My main thought was that someone was looking at the CCTV (which existed according to a sign but I didn't see at all) and was about to tell me to get of Network Rail property. It wasn't. It was the same over-played, over-loud commuter tat that is bleated out of every speaker on every railway station at least 5000 times a day. The other thing that exists is a SmartCard reader. So adorable. A station with only 138 people and yet ScotRail needed to put in a SmartCard reader. I'd love to know how many people actually use that thing.

All too soon, it was time for me to leave the wonderful atmosphere of Breich behind for the tedious walk to Breich proper. The bus was late, as befits Worst-I mean-First Group and then proceeded to take me on a guided tour of all the backstreets of Addiewell on its way down a straight A-road to West Calder. There I enjoyed a nice station building before another 156 came to take me back to Edinburgh.

Notes
As Breich was under the threat of closure, there was more urgency to do it than the other stations. In this project to try to visit all these tiny stations, it is probably not the most interesting, but the atmosphere and feeling one gets where there, as well as being the only person around, was wonderful and very therapeutic. It is a typical poorly used, poorly located station that are scattered across the country, and has the character that only this kind of station can have.
I also artificially inflated the figures for Breich for the next year as I brought a return. I only got one train there. I'm not waiting 37 and a half hours for the Monday morning service.

Esker-pades · 1 Nov 2018

Trip #2: Chathill (Not Really Poorly Used but Interesting) - Visited 24th of November 2017
Original Post: https://felixunstructured.weebly.com/lusblog/chathill-not-really-poorly-used-but-interesting

Introduction
The East Coast Main Line (ECML) is one of the busiest and most congested lines in the UK. It links major settlements (London, York, Newcastle, Edinburgh) and provides a lot of suburban traffic also. It is mostly double or quadruple track, has serious capacity problems and is one of the most famous and well-used lines in the UK. Therefore, it is not the location one would expect for a disused station or one with a limited service. Oh, but it is. Once one gets north of Newcastle, the line between there and Edinburgh passes through the rural wonders of Northumberland and the Scottish borders. Chathill railway station sits on the ECML. It is not one of the intercity stations (only local services stop there). Chathill itself is very small (only a dozen or so houses) but it is also designed to serve Seahouses and is the closest station to Lindesfarne (Berwick is about the same distance but north).

The Facts

The map gives something away that it is slightly odd. It looks rather as if Chathill is on a branch line away from the ECML as it is the terminus of Northern's services on the line and no other service stops there. However, Chathill does reside on the main line. And it only gets trains southbound as the map suggests. Which is odd as the line continues north to Berwick and Edinburgh. This means if one wants to actually get there from the north (as I had to do), one has to double back at Alnmouth.
Apart from this, there seems nothing odd from the map. Even the National Rail page does not allude to the service level. There is no banner referring to the 2 trains a day that serve here. Historically, it was one of the better served “local” stations on this part of the East Coast Main Line. Trains would run semi-fast from Newcastle to Berwick, calling at the now closed stations of Belford and Beal (for Holy Island). Since 1965, this changed. Trains now terminated at Chathill and were gradually reduced from 4 a day down to the current level of 2.

As said before, coming from north of Chathill requires doubling back at Alnmouth (or Morpeth or Newcastle depending on where the InterCity services stop). This makes the sign above ironic and wrong. The trains are 1 in the morning and 1 in the evening. They arrive, move to a loop north of the station, wait, and then return. Trains depart at 07:08 and 19:10 and vary slightly on Saturdays. They run to Newcastle (some run onwards to Hexham). There is no Sunday service. The reversal time is about 30 minutes each time, which makes arriving and departing by train not only possible but desirable. In fact, there isn't really any other transportation option. Buses don't really exist and taxis are expensive. And they have to be booked.
I decided to do the Friday evening service to/from the station. Having spent an hour on an IC225 set to Alnmouth, I got off and tried to warm up in the waiting room. It was shut. Being glad of thermals, I sat in a shelter before my train to Chathill arrived. Late. Passengers flowed out of the semi-crowded Pacer at Alnmouth, leaving one solitary person inside. And me. We sat alone in silence for the duration of the 12 minute trundle to Chathill, only being interrupted once when I jumped at the sudden movement of the train due to an InterCity service passing and causing significant turbulence. Pacers are awful. Having got off, the other passenger left through a gate and went home (I assume).

Chathill Station
The station smells of manure. Otherwise, it is fabulous. It has a wonderful and restored station building (which is a private property), a large number of flowers and a waiting room with all sorts of memorabilia. There is also evidence of the station's higher service level in the past. The current platforms can really only take 3 or 4 coaches, but beyond some fencing, the platforms continue.

In order to gain access to the platforms, one must go through gates, such as those which are between fields on country walks. The yellow line is very far up the platform, leaving very little space at points between that and the station buildings. As I waited for the train to return from its pause in the loop, a fast service passed. The line speed through the station is 110mph, and following the hit of wind after the train has passed and the associate turbulence, I can see why the line is so far back.
Soon after that service, my train returned and I boarded.
I could tell I was being a pain, because the doors remained unlocked for 5 seconds. The warning noise was sounding before I had fully got on. And I got a lovely cock-sucking gesture as I filmed the departure from Alnmouth. The amount that train shakes, I dread to think what the driver and conductor actually got up to in their respective cabs. I was the only person who used the service from Chathill. Quite a few got on at Alnmouth, where I got off. I had another 40 or so minutes to wait for my train back, and a slightly drunk woman to tell what train she had to get. “Does this train stop at Berwick?” Clearly not.

Notes
Chathill is actually pretty well used for its level of service: it gets around 2500 users per year. This is pretty good for a station that effectively only gets a token service (not full parliamentary which is one train per week in one direction only). And, the fact it is on a mainline, means one gets the atmosphere of a disused and spooky little place (especially in the dark) as well as having the excitement of trains passing through at considerable speed. These are my favourite parts of the railways.
It must be noted that Chathill is not the least used station on the Northern local services north of Newcastle. Acklington (between Morpeth and Alnmouth) gets fewer than 300 people a year. Pegswood gets just over 1000. But those stations will be covered at another point.
There is a campaign to re-open some of the stations between here and Berwick-upon-Tweed and provide a more frequent service to some of the stations between Newcastle and Berwick. This would include Chathill. However, these are still plans and there is nothing certain. Currently, Chathill looks to remain much as it is now: a wonderful but remote little place with some oddities that make it all the more interesting for railway enthusiasts. It is not the least used station, or even close, but it has all the characteristics of one and has some wonderful quirks which I have tried my best to outline. Maybe I should visit it when it isn't winter and my hands aren't so numb. I may even get some photos that I can publish without being embarrassed.

Esker-pades · 1 Nov 2018

Trip #3: Barry Links and Golf Street (Carnoustie - An Unlikely Location for Two of Them) - Visited 2nd of December 2017
Original Post: https://felixunstructured.weebly.com/lusblog/carnoustie-unlikely-location-for-2-of-them

Introduction
Carnoustie is a town of about 12000 people about 11 miles north of Dundee. It is served by three railway stations: Barry Links, Golf Street and Carnoustie. So why does it feature for this least-used stations blog? Both Barry Links and Golf Street, despite being near settlements and being at either end of the famous Carnoustie Golf Links, they both have annual usages in the 2 or 3 figures (Barry Links is the least-used station in the April 2016-April 2017 statistics with only 24, while Golf Street is slightly higher at 102). When I booked the tickets for this trip, the 2015-2016 statistics were the most recent available, where Barry Links was the least used station in Scotland, but Shippea Hill was still in its position of 12 per year. It now has 156 because nutters like me visit. I'm waiting until the April 2017-2018 period strikes so that the fame has worn off and the vanity project that is All the Stations' usage has been flushed through.
So, to the map: All the stations between Dundee and Carnoustie look like normal, local stops. The intercity services pass through, as does the sleeper. The map is not geographically accurate (no ****), but other than that, nothing is amiss. No mention that 3 of the 5 stations only have 1 train per day in each direction (the 3rd is Balmossie, which I will cover at another point). To visit these 2 wonders, I had to cheat very slightly. I bought a single from Edinburgh to Barry Links, and one from Golf Street to Edinburgh. But, because of the way the trains work, I couldn't use my Golf Street to Edinburgh ticket from Golf Street. I took advantage of the easement by boarding at Carnoustie proper. (There is no difference in price so I didn't defraud ScotRail out of anything.) Remember the rules: The ticket has to be bought to/from the station, the ticket has to be used for travel and I have to actually visit the station. I'm being a true politician by operating by the letter (not quite the spirit) of the rules. I will be re-visiting Golf Street by train when I do Balmossie at another time.

Getting to Barry Links
Having suffered the long and crowded run in a 3 car 170 (I can really see why ScotRail want longer and faster trains on the Aberdeen and Inverness services) up to Dundee, I waited for the local service to arrive. The two positives of that journey was that I got a seat and the guard noticed my unusual ticket: “Did you read the papers yesterday?” he enquired with a chuckle.
“I did, yeah. But I booked this weeks ago.”
“You should get a badge or something.”
The young lady who sat between me and the guard (I was by the window) was suitably baffled. She got off at Leuchars.
Having boarded the local service from Dundee up to Carnoustie (calling at all stations), I listened as the guard requested everyone to alight from the front coach only at Balmossie, Monifieth, Barry Links and Golf Street. Proper least used station stuff. At Balmossie, a father and daughter got on, who proceeded to get excited about going to Barry Links. “How many people used Barry last year?”
“24.”
“Yeah, and most of them were us!”
Gits. They (and some other random rail enthusiast) were the 4 people to get off at Barry Links, thereby displaying the pull of the least-used station status. In 1 day Barry Links saw one sixth of its annual patronage.

Barry Links
Barry Links is the least special of the stations I have done so far. The family buggered off in one direction, while the random rail enthusiast and myself walked around and took photos. There is a reasonable volume of rail traffic on the main line to Aberdeen. The level crossing was going up and down frequently.

I was enjoying filming the trains while the other person was impatient (there was a long lag between barriers closing and train passing) and thereby missing the filming opportunities. He then walked off towards Carnoustie leaving me. I walked around alone, admiring the 2nd failure of signage in as many trips (this time advertising trains north to Arbroath even though services terminate at Carnoustie. Despite being the least-used station, it still has the lovely SmartCard reader.
Having spent about 20-25 minutes, I decided I'd better walk to Golf Street. I took a slight detour to spot the MoD road to a rifle range near the station. I didn't actually walk down the road, because a very imposing sign told me politely but in no uncertain terms to sod off or get shot.

Golf Street
This station is about a mile down a path alongside the Golf Links from Barry. It is quite a nice walk in the dark. The imposing features of the trees, bunkers, and the unexpected stream lead to a pleasant stroll. It was right by the line, leading to some wonderful filming points if there had actually been some light. Next time, I will do this in high summer.
Getting to Golf Street, I fell instantly in love with the station. It is utterly wonderful. The panels of the platform move bend slightly when one steps on them, the elevation from the road is wonderful, and that provides some great opportunity for filming (again, light and camera permitting).

Golf Street is also the location of the spookiest thing that has even happened to me at a railway station. As I was wandering around taking pictures, all the station lighting was turned off. The orange-bathed platforms became dark, with the only source of light being the street lights. But this was way too dark for my camera to pick up, as you can see in the before and after pictures (below). This made filming firstly a class 43 HST (London to Aberdeen) and then a class 66 (southbound) very difficult. But the atmosphere was incredible. It was the best feeling. I also felt as if I owned the place. Golf Street is “my station”. My favourite place.

The shelter is placed in the worst possible position: on the Carnoustie-bound platform. Yeah. For all those people who will wait for the 1 train per day to take them half a mile up the line to a bit south of the town centre. And for £1.20. I doubt the conductor would even ask for a fare. It takes all of 1 minute. Although the timetable allows 4. 4?! For half a mile? That's timetable padding at its worst. In reality, virtually every timetable allows an extra few minutes at the arrival station so the TOC can say it arrived on time. On top of the 5 minutes of leeway already allowed. Gits.

Observations & Notes
These two stations show that under use can occur anywhere. Even Chathill, which is located virtually in the middle of nowhere has hundreds of times the usage of these two stations, for the same level of service. But, it is no doubt that their patronage could be increased if more trains stopped. A 6am service southbound followed by a 7pm return is not great, even for peak hour travellers. Who wants to get into work for 6:30?! So people all use Carnoustie. Which has a usage of just over 110 thousand people per year. Which, when combined with Golf Street and Barry Links, produces an overall usage rate of the entire Carnoustie area of just over 110 thousand people per year. I mean, the 2 stations are at either end of Carnoustie Golf Links for goodness sake. Surely they would be well used if ScotRail introduced a shuttle service between the 2 to transport the rich lard-tubs from one hole to the next, so, God forbid, they had to walk anywhere.

Even with Golf Street's proximity to the Golf Links' main buildings, the signs at the hotel point people to Carnoustie (main) railway station, not the much closer Golf Street. This is the painful thing: the stations are useful and could be so much better used, but they are strangled by a painfully low service. And until their figures rise, the Department for Transport (DafT) and ScotRail see no point in increasing the service. And the figures won't rise until the service increases. In the May 2018 timetable recast, there are plans for a new Dundee to Arbroath local service, which will increase the service level and Broughty Ferry and Monifieth. But what about Golf Street and Barry Links? Will they get the hourly service too, or will they be left with the current, pathetic deal?
Note the referral on the map to Golf Street Halt. It's quite an apt description of the piddling little structure. Adorable nonetheless.

I finished at Carnoustie, enjoying the existance of such wonders as a big waiting shelter, ticket machines and the obligatory blue train plant box that seems to adorn every Scottish station except those in the borders region, Golf Street and Barry Links. Heck, even some minor hamlet in the Highlands with a population roughly equivalent to the usage of Golf Street has that thing sitting on a platform (I've not checked them all so don't quote me on that).
I predict that Golf Street will become the lesser used than Barry Links next year. Many, many enthusiasts and other weirdos like me will buy tickets to the station, slightly fewer of them will come, but I bet very few will discover Golf Street or make an effect on the figures for the station. It is unlikely people would do both stations in a day (unless one does the 6am-7pm wait somewhere) and even if they do visit the station, will there be a ticket sale? I doubt it. They will all hop off at Barry Links, leaving Golf Street untouched for me to own. My beautiful, deserted Golf Street.

Esker-pades · 1 Nov 2018

Trip #4: Braystones and Nethertown (The Cumbrian Coast Line: Scenic and Secluded) - Visited 14th of January 2018
Original Post: https://felixunstructured.weebly.com/lusblog/the-cumbrian-coast-line-scenic-and-secluded

Introduction
The Cumbrian Coast Line is one of the great scenic railway lines that the UK has to offer. It often hugs round a cliff or other coastal feature as it skirts the Lake District from Carlisle to Lancaster. It is one of those rural lines where one would expect to have some piddling little stations that lie near, but not really in, a tiny village. And, that is what happens. While most stations have at least a few thousand passengers per year, Nethertown and Braystones both tend to stay below the 1000 mark, the former's usage halving to 412 last year. Braystones is very near the cut off point at 956. Both stations get 4 trains per day in each direction (Monday to Saturday) with an extra one northbound on Saturday. What is most convenient is that they are only 2 miles apart, which is good for walking. It means I don't have to do constant shuttling, and I don't inflate the statistics too much. Braystones to Nethertown would be the most pointless and annoying journey to make. For a start, they are both request stops, so you'd have to hail the train, get on, tell the guard that you were going to get off in 3 minutes, and then get off, with the driver wondering exactly what the point of doing that was.
The Cumbrian Coast line is one of very few lines to host national rail loco-hauled stock. Northern hire class 37s and MK2s from DRS for the 2 diagrams per day (except Sunday) that use this rolling stock. However, none of the 37 diagrammed services stop at Braystones or Nethertown. This is disappointing. But, I found a lucky loophole...

To Braystones
These stations are fairly well served for their patronage, so the problem isn't trying to use another form of public transport or a better served nearby station to get back home one you've been dumped in the middle of nowhere by a little diesel multiple unit. The problem is working around the irregular gaps in service. On Saturdays, there are 5 trains northbound, 3 of which call in the space of just under 2 hours (14:53, 15:56 and 16:36). The southbound ones do a similar thing. There are 4, 3 of which call in the space of just over 2 hours (16:47, 17:59 and 19:03). This leaves only one possible southbound service with a northbound connection to get me back home (I come in from Scotland). Monday to Friday is pretty similar, but the only possible northbound service leaves after 7pm, which meets one of the last Carlisle – Scotland express services. (There is an option to reverse at Sellafield, but ticket easements don't appear to exist for this route.)
After the eliminations, I am left with one option: an arrival just after 11am, and departure just before 3pm. Nearly 4 hours to explore 2 stations and walk between the two. Sounds reasonable.
Now, the lucky loophole: Having arrived in Carlisle just after 8am from Scotland, I noticed that there was an extra service between my arrival and the service to Braystones, at 09:38. This was the 08:42 (delayed by 30 minutes on the day), operated by one of the 37s. Railway sexiness. I changed trains at St Bees, which is not something that happens very often, and then picked up the “normal” diesel multiple unit to travel the 8 minutes to Braystones. I probably looked like a complete moron, as I expected to be shown off by the guard, but the doors work on a general release, but only the very front set at the ramp. Otherwise, it is a jump down to the platforms. I communicated with various hand signals, waving to the guard to show I'd worked out how to use trains, and then to the driver, because he was 1 foot away and peering out of his cab. It would be rude not to.

Braystones Station
Located by a level crossing, below a caravan park and above some beach houses, Braystones has a rather cramped feel, given that there is else except sea, cliffs and beach around. I arrived only 10 minutes before a northbound service was due, and so there were people too. Well, a father and son trying not to get blown away in a shelter. Once they had departed, I explored the station properly. There is an ugly ramp in the middle of it, with little wooden steps, which helps physically disabled people board trains. This is fair enough. I just wish there had been a better way that could have preserved the grassy, un-kept platform. (I'd rather have disabled people able to use a station than it look nice.) The building, that I assume to have been previously a station building, is now a private residence, complete with people. This makes Braystones, while remoted, very cramped. Although, it is a marvellous place to visit. And, unlike any of the other stations I have visited, there is no technology there at all (except for the stuff I brought along with me). All the other stations I have visited have had either a smartcard reader (for all 24 people a year who use Barry Links) or a departure board (for all those services that depart Chathill northbound). Braystones has nothing. Even Nethertown, which has half the patronage, had a telephone. Yes people, this still counts as technology. I'm glad of the lack of technology. Many other stations on the Cumbrian Coast Line have an LED board displaying the next trains from the station. This would look mad in a windswept, barren location such as Braystones. Also, it would break within the first week of service when a large wave smashes up the rocks and gets sea-water in the electrics, which has never been the best combination. Rather like fire and Nottingham Station.

The Walk to Nethertown
There are 2 options: The beach or the road. I chose the beach. (Warning about not using the beach if the conditions don't allow it or the tide is too high. People have common sense, and those that don't are the victims of natural selection. Don't be an idiot.) The best thing about the walk, is the cutting that the railway carves around Nethertown head, and the bridge that passes over it. This is probably one of the best locations to film/photograph Cumbrian Coast Line traffic.
Continuing along, I passed horses and the “village centre”, which is probably the most charming little square, complete with red telephone box, bench and bus stop. Idyllic little English village. The station itself is a 10 minute walk from the village itself, off a road, along a path, over the crest of a small hill, and then down to the station.

Nethertown Station
I had spent 1 hour from arriving at Braystones to arriving at Nethertown, giving me nearly 3 hours at Nethertown. And, boy it was fabulous. Firstly, there is nothing in sight of the station except nature. And about 3 houses. The only access from the south side of the station involves walking alongside the track, without any protection from the running line except a couple of metres of gravel (flat, not in a pile).
Then, there is the station itself. As it used to be a passing loop, there are two platforms, only 1 of which is in use since the loop was lifted about 30 years ago. This platform is on the sea-side of the running line, which means one has to cross from the non-operational platform to the operational in order to board by means of a crossing. This is rather fun. The only slight annoyance is, like Braystones, the ugly ramp in the middle of the platform. But, it has a purpose, so it doesn't really matter. The newly installed shelter (which is already falling apart) was a welcome retreat from the elements in between filming passing trains and taking pictures. One of the best things is the pay-phone, located behind the ramp so nobody uses it. And it looks like it hasn't been used for a decade or more. Firstly, it has First NorthWestern branding, a company that last operated in 2004. Secondly, it is rusty, has peeling paint, and looks more like an artefact than a working phone. Still, useful for an area with patchy reception. Such a brilliant station.

For the 3 hours I was there, I saw 5 people. 4 were in pairs, and 1 was a fellow rail enthusiast, who I assume was local to the area. He turned up in shorts. SHORTS?! It was 5°C with a cold, sea wind. He looked cold. Very cold. This juxtaposed to me in my thermals, multiple layers, big coat, hat and gloves. After we filmed a 156 trundling along, he left, to film the next service (the one I was going to board) from the bridge at Nethertown head which I mentioned earlier.

The Return Home and a Note about Privatisation
This merits an entire article in itself, but, here it is at the bottom. I hailed the 14:53 at Nethertown, feeling very pleased with myself (my first time I can remember getting on at a request stop). I then found an unoccupied 4-seater on the coast-side of the train. Wonderful. I trundled back up the line, noting the location of Flimby station, which sits, like Nethertown and Braystones, on the beach. Having changed at Carlisle to go back north, I settle on my Pendolino, which has the new White livery that Virgin are slowly applying to their West Coast fleet. We then came to a halt somewhere between Carlisle to Haymarket. Having been informed that there had been a fatality further up the line (at Kingsknowe), we reversed (on the wrong line) back to Carstairs after an hour of waiting. Having arrived in Carstairs, we were told to leave the train and go to the car park where there were replacement coaches to take us back to Edinburgh. 2 coaches. For a 9 car Pendolino full of returning students with more bags than sense. Having filled them up, we were shouted at that the other train waiting at Carstairs (a TransPennine service to Edinburgh) had been given the all-clear to depart so we should go back and get on it. Which people tried, and some succeeded until the dispatcher shouted at us to move away from the train. After communication between the Virgin staff and the dispatcher, the train shut its doors and we were told to go back to the coaches. 30 seconds later, the train re-opened its doors, and people rushed on. It then left a minute later leaving half the passengers (not including me) at Carstairs to wait for more coaches.

And here is the problem with our privatisation: it is too fragmented. There were at least 4 parties involved in the farce as to if we could get onto the service to Edinburgh: Virgin Trains, TransPennine express, Network Rail and ScotRail. There was no communication between any of them, except when passengers were left confused on a freezing platform. The signaller (Network Rail) wanted his main line unblocked, the Virgin staff wanted to get their customers to Edinburgh, the dispatcher (ScotRail) wanted to get on with dispatching the train as he was getting an earful from the signaller, and the TransPennine staff just wanted to know what was going on. I have no idea what happened to the half-a-Pendolino load of customers who were left by the 1st set of coaches and the hastily dispatched TransPennine service. But, if the system was operated by 1 group, or at least not 4 or 5 so heavily separate groups, people would know what was going on, be able to tell customers, and not have so much confusion. Our plan changed 6 times (first we would go to Glasgow, second we would go to Carstairs and get replacement coaches, third we could get the train, fourth we couldn't, fifth we could, sixth, we couldn't any more because it had left). And such situations could be managed much better by a single organisation. And, as we know, market privatisation only works on the basis of competition, that organisation would have to be public. So, a bad end to a brilliant day.

Notes
Nethertown was certainly the better of the two stations. It did everything a rural coast station should, and did them much better than nearby Braystones. Having said that, don't go there because I want it all to myself. Along with Golf Street. Yes, I now have two adopted stations. Also, Braystones' usage seem to be more stable than Nethertown. It has stayed around the 1000 per year mark for the past 5 years at least, with the highest being 1046, and the lowest 620. Nethertown, on the other hand, has been declining steadily for that period, falling from just over 1000 in 2013/14 to 412 in 16/17. There have been no rises. This is both a shame and a blessing for the station. On the one hand, this puts it at risk of closure or a reduction in services, but on the other, that's more opportunity for people like me (or just me) to visit and enjoy the secluded nature of this fabulous station.

Esker-pades · 1 Nov 2018

Trip #5: Scotscalder (Far North Line Journey #1) - Visited 20th of February 2018
Original Post: https://felixunstructured.weebly.com/lusblog/far-north-line-journey-1-scotscalder

Introduction
The Far North Line is a unique railway line. It is one of two to survive the Beeching cuts (which originally were to cut all railways north of Inverness) and extends its tentacles all the way up to Thurso, passing through some seriously good scenery from the passing Highlands to the coastal stretches to the rolling hills beyond the Highlands. It is a line that every rail enthusiast wants (or should want) to tick off. I originally did it for the first time in July 2017, staying overnight in Wick. This journey was to be different: I was to actually get off at one of the many tiny halts that scatter themselves along the entire line. The Far North line has the most number of "ghost" stations in the entire country, with 7 stations with an annual patronage of under 1000 dotted around. And, because of the way they are spread out, and the way walking is very hard across the harsh terrain and conditions of the Highlands, visiting more than 1 at a time is very hard. There is an exception, but this is for another time. Scotscalder is the most northerly station in the series proper. At some point, I will be visiting Georgemas Junction (1 stop north), as it only has about 1,500 annual users (most continue to either Thurso or Wick). But, Scotscalder, with only 294 people using it last year, is the most northerly of the proper ghost stations. Why Scotscalder first? Well, it was the station that the randomiser picked out. I don't like choosing things like this myself, so I let a randomiser select the station I would visit first.

The Journey
Because I am a student, money isn't really a thing. So, these trips really have to be done in a day because my budget and timetable can't include a night in a hotel and travel back the next day. With my location being in Southern Scotland, this is fine for journeys to places like Breich and Chathill, or even places further afield like Nethertown where I can use express services for the bulk of the journey. It is less good for journeys up very long rural lines, because trains are infrequent and journey times are long, for understandable reasons. The journey to Scotscalder and back can be done in a day, but it is a very long one. My first train up to connect with the Highland Main Line service left at half-past six, leaving me with a 4am alarm. I didn't return back until well after midnight, having got the last service of the day south to Stirling from Inverness. It also gave me very tight connections. I had a maximum 13 minute change time, with a 5 minute change at Inverness on the way back. This is both brilliant and bad, for reasons that can be imagined.

Having slept for parts of the journey, I enjoyed the snow-speckled Highlands being whisked passed as I sped north to Inverness. I changed, made sure that the guard knew I wanted to get off at Scotscalder (which is a request stop), and then settled down to the lovely scenery of the Far North line (as I mentioned before) and the clickety-clack of the jointed track as the train trundled deep into the Highlands. The person sitting opposite me had a reservation to Altnabreac, which is another least used station I will visit, but didn't realise how request stops worked, running down the train in panicked dismay to find the guard when the driver predictably didn't stop because nobody was there. 10 minutes later, Scotscalder came into view, and the driver stopped (because I did know how request stops worked) and I jumped down to the platform.

Scotscalder
As I got off, one chap got on. That was the last I saw of people until I left the station grounds and walked to Loch Calder.
The station itself is a rather typical halt in a tiny settlement. The platforms are low, the station well kept, a grass-covered ex-platform can be seen opposite and there are some relics from previous railway eras around the platform. The example are these two clocks, which brings Scotscalder's platform to clock ratio to one of the highest in the country.

I actually had quite a short time at the station, as I wanted to walk to Loch Calder (which is 3 miles away) between trains. I had from 14:03 to 16:50, which is more than enough time to explore the station as well as do the walk, but the walk was to happen first.
Scotscalder is located just off a very straight B-road, which has a smattering of rural traffic. As I trotted along, I spent time admiring the scenery. I didn't actually get to Loch Calder proper in the end because of time, but I did spend time speaking to weird-looking sheep, so life isn't too bad.

Having spent just under an hour walking to a stream by a road, I sat down, ate some of my pasta which I had brought with me, got weird looks from the two cars which passed me, and returned to Scotscalder. On the way back, I was given the evils by a farmer who was standing outside his farmhouse. He probably hadn't seen a stranger since he accidentally took a wrong turning and ventured into the international hub of Thurso by mistake. Slightly phased by the growl of an oncoming tractor (a real one not a class 37), I increased my pace and returned to the safety of Scotscalder station to explore it properly.

The Journey Home
It was the same but in the dark, so I tried to sleep most of the way. The tight changes were managed without difficulty, and I even saw a very late running Highland Chieften at Carrbridge, where we had to wait for 15 minutes to let it pass (we were running 9 minutes early because of a not-required 8 minute layover at the Tomatin loops). At Altnabreac, the person who had failed to get off the first time managed, a mere 3 hours late. I arrived back where I had started at 00:23, nearly 18 hours after I had started. It had been long, tiring but certainly worth it.

Notes
Scotscalder is one of those stations that are so useful for a small number of people. Having a request stop on your doorstep (quite literally) must be utterly wonderful, and something that was lost for ever in the 60s and 70s for so many people. The Far North line keeps this going, and I really love this. It also links quite a few quite large settlements, especially in the southern end, which have had their service increased. The final success of the line is the number of rail enthusiasts. My train had at least 2 or 3 groups of people taking in the full journey to Thurso or Wick. The variation of it makes it a brilliant line: the commuter traffic on the one end; the linking of all these piddling little settlements that are used by one lady on a Tuesday to go to Inverness to get her shopping done and by about 3 nutters like me who just want to visit them to say that they have; and the enthusiasts who just want to travel the full length of the railway. Scotscalder is not the most remote, nor is it the most interesting station I have visited, but it is a good little place which I'm glad kept its station.

Friends of the Far North Line
I was approached by one of the editors of the Friends of the Far North line shortly after the visit enquiring about publishing my image of 158707 arriving into Scotscalder. He did this (with permission) and also allowed me to plug this blog. Because of the work and effort that the Friends of the Far North Line put into maintaining and improving the service, here is a link to their website: http://fofnl.org.uk/ . Do have a look around.

Esker-pades · 1 Nov 2018

Trip #6: Teesside Airport (The Cliché) - Visited 4th of March 2018
Original Post: https://felixunstructured.weebly.com/lusblog/teesside-airport-the-cliche

Introduction
This is the cliché pointless ghost station. It holds a legendary status amongst these least used stations that no other station (other than possibly Shippea Hill or Berney Arms) can hold. It is famous for having a patronage of only 8 people per year from April 2012 to April 2014. It has featured in various television and radio programmes about ghost stations and parliamentary routes. This is also one of a very few stations to be served only by a proper parliamentary service (1 train per week in one direction only). Most other stations in this series are served by a “token service” but not a full parliamentary. It used to be served by 1 train per week in each direction, but the up service towards Middlesbrough was withdrawn in the December 2017 timetable change because of the lack of desire to spend money to replace a rotting and rusting footbridge.
The most recent statistics show the annual patronage at 30, putting this station at number 2, just after Barry Links (at 24). This is a fairly standard annual usage for the station. A recent spike brought the passenger numbers to 98, but this was mainly due to a mass travel to the station to gain publicity and request that it be moved to a proper location, rather than in the middle of nowhere, accessible only via a private airport road.

The Journey
The 4th of March was the first day in March where trains had run north of Newcastle up the East Coast Main Line into Scotland, due to high winds and snow brought on by the storm's cold air. Because of this, temporary speed restrictions still existed, so, despite leaving on a train half an hour earlier than the one I had planned to get from Edinburgh, I still missed my connection at Darlington. The train was very crowded.
The parliamentary runs from Hartlepool to Darlington. I decided that I would pick it up at Teesside Airport, meaning that I would need to walk from a nearby station. I chose Dinsdale. This way, I can walk via the airport and see what the walk from airport to station was like.
Having spent my time freezing on Darlington platform and wondering why people can't take the phrase “stand back please”, arms waving and whistle blowing from platform dispatchers to mean “stand back from the train”, the service to Dinsdale arrived. I settled down for the 5 minute journey, enjoying the fun steam loco ticket stamp given by the guard (beats a random scribble from a biro). I was the only person to get off at Dinsdale.
I then enjoyed the walk through the snow along various minor roads to Durham Tees Valley. The car park had a few cars in it. Otherwise, nobody and nothing (apart from snow and one bloke in a high-visibility jacket) was there.
Having re-plotted my route from the Airport to the station due to the route I wanted to take being signed as private and only for airport staff and vehicles, I went to the main A road via some back streets in order to gain access to the station that way. This walk, from an airport to the station, is much more rural and desolate than is normal, as one can tell from the pictures below.

Teesside Airport
This is the approach to the station from the A-road. Top Tip: DON'T!

There is no entrance on the A-road. I found this out to my peril. The way I gained access was by climbing over the fence next to the station, before clambering over the fences on the platform that protect people on them from falling onto the road. I did this by the footbridge where I could get a foothold. Not something I wish to repeat again.

Once on the platform, I admired the station. It looks as if it is unmaintained. The footbridge is being held up by scaffolding, with signs in big red writing telling people to spend as little time as possible on it. I had pictures to collect, so I did spend a few seconds at various points on the footbridge taking pictures. It didn't collapse.
It also appears we are back to the signage failures that have been a feature of this series. This time, a sign tells people to stay on platform 1 for services to Darlington, or go over the footbridge for services to Middlesbrough and Saltburn. Quite right. For those 0 services a week that stop here on their way east. Try flagging a train down on that platform and you'll get laughed at. Or a blow of the horn to tell you to stop being an idiot and stand back.

Another failure or “WHAT!?” moment is the station shelter. While it is a perfectly reasonable, if simple structure, it is located on the platform that sees no trains. This is rather like the shelter on Golf Street station (if anybody remembers/has read the post on that).

Back Again
About 90 minutes after I arrived, it was the time for the 14:56 departure, the only one of the week, to take me back to Darlington and onwards to Edinburgh.
As the train approached, I gave the driver a wave, a: to seem friendly and, b: to make sure he was stopping. The station isn't a request stop (not as far as I know anyway), but I decided to make sure. The train did stop, and I got on. As I walked to my seat, I saw two people looking out of the window in confusion at the station, while another person muttered something about it to their friend. The conductor came to see me, checked my ticket, and then went back to her compartment in the back. She didn't say anything about me having been nutty enough to use it, but that's half the fun. Part of the interest of going to these places is what the guard will say. I got more of a comment about getting off at Dinsdale “Oh, lucky for some!” than I did about getting on at Teesside Airport. Then again, it's down to how much the guard wants to speak to people.

I got off at Darlington. Because of the price of the advance tickets, I had a 90 minute wait for my service back north. I took advantage of the ticket esements due to the weather and got on the first train that arrived, settling down to enjoy the Inter City 225 set. Much better than a Voyager. (I don't dislike Voyagers, but given the choice, I will take an IC225.) I arrived at Edinburgh much earlier than I had imagined, giving me time to get myself a pie and chips before going home.

Notes
Teesside Airport is that ghost station that most people know about. Whereas other stations enjoy a couple of minutes of fame (like Barry Links did when the figures were announced) but stay mostly untouched by the majority, this one has kept in the public eye for a good while. The location both in terms of distance from the actual airport (not the runways, but the terminal buildings) and also the way one has to gain access to it means that most people just don't bother. Those who do are met with the problems of no signage and blank or amused faces when trying to enquire about how one actually gets to it. Or no faces at all if the airport is closed as happened with me. With the rumble of the main road on one side, and aeroplanes on the other, it could be a very loud location; certainly not the sort of thing associated with a least used station. It's also a station that is used only by people like me. There is literally no other reason to actually visit it. Stations like Barry Links or Scotscalder have people who use the train because they need to get to or from home, but this station is so useless, only those who want to visit it for the sake of visiting it arrive. This is the reason why the patronage fluctuates so much.

The final thing to point out is how mad this whole thing is. A station built to serve an airport should be used by thousands if not millions of people per year. But, the station is in a stupid location, and the airport's traffic and patronage is declining. Only about 130,000 people used it in the most recent annual period, down from nearly 1 million a few years ago. Most of these are charter flights. This station is a double victim of location: it is far away from the thing it was built to serve, and the thing it was built to serve is crashing. Could it receive a better patronage if it was moved and service levels increased? Possibly. But, the airport itself isn't doing that well, so there wouldn't be a particularly strong case to put to Network Rail for them to invest the millions of pounds required.

Soon, the eastbound platform will be demolished, leaving only the westbound platform in-situ. This is because of the footbridge rotting and rusting. If Network Rail can't be bothered to replace a footbridge, one can pretty much guarantee that this station will remain the pointless ghost thing it is, failed by everyone, until it rots out of existence in 10 or so years time.

Esker-pades · 1 Nov 2018

Trip #7: Polesworth (Or Not) - Visited 19th of April 2018
Original Post: https://felixunstructured.weebly.com/lusblog/polesworth-or-not

Introduction
The 2007 West Coast Main Line upgrade works brought many changes to the railways. For a start, trains could run at a reasonable speed, and more trains could run. But, some stations received a downgrade in service. Rugby was the most notable example, but many Trent Valley stations got fewer or worse trains as a result. Polesworth is one of these smaller Trent Valley stations. It had a low station patronage before these works (under 1000 per year), and a limited service (5 trains per day, 2 up, 3 down). When contractors took down the footbridge to upgrade the OHLE and track works, it was deemed not cost effective to put it back after the works, so it wasn't. Therefore, trains can now only stop in the down direction. While no maps show the status of Polesworth, the page on national rail tells people of the sparse train service, and the inaccessibility of the southbound platform. Despite this, over 1200 people use the station last year, which is very high for a station with one train per day in one direction only.

The Journey
One train per day serves Polesworth, an early Northampton to Crewe service, departing Polesworth at 07:23. This means that, from London, one has to catch a 05:31 train from Euston and change at Rugby. Having negotiated the night bus network, I arrived in a fairly empty Euston station, and proceeded to the service to Rugby. We ran 11 minutes early up to Milton Keynes, where we were held outside the station because the preceding 05:27 service had similar levels of padding in its timetable. Arriving into the station, still very early, we sat there for another 5 minutes, before I decided that there was a problem, and I needed to do the annoying commuter thing of sticking my head out of a door to see what was going on. The correct answer was nothing. Various members of Virgin staff were half-trotting up and down the train, while the driver poked his face out of the cab door to speak to them. Eventually, the train manager popped up on the announcement system and told us that there was an ambulance attendance, and we would be held until further notice. Further noticed read as 16 minutes, enough time for me to miss my 14 minute connection at Rugby, which meant I would have to wait at the station for another 23 hours and 58 minutes. This I decided not to do because I'm not mad.
Upon speaking to the train manager, she realised that I was indeed screwed. Of course, she used more appropriate language such as “unlikely”. She rung up the staff at Rugby, who also informed me that I was screwed (not going to make the train because it was running a couple of minutes early). Alternative road transport would be arranged. I got off at Rugby, and searched for some staff. This was not hard to do as one was dispatching the train. I approached, and was asked if I was the gentlemen going to Polesworth. I was. I hadn't transformed into another human being on the way, so this was the correct answer. Having been described as a “legend” (no idea why), she took me to the customer services office to fill out a form, and then to the taxi rank, where various taxis tried to get out of taking a contracted job by pretending that they had a hospital appointment. One didn't, and I was put on it.
The driver was good, in the sense that he drove well and didn't mind having a mostly mute, socially-inept man in the back, half-sleeping, half making sure that we didn't accidentally go to somewhere other than Polesworth. The sat-nav seemed very inaccurate. On the way he told me why he didn't like taking Virgin contracts (don't take that out of context). Basically, the bureaucracy involved with claiming money back takes time, mainly there are a lot of forms but also because large companies are very adept at trying to screw over smaller ones, much like Kevin Spacey did. I was told that his last contracted job had taken 6 months to get the money back from Virgin. I hope he gets my fare back, because he left his fare metre running, and we both watched it climb to £50, past £50 and approach £70 before he pulled up to the car park in Polesworth, having spent 20 minutes behind a lorry which was clearly too large for the roads. I arrived at Polesworth just over an hour late, at 08:30.

Polesworth
I was greeted by a vicious looking fence.

Because the station is in the area which records the highest number of cable thefts for scrap metal in the UK, it is protected as much as possible, with at least 5 police notices about them being able to catch everyone and anyone who steals any cable. So, I pushed open a slightly ajar gate, and progressed onto the platform.

Polesworth is very well kept and modern for a station of this series. It has the standard platform surface, signs, information that is mostly up-to-date and minimal facilities. The stumps of the pillars holding up the former footbridge can be seen, as can the rotting platform 2.

Back Again
I left Polesworth to catch a bus to Tamworth. Yes, at no point did I actually get on or off a train at Polesworth, but the visit still counts, because I bought a ticket to the station, I travelled on it, and I visited the station. The bus then took me on a route which can only be described as following the scribble that the head of Arriva Midlands' daughter did on a map of Tamworth and the surrounding area. (Look up the route for the 786 and weep.) I arrived at the station, caught my train, and arrived back at Euston. It had hit a bird on the way, a bird which had got embedded in the gangway.

I crossed London, and arrived at Charing Cross to get my train home, with enough time to spare to capture the most pointless reason I have ever seen for a cancellation: “Cancelled due to a train”.

Notes
My question is, why was this station even given a token service? It is located in the suburb of a large Midlands town (Tamworth) and has a lot of houses around. It's hardly rural. It's not even semi-rural. For a station with 1 train per day, 1,270 is seriously good. It works out as just over 4 people per train. I'm not entirely sure of the reason for this, but my guess is that the 07:23 service is well timed for the am-peak, meaning that people do commute from Polesworth to Birmingham. The return is probably via Tamworth station. However, I'm not sure. I would have liked to actually be able to get the train and alight at Polesworth to confirm this, but there's nothing I could have done. A station like Polesworth should get a pm-peak service in the reverse direction, which would make it fairly attractive for commuters and should boost numbers. One doesn't even have to build a footbridge, all that's needed is a path to the road bridge slightly east of the station, and platform 2 can be reinstated. However, the vicious cycle of a sparse service meaning a low patronage, which in turn means there will be a sparse service means that this is unlikely. Polesworth is one of those relics that will continue to not really exist for a good long time.

I should also point out that, while I probably come across as quite cynical and unappreciative, I am grateful to the staff and taxi driver who helped me actually get to Polesworth. Nobody wants to deal with ambulances at around 6am, neither do they want to have to co-ordinate getting someone to their destination after they have missed the last train of the day when they've not properly woken up and most people still haven't arrived to go to work.

Finally, I filmed for a couple of hours, and published the video. Click the link here.

Esker-pades · 1 Nov 2018

Trip #8: IBM Halt and Wemyss Bay - Visited 4th May 2018
Original Post: https://felixunstructured.weebly.com/lusblog/ibm-halt-and-a-bonus

Introduction
IBM railway station (3 character code: IBM) is a railway station built to serve the IBM buildings in Inverkip, south of Glasgow. It is also referred to as IBM Halt by the passenger information screens, despite it not being called IBM Halt, and not being a request stop.
The station is on the Wemyss Bay branch of the Inverclyde Line, linking the Isle of Bute ferry to the railway to Glasgow with an integrated timetable that works to varying degrees of success. IBM itself is served by all but one train during the week, a level of service that has remained stable. Therefore, the patronage should also be stable, right? Wrong. Since 2013, patronage has declined from over 123,000 per year to 6,000, with drops of at least twenty thousand per year. This is something that warranted an investigation, so I popped down one day after lunch. I also wanted to travel on the soon-to-be-withdrawn class 314s (or maybe not so soon, given the current farce with the 385s).

The Journey
With a level of frequency that I has never existed before on a least-used station trip before, I was spoilt for choice as to when to travel. I left Edinburgh after lunch, traversed the semi-newly electrified Edinburgh to Glasgow Queen Street route on an electric train, walked to Glasgow Central, and sat around for the next Wemyss Bay service to be given a platform. GOOD NEWS! A 314 pulled up, even in the old Strathclyde livery. Wonderful.
After a blast towards Port Glasgow, we turned off onto the single-track Wemyss Bay branch, stopping at all the minor stations. Despite the low patronage, IBM isn't a halt, meaning that every train actually stops there, although most do not pick up any passengers. We arrived into IBM without drama, and I got off.

IBM Halt
The station is a fairly standard if sparse single-platform affair. There are 3 sets of 4 benches, a large-ish waiting room, and all the normal signs and notices. The only one of note is the one that informs people that the station is only for IBM Staff and Contractors, which I am not.

Ignoring the sign, I decided to go on an explore of the area around the station to see what the cause of the plummet in patronage is.
Leaving the platform, I immediately saw the problem. It is vacant, and in the process of being demolished. Just outside the station is a broken wire fence with a large notice telling people not to climb over it as the area behind it is unmaintained and dangerous. There were several of these notices up as I followed the open path from the station to civilisation. I arrived at a fairly modern looking car park, full of air. There was no sign of a road or path to the footbridge that was at the northern end of the platform. I walked through the car park and past a modern-looking building, complete with smoking area and pick-up/drop-off point, more notices telling me not to climb over fences and walked down the only open road, which, after a 5 minute walk, lead me to the A78.

At the entrance to the what is now known as Valley Park Business Park, there was a faded sign telling me that this is what is was, and larger less faded signs telling me that the entire thing was for sale. No signs anywhere gave a clue that there was a station up the private, unused road.

The other mystery is the bridge. I walked back towards the station, looking out for a path or road up in the direction of the bridge. None existed, except a slightly trodden area of grass by the car park that led into some fly-tipping by some trees. Using a sense of direction, I continued through the trees, coming up to more faded signs and the bridge.

I then walked back to the path and back to the station, where I took some more pictures and waited for a train to take me on to Wemyss Bay.

Bonus: Wemyss Bay
Wemyss Bay is a seriously beautiful station, with several nods to history, including the reminders to thousands of passengers about the cost of inflation. (Imagine being able to get to Glasgow for under £1....)
Because IBM has no ticket machines, and there was no guard on the train, I had to buy my IBM to Wemyss Bay return at the ticket office. “We don't get many going there any more” commented the bloke in the office as I paid my £2.05 and showed my railcard. I nodded, and attempted to sort out the confusion as I had “just missed the train”. I explained that I had just come from IBM, and needed a ticket for the journey I had done, as well as one back because I would be returning later. I was given my two tickets, and continued to admire the station until the train arrived me to take me back to Edinburgh.

The Journey Back
I say the train back to Edinburgh. There is a passing loop just south of IBM, where we waited for a train to pass. The first of the extra peak hour services from Glasgow were filtering through, and it was a 314. I decided to get off at IBM again and wait the half an hour for it to return there.
I returned to Edinburgh the same way, taking advantage of the declassified first class on the 170 from Glasgow Queen Street, feeling very proud of myself.

Notes
It is worth looking at a comparison between what the Valley Park area was like in 2012, and what it looks like now.
The reason for this stations decline is purely external. The business park is now a demolition site, and the station is not advertised at all. And, why would it be? It was built precisely to serve the park, and, now that it has been taken away, it has no reason to exist. The nearby settlements are served by Branchton and Inverkip stations, both with healthy annual patronage levels. With about 12,900 trains per year, IBM should have 1 person per 2 trains. However, it didn't. The 6 trains I was able to observe at the station (bearing in mind this included a period across the evening rush hour) had nobody using it, or just me. The annual patronage next year will be even lower. By the time the statistics for my period come out (in December 2019), it may well be down in the hundreds. There is literally no reason to visit this station except to say that you have visited it. And, that was my reason. There are houses nearby, but one can gain access to the railway much more easily by using another station.
As for Wemyss Bay: what a gem of a station. Certainly worth a visit from anyone.

I should point out that at no point did I climb over or cross any fences at Valley Park. I obeyed all signs telling me to keep out of certain areas.

Esker-pades · 1 Nov 2018

Trip #9 - Duirinish (Kyle Line Journey #1) - Visited 9th of May 2018
Original Post: https://felixunstructured.weebly.com/lusblog/the-kyle-line-journey-1-duirinish

Introduction
The Kyle line is another one of those long, slow but very beautiful lines that few places in the UK have. Like with so many of them, it was threatened with closure, but dodged it due to local efforts. The line itself traverses many lochs and mountains across the Highlands from Inverness in the east across to Kyle of Lochalsh in the west, where people can continue on to the Isle of Skye and others. The line continues to ferry tourists (ironically no longer by ferry since the road bridge was built) between the Isle of Skye and the rest of the world. It has also become a tourist attraction in itself because of the views one can enjoy from the train. Locals also use to line to do normal things, like buy food.
Duirinish itself is a request stop, and is the station just before Kyle of Lochalsh, located about 8-10 minutes (depending on what timetable one looks at) from the end of the line. It serves 3 nearby cluster of houses: Duirinish (the surprise), Drumbuie and Port an Eorna. Drumbuie is technically the closest of the three. The usage of the station has remained stable in the past decade or so, staying around the 800/900 mark. It has recently climbed to just over 1000, but the most recent statistics put it back down at 930. The stability indicates that this station is mainly used by locals needing to get to places, rather than the majority of the patronage being based on nutters like me standing on the platform in bracing wind and rain for 3 hours between trains.

The Journey
To do the journey in a day is possible, but takes most of the day. I got myself to Edinburgh in time for the 06:33 departure to Dunblane, where I changed for the first service up the Highland Main Line to Inverness. After a 30 minute wait there, I boarded the second of the four trains per day that use the Kyle line in each direction. I settled down in my reserved seat, before someone else sat opposite me. I disliked this because there were still plenty of other empty four-seater tables available. I made my feelings apparent by immediately getting up and sitting in one of these for the duration of the journey. After I had made sure that the conductor knew I was getting off at the request stop, I enjoyed the Kyle Line. 3 elderly couples were sitting around me and making conversation with each other. When the trolley lady came round (they probably now have some ghastly over-the-top management-type title like On-Board Refreshment Receptacle Assistant), discussions were had about how long it was worth staying in Kyle of Lochalsh. “Should we stay on the train and just go back or wait four hours for the next one?” enquired one couple.
“Just go straight back, there's nothing to do. And I live there!” was the response. I feel that this was a bit harsh on the small town. When I was there last year, I bought some shortbread from the corner shop and took pictures of the train, station and the surrounding area. Certainly 20 minutes and 69p well spent.
At the first passing loop, Garve, we passed the Royal Scotsman charter train, with various people commenting that they “had never seen a train like it” while I tried not to laugh as it was being hauled by a class 66 re-painted into the Royal Scotsman livery. For those who don't know, the class 66 is the diesel locomotive that looks like a big shed and hauls most of the freight services in this country. I'm sure I saw Princess Anne on it.
The second passing loop was Achnasheen, where we passed a normal service going back to Inverness. The driver was without his coffee or and, with no On-Board Refreshment Receptacle Assistant on his train, the lady on ours made one and handed it over by opening the door at the back of the train and handing it through his cab window. This was alien to me as someone who has grown up on a suburban rail network. It was sweet. If this had happened in London, someone would have filed a health & safety complaint.
We continued onwards past various other small request stops, none of which were stopped at (I will be doing these in turn later on in the series), until the time came to make sure that we were stopping at Durinish and that I didn't need to get out at a particular door. We were and I didn't.
The train pulled into Durinish a few minutes late, and I popped off, thanking the conductor. I watched the train departing before I assessed the situation.

Duirinish
I've been very lucky with the weather so far in this series, so I was due a bad weather day. The wind was vicious and the clouds kept trying to spit at me. I was glad of my extra layers and wind-proof coat. The facilities, as one would expect, are pretty basic. There is a small waiting room which can hold all of 3 people, some benches located at one end of the platform, a phone, some notices and a bike rack. The station is protected by a small gate in the entrance area. The bigger one has rusted itself out of use, as has the cover for the phone. It was warped to the point where it required significant banging to shut it.The only annoying part about Duirinish is the level crossing. For a road down to a village with a maximum of 15 inhabitants, putting something, metal, white, electric and loud is madly out of place. It was also rather large, because of the three crossing points it grouped into one. The first was for cars and other road vehicles, protected by the normal barriers and a cattle grid to prevent the free-roaming Highland Cattle from trespassing. There was then a small gate for pedestrians and a third telephone-controlled gate to be used by horses and farmers wishing to herd their cattle across. This was all surrounded by tall white metal fences. In conclusion, yuck.
Whilst I was at the station, a person pulled up in a car, and proceeded to walk around the station, making sure that everything was working, well-kept and existed. She was from Transport Scotland and doing one of the semi-regular checks on the many unstaffed stations to make sure that there was nothing wrong with them.

The Surrounding Area
I did a 2.5 mile circular walk around the coast path, where I appreciated the bleakness, remoteness and beauty of the Highlands. About half-way round, I passed a couple, one of whom stood aside for me. I thanked them and got no response. Having crossed the road bridge that was visible from the station, I returned.

Kyle of Lochalsh
2 and a half hours after I arrived, I checked on the status of my train from Durinish to Kyle of Lochalsh, and discovered it was running slightly late. After a tense wait, it appeared, activating the horrible alarms of the level crossing. The train sat by the crossing for about 30 seconds, before I registered that, in the time that I had been there, it had developed a fault meaning that the signals allowing trains to pass refused to clear, despite the barriers being down and nothing obstructing the crossing. Therefore, the driver had to blast his horn for several seconds to make sure he didn't run anything over, further disturbing the natural beauty of the area. Once he had done that, I flagged him down, getting a thumbs up exchange in response. I approached a door, boarded, and enjoyed the final 10 minutes to the end of the line.

I would have got some more pictures at Kyle of Lochalsh, but the weather had completely closed in at that point, making everything come out very grey and very wet. I stayed on the train for most of the hour-long layover, before we departed going back to Inverness.

The Return
The 17:13 departure from the Kyle, which I was on, continues to Elgin, and is technically a parliamentary service because it takes the chord between the Far North & Kyle lines and the lines down south to Aberdeen and Perth, avoiding Inverness station itself. Once the train has taken this chord, it reverses, backs into the station, reverses again, and continues to Elgin. It is possible for a service to go from one side of Inverness station to the other without using this loop. Platform 5 has tracks to both the northern and the southern sides, meaning that a better path would be to have this service reverse there. However, it doesn't. It is only there to not close down the chord now that there is no longer freight traffic beyond Inverness.

I changed at Inverness, boarding a service to Perth, where I changed again and continued to Edinburgh, arriving back at 00:23. Or, I was supposed to. The train from Inverness to Perth was delayed at Carrbridge because of a late-running northbound service. We left 5 minutes late, and got later and later, finally arriving into Perth 15 minutes late. I had spoken to the conductor who had asked the staff at Perth to hold the connection to Edinburgh. This was done, and the departure made up some time, and, with the help of padding in the timetable, we arrived in Edinburgh only a few minutes late.

Notes
I hate level crossings in remote areas. They should be more discreet than this huge metal thing plonked in the middle of the countryside. Not that level crossings are a bad thing. Clearly, making sure people and animals don't walk out in front of a train is important. But, designs have to be changed and toned down in rural areas with few users. In the 150 minutes I was at Duirinish, I saw three people use the level crossing. One was me. The other two were pedestrians and were travelling together. A telephone-controlled gate would work perfectly well.

Otherwise, Duirinish station is a perfect example of a station that should be least used. It is in a remote area with a small population. The patronage is stable because it provides a good service to the area it is built to serve. While it may not be massive, it is certainly useful to the local population. This is something that Beeching did not recognise, even for larger populations like Hawick or Kenilworth, but has been preserved. And this is a good thing. Even if a station is only used a few times per week by people going into the big town to buy food and supplies, then it should remain open because it provides a useful service. Duirinish shows this.[/SPOILER]

Esker-pades · 1 Nov 2018

Trip #10: Angel Road (London's Least Used) - Visited 17th of June 2018
Original Post: https://felixunstructured.weebly.com/lusblog/londons-least-used-angel-road

Introduction
London is busy. Which is why me visiting a station in the Greater London area as part of this series is slightly odd. However, Angel Road is used by a fraction of the people who use nearby stations. It isn't down into the hundreds, nor is it in the low thousands, but, with around 33,500 passengers last year, it is the least used station in London, and receives a service that reflects it. Trains only stop around the AM and PM peak, from 6am to 9am and 4pm to 8pm. Even then trains are only every 30-60 minutes, even going with the peak flow. Angel Road is also the least used station in London, a title it has exchanged with Sudbury & Harrow Road for the past years.

The Journey
I navigated the DLR, Underground and National Rail to get me to Stratford. I then picked up the first down peak service from Stratford to Angel Road, at 16:00. It crawled the distance. The Stratford to Tottenham Hale section has always been a very slow section of railway, and north of Tottenham Hale, the train stopped everywhere between there and Angel Road. As the train approached, it passed the site of a new-build station 300m south of Angel Road, which will open as Meridian Wharf. I will discuss this later on.
The train stopped, and I got out, along with 4 other people.

Angel Road
Angel Road is a weird station. It is surrounded by main roads, industrial areas and fly-tipping. It has a Permit to Travel machine, which doesn't work, Oyster Card readers, but no ticket machine. The departure boards don't work. Other facilities include benches (a lot of them) and a shelter.

The worst part about it is the exit. Instead of leading directly onto the road that runs parallel to the station, there is a path which leads to a load of steps which eventually leads out onto a flyover. This is about 200-300 metres.
For a station in this series, it is used quite well. All the trains that stopped either picked up or set down passengers (both in most cases). Two services were cancelled (welcome to Greater Anglia), which resulted in quite a crowd (OK, ten people) forming on the platform. A couple who had been on the platform for about 90 minutes waiting for a train eventually left on foot. I think they had just missed the 15:55 departure, and, with the 16:53 being cancelled, they just got bored and left.

The drama of the evening was provided by this person, pictured below.

He sat down on the edge of the platform, with his legs dangling over the edge. I looked up Network Rail's number and a train passed on the opposite track, the driver sounding the horn loudly. The person did not respond. I had found the number for emergencies, called it, and gave them the information. The next train which passed on the same track as the person was partially obstructing was held at the signal before the station. It approached under extreme caution. Of course, the person had stood up by this point. After 3 trains had passed the platform under caution, the signaller must had cleared the blockage and trains passed at the normal speed. In conclusion, what a complete git. He got on the next service which stopped.
Network Rail also sent a couple of people down to make sure he wasn't still hanging around. He wasn't. I gave them a description and told them where he'd gone. They departed.
I then departed on the next service, repeating the journey out, but in reverse and with a sandwich.

Notes
Firstly, don't be an arse on or near the railways.

Secondly, Angel Road and Meridian Water. Meridian Water is a new housing project in the area, that will boost passenger numbers in the area. In order to accommodate this, a new station is being built, and the line from Tottenham Hale to Angel Road is being quadrupled to increase capacity. The new station is situated a few hundred metres south of Angel Road, meaning that Angel Road will be shut. The estimated completion date is 2019.

Thirdly, the reasons for the peak-only service. I was at the station for 2h45m, and every train that stopped had people either get on or get off. It wasn't fantastically busy, but neither was it deserted. Especially as early as 4pm, a time when the PM-peak hasn't really started, the station had a reasonable number of people at it. So, should it have a more frequent and regular service? Yes, it should. But, with the current pathing restrictions on the 2 track West Anglia Main Line, it wouldn't be feasible without slowing down the faster services (Stanstead Express or other Greater Anglia) which also run. The point at which more paths exist is also the point where Angel Road shuts, and Meridian Water opens meaning that it is unlikely that Angel Road will get anything more than the current service level.

Finally, the path. This seems like the worst possible sort of entrance/exit for a station. There is a road less than 10 metres from the up platform, and yet, passengers from there have to go over the footbridge, along the path, up stairs, under the flyover, and up some more stairs to actually get onto the flyover. Observe the diagram below which shows the current route from the station to a nearby hotel (blue) and the one that should be available (red).

Esker-pades · 1 Nov 2018

Trip #11: Buckenham and Berney Arms (The Wherry Lines) - Visited 1st of July 2018
Original Post: https://felixunstructured.weebly.com/lusblog/the-wherry-lines-buckenham-and-berney-arms

Introduction
Berney Arms is one of those stations that everyone, even some outside railway enthusiast territory, knows about. When travel journalists compile their lists of deserted and beautiful stations, Berney Arms features. However, it is not the least used station on the Wherry Lines, and neither is it even in the least used stations list proper. The annual patronage of this station hovers around the 1000-1500 figure. The last time is fell below 1000 was in the '06 to '07 figures. Buckenham is the true shack on the Wherry Lines. It is only served during weekends and is used by about 100 people each year, even though it is actually located near a settlement. The settlement is called Buckenham. (Surprise!)

Journey 1: To Buckenham
With a very limited service on Saturday (1 train in each direction), the best day to visit Buckenham is Sunday. It enjoys 4 trains per day in each direction. Berney Arms also has the highest service level of the week on a Sunday. Therefore, a fairly early start from London took me up to Norwich in time for the 11:36 service, calling at both Buckenham and Berney Arms. The guard came bombing up the train, asking if anyone needed the request stops. I requested Buckenham and got the response “I'm already stopping at Buckenham.” Odd. As we approached, I got up, and went to the door. We stopped at Buckenham, and I got out, along with a couple, who I guessed were walkers.

Buckenham
I filmed the service departing from Buckenham, with the couple hovering behind me. I then decided to cross the railway line, in an attempt to get away from them. They followed me across. I then put my bag down under the pretence of drinking some water. I did this, and watched as they walked off down a path back towards Brundall. I then surveyed Buckenham Station.
Having a station straddling a level crossing is not weird. It is a fairly normal layout to have one platform on one side of the level crossing, with the opposite on the other side. This is a fairly logical platform layout. What is not logical is having one platform 100m down the track from the level crossing.
On the Lowestoft/Yarmouth platform, lies the old station house, which is now a private residence or two. These have doors right onto the platform, which is something that is fabulous. I would like a house with a door onto a station platform. The other facilities on the platform are a bench and a noticeboard.
The Norwich platform has a bench and a shelter.
The main set of information is on one side of the lane that connects the station houses to the main road. There is also a help point on the Norwich platform path and some other signs on the opposite side of the level crossing.

Journey 2: To Berney Arms
50 minutes later, the same service returned from Great Yarmouth, and I flagged it down. I boarded, sat down for 4 minutes, and then got off at Brundall. I sat down on a bench on the platform, and ate some of my pie and grapes. As a dog approached and had a wee right next to me, I lost my appetite for some reason, and walked to the other end of the platform. A train to Lowestoft arrived, and I boarded, changing again at Reedham to pick up the service to Berney Arms. It arrived, the same service that had taken me to and from Buckenham, and I requested Berney Arms from the same conductor who I had requested Buckenham from. He informed me that I was to get off from the front door. I stood by it, and he arrived to unlock it and let me off. As I got off, he asked me if I was going to get on on the way back. I responded that I would be here for a few hours and get another service. We wished each other a good day, and the train left.

Berney Arms
Berney Arms has a good reason for being a “bucket list” station. (Goodness me I hate that phrase. If anything else, it's a waste of a good bucket. Or the list gets sandy or wet.) The station is brick, wood and crushed tarmac. The only facilities are a noticeboard, a help point, two things to chain bikes to, and a very large station sign. The main station information is on the path by some bushes. The way to get from the platform to the main walking route is by a gravel path protected from the track by a fence. The nearest road is 10 minutes away, and even then it is just a mud track.

The name Berney Arms is shared by a pub and a windmill. I walked down to the nearest river (the Yare) where the windmill was located. On the way, I had to pass a swan at caution. The swan was not pleased to see me, and hissed when, at one point, I had to dodge around a thistle.

I got to the windmill unharmed. It was closed to the public and fenced off. I doubt it has been open for a good long time. I continued along the river towards the pub, which I found. It was closed, and clearly had been for some time. The hut next to the pub was occupied by a topless man with a beard. He looked like a Conservative's cartoon drawing of a member of the Green Party minus the cannabis pipe.

I walked back to the station, again avoiding the swan, which had moved to be closer to the bridge. I also spotted another swan and a load of cygnets. I was glad that I was cautious enough not to be ripped a new one by a protective and powerful bird.

Sitting on the platform, I admired the surroundings of the Norfolk Broads, the lack of people and basically everything around the station, including the station. I was startled by a loud cracking sound. It was the swan flapping its wings in an aggressive fashion. I was even more glad that I was cautious enough not to be ripped a new one by a protective and powerful bird. I watched the same train that had been with me for the whole day pass on the way to Great Yarmouth. 21 minutes later, it returned, and I flagged it down.

Journey 3: Back to Buckenham
Since I had only had 50 minutes at Buckenham, but over 2 hours at Berney Arms, it was fair I visited Buckenham again to explore the surroundings. Having boarded, the guard came through for tickets. I requested Buckenham again, to which he said, in possibly a joky tone “you've stopped us here and now you want to stop us there?!” I apologised because I didn't know what else to do.
“Are you on a request stop day or something?”
“Yes” I responded, because I didn't really want to get into a long discussion about why I was actually doing it, and he also had a job to do. Checking tickets.
At Buckenham, the train stopped. I got out as the same couple who had got off the first time I had been at Buckenham got on. I felt less guilty about requesting Buckenham, as the train would have had to have stopped anyway.

Buckenham Surroundings
As I filmed the departure of the train, the driver poked their head and arms out of the cab window and made a silly face to the camera. I have no idea why they did this.

Apart from the 2 houses, Buckenham appears to serve another RSPB reserve (I say another, because Berney Arms is nearby Berney Marshes RSPB reserve). I walked the short distance down to river Yare. Oh yes, it is the same one, just further up its course. The viewing point was fabulous, but an angler looked at me, so I left.

Journey 4: Home
As I sat in the baking afternoon sun at Buckenham (the Yarmouth/Lowestoft platform has no shelter), the last train of the day from the station arrived. It was (yes, you've guessed it,) the same one which I had been on for the entire day. I flagged it down, it stopped, and I boarded. At Lowestoft, I got out, only to find that the same train would form the service I was getting down to Ipswich. I got back on. The East Suffolk Line gets very busy as one gets further towards Ipswich. Settlements such as Saxmundham should probably get a better Sunday service than 1 train every 2 hours. I arrived at Ipswich, and joined the entire train-load on the platform, waiting for the express service to London to arrive. It arrived, late, and I found my reserved seat. It was being occupied by a bag. As nobody was sitting next to the bag, I decided to find another seat, and on the non-sunny side of the carriage. There was. I sat in it. The service arrived in London Liverpool Street, late, and I continued my way home on the tube and other suburban rail services.

Notes
Buckenham station is there for walkers and other tourists. I doubt the residents nearby (all 3 of them) actually use the train. If you don't believe me, I refer you to the I-must-prove-the-size-of-my-physical-and-monetary-assets Porsche in the driveway of one house. I'm not sure a weekday service would do anything. The only reason I can see for Berney Arms having one is because of the pub nearby, and that doesn't exist anymore. It could possibly be because of the increased demand as it is a station that a lot of people want to visit because it is such a remote and famous place, but I doubt that would be much of a feature in management's thinking. However,, with Saturday as likely a day for a nice walk or visit to a nature reserve as Sunday, the sparsity of services on a Saturday at both stations is fairly odd. My guess is that it is to do with a shortage of units. The Saturday timetable for rural Greater Anglia services is basically the same as the weekday timetable. A lack of available units could be a feature. Although, Lowestoft services could serve Buckenham more regularly, so perhaps it is another reason altogether that I've not been able to work out. These stations really only exist for walkers and other nature tourists, which is fairly unique but also lovely.
The other thing to note is how well kept the stations on the line are. Everything is clean, and even Berney Arms had flower pots with flowers in. It makes a difference from the “cleaner to platform 2 for a code 3” that is usually the only accessory on a London station. However, a bench wouldn't go amiss at Berney Arms.

Esker-pades · 1 Nov 2018

Trip #12: Bordesley (Birmingham's Least Used) - Visited 11th of August 2018
Original Post: https://felixunstructured.weebly.com/lusblog/birminghams-least-used-bordesley

Introduction
Bordesley is located one stop south of Birmingham Moor Street on the Snow Hill Lines, which is still very much in Birmingham. But, the general service is one train per week in one direction only: a proper parliamentary. Despite the very low level of service, over 15,000 passengers were recorded using the station last year, working out as nearly 300 passengers per train. This is a very odd situation for a station to be in. That puts Bordesley outside the least used stations proper list by a significant number. Clearly, there is something that is wrong here, so an investigation was required.

The Journey
The only train of the week runs northbound on a Saturday, arriving at Bordesley at 13:36. I decided that the best thing to do would be to alight from it and then explore the station. I worked my way across London to Marylebone, and boarded a Chiltern service to take me most of the way to Birmingham. The journey planner and the route of my advance ticket was very weird. Instead of changing at Solihull, and again at Tyseley (because the only service of the week originates at Whitlocks End), I had to go all the way into Moor Street, back out to Tyseley, and then back to Bordesley. I effectively did a triple-back. A map will show how mad this route is. The even bigger thing was changing at Tyseley instead of Small Heath, given that Small Heath is closer to Birmingham than Tyseley.

On the Chiltern service to Birmingham, a man in a suit, trainers and with a cycling rucksack got on and at opposite me with his similarly weirdly dressed child. The suit and trainer is not a look I have ever understood. Especially when the person clearly doesn't run due to their size. They sat opposite me for a mercifully short amount of time, alighting at Warwick Parkway having boarded at Banbury.
The train arrived in Moor Street, late, and I crossed over to another platform in order to board the 2nd of 3 trains. I changed at Tyseley without incident, and stood by the doors for the short journey back up to Bordesley.

Bordesley
Having passed it twice in the past 30 minutes, it was third time lucky as the 13:36 service pulled into Bordesley. I was one of two people to get off at the station, with one person boarding. The other passenger to alight walked towards the exit, then away from it, then back towards it and out of the station. I was left to admire (used in its loosest possible form) the station.
Bordesley station is a very barren island platform. It has some lights, some signs, a help point, an exit and a barren concrete waiting hut which smelt of urine.
Various frequent errors and fun bits popped up: There was a smartcard reader, which sees virtually no usage whatsoever. The signs advertised services to Shirley and Dorridge, which is weird as the southbound platform sees no trains in normal service. The opening of the hut was also to the southbound platform (the platform face that sees no trains in normal service). I say normal service, because the station becomes a lot more busy at match days when Birmingham City play home games. Trains do stop at the otherwise unused platform at these times. The stadium is visible from the station, although it is not as prominent as the graffiti.
The normal paintwork at the station was still slightly sticky, I assume because it had been touched up recently.
I sat on the platform, resting against a pole, getting occasional toots from passing trains as I filmed/photographed them.

The Journey Home
After the service that would form my train home from Birmingham Moor Street passed, I decided that it would be best to walk the mile from Bordesley to Moor Street so that I would be there in plenty of time. I had spent just over 90 minutes at the station.
The walk was mainly about negotiating back-streets through decaying industrial areas and warehouses, being glad that it was a Saturday afternoon and not 2am on a Friday morning. It was exactly the sort of area which journalists visit after a “well-loved cornerstone of the neighbourhood was brutally stabbed in the early hours of Sunday morning”. I didn't see many people, or indeed weapons, and arrived at Moor Street 25 minutes later. I still had more than half an hour until my train departed, but it was there and unlocked, so I sat on it, enjoying the fact that I had a 4 seat area with table to myself.

Notes
A feature of city railways appears to be that the station one stop out from a major terminus is a lot less well-used than the majority of other stations on the line. Bordesley is not an isolated case. Elsewhere in Birmingham, there is Adderley Park and Water Orton (neither of which have quite as low a patronage or quite as infrequent a service). Meanwhile, Manchester has Ardwick and Ashburys, with the former being in the least used stations list proper.
The reason for their lack of patronage is a combination of not being near many houses, and any people wanting to use them being put off by their very limited service. Bordesley has a bus stop right outside the station with a number of bus routes serving the station. Meanwhile, the train service would be, at best, every 30 minutes. Given the choice, most people would choose the bus because it is much more frequent and therefore more convenient, given that there is a major railway station close by which one can get a train to practically anywhere from. The only reason Bordesley's patronage is so high for the level of service is because of the extra trains layed on when there is a football match.

Esker-pades · 1 Nov 2018

Trip #13: Causeland, Sandplace, St Keyne Wishing Well Halt, Coombe Junction Halt, St Budeaux Ferry Road and St Budeaux Victoria Road (The Looe Line and St Budeaux) - Visited 16th of August 2018
Original Post: https://felixunstructured.weebly.com/lusblog/the-looe-valley-line-and-st-budeaux

Introduction
The Looe Valley line is a branch line in Cornwall. It connects the main line at Liskeard to the southern Cornish Coast, at Looe. Between these two settlements, it follows the Looe River down the valley, passing nowhere else of any significance. Therefore, every intermediate station (Coombe Junction Halt, St Keyne Wishing Well Halt, Causeland and Sandplace) has a low patronage. Only one has an annual patronage of under 1000, but some of the others have been down that low in the past. All of them are within the bottom 100 stations in the country, and all of them are worth a visit. As I was in Cornwall for the day, I also decided to visit St Budeaux Ferry Road station in Plymouth, which is the least used station in the major town. It recorded just shy of 4000 visits, but was below 3000 a few years ago.

A Game!
I have a little game for you. At each of the 4 Looe Valley Line stations (except Coombe Junction), there is a WiFi router. Try to spot them! I will reveal the locations at the end of this blog entry.

Journey 1: To Causeland
Pricing is a big influencing factor for me, especially when deciding dates and when to travel (if there is flexibility in a plan). As it is quite possible to do all the Looe Valley stations inside half a day, I a lot more flexibility than I am used to when planning visits to these least used stations. Having spent a great deal of time scouring the GWR website to see if any good advance deals were available, I stumbled across the Wednesday night Night Riviera sleeper service, which was down at a very reasonable price. I set up a plan, checked the price of the return journey, which was also very reasonable, and went ahead with the bookings.
I arrived at Paddington at 11pm, and fell onto the sleeper. I've only travelled on this service once before, and that was going to Penryn for university visiting reasons. Despite being in a seated area, I had a very comfortable journey that time. Boarding the sleeper this time, I was disappointed. The rolling stock and interior has been refurbished, which means that the comfortable 1+2 seating has been ripped out, and replaced with 2+2 rigid, leather tat. I had a very poor and uncomfortable sleep. The air conditioning was also on for some reason, meaning that I had to wear 2 jumpers and my raincoat to stop myself from shivering.
We arrived at Liskeard at quarter past 6. I got off, and went into the waiting room, where I sat for an hour until I decided it was time to go to the Looe Branch platform and get my train to the first shack of the day: Causeland.

Liskeard is quite an odd station. Despite having 3 platforms, the Looe Branch platform (platform 3) is located across a road from the main station. This is unique as a station model, and not one I have ever come across before. The Looe branch platform has also been kept in the past, with various old, and old-style GWR signs and other pieces of memorabilia dotted along the platform.
It had started raining at this point, so I was glad that my train soon arrived. I boarded, and we waited the few minutes until it next departed south. We did, 1 minute late, and began the journey south to Causeland. I was the only passenger in my carriage. 2 other people were in the other coach (it was a 2 coach train). The guard soon came up, I showed my ticket and railcard and asked if he could stop at Causeland. 15 minutes later, we pulled up at the station, and I got off, waving to the guard as the train departed again for Looe.

Causeland
As the train departed, I surveyed the station. Causeland is a cute little thing buried amongst plants, a stream and all in a valley. This makes the entire place very secluded. Furthermore, there are no nearby houses, so one has the area entirely to oneself, as I did. It is also very well preserved, with fresh paint, old GWR-style buildings and signs and baskets of flowers. The facilities include a shelter, a help point, a grit box, two flower boxes, a set of signs and two bicycle racks.

To Sandplace
The walk from Causeland to Sandplace is about 30 minutes along a country lane. A few tiny settlements (of 3 houses maximum) are situated along the road. There are also a couple of bridges, which I used as a location to film the Looe Branch train continuing its shuttles up and down the branch line.

Sandplace
Despite being the 2nd least used station of the 4 along the line, Sandplace is the least remote of any of them. It is located around the bend of the main road into Looe. In fact, Sandplace is also served by a bus route. There is also a little village (called Sandplace) just to the south of the station.
The station itself is nestled rather nicely just by the bridge which takes the main road over the railway. It has many of the same facilities as Causeland, but the overall feel is of being much less secluded than Causeland was. The major thing of note at the station was the birds nest located in one of the nooks of the shelter.

Whilst I was at the station, a man in a GWR/Network Rail van parked in the bus stop area near the station. Yes, it was the day that all the Looe Valley line stations were to be visited and maintained. He arrived with a leaf blower and proceeded to clear the platform of various bits of dust and leaves. He left, and then returned shortly afterwards with a watering can and some other bits with which to tidy up the flower pots and clean other bits of the station (such as the large quantity of bird droppings which had accumulated under the nest). I don't see why watering flowers literally minutes after a few hours of rain was required, but whatever management wants, I suppose.

Journey 2: To St Keyne
The original plan was to board a northbound service at 10:49 to my next shack, which is St Keyne Wishing Well Halt. However, because I like to spend quite a long time at each station before boarding, I was there well in time for the service southbound the Looe to pass me, before coming back up. Despite making no gesture whatsoever to the driver signalling that I wished to request the stop, the driver stopped. I mouthed and gestured that I was going in the opposite direction. The man who was maintaining the station also came up to ask me what was going on. I explained that I was going north. At this point the guard also joined in and suggested that I just get on anyway and enjoy a free ride to Looe and back. So, here are some bonus pictures of the terminus of the branch, Looe:

Once we had left Looe going northbound, I requested St Keyne from the guard, and we stopped there. I got off in the same manner as before, thanking the guard and then surveying the station.

St Keyne Wishing Well Halt
As you now expect, St Keyne is littered with well-preserved old-style GWR facilities, except for the help point and metal bike racks. It is also about a mile from St Keyne itself, meaning that the only buildings around are farm, or ex-farm. The man who had been maintaining Sandplace arrived, so I vacated the station area to allow him to do his work.

But, why the “Wishing Well” suffix? Well, there is a well nearby. The St Keyne Well. I took the mile walk to it (it isn't in the town, instead it is located a small crossroads ½ a mile to the south of it).

Having looked at the well, I walked back to St Keyne, continued taking pictures of the shuttling Looe Branch service and lounging around on the platform, admiring the station and surroundings and taking pictures of the shuttle passing a few times.

Eventually, the train I wanted to catch arrived. I flagged it down using my best arm, it stopped and I boarded. Or, went to board, before the guard (a different one this time) asked me to come a specific set of doors. I complied, and boarded. She verbally checked my ticket and then I proceeded to a seat. We arrived in Liskeard 15 minutes later.

To Coombe
I decided that I would walk from Liskeard to Coombe Junction, as it was only 15 minutes walk away. This proved to be the right decision. It is downhill all the way, sometimes very steeply. It would not be fun to walk in the opposite direction.

Coombe Junction Halt
Coombe is the only station on the line not to be served by the majority of services, and the only one to have an annual patronage below 1000. At the moment, it stands at ~200 per year, although this is the highest on record, with it rarely peaking above 50 people per year. Only a couple of trains per day that skip the request stops of St Keyne, Causeland and Sandplace, but all save for 4 services a day (2 in each direction, Monday to Saturday only) avoid Coombe Junction. Despite including the suffix “halt” (which only 2 stations in the whole of the UK do, St Keyne Wishing Well Halt being the other), Coombe Junction Halt is not a request stop. This does not make sense.
Unlike all the other stations on the line, it is in a poor state of repair. There are at least 3 different shades of cream on the rotting and very small shelter, no flowers and only about half the signage as compared to the other stations.

The station is a junction, because this is where the Looe Branch services reverse. They have to do so in order to negotiate the steep gradients from Liskeard down to valley level. The reason that most services do not call at Coombe Junction Halt is because they reverse at the set of points (Coombe Junction Ground Frame), which is about 100 metres up the line from the station. I spent more than an hour filming the reversal process, which will be explained later in this blog post.

The train back to Liskeard arrived at Coombe Junction Halt. It not being a request stop, the guard had to get out anyway. As she did so, I approached, and she jumped slightly. I don't think she was expecting anyone to actually be getting on or off at the station. She checked my ticket as the train set off again (having reversed at the station), and we soon arrived into Liskeard.

Journey 5: To St Budeaux
At Liskeard, I had an hour or so before my train to St Budeaux arrived. It was at this point that my phone and portable charger ran out of power. However, this isn't that much of a loss to the blog. The local service arrived into platform 1 at Liskeard, shunted round to platform 2, and then allowed passengers to board. It is one of very few services that serve St Budeaux Ferry Road and Menheniot stations. Despite the latter being advertised as a request stop, the train stopped there as if it was a conventional station. Nobody boarded or alighted. We then stopped at St Germans and Saltash, before going over the fabulous King Albert Bridge. Shortly after, the train arrived at St Budeaux Ferry Road.

St Budeaux Ferry Road
There is very little to say about this station. I got off, along with one other person. 3 minutes later, a train in the other direction also stopped, allowing another person to alight. Each platform is fairly grubby, both have fairly standard shelters, the metal and plastic sort that appear all over the country, and nothing is particularly well-maintained. Even the shelters have had half their benches removed and none of their plastic panels remain. Rubbish is scattered behind everything, and the slate walls are crumbling somewhat.
The station is located literally across the road from St Budeaux Victoria Road (see Google Maps extraction below). Despite their different names, both of them are located on Wolseley Road. I can't even find a Ferry Road in the area.
As one service per day from Liskeard continues to Gunnislake (the end of the branch line that St Budeaux Victoria Road serves), there is an opportunity to travel from one station to the other by train. However, it is not possible to buy a direct ticket from Ferry Road to Victoria Road (I used various websites and even tried on the phone, but no ticket was available). My assumption is that a guard would sell anyone wishing to make such a silly journey a return from St Budeaux stations to Plymouth.

Journey 6: Back Home
Despite St Budeaux being in Plymouth, the advance ticket I was sold meant that I had to travel back via Liskeard. So, I boarded the 18:25 service back there, changed, and found myself on the last service of the day into London (apart from the sleeper).
At Exeter St Davids, we were delayed by 26 minutes due to an incident up the line at Tiverton Parkway. This was cleared, and I had hoped that we would make up some time. This was not to happen. We continued to loose time, finally arriving into London Paddington over 40 minutes late. This was just late enough for me to have missed the last tube and rail services home, so I had to negotiate the night bus network. I finally arrived home at 2am. The worst thing about all of this is that I could not claim for compensation, as GWR long distance services operate by a 60 minute rule, not the usual 30 minute. I was most annoyed.

The Operation of the Looe Valley Line
The Looe branch departs Liskeard going north, before looping around and down the valley to Coombe Junction. It then has to change direction in order to continue to Looe.
It is controlled using the token system. IE: The guard/driver has to obtain a token from the signaller in order to have permission to travel on a particular part of the line (usually from passing loop to passing loop, although not always). The token sections for this line are Liskeard to Coombe Junction Ground Frame, and Coombe Junction Ground Frame to Looe. There is also a freight only line that continues beyond Coombe Junction (the point of reversal for passenger trains) and continues to Moorswater Quarry. However, I am unsure that this is still used, certainly with any frequency.
The Ground Frame has to be set to rest in the Liskeard direction to release and return any tokens. Therefore, the train has to stop twice each time. In order to explain this properly, I have included steps and pictures for each direction (both to and from Liskeard).
<Please see the blog for this section.>

Solutions to the Game
Here are the Wi-Fi routers at each of the stations which had them:
<Please see the blog for this section.>

Notes about St Budeaux
St Budeaux has many bus routes, and even bus stops right outside the stations which are used by a frequent bus service, but the train service is very poor. This is why the patronage for Ferry Road (and to a lesser extent, Victoria Road) is so low. Every train I saw at Ferry Road was used by at least one person (most by two, some by three). But, because the service is so infrequent, people choose the bus or another means of transport. The patronage could be increased by a more frequent train service, but I doubt that this will happen.

A Final Point of Irony
Despite this being a railway trip to Cornwall, at no point did I buy a Cornish Pasty, despite there being a seemingly endless supply of them at every railway station in the country.

Esker-pades · 1 Nov 2018

Trip #14: Kildonan (Far North Line Journey #2) - Visited 15th of September 2018
Original Post: https://felixunstructured.weebly.com/lusblog/far-north-line-journey-2-kildonan

Introduction
I don't know why, but I wanted to save Kildonan for a later point. There were other stations on the Far North Line that I wanted to visit first, but here it is. The reason for the visit was that it was announced by HITRANS (Highlands & Islands Transport Partnership) that they were proposing that the station would be closed meaning that I had to jump in in case it actually was. Much like the reason for visiting Breich almost exactly 1 year ago. In August, it was decided that Kildonan would not close, but the tickets had been booked, so I found myself at Haymarket station at 6am, waiting for my first train of the day.
Kildonan sits north of Helsmdale, near Kildonan Lodge in the Highlands. It is one of the most remote stations in the country. It is the 5th least used station overall, but the first station on the list that has a train every day. It also has one of the lowest passenger:train ratios of any station, with an average of 0.03 passengers per train, or 1 passenger for every 30 trains (there are 44 trains in a normal week). To put this in perspective, the current least-used station, Barry Links, has an average of 0.04 passengers per train.

The Journey
I arrived at Haymarket station in time for the 06:38 departure to Dunblane, which I took as far as Stirling. Changing there, I took the train that would carry me all the way to Inverness via the Highland Main Line. The train whisked me through the Highlands, sometimes stopping at settlements of various sizes. At Dalwhinnie, we were put into the wrong platform, which meant a few confused passengers had to do the weird run that only rail passengers do. The type that says “I'm trying to get to you faster, but I really can't be bothered to actually run”, leading to a half-arsed jog from one bit of the station down to the other. Dalwhinnie is the least-used on the Highland main line, used by all of ~3000 passengers per year. Continuing through the Highlands, we arrived at Inverness on time at 10:28.
As I alighted (train speak for “got off”) at Inverness, I noticed a large crowd of old people behind the ticket barriers looking at the departure boards. My 10:41 train onwards to the Far North Line was advertised on platform 6, but was the front unit of 2. My hope was that because this large crowd of people were all waiting behind the ticket barriers, they were getting the 10:56 service to Kyle of Lochalsh, which was yet to have a platform shown. I boarded a very quiet train, located my reserved seat, and waited. The PA system gleefully announced that we were going to Kyle of Lochalsh, before a very apologetic guard popped up to say that this was the Wick via Thurso train. The automatic announcements were quickly changed.
3 minutes later, a flood of pensioners boarded the train, complete with a tour guide in a kilt. They spent the next 15 minutes working out who was going to sit where, whilst the tour guide did his best to find a polite way of telling them all to just sit down for goodness sake. Luckily, my table was preserved from being swamped by the oncoming flood of tourists meaning that as we left Inverness (10 minutes late because of a late-running southbound service), I could sprawl across a few seats.
The guard came through, checking tickets. I made sure that she knew that I wanted to get off at Kildonan. She marked it off on her list and informed the driver. A person seated near me was going to Dunrobin Castle, a request stop which is open during the summer only. This is the first time I have been on a FNL service where the train has stopped at more than one request stop (usually, I am the only one who requests anywhere).
As we moved through more of the Highlands, the kilt-bearing tour guide walked up and down the carriage reeling off various facts about some of the things we passed. “That's the Caledonian Canal...” he said as we passed over the Clachnaharry swing bridge that takes the railway over the Caledonian Canal. At the other end of the canal (near Fort William), the West Highland line also crosses the canal via swing bridge, this time just after Banavie railway station. This the tour guide did not say.
At Ardgay, a proportion of the tour group alighted. Whilst being a perfectly pleasant little Highland village, there is very little to see at Ardgay. 5 minutes further along the line is Culrain station, where one can visit the Carbisdale Castle. Before you ask, yes: this is something that I will be doing for the blog at some point in the future. Culrain is a station with a very low annual patronage (~400 per year).
I learnt from listening to people speak that the majority of the tour group were getting off at Helmsdale. When we arrived, I had just left the toilet, meaning I was stuck in the vestibule area whilst an entire carriage-load of people got off from one door. Given that each of them needed to hold on to something whilst stepping down from the train to the platform, this meant the train spent rather a long time waiting. This wasn't helped by them then standing around at the bottom of the footbridge, blocking anyone else from getting off the train. We were held up for another minute whilst the tour guide ran on to make sure he hadn't left anyone behind (which he had). Once they had been rescued we departed Helmsdale.
Helmsdale is the last stop before Kildonan. The journey from one station to the next is timed as 13 minutes.
14 minutes later, we slowed for the unprotected level crossing just south of the station. The guard came to me, and asked that I moved to a different set of doors. We came to a stand at the station, with the comment “sorry, I thought this set of doors would line up with the steps. There's going to be quite a big gap down to the platform”. She released the doors and I jumped down to the platform. I thanked her and waved to the driver, who had stuck his head out of his window. The train departed a few seconds later, and I was left at Kildonan. It was 13:33, and I had been travelling for nearly 7 hours.

Kildonan
Kildonan station is surrounded by the rolling hills and mountains of the Highlands, located near 2 small houses and a river, known as the Kildonan Burn. Kildonan Lodge is located a 10 minute walk away. There is an unprotected level crossing immediately south of the station. The station facilities themselves include a small shelter, some noticeboards, a help point, a set of plastic steps, some bike ranks, a bench, a few bushes and about 5000 blades of grass. A second platform complete with a rotting wooden shelter is still visible, although this is heavily overgrown. There is also a bin, which contained about 500ml of rainwater, and 2 CCTV cameras. This is the first station I have been to for this series in Scotland that has CCTV, despite every station so far having a notice which says that there is 24 hour CCTV monitoring.

The house right next to the station had a large cage which contained 3 dogs. They were very vocal whenever I moved, which meant that they were yapping away at regular intervals. Another bout of yapping caught my attention because I hadn't moved to cause it. Instead a load of sheep had appeared from across the bridge. I just managed to capture a picture of their retreat before they had entirely disappeared from view.
I spent about 45 minutes at the station, before the other service to Inverness arrived. I made sure I was not on the platform, as I did not wish to confuse the driver. I was not getting on this train. Instead, I filmed it from the other side of the level crossing, getting a friendly wave as the driver set off from the mandatory stop (as the level crossing is unprotected, all trains have to stop, sound the horn, and then proceed). Having watched the train wind its way down the valley back towards Helmsdale, I decided it was time to explore the local area.

Firstly, I set off south and west up a private road, hoping to reach a vantage point. However, I was ignorant of the main aspect of the Highlands: there's a lot of them. As soon as I had reached one high point, the road continued upwards. After about an hour, I reached the highest point of the road. I was still nowhere near as high as any of the other hills/mountains around. I sat down on an area of grass which wasn't as wet as other patches, and ate some of my pasta.

“Being truly alone is something that is hard to achieve, but I seemed to have done it. With the wind breezing through the grass and whistling through the valley, an unidentified bird flapping above, and the occasional hum of the electricity cables, I was properly alone for the first time in years. I had no phone signal (to be honest, I didn't check) and only my bag to keep my company. There weren't even any weird-looking sheep to stare at up at the top of this hill. It was like a scene from Hinterland, just before a character gets shot. Cue lots of camera angles of Richard Harrington staring wet-eyed into the middle distance because he's just been reminded of how awful his life is. Luckily, I wasn't in an episode of Silent Witness, so I was able to walk back down the hill to the station, and then onwards to Kildonan Lodge.” And that was Thought for the Day. It's now 5 minutes to 8, so time to have a random guest on the show to talk about something that is very serious and important, like bees dying or Syria, but because it isn't very interesting and not about England, we're going to try and squeeze it into the 6 seconds before the weather.

Kildonan Lodge is a rather imposing Victorian hunting lodge. Very little of it can be seen by the public as it is mostly surrounded by trees. It is also the home of the Suisgill Estate, owned by some tedious financial person from the City of London.

Beyond the house, the small road from the station joins an A-road. There is a sign which indicates the existence of a station and a postbox. That is it.
A group of loud people in cars arrived, and then sped off in the direction of the station, after standing around at the junction for a couple of minutes. I busied myself looking at a notice for road closure that hadn't been removed, despite it being related to works that happened in August 2016. After the annoyingly loud cars and their awful drivers had sodded off down the lane, I followed after them in a much more sedate manner (I was using my feet).

10 minute later, I was back at the station. I arrived at about 16:35, in time for the 16:48 departure north to Thurso and Wick. However, I was not boarding that train, as I needed to get south back to Edinburgh. I used the help point to enquire about the live running information of the 16:48. I was worried that, because of the early delays to services on the line, trains would still be running late. One of the problems with the Far North Line is that because it is single track, the moment any train is late, it makes recovering time very difficult as trains still have to wait at the same passing loops for the late-running service to pass. This makes all services late for the rest of the day. The 16:48 was indeed late, but only by 8 minutes. After it had passed through, I went back into the station area, took some more pictures and generally enjoyed the atmosphere of the station.

A Person
In this series, people don't often feature. Most of the time, I am at stations which don't see many people, hence my reason for visiting them. And, when they do turn up they are worthy of a sentence about how weird it is to see them at the station.
About 15 minutes before my train south was due to arrive, a person walked into the station. She greeted me and I greeted her back, as is polite. It turned out that she was a walker on a short break in nearby Helmsdale, who had used the station twice that week as a starting point for walks. I commented that I was surprised to see someone else at the station. She began to be surprised that I existed after I had explained more about how few people actually used the station. She told me of her journey that morning, where she had practically had to drag the guard out of their compartment in order to get them to sell her a ticket from Helmsdale to Kildonan, and how the on-board catering manager had had a slight panic when she asked where the guard was with 6 minutes to go until Kildonan. She had also done walks from other stations that I wish to visit in this series, such as various stations along the Conwy Valley Line. A period of idle chat about railways later, the train curved into view with a toot of the horn. I stuck my hand up, received a toot of acknowledgement, and we both watched as the train came to a halt. She said “hi” to the driver, before climbing (literally due to the height of the platform) into the door, followed by me. The doors were immediately closed (the train was running late), and we were off.

The Return Journey
After we departed Kildonan, the conductor came down the train to complete the ticket check. My friend from the station then asked how rare two independent travellers getting on at Kildonan was.
“Very rare, I've never had it before” was the response. “It's also my first time that I've set down and picked up the same person at Kildonan. You [me] were the person I dropped off earlier, weren't you?” I was, and I said so. We spent the next 12 minutes to Helmsdale discussing various bits about timetables, people and request stops before the conductor went to do her duty. The lasts words exchanged between myself and the walker from Kildonan were “Good luck getting to Edinburgh tonight!” and “Thanks”.
Inverness is classified as a small terminus station which means the minimum connection time is 5 minutes. My train from Kildonan was scheduled to arrive at Inverness at 20:10, with my departure south scheduled to depart at 20:15, a 5 minutes interchange time. Therefore, you can see why an 8 minute delay is a big problem. The conductor asked me if I was going beyond Inverness, to which I responded “yes”, showing my onward ticket to Edinburgh. (I had taken advantage of split ticketing, splitting at Inverness. This meant I paid £25 for the full journey instead of £43.70.) At Brora, we were 9 minutes late, giving us quite a bit of time to make up. As we rolled closer to Inverness, we stopped again at Dunrobin Castle to pick up the lady who had alighted from the train on the way from Inverness. We also made a request stop at Invershin, leading the conductor to comment “God, these request stops are killing me!” to the catering lady as we slowed to a halt. Despite all of this, as we departed Invergordon (about 45 minutes from Inverness) we were only 4 minutes late. The good thing about this service is that it skips 4 stations at the south of the line in order for there to be a connection with the 20:15 southbound service. That means making up time is more realistic. As we left Invergordon, the conductor phoned ahead to ask if the 20:15 could be held to allow 3 passengers to connect. “Usually, they would just put you on the sleeper, but the sleeper doesn't run on Saturday evenings” she had said to me earlier.
We were only 1 minute late at Dingwall, and were running on time from Muir of Ord to Inverness. I expressed my thanks to the conductor as I briskly departed her service at Inverness, walking round to the waiting 20:15 south to Glasgow. I had to change one last time in order to get to Edinburgh. Making up 9 minutes is quite something when one considers that the train made 3 request stops and the conductor told me that the timetable was very tight.
It was dark at this point, so I slept for quite a bit of the journey back to Edinburgh. I changed at Bridge of Allan, mainly because it was a station I hadn't been to yet. I boarded the train to Edinburgh, slept some more, and got off at Haymarket at 00:08, exactly 17 and a half hours after I had started my journey to Kildonan there. You can see why I was sleeping for a lot of the southbound journey. I got home 19 hours after I had left. I had a cup of tea and slept.

Notes
Having visited Kildonan, I can slightly see why HITRANS proposed closure. However, it still hasn't convinced me that the station should close. Even though there are not many houses nearby, the population within its “catchment area” is a bit bigger and the precedent that it would set for other request stops with a low patronage is much more worrying. Also, the proposed 4 minutes reduction in journey times is unrealistic and dependent on investment in replacing the current unprotected level crossing. No time at all would be saved if the station was simply closed because trains would still have to stop at the level crossing. And, the replacement level crossing would probably be some awful, ugly thing, such as the one that exists at Duirinish (see my blog entry on that station here). Really, I have to spend an entirely separate post on all the challenges that the Far North Line faces and what I would do. That is something I plan to do at some point. Also, is having a 21 hour day worth it? Yes. Totally. Best way to spend a very long day that I could think of.

Esker-pades · 1 Nov 2018

Trip #15: The New ScotRail HSTs - 15th of October 2018
Original Post: https://felixunstructured.weebly.com/the-opinions-section/the-new-scotrail-hsts

Introduction
This Monday saw the first day of revenue-earning passenger service for ScotRail's “new” High Speed Train (HST) fleet (also known as the InterCity 125 (IC125) or class 43). As my university timetable allowed it, I decided to travel on the 2nd service of the day that it operated, the 13:30 from Edinburgh Waverley to Aberdeen (as far as Leuchars) to see how it worked on the main lines of Scotland. When fully introduced, they will operated services from Edinburgh/Glasgow to Dundee, Perth, Aberdeen and Inverness and operate in either 4 or 5 coach sets. This is a big improvement on the current 3 coach units which currently operate the bulk of these services.

The press run, which had taken place earlier in the week, had failed slightly as the train had broken down on the return journey for 46 minutes. However, I blame this on the pressure of the media. People old enough will remember the legendary Advanced Passenger Train (APT), a huge project which failed spectacularly and caused a lot of embarrassment for British Rail. The press run for that didn't go well either.

The Arrival of the HST
When I arrived at Waverley, I could already see a smattering of enthusiasts on the platform waiting for the HST to arrive. We didn't have to wait long. (Well, I didn't. I have no idea how long the others had been waiting for.) 5 minutes later, the fully refurbished train rolled into the platform and came to a halt. The enthusiasts then spent 10 minutes scampering around the platform trying to get as many angles of the train as possible. If anyone else has had the pleasure of doing train spotters spotting, it is quite a marvellous experience. I always imagine it with my internal David Attenborough voice, especially when I am partaking in rail enthusiast-y activities like confusing “normal” passengers by taking a picture of a train whilst wearing the most enormous grin.

The outside of the refurbished HST looks absolutely marvellous. The livery is simple and smart with a bit of proper artistic work on each powercar (the part of the train that actually provides the propulsion that allows it to move). The original slam doors have been replaced by automatic plug doors, and each vestibule has at least one of a bike rack, a luggage rack or a wheelchair space.

As the train had come from the depot, there was a period of about 15 minutes between arrival the doors actually being released to allow passengers on board. Therefore, as the platform began to fill up with actual travellers (not just enthusiasts), queues started to build up around each door. This is perfectly normal. What is also annoyingly frequent in this kind of situation is someone, who I can only describe as an entitled tit, coming up to a door, pressing the “open door” button and then being shocked when it doesn't work, despite there being about a dozen people standing around said door. Maybe one person may be a moron, but when every door has a collection of a few passengers around it, it's a safe bet that it isn't because all 50 of them are thick.

Soon enough, the doors were actually released, and I got a good look at the interior.

The Journey
At 13:30, the train departed, on time. It was fairly busy. Opposite me sat a lady who was reading her Kindle. Her glasses were positioned at the best possible position for the over-glasses-I-am-very-dissapointed-in-you teacher stare. A man opposite me was attempting to take a picture out of the window, and failing spectacularly. As we entered the Princes Street Tunnels, an announcement came over the tannoy. I was unable to understand it because it so quiet I could barely hear.
At Haymarket, a large crowd of people was waiting for the train. All seats were filled and a few people had to stand. “*Gasp* There's WiFi on here” exclaimed a female to a male. They had sat next to me and proceeded to talk for the duration of the journey.
The reason for the high level of patronage was due to engineering works in the Stirling area, meaning that people travelling from Glasgow to Aberdeen had had to divert via Haymarket meaning that almost two trainloads were piling onto the single train. Thank goodness that the HST increases capacity by a good deal. We departed Haymarket 2 minutes late. As we departed, I caught a glimpse of another ScotRail HST on a driver training service.
We crossed the Forth Bridge before skirting our way around the Fife Coast. The railway here is very beautiful, but the sun and window glare meant that taking any decent quality pictures was impossible. As we progressed further north, we continued to lose time. The timetables on the southern section of the Edinburgh to Aberdeen line are very tight due to the mixture of express and stopping services. We were stuck behind a slightly delayed stopping service. As our delay ticket up to 5 minutes, I started to worry slightly. I had only given myself 8 minutes at Leuchars between trains as I needed to get back to Edinburgh in order to attend a lecture. Luckily, we didn't loose any more time and rolled into Leuchars 5 minutes late.

I stood on the platform and observed the train crew running up and down the length of the train for some reason. After a 4 minute wait, the service departed, leaving me and quite a few other people on the platform. One of these people was the comedian Phill Jupitus, who asked a member of staff if “that train was new”. In fact, my video of the train departing has his voice in it, something which I am very proud of. He even took a picture of the train before leaving the station. I didn't speak to him, because I find it impossible to strike up that kind of conversation with anyone who I don't personally know. I had the same problem when I saw one of the actors from Horrible Histories at my local station in London a few years ago.

The Return Journey
The return service was slightly late arriving at Leuchars. It continued to sit in Leuchars for a further 6 minutes, before departing. It then immediately broke for the signal at the end of the platform. 30 seconds later, we were off again. Slowly. A 6 minute delay turned into 13 minutes at the next station. We sped up at that point, only to get stuck behind a stopping service 5 minutes afterwards. As the delay racked up, the guard apologised over the tannoy. The slow progress had been due to a track section failure between Leuchars and Cupar. Eventually, the train pulled into Edinburgh Waverley, a mere 21 minutes late. I hurried through the barriers, out of the station and up the hill towards the university. I just made my lecture.

My Actual Opinions on the ScotRail HST
When these trains are fully in service, it will be excellent. The HST will provide a big capacity increase and will help reduce journey times. They are also a lot more comfortable than the current trains which they will replace. Despite numerous delays in their introduction (the original timeline was for them to be fully introduced by the May 2018 timetable change, that now infamous document which messed up the lives of many people in the south and north of the country for months), the fact that they have begun service is only good news. Yes, there is only one in operation and, yes, very few will be ready by the December timetable change and, yes, it will probably be another 9-12 months before they are fully introduced. But, one has to start somewhere. And, they have started now and started well. Even the normal passengers who, in my experience, notice absolutely sod all about the train that they actually travel in, noticed that there was a difference and they liked it. Although, I cannot say how much this was due to the large quantity of “tell us how much you like our new trains” flyers which were liberally distributed across every table. Whilst I didn't travel or go in First Class, the noises from people who have actually been in it are very complimentary. Certainly a huge upgrade from the tiny segment of carriage that is currently offered on the current rolling stock.

All in all, I look forward to the full introduction of the HSTs on ScotRail routes. Long live the HST!

Esker-pades · 1 Nov 2018

Trip #16: Lochailort (West Highland Line Journey #1) - 27th of October 2018
Original Post: https://felixunstructured.weebly.com/lusblog/west-highland-line-journey-1-lochailort

Introduction
The West Highland Line runs from Glasgow to the Western ports of Oban and Mallaig via the West Highlands (as the name suggests). It provides connections to the various islands that lie off the west coast of Scotland. Due to the rural nature of the route, it passes through very small and remote places, some wonderful scenery and has become famous in its own right as one of the best railway journeys in the UK, possibly even the world. It was used for the filming of the Harry Potter series, and has had a steady stream of tourists through the summer months for The Jacobite, the only regular timetabled steam service which runs from Fort William to Mallaig (the very top end of the line) from June to October.
As mentioned before, the line has some very small and remote stations en-route. This ranges from places like Corrour, the highest station in the UK, which seems to exist mainly for the tourist attractions, to places like Lochailort and Beasdale which serve the tiny villages which are scattered across the line.
Lochailort station is situated close to the villages of Lochailort and Inverailort, near the mouth of the River Ailort and at the northern end of Loch Ailort. In recent years, patronage has declined from nearly 3000 passengers per year to about 1500 in the most recent figures. I decided that, whilst not under 1000 per year, it still warranted a visit.

The Journey
Instead of starting from my usual locations of London or Edinburgh, I found myself waking up in a hostel on the banks of Loch Lochy, which is located about 20 miles north and east of Fort William. Why was I there?
I am a librarian of the Edinburgh University Wind Band, which is a fabulous society. Every year, they have a weekend away to the same hostel in the Highlands where the members of band spend a student weekend (mostly getting drunk, although there are a lot of other things that happen). Last year, I realised that it would be possible to get from there down to Spean Bridge (which is the closets railway station located ~12 miles south) where I could have some railway experiences on the West Highland Line whilst my colleagues did university work, or played games, or slept (or a combination of all three). So, with my alarm going off at a prohibitively early 08:45am, I got dressed (doing my best not to disturb my snoozing room mates), packed my bag and went downstairs. There, breakfast was being prepared. I helped by eating some of it. I was enthusiastically waved off at about 10am by the remainder of the group as I started the 150 metre walk to the bus stop where I would catch a coach for the 20 minute journey to Spean Bridge. It was very cold (it never got above 5 degrees for the whole day), there was frost on the ground and snow on the peaks.
At 10:27, 2 minutes late, the coach arrived. I showed my “ticket” (the confirmation e-mail which I had printed off) and took my seat. We made another stop at Laggan Locks (about 5 minutes south) where another person boarded. 15 minutes later, the coach arrived into the village of Spean Bridge. The driver stopped at the bus stop, and I thanked him as I got off. I managed to take an awful picture of the bus departing. I then walked the 3 minutes to the railway station. The bus had arrived at Spean Bridge at 10:50, and my train to Lochailort departed at 11:56. I had just over an hour at Spean Bridge station.

Whilst not being a particularly underused railway station (~7000 people used it last year), I did enjoy Spean Bridge. The old station building has been converted into a restaurant. There is also an old signal box which hasn't yet decayed. One of the odd things is that trains at Spean Bridge run the “wrong way”. Usually, trains in the UK run on the left-hand side. However, trains at Spean Bridge run on the right hand side. It is a passing loop, so it doesn't really matter, but I found this quite confusing as I automatically went to the left-hand platform (as looking in the Fort William direction) before realising that I had gone to the wrong one. The Glasgow-bound platform extends into a small wood which as going into a lovely shade of autumnal colours.

At 11:54, the southbound service to Glasgow arrived on the other platform. It was supposed to depart at 11:56, the same time as my Mallaig service. The two trains are meant to pass each other at Spean Bridge. However, this Glasgow service was given the authority to proceed into the single track section beyond Spean Bridge. This confused me, and also another passenger who had arrived wanting a train to Fort William. By this point, another Network Rail person had arrived. They were discussing various events. I overheard one of them say that the female driver of 1Y22 (the early morning service from Oban to Glasgow) had overrun a signal. I only add the information about the driver being female because the Network Rail people constantly repeated it. “So SHE overran the signal, and then SHE spoke to the signaller who told HER that SHE could proceed but then SHE reported it...” (I paraphrase slightly.) I spoke to them asking if they knew what was going on about our 11:56 to Mallaig which, at this point, had been wiped from the departure board. They said that it was coming and that they were waiting for it too. Earlier in the day, there had been a points failure at Spean Bridge meaning that they needed to make sure that trains could run over the points in question without them failing again. This also helped explain why the signaller had decided not to allow the trains to pass at Spean Bridge. If the points had failed again, that would have meant our Mallaig service would be able to use the “wrong” platform and be able to continue perfectly well. However, if the points failed and both trains had been in the station, then they would have been stuck.
The passenger who wanted to travel from Spean Bridge to Fort William said that she would use the bus from now on due to the disruption she experienced. I can't say I blame her, although public transport in this area of Scotland is sparse, especially during the weekends so I doubt that she will entirely abandon the railway, even if it is deeply annoying.

Finally, about 35 minutes late, the 11:56 service finally arrived.

We both boarded, and the train set off for Fort William. At Fort William, the train reversed in order to continue to Mallaig. On board, passengers were requested by the guard to make contact with him if they were supposed to be making connections to the 2pm sailings from Mallaig. Once we had set off from Fort William, the guard came through to check tickets. I showed my tickets and requested Lochailort. Lochailort is a request stop. We passed through various little settlements, some of which I will be visiting for the blog. We also passed over the famous Glenfinnan viaduct, which is quite a spectacle. Not only is it a fabulous piece of engineering in spectacular countryside, it is also hilarioius to watch various tourists and the like cram over to one side of the train to take out-of-focus phone pictures of it. 2 minutes later, we arrived at Glenfinnan station, one of the most well used on the Fort William to Mallaig section of the line. Lochailort is the station after Glenfinnan. However, it takes 15 minutes to traverse this section of the railway. It passes through some wonderful scenery, including around Loch Eilt. After we had run the length of the Loch, we crossed the road via a bridge and clung round the Highlands until Lochailort station came into view. The train stopped and I got out. The conductor wished me a nice day and pointed at the exit. I thanked him and soon the train was departing west to Mallaig. I had arrived 36 minutes late.

Lochailort Station
Lochailort station is located quite a distance above the road and the village in terms of height. A disused and very overgrown platform is visible. The facilities of the remaining platform are a waiting room, some notices, a CCTV pole and a gate. The station also has a car park where most of the notices, a help point and some bike racks are. I was disappointed that the station was all tarmac, rather than the usual red gravel that the majority of lesser-used Scottish stations have.

When I arrived, there was a group of Network Rail vehicles (yes, again) complete with people. I spent about 20 minutes at the station with them before deciding that I should vacate the station and explore the local area before returning and doing a more extensive documentation of the station before my train back. Despite the delay, I still had over 3 hours to play with.
As I walked down the path, the group of Network Rail employees appeared to get the “all-clear” from their control, so they ventured out on to the line to start working on whatever it was they were doing.

The Surrounding Area
Meanwhile, I had arrived in the village of Lochailort, which appear to consist of a hotel, a church and a bus stop. There was also a phone box, which had a notice of termination in it. It stated that, 42 days from the notice being put up, the phone box would be removed. That notice was dated August 2016, a mere 800 days ago. I turned left off the main Fort William to Mallaig road towards the Loch, the river and the village of Inverailort. The scenery by Loch Ailort is brilliant, so I spent some time enjoying it.

As I had walked down to the Loch, I had noticed a rather imposing building, known as Inverailort House, nearby. I decided to explore it. Inverailort House is a Victorian building which, over the years, has been used as Farmhouse, a Shooting Lodge and a training base for the army during the Second World War. Since then, it has been abandoned meaning that it has slowly decayed. Now, some windows are boarded up, others are broken and it is covered in “DANGER: KEEP OUT” signs. The gates to the grounds are locked, and I assume the doors to the actual house are locked too, although the state of the windows means that it wouldn't be too hard to gain entry. I did not venture either into the grounds or the house. I stayed outside to gather my pictures.

With about an hour and a half to go before my train back to Spean Bridge, I returned to the station in order to gather more pictures and enjoy the solitude.

The Return Journey
My train back to Spean Bridge arrived about 5 minutes late. I enjoyed the journey back to Fort William. There a group of two fantastically stereotypical hipsters boarded at sat opposite me, complete with bandannas, dreadlocks and alcohol. I was most annoyed. A female passenger who had been on the train the whole time I had been on joined them. They proceeded to drink some orange juice before decanting their entire bottle of rum into the partly empty orange bottle. Hipster one (the one with the stupid beard and bandanna) proceeded to drink a bit before exclaiming “****, that's really strong”. Clearly they hadn't worked out the basic physics of stirring/shaking. By that point I had put my headphones on. I showed my intense displeasure at their loud and obnoxious existence by staring out of the window for the duration of the journey from Fort William to Spean Bridge. An elderly couple opposite me made more vocal exclamations of annoyance at the hipsters as they moved carriage due to the racket. This caused the hipsters to move across to the unoccupied seats so that they could sit together. They forgot the bottle cap, and spent about 5 attempts trying to reach it from their seat before one got up off their bum and retrieved it.

The train arrived at Spean Bridge, where I got off. I walked the short distance back to the bus stop where I had another hour-long wait before another coach arrived to take me back to the hostel. The driver very kindly dropped me off directly outside the hostel, rather than at the bus stop which was about 100 metres to the north. I thanked him and went inside, just in time for the wind band committee to serve supper. Despite it having been a successful trip, I was very cold and was looking forward to something hot.

Notes
People who have read previous posts will know that I am very pro small stations that serve small villages. The people of Lochailort, Inverailort and other tiny settlements that fall into the catchment area of Lochailort station deserve a form of public transport.

Inverailort House was a nice bonus as I was not expecting it to exist. Prior to the trip, I had not realised it existed. Part of me wishes that I had had the courage to venture into the grounds and have a proper poke around to see what was going on, but the other part of me thinks that I was right to stay well away. Derelict buildings should not be ventured into, if any sci-fi film or television show is to be believed. Or, more importantly, if structural engineers are to be believed.

Kite159 · 1 Nov 2018

Some good trips & excellent photos

Skymonster · 1 Nov 2018

Some very nice reports there Mr. Cat - I look forward to reading about more of your unstructured trips in future.

55013 · 1 Nov 2018

Fabulous stuff, giving me both inspiration and memories.
Thanks for posting; I too look forward to further reports.

PeterY · 1 Nov 2018

It'll take me several goes to go though all your stations. All the blogs are well wrote and readable. Most stations I have passed though. Thank you for sharing.

Esker-pades · 2 Nov 2018

Thanks very much (to all of you). More reports will happen at some point. I usually do about one "big trip" per month.

Blinkbonny · 2 Nov 2018

Good stuff!

433N · 3 Nov 2018

Much to read here requiring multiple visits.

It's interesting reading people's trials and tribulations getting to Breich. The uninformed might be led to believe that it's in the middle of nowhere but actually only 20 miles from Edinburgh ; it would be commuter belt if it were that London.

Still I guess that's why it's called the Wild West.

Esker-pades · 15 Nov 2018

Trip #17 - A Return to Breich (Back to the Start): 10th of November 2018
Original Post: https://felixunstructured.weebly.com/lusblog/back-to-the-start-a-return-to-breich

Introduction
My first ever post on this blog (and indeed this website) was my trip in September 2017 to Breich station in West Lothian. When I visited the station, I didn't originally plan to write about it. However, in a moment of sheer boredom, I scrawled something down, set up a website and shoved my account up on the internet. Now, about 14 months later, I have a project that I'm working on. If you read my original post, then you may remember that I mentioned Network Rail proposed closure of the station due to the high costs associated with upgrading it ready for the electrification works. I also noted that the proposal for closure had been denied. For a long period of 2017-2018, Breich was closed whilst Network Rail entirely re-built the station, both to bring it up to date and to accommodate the extra electrification infrastructure. I decided that the rebuild was a reason for me to revisit the station and see the change for myself.

This post is also a chance for me to test my new phone (yes, exciting). My previous phone lasted for 3 years and has been used to take all the pictures so far for this blog. It finally started to die, meaning that I had to exchange it for a new one. The new phone lasted for a grand total of 36 hours before throwing a tantrum at my choice of radio station and died completely. Whilst I would have accepted this response if I had made it tune to Heart FM or some other ghastly “music” radio station, I don't accept this as a response to the BBC World Service. So, back to the phone shop it was. I visited various branches of the same company's shops 4 times in as many days before the situation was resolved satisfactorily. Of course, one of my biggest hobbies (outside the railways) is standing by a counter in a slightly-too-cold shop whilst a member of staff asks me questions such as “did you try turning it off and on again?”. It's almost as interesting as the harmonic progressions of a particularly exotic Wagner opera. However, I now have a phone, which works and has a better camera than my previous one did.

(For those of you who haven't read my original post on Breich, I would suggest that you do because the change from then to now is quite substantial. It is available here.)

The Journey
Despite the re-building, Breich continues to have a very limited service of just one train per day in each direction, and no trains on Sundays. There is a service at 08:06 from Glasgow to Edinburgh, and a return at 18:38. This means that one has to use alternative transport in at least one direction because standing on a platform for 10 and a half hours is not something even someone as mad as me would enjoy.

Previously, I had used the train to get to Breich and the bus to return. This time, I decided to use the bus to get there and the train to return.

I found myself approaching Haymarket station on Saturday, armed with a 2 litre water bottle and hope. I had successfully chosen a day when there was a rugby match going on at Murrayfield. When I arrived, the match was still going on, but the queueing system had already been laid out. Having purchased my tickets, I weaved my way through the station before arriving on the platform in time for my train to peak out of the tunnel and stop at the station. I boarded the train and took my seat for the 20 minute journey to West Calder, where I would pick up a bus to take me the rest of the distance to Breich. The train vibrated violently as it attempted to reach the speed limit. This wasn't very pleasant, so I was glad when it dropped me off at West Calder, only a couple of minutes late.

I walked the short distance from the station to the main area where I ducked into a shelter to wait for my bus.

My grandmother recently told me somebody had said that it never rained in Edinburgh. As I sat in the bus shelter, watching the rain sheeting down, those words seemed rather hollow. To be fair, I was actually in West Calder, which is a whole 17 miles away. Furthermore, everyone knows that rain avoids Edinburgh altogether because there is a very big Primark in the city centre. If there's one thing rain can't stand, it's making a Primark and a Sainsbury's Local wet at the same time. I checked the weather forecast and saw that there was a 70% chance of precipitation right up until 8pm that night. It looked like I was going to be in for a wet visit to Breich.

The bus was 10 minutes away at this point. A car drew up to the bus stop and parked there and the driver ran into the shop. This isn't good behaviour, but I decided not to take a picture of the car out of respect for his privacy. Instead, I watched as a different bus held up traffic as it performed its normal duties due to the selfishness of this car driver. He returned 5 minutes later with a 12-pack of beer cans. All respect quickly vanished. The numberplate of the car is MX14YYZ.

Shortly afterwards, my bus arrived. Since I had last visited the town, the route had changed operator from First Group to Blue Bus Scotland. The single far from West Calder to Breich has reduced by 80p, but the service has been maintained. The route also doesn't insist on taking a huge detour via the whole of Addiewell on its way from West Calder to Breich. It is for this reason that I prefer Blue Bus Scotland.

I was deposited in the rain in the middle of Breich village along with one other person. The railway station is a 15 minute walk outside the village, which is one of the factors for its low use. That, the lack of a sizeable population nearby (other than the village) and the severe lack of trains.

Breich Station
After quite a boring trudge up the main road, made worse by the rain and the darkness of night (even though it wasn't even 5pm), I found myself on the approach to the station. Other than the main entrance from the crossroads, there is a short, steep footpath (which is much more convenient when approaching from Breich village). At this entrance, a new sign proudly tells me that this station was built by CTP Construction. I walked down it, only to be greeted by a some barriers and fences. I had to walk up a mud track (which is used by Network Rail vehicles) to the main entrance in order to legitimately gain access to the station, which involved walking back down this track, this time using the tarmacked ramp which was protected by fences at either side.

I do not like the new-look Breich station. It has lost all the original rural charm, un-kept vegetation and adorable little features that the previous station had. Instead, it has become a very standard, modern and bland place, only with the same awful level of service. The platforms are significantly shorter than they once were; They stop at the entrance to the station where previously they continued further towards the road bridge. At the other end, they stop well short of their previous length. The positions for trains to stop are at roughly the same place on the railway line as they were before, although these positions relative to the platforms have changed so that they are now at either end rather than roughly the middle. The footbridge has gone meaning that people have to use the road bridge in order to cross from one platform to the other. The only good thing about the new station (from my point of view) is that it is now fully accessible. Otherwise, I much prefer the old station.

The facilities are better than they were previously. There are now shelters, benches and a help point on both platforms, although the only Smartcard reader I could find was located on the Glasgow-bound platform (passengers for Edinburgh would have to walk all the way down the ramp to the opposite platform, touch their Smartcard, then return up the ramp to the road, cross the bridge and back down the ramp in order to board the train, which is a tripling of the distance). Where Breich previously had no CCTV cameras and a notice warning people of the existence of CCTV cameras, it now has two notices and 12 CCTV cameras. This is fairly excessive for a small 2 platform station. See if you can spot them all!

Despite the re-build, the station has drainage issues, as illustrated here.

After I had spent about an hour walking between the two platforms and getting some weird looks from motorists, I decided that my hands had frozen enough and I was due a break. I took refuge in a waiting room for the remaining hour. My phone had also got quite wet, despite my best efforts to protect it from the elements by putting it an old sock for the times I wasn't using it to take pictures. I dried it on one of my inner layers, un-smeared it using an old glasses cloth and walked around the small shelter on the Glasgow-bound platform waiting for the 18:38 departure. I was glad to be in one place by this point because I had been finding the logistics of taking pictures whilst also keeping track of my 2 litre water bottle quite a challenge.

At 17:58, 40 minutes before my train was due, it popped up on the departure board (previously these had either been displaying “please see station timetable posters or use the help point for more information” - I didn't see any such posters at the station, or “Please stand clear, the next train is passing through”). It then flicked from “on time” to “delayed” to “9 minutes late” before slowly increasing as the minutes ticked by. I realised that a lot of this delay would be down to the scrum of passengers coming from the rugby (pun intended).

Leaving Breich
The train arrived 14 minutes late. As the conductor got out of the back, I gave him a small wave. He released the doors and I boarded. I found a seat that wasn't too full of rugby fans and beer, and also wasn't too close to an open window. It was 6 degrees outside and still raining. Why windows were open, I have no idea.

Because it wasn't actually that late (it wasn't even 7pm by the time I was on board), I decided to explore some of the suburban Glasgow network that I hadn't previously done before heading back to Edinburgh and home. I bought a ticket from the guard from Breich to Lanark (in Lanarkshire). This involved a change at Bellshill. I changed there, and discovered that our delay meant I had missed the connection to Lanark. I got the next one 30 minutes later and enjoyed the short round trip to Lanark and back into Glasgow. I alighted at Glasgow and took a quick picture of the train before standing and fumbling for my ticket. This meant that someone mistook me for a member of staff and asked me if they could be let through the ticket barriers as their ticket had been mutilated. Given that I was wearing headphones and was looking blankly at the floor, I was unsure why he had decided that I was a member of staff. Possibly my blue raincoat, which (as everyone knows) is only worn by ScotRail staff. Nobody other than employees of Abellio ScotRail has ever worn a blue raincoat. My coat wasn't even the right shade of blue.

Given that this man had touched my arm without permission, I decided I deserved a reward of fish and chips. I bought some and ate them on the concourse at Glasgow Queen Street. The platform for my train to Edinburgh was announced and I joined the scrum at the ticket barriers. I was very pleased that my train was formed of the new class 385 electric train that ScotRail recently introduced. This was to be my first travel on one of these problematic beasts. I used the age-old trick of using the coaches furthest away from the entrance to get a seating area to myself whilst the majority piled in at the back. My quick review is that they are clean and fresh, although the announcements are far too numerous and the seating is much less comfortable than previous rolling stock.

I finished my water on the train home and discarded the bottle into a recycling bin near Haymarket station. Environmental.

Notes
Whilst upgrades must happen in the name of progress, Breich is a baffling case. Network Rail have spend an awful lot of money to completely re-build the entire station, but there are no other benefits. Currently, no additional trains stop at Breich meaning that it is as unattractive as it has always been for passengers, only now it has cost the taxpayer and fare-payer millions of pounds. I hope that, when the new electric services are introduced on the route that Breich gets at least an hourly service. This would put it on par with all the other stations on the line. Otherwise, it will have been a huge waste of money. I have already made my opinions on the aesthetics of the station clear, and it is a shame that so much of its charm has been removed in the refurbishment.

What do you think about the re-build? Do write in. (Or not, I really don't mind.)

Kite159 · 30 Nov 2018

Breich is certainly an odd case, hopefully it gets a better service to try and warrant the spending

When I was there non stopping trains were announced by the speakers, normally after they passed.

Esker-pades · 1 Dec 2018

Kite159 said:
Breich is certainly an odd case, hopefully it gets a better service to try and warrant the spending

When I was there non stopping trains were announced by the speakers, normally after they passed.

I didn't hear any announcements for passing trains. The departure boards showed the "please stand clear" message a minute or so beforehand.

Esker-pades · 2 Dec 2018

Trip #18a: WCML Day 1: Windermere and Preston

Having completed the first semester of my 2nd year of university, I decided to explore bits of the West Coast of England that I hadn't done before. I had a concert on the Friday evening, so I gave myself Saturday morning to recover so I could go on a short trip to Windermere in the afternoon. Preston was an added bit of bonus mileage, because a return for TransPennine Express only costs less than the OPDR to Oxenholme. I planned my trains, and boarded the 14:17 from Edinburgh Waverley.

Having no seat reservation was annoying, but mitigated by the fact all reservations for that journey had been scrapped due to short forming (4 vice 8). I settled down at the front of the train in a nice 2 seater, next to the window. Yes, an actual window seat, not one of those seats with a view of the off-white panelling. At Haymarket, an elderly lady sat next to me. We departed and I put on my selection of podcasts (BBC Radio 4 comedy).

One of the pleasures of travelling in Scotland is how quickly the city gives way to the countryside. The line from Edinburgh down to Carstairs is no exception. Soon we were rushing over rivers, past little villages and their level crossings all with rolling hills in the background. This section of text was brought to you by the Scottish Tourist Board.

The obligatory crawl around Carstairs came and went, giving the train an opportunity to get back up to a proper speed. At this point, cloud and most was descending quite rapidly, giving the whole area a rather eriee look~~/vibe~~. (No, not vibe. I fundamentally dislike it. It's purely a way to sugar-coat rubbish or to disguise one's own prejudices.) Lockerbie was stopped at, and allowed quite a few people to get off leaving a bit more space for others. Carlisle was more of an exchange of passengers.

We then had the ticket check. I learnt that the lady sitting next to me had a first class ticket, but (for some reason) decided to stay put. She described herself to the guard as "perfectly comfortable here", despite his offerings of help moving luggage and assurance that there was a seat. I was slightly baffled as, having been sitting in the train for 90 minutes, by bum was starting to complain. She told the guardgshe had missed her connection by 3 seconds. I made sure I was allowed to break my journey at Oxenholme.

I found out that she was travelling from Aviemore. We had a short discussion about the upcoming timetable change and then proceeded to isolate ourselves from each other again; me with my headphones and her with her newspaper. It wasn't The Daily Mail or some other bastian of journalistic integrity (sarcasm alert) which pleased me. I am a fan of proper journalism, not screaming. Screaming is useful in situations such as a screaming competition, not a debate about the future of the UK.

The next station was Oxenholme. We arrived about 4 minutes late. I alighted, along with some other passengers. I had timed myself so that I caught the last return working before the strike timetable died.

It was dark by this point, meaning I wasn't able to enjoy the Windermere branch. The train was fairly empty up to Windermere.

On the way back it got quite busy at Staveley. Burneside saw a large quantity of teenagers board, teenagers who proceeded to mess around with the toilet. We all got off at Oxenholme.

I had 45 minutes before the next TransPennine to Preston. I sought shelter from the very fine drizzle in the waiting room, where I also found a charging point for my phone. I spent the next period listening to my podcasts and occasionally venturing outside to see the infrequent freight services bomb through. There is something rather awesome about freight moving at speed. 2 intermodals later, I boarded a slightly delayed service to Preston.

Despite the service being rather crowded (another 4 car 350 from Edinburgh), I found a fully unoccupied 4 seater. I settled down there before 2 others joined me. Shortly afterwards, the smell of beer and cigarettes filled there air. I was unable to work out if it was the people or the train from which the smell was originating from. I didn't fancy asking, especially as one had already gone to sleep.

By the time 18:30 hit, I had been on the move for over 4 hours and hadn't eaten for at least 6. A quick check on Google maps located a Greggs about 5 minutes from the station. With a 20 minute gap between trains, I decided to risk it.

The risk was not worth it. Greggs was shut. I returned to the station wet and pissed off. I had a sulk on the platform for 10 minutes before a very crowded train arrived to take me to Edinburgh. The crowding thinned out at Lancaster, and by Oxenholme everyone could have a seat, although some chose not to. By Carlisle, I was spreading across four seats.

A signal failure lead to us loosing 20 minutes between Kingmoor and Gretna Junction. The losses continued, and another slow patch around the Beattock area lead to a 25 minute delay arriving into Haymarket. I alighted and left the station. A quick drink and meal ahome sufficed before I crashed for the evening, ready for the next day's travel.

Tomorrow: Continued north west stuff.

Esker-pades · 3 Dec 2018

Trip #18b: More North West Stuff

Day 2 say me arrive back at Haymarket bright and early for a train at 10:55. (Student bright and early.) My ticket from Haymarket to Lancaster was purchased, and soon I was on platform 4. I rarely travel by train on a Sunday, but I had found the ones that existed and created a plan. Platform 4 was crowded due to a cancelled Edinburgh to Glasgow service. From the semi-frequent announcements, I understood that quite a few ScotRail services were being cancelled. Luckily, I was on a Virgin Trains service. It wasn't cancelled. A double Voyager rolled in, with 221101 on the back.

Once on board, I plopped myself into an unreserved seat. There, I texted a friend that I had bagged the new Virgin Train livery Voyager. I sent a picture plus the word "Sexy". Unfortunately, the picture didn't send as I passed through a data blackspot. My friend was rather confused.

My ticket was stamped (sort of) my the conductor or train manager of whatever the heck the proper title is, and I enjoyed the 70 minute run down to Carlisle.

I alighted at Carlisle, snapped the middle of the train, and left the station.

My aim was to pop to a nearby supermarket to get some water and some butter. I needed butter because I had run out the night before whilst making my sandwiches. As I returned to Carlisle station through the rain, I contemplated using my railcard to spread my new pack of butter over my chronically under-buttered packed lunch. I decided against it, mainly because the butter was frozen solid, but also because I have enough social anxiety as it is without doing something objectively wired in public.

I returned to the station and decided to buy the additional tickets I required to complete my journey legally. After a misunderstanding from the ticket office (because I somehow mispronounced the place 'Hellifield'), I was given 4 pieces of loo roll and a receipt. These new tickets are rubbish. 0/10. I left the ticket office and just managed to catch a 185 with a fairly impressive looking bird in the front.

All that was left for me to do was to grab a snap of the 158 that would take me to Shipley, and then board it.

It turned out that only the front unit was running. I got on at the very front, and settled down. An elderly lady sat opposite me and busied herself with a newspaper. We departed Carlisle on time.

The Settle to Carlisle line is as fabulous as it is said to be. I am glad that I will be re-visiting the line later in my life as I have some small stations to visit on the line. When I was travelling, it was very misty (again) with quite a low cloud cover. However, I still had an excellent view of stuff. Very scenic stuff.
Very few passengers boarded at the stations along the line. There was a smattering here and there, but the train didn't really have any more people. At Skipton, a crowd of people piled on. It was full and standing to Shipley, when I got off.

I swapped to another platform where I boarded my first class 333. I decided to take it to Skipton and then board my train to Lancaster there.

And now, random questions from the guard. I was using a Hellifield to Shipley return for this part of the day. When I showed this ticket to the guard he asked "do you live in Hellifield?" I said that I didn't and that I was travelling onwards to Lancaster, showing him my ticket onwards to Lancaster. He then asked "do you live in Lancaster?" I didn't. I said that I didn't. He then did the usual scribble on my ticket and continued his rounds. Because I was slightly taken aback at the question, I hadn't fully processed everything in time to ask him what the reason was for asking the question. This caused me to post a thread on forums, which has evolved somewhat. I thought that it would either have a railway explanation, or it was just a game which guards play. "This week, whoever finds the most passengers from Hellifield win a beer." I don't know how depot camaraderie works.

I switched trains and platforms at Skipton. To my surprise, another 158 turned up to take me to Lancaster. On the journey, it got dark and we lost time. A crawl around Settle Junction and again on the approach to Carnforth lead to a 15 minute delay on arrival at Lancaster. I continued on the same unit back to Carnforth, because it ran via Morecambe and the north chord from Bare Lane to Hest Bank. Rare track coverage (ish). Back at Carnforth, I had 40 minutes to wait before I could return to Lancaster and then Haymarket. I watched trains speed past the station in the rain. A bonus was my first sighting of a class 88.

I was pleasently surprised when the RAF 156 (480) arrived to take me back to Lancaster. We simmered at Carnforth for over 5 minutes to allow a slightly late running Virgin service to pass ahead of us. After that, we rocked down to Lancaster. I grabbed a picture before deciding to dash across and grab a Pendolino to Penrith.

I charged my phone on the journey to Penrith. I then alighted and sat in a dark waiting room for my train to Edinburgh. It arrived, late, and I spent the time between Penrith and Lockerbie switching between seats in the front carriage. Having found somewhere that I liked, I watched in despair as my phone went into the low battery state. It was dark by now, and there was nothing to do other than to stare blankly at various people on the train. The train didn't make up any time. A TSR held us up more. We arrived into Haymarket 20 minutes late. I alighted and went home. I cooked myself some food, ate it, drank some tea, and slept.

Tomorrow: The early one, including a thing.

Kite159 · 3 Dec 2018

Sounded like a nice couple days out

Felix's Unstructured Trips

Established Member

RailUK Forums

Established Member

Established Member

Established Member

Established Member

Established Member

Established Member

Established Member

Established Member

Established Member

Established Member

Established Member

Established Member

Established Member

Established Member

Established Member

Established Member

Veteran Member

Established Member

Established Member

Established Member

Established Member

Member

Guest

Established Member

Veteran Member

Established Member

Established Member

Established Member

Veteran Member