Continuing my account of my Scottish holiday with another segment of the return journey, ending on a bit of a cliff hanger. There are plenty of photographs.
Welcome to the latest instalment in my series about my Scottish holiday (May 30th to June 6th). We continue with the homeward journey.
THE VAGARIES OF BRITISH TRAINS
To set the stage for the rest of this series I need to explain a bit about the intermediate stages of my return journey. For reasons that I did not originally understand but became apparent during the journey I was booked on three different services for various stages of the journey from Edinburgh to Peterborough:
Edinburgh to York (this service was running non-stop from York to King’s Cross)
York to Grantham (Grantham was the only the intermediate stop between York and King’s Cross on this service)
Grantham to Peterborough
The above while a little annoying should not have caused any problems…
BEST LAID PLANS OF MICE & MEN GANG AFT AGLEY
We were not vouchsafed platform information regarding the train from Glasgow Queen Street to Edinburgh Waverley until five minutes before departure time, which meant a bit of haste was required to make sure of boarding it. However it arrived in Edinburgh with plenty of time for me to make the interchange to the first of the trains on which I had a seat in which I had to sit for my ticket to be valid. At that point I was pleased with how the journey was going rather than the reverse. However we had a long slow haul caused by trespassers on the track, and the necessity for the driver to go slow so as to avoid hitting them, and by the time we were approaching York making the connection to the my next train was looking decidedly dicey…
PHOTOGRAPHS
Here are the pictures I took between Glasgow and York…
Continuing my account of my Scottish holiday with another segment of the return journey.
Welcome to the antepenultimate instalment in my series about my holiday in Scotland.
A TRANSITION POINT
My previous post took us as far as Bridge of Orchy. Two stops after Bridge of Orchy we got to Crianlarich, the point at which the train from Oban joined ours for the run on to Glasgow. It is also a transition point in another way – after Crianlarich photo worthy sights get rarer. For this, and one other reason the remaining posts in this series cover much greater distances than has been the case with the first few dealing with this return journey.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Here are the photographs for this section of the journey…
Continuing my account of my Scottish holiday with the next segment of my return journey
Welcome to the latest instalment in my series about my Scottish holiday.
ACROSS THE MOOR
This section of the journey initially featured the expanse of Rannoch Moor, and then featured some other fine Scottish scenery. The journey continued to progress smoothly with the only stops being at stations (it is only beyond Crianlarich, where the train from Oban would join this one, that this service does not stop at every station).
PHOTOGRAPHS
Here are the photographs for this part of the journey…
Continuing my account of my Scottish holiday with the next segment of the return journey.
Welcome to the latest instalment in my series about my holiday in Scotland (May 30th to June 6th).
TOWARDS THE MOORLAND
As mentioned in the previous post Neptune’s Staircase is close to Banavie station. After Banavie the next station, and the only major one we passed during the period covered by this post was Fort William. We had a short wait at Fort William before moving on. Corrour is a very remote station, in the wilds of Rannoch Moor.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Here are the photographs that relate to this section of the route…
I have travelled on previous incarnations of this sleeper service, the first time as long ago as 1993.I was not able to get the station sign at Corrour, but this platform direction sign makes it clear which station it is – it being the one whose name is missing.
Continuing my account of my homeward journey from my Scottish holiday, taking things as far as Neptune’s Staircase.
Welcome to the latest instalment in my series about my return journey. I covered as far as Glenfinnan Viaduct last time.
EXPLANATION
I took many photos on this journey, which has led me to break it into multiple posts, using either landmarks or stations as appropriate as dividers. This post is still exclusively related to the Arisaig to Glasgow leg of the journey, with Neptune’s Staircase being an arrangement of locks not far from Banavie Station, which is the last station stop before Fort William if travelling east. The journey continued to run smoothly between these points.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Here are the photographs that relate to this post…
Continuing my account of my Scottish holiday with first of a number of posts about the return journey to Norfolk.
Welcome to the latest instalment in my series about my Scottish Holiday (May 30th to June 6th). This post starts the story of my journey back to Norfolk.
PREPARATIONS
I started my packing on the Friday night, and rose early on the Saturday morning to complete the job. The journey started with the 10:27 from Arisaig, and I had about 45 minutes to kill at the station, as my parents needed to start their own journey a little bit earlier. The weather was reasonable, so I did not need to make use of the waiting room. I was not quite the only one boarding this train at Arisaig, but finding a seat was not a problem. I was due to be on this train all the way to Glasgow where it terminated, which meant that for a few hours at least I was able to relax and enjoy the scenery.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Here the photographs I got up to the Glenfinnan Viaduct, which to remind you is east of Glenfinnan station…
The train arriving bang on time, as per the information conveyed by the screen earlier.The front of the Jacobite Express at GlenfinnanThe famous Glenfinnan Viaduct, viewed and photographed from an eastbound train.
Continuing my account of my Scottish holiday with a look at the journey back from Glenfinnan to Arisaig on the Thursday.
Welcome to the latest instalment in my account of my Scottish holiday (May 30th to June 6th). This is the final post about the excursion to Glenfinnan.
BACK TO ARISAIG
After finishing in the museum we had a few minutes on the platform before catching the train back to Arisaig. We managed to find seats well placed to capture the best sights of the return journey, and the service ran according to schedule.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Here are the pictures from the journey back to Arisaig…
An isolated little church somewhere between Glenfinnan and Arisaig (three pictures)This wonderful map greets arrivals at Arisaig station.
Moving on to the Thursday of my Scottish holiday, with an account of a train journey from Arisaig to Glenfinnan.
My account of Scottish holiday (May 30th to June 6th) moves on to the Thursday. This is the first of a number of posts about was originally the only day for which we had nothing planned.
A LATE ADAPTATION
As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, the weather that we had been led to believe was going to blight the Thursday actually showed up a day early. The Thursday by contrast was comparatively benign, so we decided to go out after all. We opted to make the train journey from Arisaig to Glenfinnan and back and do some exploring at Glenfinnan. There was a train heading east from Arisaig at 10:27 (the same train that my return journey from holiday would begin on two days later). It is policy at Arisaig that although all doors could safely be opened they only have one set operational, but we were able to board without too much difficulty. There are two stations between Arisaig and Glenfinnan, but Beasdale and Loch Ailort are both request stops, so we might very well have had an unbroken run. We arrived into Glenfinnan just in time to overlap with the westbound Jacobite Express.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Here is the gallery:
My first picture from inside the train – the entire steam train planter.
An account of an epic journey from King’s Lynn in eastern England to Arisaig in the far west of Scotland, 14 hours door to door, with three photo galleries.
This is the first post in what will be a series about my annual holiday around the time of my birthday, which this year is in Arisaig, reachable by travelling to the westernmost railway station in mainland Britain. This post looks back at a long day’s travelling.
THE PLANNING
I was faced when I started looking at travel options with a choice between either leaving King’s Lynn on the 4:49AM train which would see me arrive in Arisaig at 5:28PM or a later train which would see me arrive at 11:30PM if all went well. Given that I was being met at Arisaig by my parents this was not really a choice at all and I duly accepted the necessity of a hyper-early start to the start.
THE DAY 1: KING’S LYNN TO GLASGOW
I left my flat just a tick after 4AM to walk to the station to catch my first train. I was there good and early and able to take a seat without fuss. My first change was at Ely, and although I had the longer interchange to make, using the curved subway from platform two to platform one I was never in danger of missing my next connection to Peterborough. At Peterborough I had a bit of a wait (it was full daylight and very sunny by then so this was no hardship). My train for the long northward haul to Edinburgh arrived more or less bang on time, and I found my seat without difficulty, and it was unoccupied, so I did not even have to get someone to move (there are people who ignore reservation signs and take prebooked seats, and I will make them move if they have taken mine). The train progressed smoothly through the east midlands and north east England to the Border Bridge at Berwick (the best way to enter Scotland) and then on to Edinburgh without any hitches, and I had enough time at the interchange to be waiting at the platform for my next connection. The run to Glasgow was also clear (Glasgow is Scotland’s largest city and Edinburgh, though smaller, is the capital, so services between the two are fast and frequent).
PHOTO GALLERY 1: TO GLASGOW
A goods train passing through Peterborough during my wait there. I have imaged models of locomotives named after football clubs at work but this was my first sight of one in the flesh.The first of 28 pictures showing various containers on this freight train (no container is pictured more than once).Yellow (at least in this country) is the colour of engineering trains.passing the base of a volcanic rock on top of which there are buildings, just after leaving Waverley in the direction of Glasgow.
THE JOURNEY 2: GLASGOW TO FORT WILLIAM
The journey from Glasgow to Arisaig, a run of just over five hours, covers some of the most scenic railway in Britain. Between Glasgow and Fort William there is a splendid section travelling across Rannoch Moor, which features Corrour, seven miles from the nearest road among others. This section would be THE highlight of most routes of which it was part, but places second to the route beyond Fort William in this case.
PHOTO GALLERY 2: GLASGOW TO FORT WILLIAM
Crianlarich is a dividing point – some of the train splits of and goes to Oban while the remainder continues to Mallaig. It is pretty much an impossibility for anyone to to get caught out because the on-train staff are very attentive to such matters.Decoration at Upper Tyndrum
THE JOURNEY 3: FORT WILLIAM TO ARISAIG
Unfortunately this, the most scenic section of the entire day, also saw the worst weather, and rain spattered windows are not the best medium through which to take photographs. However barring a minor delay at Glenfinnan, where we had to wait for the outgoing train from Mallaig before we could continue the run was smooth, and the scenery was still splendid. We arrived more or less on schedule at Arisaig, and I was met by parents for the last short part of the journey to our accommodation. In all, from my door in King’s Lynn to that of the cottage we are staying in took almost precisely 14 hours.
PHOTO GALLERY 3: FROM FORT WILLIAM ONWARDS
The final tranche of photos from this epic day…
rain spattered windows reduce its splendour, but I think my three pictures of the glorious Glenfinnan Viaduct are still pretty good.There is something splendidly paradoxical about a snow plough with solar panels attached.This signboard/ map greets those disembarking at Arisaig, an experience I had not previously had.
The final post in the series about my holiday in scenic Scotland.
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to this concluding post in my series about a Scottish holiday. In this post we deal with the last stages of my journey home.
AVIEMORE AND THE CAIRNGORMS
Aviemore is the first station the train calls at on its way out of Inverness towards Edinburgh, and also marks one edge of The Cairngorms national park.
DALWHINNIE TO BLAIR ATHOLL
The next stage of the route takes us to Blair Atholl.
BLAIR ATHOLL TO MARKINCH
Markinch is situated two miles from Glenrothes town centre, a fact that is advertised on the platforms.
MARKINCH TO EDINBURGH
The train arrived at Edinburgh so promptly that had it been allowed by my ticket I would have had time to get the 13:30 to London instead of the 14:00. As it was I was glad to be able to take things a bit easy at this interchange, the corresponding one on my journey up having been a little close for comfort.
THE CLOSING STAGES
I located my seat on the express train that would carry me to Peterborough and it was in a designated quiet coach. Unfortunately there was a large family who had been assigned seats in that coach and who did not really understand quietness, so it was not as relaxing a segment of the journey as it should have been. A minor frustration at Peterborough when I stepped out of the station exit just as an X1 was heading off towards King’s Lynn. This half-hour delay notwithstanding I got home dead on 8PM.
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