The concept of the Lost Weekend isn't a new one - but it's not reared its head here for a while. In simple terms, these strange and often rather desperate dashes across the country occur when I find myself with pre-booked tickets and accommodation for an event or tour which is cancelled. In 2009, when it seemed nearly every tour by some operators was pulled at the last minute, it was left to the likes of Spitfire to keep flying the flag. However, there were a good number of things which just didn't happen. I began to view it as a natural hazard in a hobby which required more and more desperate action to get to interesting tours which might just run. Unsurprisingly, given my preferences and history, an inordinate number of these Lost Weekends have focused on Glasgow.

Having said that, I've documented previously the frustration of being in the city for a short time. Unable to plan much beyond an aimless wander and pushed for time so that lingering and absorbing the city in the way I've grown to love is near impossible. Today though, waking and wandering up to a chilly Wolverhampton station I felt genuinely relaxed and unconcerned. Having spent a lot of time in Glasgow just a month ago, this felt less like a mission and more like the pleasant little daytrip it was. Onto the 07:37, which didn't really get busy at all, and off up the West Coast. We passed out from under the carpet of fog somewhere around Stafford, and clear blue skies and freezing temperatures seemed to be the order of the day. Headphones on, coffee in hand and nothing to do but relax and watch the scenery pass by on perhaps my favourite rail journey.

On arrival, I almost skipped off the train onto the familiar turf of Central Station. Happy just to be back, even if briefly. The plan was to kick off with a coffee in a favourite spot and to watch the Saturday morning crowds pass by. Despite being chilly, the locals were out in force and there was a sense of a positive, bustling city centre I've picked up elsewhere in the UK. I sometimes think on days like this that the economic gloom is a manufactured response to a crisis which hangs over us thanks to the last government. I know times are tough - but this seems to be a relative concept. It felt wrong to speculate on this whilst my own fate, along with thousands of other public sector workers hangs in the balance. I finished my coffee and plunged into the crowds. Next stop was Love Music, formerly Avalanche Records. I picked up a couple of CDs which I just couldn't have easily got down south, then pressed on again.

The rather unexpectedly formed plan was to head eastwards again, and to wander on Glasgow Green. It was many years since I'd done this, and since it wasn't raining and Glasgow had settled into one of it's silvery winter days it seemed like a sensible plan. I set off, trudging through Merchant City and stopping to pick up supplies, before turning into Saltmarket and heading for the Clyde. The Green is impressively large, bounded on one side by a elbow-shaped curve in the river, and on the other by London Road which rather suddenly stops being a main road into the city centre, and becomes a range of low-rise residential properties. In the centre of the Green, the People's Palace stands proudly and rather ceremoniously. All the paths seem to eventually lead to the huge building with it's elegant tropical extension - an echo of the Kibble Palace in the West End perhaps? I sat to picnic for a while on a bench, noting that few others were out this cold morning. Returning kayakers headed for the dilapidated but still functioning boat shed, and the occasional walker or cyclist passed by. I watched the tidal weir for awhile, now listed I understand, and leading to the division of the Clyde into two distinct eco-systems. Glasgow still has the ability to surprise me, as this quiet green oasis proved.

It was time to head into the Peoples' Palace. Just a short visit as the thought of a museum tea-shop wasn't on today's agenda. The formal space indoors echoed the careful layout of the park outside, but with none of the sense of space. After the briefest of chats with a guide I tumbled back out of the revolving doors and decided instead to capture some pictures of the Green and the Palace, before returning to the city. My route back took a detour through The Barras. Again, its been a few years since I headed this way - and the place is still as amazing and confusing as ever. I've never strayed this way in the summer when it's said to teem with even more life - but it's hard to imagine it being busier or more diverse in the range of goods it sells. There was a distinct reek of expensive soap in the market today, which led me to wonder which local branch of Lush had suffered a break-in recently?

And so, snaking my way back into town, coincidentally via the route of the buried Molendinar Burn which occupied my thoughts on a previous trip. It was now frustratingly hard to get around the busy streets as I searched in vain for a chance to sit and contemplate my walk and watch things go by. In the end, settled for Queen Street station where I watched people heading for the Far North from a quiet corner. I was comforted by the knowledge I was already planning my next trip back here. These Lost Weekends have sometimes not been successful and have left me feeling disconnected and strange - but despite facing a long dark trip back to the Midlands, this one felt like a success.

It was almost light when I set out for Southampton Airport Parkway station, which was something of a novelty after recent weeks. An Eastleigh start meant a fairly simple manoeuvre to get to the tour today, using the tried and tested airport Premier Inn. Pondered as I walked to catch a train for the short hop into Eastleigh, how I'd spent a fairly significant chunk of the last month in these places. It's a strange hobby at times - and once I find difficult to explain! Time for breakfast at the station, with the always entertaining Italian proprietor of the independent buffet over-run with orders. The advance gen that no hot food would be on the train due to Riviera not having suitable stock down south had clearly got through to the masses. Noted as I queued that our train had made it onto National Rail Enquiries too, as the 07:30 to Tilbury Town. This of course only told a tiny part of the story! Soon heard that with ballast trains making heavy claims on the locos here, one was being sent from Westbury to form the other end of our train. This led to a delay of about 35 minutes, but it was pleasant to wander about the station chatting as the sun rose, and to finally get a picture of the pair of Class 73s lurking in the yard. This was in fact pretty much the only picture I managed all day, given the nature of these tours and the dark and dingy conditions this morning.

Soon off, with a fast run into Waterloo. More seats filled here and later at West Hampstead, with an almost complete set of BLN sub-editors in attendance once again! The train was pretty full now - with none of the mass invasion of part-fare vigilantes which had been threatened. One interloper appeared and was dealt with stiffly and surely by our Gen. Sec. without too much fuss. Quite right, since these tours with their unique opportunities to get into some of the most curious corners of the network are costly, and as a society it's a given that we share this in order to get the opportunities. No doubt a dissection of the tour on the internet will throw up all sorts of silliness however. From Waterloo we took the very rusty looking Sheepcote Lane curve to access the West London lines. Onto the North London at Willesden, and a chance to discuss with people much more expert than I how these lines had changed recently. Noted an all-Class 172 service now running on the Gospel Oak-Barking service too. Using the connection at South Tottenham, we ran through Barking station and onto the LTS, nearing our main objective for the day.

Here we slewed into the once busy Ripple Lane Yard, now a pretty desolate spot, the area has been altered considerably to accommodate the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, which surfaces from its tunnel into Central London here. Our first goal was the Stora or H Group siding, and creaking along the goods line we were soon curving away from the yard into thick vegetation, climbing over what may well have been the 'hump' from the days of wagonload trains, and as far as we could get into the siding. The plan was to reverse back to the West Yard here, but instead and to our surprise, we used the flat crossing over the main running line to reach the gates of the shed marked as Ripple Lane Railhead on the Quail map. Once again, Gas Hill's persistence and knowledge had paid off with a bit of unexpected track! After further machninations in the Ripple Lane area, we set off east and passed through Tilbury on our way to Thames Haven. I'd been here once before and if anything the place had become more unloved and decayed than ever. Evidence of life at the Gas Works, but the yard seemed to have barely been visited since my last trip. We pressed on right to the end of the siding, the tracks disappearing under grass - and getting much further than the Traffic Centre where we halted on the last trip. A further reversal here, and a bit of lost time as we headed back west to Purfleet. The last bit of industrial track in the area was the 'Long Siding'. Apparently in fact, two sidings considered one long branch operationally, with a number of connections leading from them into an aggregate terminal and the Ford Motor Works. Our progress along this branch was a little less complete, reaching a crossing just short of the Ford works - but even so, it was clear that this was not track which would crop up on any other tours soon - so another job well done!

Our route back was equally interesting, after passing Stratford and negotiating the tangle of track around Channelsea Junction with its changing Olympic landscape, we reversed at Temple Mills loop, beside the Eurostar depot. From here, covering the third side of the remodelled triangle at Channelsea, we headed into Liverpool Street, where many of the London contingent left us. Naturally I remained on the train for a traversal of the Graham Road curve, still an interesting area given my perambulations around Hackney. As it began to get dark, the journey over the rooftops of North London took on it's normal comforting and rather magical feel. One last bit of unusual track on the way home, as we headed via Acton and Kew onto the Reading line, and used the connection at Addlestone Junction to get back onto the route to Basingstoke. Pretty much back on time now, we made much quicker time on the mainline and sped back to Eastleigh for a sensibly early finish.

Getting involved in the Branch Line Society has brought a fair bit of stick for me - it seems that in a hobby universally derided by the common populace, there is a pecking order - and that those of us interested in track, routes and operations are somewhere near the bottom. It's a sad irony, since its that very track which underpins all the other railway interests from haulage bashing to photography and all points in between. I could call for peace talks, and try to explain that by bickering within the hobby we all suffer, but I suspect it's a pretty human approach to create hierarchies within hierarchies. In any case, if the Society continues to operate such interesting and successful trips and remains such a sociable and knowledgeable bunch, I'm happy where I am in the food chain!

Discussing today's trip last week on another tour, staff and punters alike had expressed some trepidation. There have been lots of stories about how Network Rail have been slow or uncooperative about tour timings recently, but few tours had suffered the the number and scale of cock-ups which this one had endured before it even turned a wheel. However, the important thing was that it was happening - and despite feeling a bit post-viral I even managed to feel pretty enthusiastic as I trudged through Birmingham before 5am! Despite the lift being awash with discarded chips, and some very dubious goings on in the telephone boxes, I was looking forward to the day ahead. Found my way to the correct platform thanks to an announcement - rare at this time of the day at all, and particularly for charter trains at New Street! Bang on time, 37038 and 37601 thundered out of the tunnel and I found my usual seat in the pleasantly warm carriage, alongside the usual suspects.

The early start meant a couple of hours of darkness so time was spent catching up with news, welcoming another familiar face from previous tours, and enjoying an excellent breakfast. Once the sun rose, it did so in some style with clear blue skies as we sped north along the West Coast Main Line. As we passed Crewe, noted that the Deltic tour operated by Pathfinder clearly hadn't left before us as booked. We later heard the train had departed around 40 late, and was behind us. Despite this, we still ended up looped as booked. The train was still some way back as we reached Carlisle, where our paths would part temporarily as the other tour headed for Kilmarnock, and the freight-only line via Mauchline Junction - track I need which caused a twinge of regret. However, the day had become pretty sociable and entertaining, so I settled in for the trip via the Edinburgh Suburban line into Waverley. Spent the short break here finding lunch, getting some photographs and noticing how cold and wintry it was!

On departure from Waverley, noted that the weather was getting pretty grim as we headed west. Out via Haymarket and onto the former branch to Bathgate. Now a double track mainline, we made pretty swift progress, passing on to the new line proper at Bathgate via a surprisingly tight curve which took the line south of the town centre. New stations on route were in varying states of completion - but overall things appeared to be shaping up for the official opening. Three Class 334s - the unit which will work the line - sat in the new Depot facility at Bathgate, from where they have been working test trains over the line. We should have passed the Deltic tour somewhere on the line, but in fact didn't see it until Bellgrove - meaning of course that we'd traversed the line completely before the other tour. This wasn't lost, and some good natured texting went on between the tour trains. Noted later that Internet chatter had tried to make a bigger deal out of this than was necessary - a shame, as two well-loaded charters can only be a good thing in these times?

Out train made rather sluggish progress through a very wet Glasgow now, using the City Union line, and passing high above streets I was walking just a couple of weeks back. Spotted some key locations, and confess I experienced a pang of regret that we weren't getting the originally planned break here, or that I wasn't around for longer. Soon found ourselves at Shields Junction where we reversed, rather than heading into Central Station. From here, 47804 led - doing pretty well with a heavy train over the Shotts route in wet and slippery conditions. Back into Edinburgh for a very short break before retracing our steps towards England. The route back was dogged with odd timing issues - a fair number of loops, then a diversion via Bolton and Manchester Piccadilly. The biggest issue though, was the refusal of calls at Wolverhampton and Birmingham New Street on the return trip, despite pick-ups being made. A Tame Bridge Parkway stop had been inserted - initially in the return, but eventually both ways - but this meant a range of options for me to get back to my hotel, depending on our timings. In the end, feeling tired and having eaten and drunk more than was strictly sensible, decided to bail at Crewe for a fairly sensible connection to Birmingham. Tame Bridge was possible, but meant either a mad dash or a very long wait - neither of which I felt up to at all!

So, I headed back into New Street feeling pretty rough on a unit full of screaming Saturday night revellers, at the end of a very long day indeed. Not quite how I'd planned this trip, but overall the day had turned out pretty well. New line done, old friends caught up with - and a lot of mileage with a decent trio of engines. Certainly not sorry to see my bed though!

This trip caught me rather unawares! It had been a busy week, and occasionally a challenging one. I was readjusting to normality after almost a week away in Glasgow, and I had local things to tackle too. News about next week's trip was troubling too, and it looked to be shaping up as a long and somewhat awkward day. So, it was good then, not to have to drag myself half way across the country for the start of this trip. Few tours start on my doorstep these days, and it was simply a case of hopping on to the first train to Weston. Having met the local assembly who had travelled on the first running of this trip last year, we boarded the unit which got us to Weston in good time. Staff there seemed a little fractious about the tour picking up, and claimed they "hadn't been told" which sounded pretty unlikely. Over to platform 1 to watch 37038 and 37601 round the corner making a hell of a noise. Soon settled into a comfortable Mk II and heading north for York.

The route took us via Worcester and Droitwich, then avoided Birmingham New Street using the Camp Hill line. Despite not picking up at this metropolis, the train was very full indeed which was great to see. There was no new track on the outward journey at all for me, so I enjoyed a very sociable trip instead - catching up with veterans and locals alike. The pair of engines performed faultlessly throughout, and despite a few minor delays we cruised into York around 17 minutes early. Here a fair number of daytrippers departed, whilst a fair few additional passenger joined for the minitour to Saltburn. I last did this track on a 'lost weekend' following Pathfinder's cancelled 'Cleveland Cleric' tour back in 2008, and had never done it on a 'proper train', so the run to Northallerton, then via the rather forlorn and empty remains of Thornaby Yard to Middlesbrough was interesting.

Saltburn remains a fine little Victorian resort town, carefully laid out and mostly very well kept. Walked down to the end of town to get a picture of the cliffs and the North Sea beyond. The weather had turned out dry, cold and beautifully bright which seemed to suit the place well. As we waited for the stock to return after our short break, we got chatting to a local couple, curious about our train. They had lived in Saltburn for much of their lives, before moving to nearby Skelton. They described rough winters and an ever present wind here, but clearly loved the place very much - and were pleased to hear my thoughts on it too. Our stock was soon back in the small station, and we boarded for the run back to York behind 47500. This engine, recently renumbered to it's original identity after a spell as 47770 has only lately begun to work for West Coast, so it was good to have an opportunity to travel with it. The return route used the underpass near Northallerton which crosses Boroughbridge Level Crossing. I seemed to need this short section of line, so was pleased to be routed this way, when other tours have gone directly onto the mainline here.

With a little under an hour at York, there was time to get some shots of the run around planned for our locos - first 47500 came off, and then the pair of 37s ran to the front, with 37601 now leading for the journey home. Back onto the train to find that somewhere in the process of reconnecting the train heat, things had gone wrong in our coach. With the alternator also not working, we were likely to have a dark trip back! No great problem though, and the lack of artificial light gave us some spectacular views of a stunning sunset as we sped south. Another very sociable trip with the chance to catch up with people which I don't seem to get on other tours. As we got back onto fairly local turf, I started to ponder the connection at Weston into the last train home. As long as we were allowed off Bristol before the unit things would be fine. However we were a few minutes down and this was all down to Bristol Signalling Panel - who have a track record of being fairly unhelpful to railtours arriving back in the evening. Sure enough, as we arrived the unit to Exeter via Weston was still at the platform. However, in typical style it was despatched first and we were doomed to follow our connection all the way home - but not to catch it! Brief but frankly unrealistic hopes it may have been sidelined at Bedminster or Yatton Down Loop proved fruitless, so the last chance was that it would be held at Weston to let us pass - in fact a brief rumour made the rounds that this would be the case. In the end this didn't happen, so we sent one of the ladies of our group to talk to station staff as they were likely to be far more persuasive! First Great Western staff were deeply unhelpful and wanted nothing to do with the handful of passengers stranded at Weston - despite simply having to let us board a following HST which is designated set-down only at Weston and stations to Taunton! They viewed the issue as one for West Coast, so after some persuasion and discussion with control it was agreed the tour would make additional stops at Highbridge and Bridgwater.

So, a quiet and uneventful day ends up with a surprise locomotive hauled trip to my home station. Once again Spitfire pulled a fine trip out of the hat which seemed to please everyone and certainly got plenty of seats filled. Credit too to WCRC for sorting out a silly situation with calm, logic and good old fashioned railwaymanship! Next week will be a much longer affair, but promises to be a good one...