Kite159
Veteran Member
19th April – A Glaswegian long weekend
In December time, there was a change to the routing of a Manchester Airport – Glasgow Central TPE service to make use of the Mossend East to North curve, which remained uncovered (Allows trains to go from Whifflet towards Holytown, and has been used in the past for engineering works when the main-route via Bellshill has been closed), this gave me an excuse to use up a “reward” day at work (basically an additional day off if we meet certain targets), and accidently booked the sleeper to Edinburgh rather than Glasgow on the Thursday night
Day 0 on the Thursday was a basic day, nothing of interest other than 158886 working the 18:59 service to Waterloo, where I had a few hours of “what on earth to do” time to waste, so it was a walk across to Waterloo East for 376026 & 376034 for the short leap to London Bridge before timing it right with 700119 across the curve to Blackfriars to find Thameslink in a bit of a pickle due to various issues, so I decided to pop outside the station (as I needed to change over to my Oyster card here anyhow), and have a bus trip to the Stratford City bus station on a route 388 service (fleet number 2528) and it was interesting seeing parts of East London, however options at Stratford City were limited (a lot of services heading further east), but I came up with an idea with Google Maps so it was onto bus MEC46 working a route 108 service to Bow Church, then eventually onto bus 12321 working a route 205 short service (normally would carry on to Paddington but was coming out of service at Warren Street).
This bus was fine until it reached the Liverpool Street area, where it hit severe traffic due to a road traffic incident closing the A501 forcing a divert via the A10 to the A2108 junction, where the bus regained its original route, and I alighted at Euston (with one eye on the clock), walked over towards the station to check into the sleeper, I already knew that dud 90046 was on the front so didn’t go up to check as my legs were hurting. The Edinburgh seats tonight was reasonably busy, at a guess 80% full (there was no spare double seats), but it was a speedy run northbound, going via Northampton according to RTT.
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20th April – Day 1
I slept alright, bit cold at times, as the train arrived at Carstairs for the split, 90043 attached to the rear to haul the Edinburgh portion towards Edinburgh arriving pretty much bang on time, and at the far end of platform 7. It was time for plan C as I headed over to buy an Anytime day return to Inverkeithing and headed over towards platform 19, turning down a busy looking grotty 158 on a Perth service (one of the ones soon to be heading to Scotland), in flavour of a 158 from Tweedbank towards the Fife Circle, sadly it wasn’t a mileage requirement as 158732 took me to Inverkeithing, the train emptying out at South Gyle.
I wonder if anybody could guess the reason why I have travelled to Inverkeithing during the morning peak. Yes you have got it in one, it was for some Cat Thrash with dud 68006 working the short set before winner 68016 purred in for the trip back to Edinburgh, a nice speedy run (and once more emptied out at South Gyle, which has some awful connections these days to the Cats), but another non TPE bound 68 into my book (leaving just 001, 002 & 017 of that batch). Here they are rolling into the station:
Once back at Edinburgh I grabbed some breakfast, purchased my single to Glasgow & met up with Dan (BlindTraveller) for some tasty voyager action via Carstairs, 221129 would be in charge for the trip to Glasgow Central and I was clever enough to pre-reserve a seat just in case it was busy, however it wasn’t that busy in coach D, plenty of seats and an excuse to give my phone a good charge for new route coverage by XC (Haymarket to Slateford Junction, and Motherwell to Glasgow Central, which leaves Dundee – Aberdeen & Par – Newquay as my main XC uncovered routes).
An enjoyable speedy run, and soon we had arrived at Glasgow Central, flipping a coin in my head at which ticket office would have the shortest queue, and headed to the one at the low level concourse (sadly that had a large queue), eventually buying my Roundabout ticket, and heading downstairs to the platforms to jump on 320322 to Rutherglen, giving a nice connection onto 320303 for the run to Milngavie arriving into platform 1. With half an hour to kill we headed to a nearby Tesco for a lunch supply raid before returning to the station where the next departure was going from the lesser used platform 2 (it would attach to a 318 currently enjoying the sunshine)
Anyhow 320306 rolled into the station, emptied out as the driver closed the doors to do a single man attachment onto 318259 before releasing the doors to allow passengers to board, but it meant both platforms at Milngavie were safety into my book. Me & Dan alighted from the 320 at Westerton, and headed across to the opposite platform for 320304 to Dalmuir, followed by a trio of 156s heading towards the West Highlands for a tiny leap to Dumbarton Central 156477, 156449 & 156496 doing that run (and at Dalmuir it be a case of spotting which door the guard opens as it be local door only for triple 156s as the rear door just hangs over the end of the platform).
A cross platform interchange put us onto a tasty 320314 for the long trip to Cumbernauld, motor coach action on the fast run from Springburn towards Cumbernauld, probably for the last time on a 320 on this part of line as it is due to be cut back to Springburn come the new timetable (and quite frankly the train was pretty dead). Once at Cumbernauld we crossed over to board 320322 for the second time of the day for the run to Motherwell, before 320317 took us back to Glasgow Central via Bellshill. A short connection at Glasgow Central saw us onto 318250 to Mount Florida for a nice connection onto my first 314 of the year in the shape of 314215 back to Glasgow Central once more, just for some PEP thrash. Mmm Pep thrash.
I left Dan in the pub to do some work as I walked to Buchanan Street on the subway for a single stop to Cowcaddens (I was aiming for St Enoch but turned the wrong way), formed of 118/124/102, in order to check into the Easy Hotel, dropping some weight and saving a job for later in the day. Back to Cowcaddens subway station and a short hop to St Enoch on 105/128/119 as I headed back towards Central station via a Poundland for a couple bottles of pop for a £1, and dodging the out of control cyclists who thinks red lights are simply beyond them (self-regulation has clearly failed, a number plate system needs to be introduced to crack down on the dodgy cyclists). Anyhow it was a short wait before 156446 & 156430 rolled in to form the next East Kilbride service for a gentle slow potter to the end of the line, swapping units onto my first refurbished 156 and I do say that Scotrail have done a good job, the seats are ironing boards but they seem more comfortable, plug/USB sockets and decent leg room in the airline seats (better than in a table seat). The main reason for heading out to East Kilbride is to score the Hairmyres Loop which mainly comes into play during the peaks, so it was another loop ticked off (because after All the Stations and All the Bays, comes “All the Loops” (probably not!).
With some time to kill before the TPE service, it was a quick hop to Queens Park on 314216 & 314201 returning on 314210 & 314209, mainly as a time wasting move. Once back at Glasgow Central, after grabbing some dinner I saw Dan off on his XC service towards Edinburgh as I began the waiting game for when the 185 will eventually reach Glasgow (for it had been delayed earlier in the day due to issues in the Preston area). Low mileage 185111 eventually rolled in with a short turnaround it was away around 29 minutes late, no seat reservations but I found a table seat in the coach with 1st class in, it was an un-refurbished unit so the seats were a tad tired (and collapsed) and as expected it went mainline rather than the booked route via Bellshill & Holytown to bypass Motherwell, although this only saved a couple minutes (having a signal check around Shieldmuir for a unit from Lanark to cross in front, plus a slowdown around Carstairs for the unit to pass a freight hauled by an Electrocat, but after Carstairs the driver opened up to roar back towards England, by Lockerbie the delay was down to 15 minutes, cut to 10 minutes by Carlisle, this 185 was flying (and no doubt drinking Adwick depot’s diesel tank dry!), however it wasn’t the most comfortable of services as it was a bit on the bouncy side. But fair play to the driver for pushing the unit hard, certainly was a vocal machine.
I alighted at Lancaster, crossed over to the opposite platform, turned down a delayed 350 heading towards Edinburgh (my most wanted 350/4 is 402 as it is my only member of the subclass below 10 miles), enjoying the fresh air before a lightly loaded 350401 rolled in from Manchester Airport to take me back towards Glasgow. The reason for my trip to Lancaster is mainly due to timings and that a TPE only day return to Lancaster wasn’t that much more expensive than an any permitted Glasgow – Carlisle ticket). The train emptied out as time went on; certainly after Carlisle there was only a handful of passengers left on what would have been the final northbound service had the final Virgin service to Glasgow had not been running with around 35 minutes of delay. As always my fingers were crossed as after Carluke I felt the unit bearing right onto the Wishaw loop, my fingers were still crossed as the unit went straight on towards Holytown, and bearing right after Holytown onto the Mossend chord, another PSUL move into my book. The unit slowed down at Whifflet before turning left to head towards Glasgow Central arriving a minute or two early, but I was happy as it meant the trip hadn’t been a waste (cue the routing of the BLS tour this coming weekend getting changed to go that same route!).
350401 at Glasgow Central
Glasgow Central was a bit on the quiet side, with the only other arrival being that 390 which had now clocked over to being 50-odd minutes late, so I got let out of a side entrance by the security guard and began my walk up the hill towards the Easy Hotel, very stop start due to the many road crossings and avoidance of jolly drunks, anyhow I soon collapsed as it had been a long day, and part of me was grateful I had changed my plans.
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21st April – The Forth Circle
In Scotland there is a few little bits of freight only track which I need, the longest by far is the Kincardine Line from Alloa towards Dunfermline, re-opened this century to mainly serve the now closed Longannet & Kincardine power stations, however when I noticed that the SRPS was running a Steam Special over this line on a day I happened to be already in Glasgow it was too good of a chance to turn down (this was before they announced the 2-day tour in early June, but hey-ho).
I woke up, and checked out of the hotel, swinging via Tesco to purchase both breakfast & lunch for later in the day and I walked to Queen Street for the 08:45 service to Edinburgh, formed of 170458 for the quick run, first stop being Falkirk High and I alighted at a busy Linlithgow station with 40 minutes to kill. I met up once more with Dan who alighted from a Dunblane bound service, and we chatted as trains passed and stopped, the platform getting busier before the noise of a steam engine was heard as 45690 Leander rolled in with the SRPS Railtours rake of MK1 coaches. The passengers on the opposite platform very lucky as they could have been bowled out by a 170 had the steam engine arrived a minute later!
We took our seats near the rear (first class at the front for the extra sound effects), as the steam engine gave a good performance turning left onto the Dalmeny chord, across the Forth Bridge, a brief pause at Inverkeithing before carrying on along the Fife coast, turning left at Glenrothes junction to swing back inland, pausing for a good 10 minutes at Lochgelly to wait time, it took a couple attempts for the LMS Jubilee Class 5690 to get going again before gaining speed passing the Dunfermline stations, turning right at the junction onto the freight only branch for a pleasant spin towards the north bank of the Forth.
The train stopped around Low Torry to take on water, giving a nice view of the river & the south bank, although it did get quite warm due to the sun, eventually we got going again, passing the closed power stations and the fantastic looking road bridges, but we were running late so by the time we reached Alloa the 170 was already in the platform so the loop was lost, the engine paused at Stirling for a photo taking moment before carrying on back towards Linlithgow where the morning session got off (with a large party of tourists joining the train it looked like) and the train pulled away as it was due to run another loop this time starting from Inverkeithing.
Forth Bank around Low Torry
I and Dan decided to allow the first Edinburgh train to depart to soak up most of the passengers heading back towards Edinburgh, and wait for the unit from Glasgow. Unexpectedly this turned out to be 380113 for the run to Haymarket, where I needed a PNB (and the toilets are free at Haymarket), we stepped back a couple trains to wait for 380109 to arrive from Ayr to take us to Edinburgh, arriving into the new extended bay platform. Saying my farewells to Dan (for it won’t be long until I see him again), I did a spot of shopping before returning to the station to find the 17:00 Edinburgh – Kings Cross service. Basically when I was planning this trip accommodation in the Glasgow area for the Saturday was quite expensive so I decided to come back home, only to get bowled out by engineering works around Carstairs so it was a ECML move.
DVT 82230 was leading, with low mileage 91101 (all the 91s have been cleared for 10 miles as it is quite hard to get a sub-10 mile leap on a 91, but this one was only in my book on a Leeds – Wakefield move). I was meant to be in coach C but that seat was a bit rubbish (view of a pillar), so I shifted past a warm coach E into a mostly unreserved coach F, finding an unreserved table on the left hand side in order to relax and look out at the pretty part of the ECML. Sadly this coach had a large group of youngsters heading out to Newcastle to celebrate a 21st birthday party and they were pre-loading on drinks and didn’t like it one bit when another passenger asked them to turn down their loud music. On a bright side the lady sat opposite did look nice (but from what I gathered had a rubbish personality), and I preferred her to Macbook man who came on after Newcastle and attempted to take over the entire table with his Macbook, even attempted to take both plug sockets so he could charge his iPhone. Anyhow this service was a semi-fast after Newcastle, and lost a few minutes so arrival into Kings Cross was at 21:48 so the race was on for the 22:20 service.
The race was more important because the 23:40 service was only running as far as Basingstoke before a magical bus took over due to a line block around Salisbury and I didn’t fancy getting home around 01:30, or however long it took for the bus (in previous cases it can take less time if there are no passengers for Overton or Whitchurch as these are set-down only stations on the final service, I think the best time was a non-stop run to Andover via the M3/A303 due to there being no passengers for those two stations. Anyhow I already had a backup option with options at Victoria to intercept the unit at Clapham in case the Bakerloo had a delay on, but it was a fast walk to the Victoria Line platforms to leap onto 11071/11072 to Oxford Circus (jumping back a coach at Euston & Warren Street), crossing over the platform with a mini yip a Bakerloo service rolled in just as I arrived, 3234/3556 taking me to Waterloo, where I exited a mere 14 minutes after entering the system.
The 22:20 service was as usual formed of only a single unit, this being 159015, and as usual departed rather cosy looking, that was before a mild fight broke out between two groups of drunken football fans, but the train soon emptied out at Woking & Basingstoke for the trip back into the thunderstorm of Hampshire. I suspect the guard wanted to get home as the train was actually early for a change, and I was lucky with the weather as I got home during a pause in the heavy rains. Once home I gave myself time to reflect and relax on a good weekend, and I shall leave you with this picture of Leander at Stirling
45690 Leander at Stirling
----
Needless to say I had a nice relaxing day on the Sunday, well it would have been relaxing had it not been for the gardening. Next weekend sees a return to Scotland as my Railtour month continues with a BLS tour towards Ayrshire with a certain bay platform at Stockport on my radar on the Sunday
In December time, there was a change to the routing of a Manchester Airport – Glasgow Central TPE service to make use of the Mossend East to North curve, which remained uncovered (Allows trains to go from Whifflet towards Holytown, and has been used in the past for engineering works when the main-route via Bellshill has been closed), this gave me an excuse to use up a “reward” day at work (basically an additional day off if we meet certain targets), and accidently booked the sleeper to Edinburgh rather than Glasgow on the Thursday night
Day 0 on the Thursday was a basic day, nothing of interest other than 158886 working the 18:59 service to Waterloo, where I had a few hours of “what on earth to do” time to waste, so it was a walk across to Waterloo East for 376026 & 376034 for the short leap to London Bridge before timing it right with 700119 across the curve to Blackfriars to find Thameslink in a bit of a pickle due to various issues, so I decided to pop outside the station (as I needed to change over to my Oyster card here anyhow), and have a bus trip to the Stratford City bus station on a route 388 service (fleet number 2528) and it was interesting seeing parts of East London, however options at Stratford City were limited (a lot of services heading further east), but I came up with an idea with Google Maps so it was onto bus MEC46 working a route 108 service to Bow Church, then eventually onto bus 12321 working a route 205 short service (normally would carry on to Paddington but was coming out of service at Warren Street).
This bus was fine until it reached the Liverpool Street area, where it hit severe traffic due to a road traffic incident closing the A501 forcing a divert via the A10 to the A2108 junction, where the bus regained its original route, and I alighted at Euston (with one eye on the clock), walked over towards the station to check into the sleeper, I already knew that dud 90046 was on the front so didn’t go up to check as my legs were hurting. The Edinburgh seats tonight was reasonably busy, at a guess 80% full (there was no spare double seats), but it was a speedy run northbound, going via Northampton according to RTT.
--------
20th April – Day 1
I slept alright, bit cold at times, as the train arrived at Carstairs for the split, 90043 attached to the rear to haul the Edinburgh portion towards Edinburgh arriving pretty much bang on time, and at the far end of platform 7. It was time for plan C as I headed over to buy an Anytime day return to Inverkeithing and headed over towards platform 19, turning down a busy looking grotty 158 on a Perth service (one of the ones soon to be heading to Scotland), in flavour of a 158 from Tweedbank towards the Fife Circle, sadly it wasn’t a mileage requirement as 158732 took me to Inverkeithing, the train emptying out at South Gyle.
I wonder if anybody could guess the reason why I have travelled to Inverkeithing during the morning peak. Yes you have got it in one, it was for some Cat Thrash with dud 68006 working the short set before winner 68016 purred in for the trip back to Edinburgh, a nice speedy run (and once more emptied out at South Gyle, which has some awful connections these days to the Cats), but another non TPE bound 68 into my book (leaving just 001, 002 & 017 of that batch). Here they are rolling into the station:
Once back at Edinburgh I grabbed some breakfast, purchased my single to Glasgow & met up with Dan (BlindTraveller) for some tasty voyager action via Carstairs, 221129 would be in charge for the trip to Glasgow Central and I was clever enough to pre-reserve a seat just in case it was busy, however it wasn’t that busy in coach D, plenty of seats and an excuse to give my phone a good charge for new route coverage by XC (Haymarket to Slateford Junction, and Motherwell to Glasgow Central, which leaves Dundee – Aberdeen & Par – Newquay as my main XC uncovered routes).
An enjoyable speedy run, and soon we had arrived at Glasgow Central, flipping a coin in my head at which ticket office would have the shortest queue, and headed to the one at the low level concourse (sadly that had a large queue), eventually buying my Roundabout ticket, and heading downstairs to the platforms to jump on 320322 to Rutherglen, giving a nice connection onto 320303 for the run to Milngavie arriving into platform 1. With half an hour to kill we headed to a nearby Tesco for a lunch supply raid before returning to the station where the next departure was going from the lesser used platform 2 (it would attach to a 318 currently enjoying the sunshine)
Anyhow 320306 rolled into the station, emptied out as the driver closed the doors to do a single man attachment onto 318259 before releasing the doors to allow passengers to board, but it meant both platforms at Milngavie were safety into my book. Me & Dan alighted from the 320 at Westerton, and headed across to the opposite platform for 320304 to Dalmuir, followed by a trio of 156s heading towards the West Highlands for a tiny leap to Dumbarton Central 156477, 156449 & 156496 doing that run (and at Dalmuir it be a case of spotting which door the guard opens as it be local door only for triple 156s as the rear door just hangs over the end of the platform).
A cross platform interchange put us onto a tasty 320314 for the long trip to Cumbernauld, motor coach action on the fast run from Springburn towards Cumbernauld, probably for the last time on a 320 on this part of line as it is due to be cut back to Springburn come the new timetable (and quite frankly the train was pretty dead). Once at Cumbernauld we crossed over to board 320322 for the second time of the day for the run to Motherwell, before 320317 took us back to Glasgow Central via Bellshill. A short connection at Glasgow Central saw us onto 318250 to Mount Florida for a nice connection onto my first 314 of the year in the shape of 314215 back to Glasgow Central once more, just for some PEP thrash. Mmm Pep thrash.
I left Dan in the pub to do some work as I walked to Buchanan Street on the subway for a single stop to Cowcaddens (I was aiming for St Enoch but turned the wrong way), formed of 118/124/102, in order to check into the Easy Hotel, dropping some weight and saving a job for later in the day. Back to Cowcaddens subway station and a short hop to St Enoch on 105/128/119 as I headed back towards Central station via a Poundland for a couple bottles of pop for a £1, and dodging the out of control cyclists who thinks red lights are simply beyond them (self-regulation has clearly failed, a number plate system needs to be introduced to crack down on the dodgy cyclists). Anyhow it was a short wait before 156446 & 156430 rolled in to form the next East Kilbride service for a gentle slow potter to the end of the line, swapping units onto my first refurbished 156 and I do say that Scotrail have done a good job, the seats are ironing boards but they seem more comfortable, plug/USB sockets and decent leg room in the airline seats (better than in a table seat). The main reason for heading out to East Kilbride is to score the Hairmyres Loop which mainly comes into play during the peaks, so it was another loop ticked off (because after All the Stations and All the Bays, comes “All the Loops” (probably not!).
With some time to kill before the TPE service, it was a quick hop to Queens Park on 314216 & 314201 returning on 314210 & 314209, mainly as a time wasting move. Once back at Glasgow Central, after grabbing some dinner I saw Dan off on his XC service towards Edinburgh as I began the waiting game for when the 185 will eventually reach Glasgow (for it had been delayed earlier in the day due to issues in the Preston area). Low mileage 185111 eventually rolled in with a short turnaround it was away around 29 minutes late, no seat reservations but I found a table seat in the coach with 1st class in, it was an un-refurbished unit so the seats were a tad tired (and collapsed) and as expected it went mainline rather than the booked route via Bellshill & Holytown to bypass Motherwell, although this only saved a couple minutes (having a signal check around Shieldmuir for a unit from Lanark to cross in front, plus a slowdown around Carstairs for the unit to pass a freight hauled by an Electrocat, but after Carstairs the driver opened up to roar back towards England, by Lockerbie the delay was down to 15 minutes, cut to 10 minutes by Carlisle, this 185 was flying (and no doubt drinking Adwick depot’s diesel tank dry!), however it wasn’t the most comfortable of services as it was a bit on the bouncy side. But fair play to the driver for pushing the unit hard, certainly was a vocal machine.
I alighted at Lancaster, crossed over to the opposite platform, turned down a delayed 350 heading towards Edinburgh (my most wanted 350/4 is 402 as it is my only member of the subclass below 10 miles), enjoying the fresh air before a lightly loaded 350401 rolled in from Manchester Airport to take me back towards Glasgow. The reason for my trip to Lancaster is mainly due to timings and that a TPE only day return to Lancaster wasn’t that much more expensive than an any permitted Glasgow – Carlisle ticket). The train emptied out as time went on; certainly after Carlisle there was only a handful of passengers left on what would have been the final northbound service had the final Virgin service to Glasgow had not been running with around 35 minutes of delay. As always my fingers were crossed as after Carluke I felt the unit bearing right onto the Wishaw loop, my fingers were still crossed as the unit went straight on towards Holytown, and bearing right after Holytown onto the Mossend chord, another PSUL move into my book. The unit slowed down at Whifflet before turning left to head towards Glasgow Central arriving a minute or two early, but I was happy as it meant the trip hadn’t been a waste (cue the routing of the BLS tour this coming weekend getting changed to go that same route!).
350401 at Glasgow Central
Glasgow Central was a bit on the quiet side, with the only other arrival being that 390 which had now clocked over to being 50-odd minutes late, so I got let out of a side entrance by the security guard and began my walk up the hill towards the Easy Hotel, very stop start due to the many road crossings and avoidance of jolly drunks, anyhow I soon collapsed as it had been a long day, and part of me was grateful I had changed my plans.
--------------
21st April – The Forth Circle
In Scotland there is a few little bits of freight only track which I need, the longest by far is the Kincardine Line from Alloa towards Dunfermline, re-opened this century to mainly serve the now closed Longannet & Kincardine power stations, however when I noticed that the SRPS was running a Steam Special over this line on a day I happened to be already in Glasgow it was too good of a chance to turn down (this was before they announced the 2-day tour in early June, but hey-ho).
I woke up, and checked out of the hotel, swinging via Tesco to purchase both breakfast & lunch for later in the day and I walked to Queen Street for the 08:45 service to Edinburgh, formed of 170458 for the quick run, first stop being Falkirk High and I alighted at a busy Linlithgow station with 40 minutes to kill. I met up once more with Dan who alighted from a Dunblane bound service, and we chatted as trains passed and stopped, the platform getting busier before the noise of a steam engine was heard as 45690 Leander rolled in with the SRPS Railtours rake of MK1 coaches. The passengers on the opposite platform very lucky as they could have been bowled out by a 170 had the steam engine arrived a minute later!
We took our seats near the rear (first class at the front for the extra sound effects), as the steam engine gave a good performance turning left onto the Dalmeny chord, across the Forth Bridge, a brief pause at Inverkeithing before carrying on along the Fife coast, turning left at Glenrothes junction to swing back inland, pausing for a good 10 minutes at Lochgelly to wait time, it took a couple attempts for the LMS Jubilee Class 5690 to get going again before gaining speed passing the Dunfermline stations, turning right at the junction onto the freight only branch for a pleasant spin towards the north bank of the Forth.
The train stopped around Low Torry to take on water, giving a nice view of the river & the south bank, although it did get quite warm due to the sun, eventually we got going again, passing the closed power stations and the fantastic looking road bridges, but we were running late so by the time we reached Alloa the 170 was already in the platform so the loop was lost, the engine paused at Stirling for a photo taking moment before carrying on back towards Linlithgow where the morning session got off (with a large party of tourists joining the train it looked like) and the train pulled away as it was due to run another loop this time starting from Inverkeithing.
Forth Bank around Low Torry
I and Dan decided to allow the first Edinburgh train to depart to soak up most of the passengers heading back towards Edinburgh, and wait for the unit from Glasgow. Unexpectedly this turned out to be 380113 for the run to Haymarket, where I needed a PNB (and the toilets are free at Haymarket), we stepped back a couple trains to wait for 380109 to arrive from Ayr to take us to Edinburgh, arriving into the new extended bay platform. Saying my farewells to Dan (for it won’t be long until I see him again), I did a spot of shopping before returning to the station to find the 17:00 Edinburgh – Kings Cross service. Basically when I was planning this trip accommodation in the Glasgow area for the Saturday was quite expensive so I decided to come back home, only to get bowled out by engineering works around Carstairs so it was a ECML move.
DVT 82230 was leading, with low mileage 91101 (all the 91s have been cleared for 10 miles as it is quite hard to get a sub-10 mile leap on a 91, but this one was only in my book on a Leeds – Wakefield move). I was meant to be in coach C but that seat was a bit rubbish (view of a pillar), so I shifted past a warm coach E into a mostly unreserved coach F, finding an unreserved table on the left hand side in order to relax and look out at the pretty part of the ECML. Sadly this coach had a large group of youngsters heading out to Newcastle to celebrate a 21st birthday party and they were pre-loading on drinks and didn’t like it one bit when another passenger asked them to turn down their loud music. On a bright side the lady sat opposite did look nice (but from what I gathered had a rubbish personality), and I preferred her to Macbook man who came on after Newcastle and attempted to take over the entire table with his Macbook, even attempted to take both plug sockets so he could charge his iPhone. Anyhow this service was a semi-fast after Newcastle, and lost a few minutes so arrival into Kings Cross was at 21:48 so the race was on for the 22:20 service.
The race was more important because the 23:40 service was only running as far as Basingstoke before a magical bus took over due to a line block around Salisbury and I didn’t fancy getting home around 01:30, or however long it took for the bus (in previous cases it can take less time if there are no passengers for Overton or Whitchurch as these are set-down only stations on the final service, I think the best time was a non-stop run to Andover via the M3/A303 due to there being no passengers for those two stations. Anyhow I already had a backup option with options at Victoria to intercept the unit at Clapham in case the Bakerloo had a delay on, but it was a fast walk to the Victoria Line platforms to leap onto 11071/11072 to Oxford Circus (jumping back a coach at Euston & Warren Street), crossing over the platform with a mini yip a Bakerloo service rolled in just as I arrived, 3234/3556 taking me to Waterloo, where I exited a mere 14 minutes after entering the system.
The 22:20 service was as usual formed of only a single unit, this being 159015, and as usual departed rather cosy looking, that was before a mild fight broke out between two groups of drunken football fans, but the train soon emptied out at Woking & Basingstoke for the trip back into the thunderstorm of Hampshire. I suspect the guard wanted to get home as the train was actually early for a change, and I was lucky with the weather as I got home during a pause in the heavy rains. Once home I gave myself time to reflect and relax on a good weekend, and I shall leave you with this picture of Leander at Stirling
45690 Leander at Stirling
----
Needless to say I had a nice relaxing day on the Sunday, well it would have been relaxing had it not been for the gardening. Next weekend sees a return to Scotland as my Railtour month continues with a BLS tour towards Ayrshire with a certain bay platform at Stockport on my radar on the Sunday