Tag: LNER

50th Birthday Holiday 1: The First Stage

An account of a problematic start to this year’s Scottish holdiay, courtesy of LNER. Also a photo gallery of pictures all taken at various stages of the journey.

I am now ensconced in a tiny hamlet named Achosnich in the far west of the Ardnamurchan Peninsula, which is itself the westernmost past of mainland Britain, where I and my parents are having a holiday around my 50th birthday. The day itself is Saturday, for which I have already scheduled a small post which will come out as near as can be scheduled precisely 50 years after my birth. This post would normally have been entitled ‘Getting There’, but as will become clear this process has been somewhat less straightforward than it should have been.

THE BEST LAID PLANS OF MICE AND MEN…

Up until about 11:30AM yesterday, for all that the day of my birthday had meant a Sunday to Sunday holiday booking and thus travel and the most unreliable day for using public transport, I was feeling pleased with how things were progressing. I had booked from Peterborough to Crianlarich, the closest place to our final destination that I could sensibly book to, and to guard against choppy waters in respect of the opening leg of the journey had opted for the safe option of the 9:25 bus from Lynn to Peterborough, rather than the 10:25 which would have had to run very late to get me in trouble, or to not run altogether. A clear run on the bus saw at Peterborough Station with comfortably over an hour until the train on which I was booked was due, so I purchased some light refreshments and killed time in the station cafeteria, before checking the departure information screen, still with masses of time to spare…

…GANG AFT AGLEY

…it was that look at the departure information screen that blew my travel plans sky high. There in big red lettering against the 12:18 to Edinburgh Waverley was the dread word “CANCELLED”, along with a perfunctory line about a faulty train. Fortunately my parents were not by the point irretrievably committed, and we were able to arrange for me to get the 13:18 to Edinburgh, on which I had established that my ticket would still be valid, since the cancellation was entirely the fault of LNER, and they would pick me up there and we would go together in their car to be a place they had booked that was between Edinburgh and our final destination. There were a few problems around Edinburgh, but we got to where we were staying overnight in time for latish supper. The journey to Edinburgh, save for it being a crowded train (Sunday is a light travelling day, but a combination of a cancelled train and the fact that Sunderland had won a play off final and with it promotion to the Premiership on the Saturday meant that space was at a premium) to the extent that I did not get a seat until Newark Northgate. However, by the time of the stretch between York and Edinburgh, which is where all the scenic stuff is I was not merely seated, I was in a window seat, albeit facing against the direction of travel.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here is my photo gallery…

One of the reasons I quite like starting journeys to a holiday destination with the bus trip to Peterborough is that the crossing of the Great Ouse feels like the beginning of the holiday, since save for WNAG committee meetings pretty much all my daily life happens east of that river.
After that the only place on the way to Peterborough that really offers photo ops is Wisbech, self styled “Capital of the Fenlands”.
Peterborough
York station
This page and others like it come from a book that was one of the purchases I made with my birthday present from my friends at WNAG
Darlington, the joint oldest passenger station in the world (the Stockton and Darlington route carried its first passengers in 1825, before when railways had been freight only).
Durham is dominated by two massive buildings, this one…
…and this one.
Newcastle is a city of bridges.
A distant shot of a tram near Newcastle.
A close crop showing only the tram and immediate surround.
This is the town served by Alnmouth station, though the station itself is a tiny bit inland from the town.
This long viaduct is in Berwick Upon Tweed, and it links England and Scotland.
The Tweed will never rival the Tyne for bridges, but these are quite impressive.
Is it possible to shoot a moving target when you yourself are in motion (and at some speed)? Yes, and this is defintive proof (but successes like this are rare).
This is the clock at Edinburgh Waverley station.
This establishment (see also previous picture) is directly opposite the Market Street exit from Waverley Station.
From here on in the pictures were all taken from the back seat (non-drivers side) of my parents car.

Comrie 2024 – The Journey There

The public transport elements of my journey from King’s Lynn to Comrie.

This is the first of what I plan to be a series of posts about my recent holiday in Scotland. This post looks in detail at the public transport elements of the journey there.

KING’S LYNN TO PETERBOROUGH

I booked my train tickets to and from Peterborough because it is significantly cheaper that way and also the train journey to Peterborough involves a change at Ely. With the train on which I had a reserved seat leaving Peterborough at 10:18AM I assessed that the right bus to be on was the 8:30AM bus, which meant I needed to leave before 8 o’clock to be sure of catching it. This did not prove to be any great problem. The bus ran smoothly and I arrived at Peterborough with plenty of time to find the correct platform and the correct place on that platform to wait to board the train at the right point (I was in coach H, which was shown on the information screen as needing me to be in zone 5 of the platform…

PETERBOROUGH TO EDINBURGH WAVERLEY

This was the longest leg of the journey, but compensated by also being the fastest. Finding my reserved seat was straightforward, and no one had unthinkingly occupied it, so I was able to seat myself without having to ask anyone to move (even though reservations are very clearly indicated as such it is not unknown to find a reserved seat already occupied, and I will get the person occupying it to move if that is the case). I had booked a forward facing window seat, and on this occasion that was what it proved to be – and it was on the better side of the train for photography. This route provides plenty of fine views, especially between York and Edinburgh (though there a few good bits south of York as well). The task at Edinburgh was to locate the train I was to travel on as far as Stirling, which I did…

EDINBURGH TO STIRLING

This was on a stopping service which was ultimately headed for Dunblane, and passed through a few interesting places. At Stirling I had to change trains for the final leg of the journey to Perth, but this did involve moving platforms, for which I was grateful.

STIRLING TO PERTH

This was a non-stop journey on a Scotrail Intercity service heading towards Inverness. Unfortunately I was unable to secure a window seat for this final leg of the journey, though I did spot one or two interesting things on arrival at Perth. The train arrived at Perth at the scheduled time, which meant that seven and a half hours of public transport travel involving one bus and three trains had ended with the traveller in the right place at the right time – which in 21st century Britain comes close to qualifying as miraculous.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Taking photographs through the windows of buses and trains is often frustrating, but yields enough good pictures to be worthwhile….

The first 15 pictures are King’s Lynn pictures, some taken on the Monday evening, a couple while walking to the bus station on Tuesday morning.
This picture and the next two were taken while passing through Wisbech.
The train pictures start here.
Our first stop.
On the approach to Alnmouth.
The train would soon be crossing this viaduct.
Looking along the Tweed as the train moves from England into Scotland.
This is now a Radisson hotel, but it would have been built by the original railway company as the station hotel.

Railway Postcards and an ‘Autism Roundel’

Showcasing some railway themed postcards I have recently acquired and unveiling a personalised roundel.

INTRODUCTION

Hello and welcome to this post which focuses on some postcards I have recently acquired very cheaply at auction. 

THE RAILWAY POSTCARDS

I won two lots of railway postcards at James and Sons’ last auction. The first of these lots to end up in my possession was…

LOT 1015: FOUR BLACK AND WHITE CARDS

Three of these cards were of London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) locomotives while the fourth was of a railway station, tentatively identified in the catalogue as Ardley. Further research on my part revealed that the station is in point of fact Ardlui, a tiny dot on the map near the northern end of Loch Lomond. Here are some pictures of the cards:

Railway cards B+WKing ArthurEmpire of IndiaLNERLocoArdlui Station

While I was pleased to acquire these cards, especially at that price, the lot that meant most to me was…

LOT 1017 – TEN COLOUR CARDS
OF THE FFESTINIOG RAILWAY

These cards had a particular resonance because I have travelled on this railway many years ago. It is a very narrow (1 ft 11in) gauge heritage railway which runs to about 40 miles.

Ffestiniog Railway Map

Here is a promotional video from the official website of the Ffestiniog Railway:

Before I show the postcards, here is a link to the Wikipedia page for the Ffestiniog Railway.

Ffestiniog-Railway-07419u.jpg

Now for those postcards, starting with the official image that everyone saw:

1017

Now here are the pictures of these cards taken in my own home:

Ffestiniog Railway
All ten postcards in one shot.

Ffestiniog Railway 1-3
Postcards 1-3

Ffestiniog Railway 4-6
Postcards 4-6

Ffestiniog Railway 7-10
Postcards 7-10

Ffestiniog Railway I1
Individual pictures of each postcard…

Ffestiniog Railway I2Ffestiniog Railway I3Ffestiniog Railway I4Ffestiniog Railway I5Ffestioniog Railway I6Ffestioniog Railway I7Ffestiniog Railway I8Ffestiniog Railway I9Ffestiniog Railway I10

THE AUTISM ROUNDEL

This is based on an autistic spectrum symbol that I found out about courtesy of Laina at thesilentwaveblog (see this post for more details). I was thinking about coming up with a suitable logo for my London transport themed website, and considered the possibility of using the rainbow infinity as the disk part of the famous London Underground roundel. If I decide to go with it, this is what my personalised roundel looks like:

Roundel 1

 

 

Beer Mats, Buttons and a few Other Bits

An analysis of my newly acquired collection of beer mats (complete with photos), a unique LNER display and some other stuff.

INTRODUCTION

This post features some stuff I have bought at auctions and some stuff I have been given, and features some links at the end.

BEER MATS

I mentioned in my post about James and Sons’ November auction that I had purchased a box of beer mats. Well I have just finished sorting through them and categorizing them, taking photos along the way.

MACALLAN

There are seven mats that relate to Macallan Scotch Whisky. Macallan are sposnors of one of the world’s most prestigious bridge tournaments as well as purveyors of whisky.

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HEINEKEN AND ICE HOCKEY

I have 12 Heineken mats, one circular and 11 athletics track shaped. These latter 11 feature Ice Hockey Heroes – I have a run of numbers 2 through 9 of the original series of 10 and duplicates of numbers 7, 8 and 9.

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RANDOM FOREIGN

Five mats referrg to foreign drinks.

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COCA COLA AND COMPETITIONS

I have three mats advertsiign coca cola, two of which are duplicates, a schweppes mat and mat advertising a Holsten Pils competition.

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The two central mats are duplicates – I have shown different sides of each.

GENERAL SCOTCHES

Four mats advertising scotch whiskies other than Macallan.

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PRODUCE OF THE APPLE

Five mats where the focus is on drinks created from apples:

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THE IRISH CONTINGENT

I have nine mats featuring products of the Emerald Isle.

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The two big Guinness mats are duplicates, as are the three Murphy’s mats.

UNCATEGORIZED

Four mats that I could not think of a category for.

017

BEER MATS GENERAL

We now come to the best bits of the collection. Starting with nine mats featuring a range of beers from around the country.

019
The Webster’s mats at the top are duplicates save that they have different heroes on the back, as you will see later…

BEER MATS – EAST ANGLIA

There are ten beer mats in this group, all with a connection to East Anglia.

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You have now seen every beer mat in the collection, but I was not quite finished yet…

THOMAS’ TOP THREE

This is an image of my three favourite beer mats.

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THE RAILWAY CONNECTION

Some mats that are specifically railway oriented.

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The Samuel Whitbread connection is a little tenuous, and I took the opportunity to show the Amy Johnson profile.

THE BUTTONS

One of my colleagues recently gave me some LNER buttons (LNER stood for London and North Eastern Railway), and had previously given me an LNER badge. I also had some other LNBER buttons and an LNER themed postcard from previous purchases, and assembled this into an LNER display.

dscn7687
The three buttons that set me thinking about the display – without using the flash

dscn7688
the same buttons with flash

dscn7689
close up of the locomotive button

dscn7690
Close up of an LNER button

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Buttons, the badge and the postcard mounted ready for display.

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The top of the display.

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The bottom fo the display

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The badge.

007008009

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The display (it is housed in a plastic wallet).

LINKS

I start with some interesting pieces about the byelection that has surely spelt the end of Zac Goldsmith’s political career:

  1. David Hencke, who usually blogs on legal matters offers his take here.
  2. The Skwawkbox blog offer this view.
  3. Mike Sivier of Vox Political has this to say.

My final link is to a petition which can be accessed by clicking the screenshot below.

bird-petition

A TWITTER FIND

If you are interested in trees then the following, tweeted by a certain James Rees, will certainly appeal:

oldest-trees

A COUPLE OF KING’S LYNN PICS TO FINISH

001
A gull using the flagpole at the top of Clifton House tower as a perch.

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