Railways

 16 years ago

Posted in Railways on Sunday 8th February 2009 at 10:44pm


I woke to a freezing, but dry and snowless scene in Glasgow. I'd been contemplating how best to get to Edinburgh for today's trip for some time, and had even gone as far as booking a cheap seat on the 06:30 National Express bus from Buchanan Street. However, with the tour retimed a little later, and knowing that a fair number of us cranks were planning to catch the first train from Queen Street at 07:50, I opted to do this too. Because of my far too early start, I arrived at Queen Street just as the station was opening. Thankfully the coffee stall was already up and running, and I could at least warm my hand whilst waiting to see which of the stabled units would form the train. The crowds seemed to grow rather steadily, and some familiar faces arrived as with a tap on the shoulder I was advised "it's a long way from Bristol". As soon as the train was called, made a dash for the front and found a seat in First Class with a few other cranks and one or two Sunday morning commuters. The train seemed very full with even a few early rugby fans on board! Arrived pretty much on time at Waverley and immediately found breakfast before heading for platform 11 where the tour was due to depart. We waited for what seemed an age in the biting wind, with no apparent reason for the delay. Eventually the stock rolled in around ten minutes late. With no heating on yet, we shivered through the first part of the trip - but once we got moving things soon improved. All was not well though, as we sped past Portobello Junction where we were due to reverse at a fair pace. An announcement soon confirmed trouble - overrunning engineering works and an emergency possession at Whifflet meant some changes. However, despite overshooting Portobello, we'd soon be heading back to Powderhall.

Even this was not without problems. It seems that as late as Wednesday, DBS staff were refusing to take the train down the branch due to the state of the foliage. A long running dispute between DBS and Network Rail about who should clear this section of line was being fought, and we were stuck in the middle of it. Thanks to some persuasion and reassurance from the Train Manager we progressed gingerly down the branch towards the waste terminal, but stopped at the site of Easter Road station, short of where the Network Rail limit was believed to be. A disappointment, but still an interesting insight into the former lines in this area. Another reversal and off at speed on the mainline again, this time to call at North Berwick, and a chance for a quick photocall.

66201 on the blocks at North Berwick
66201 on the blocks at North Berwick

Off again towards Edinburgh, passing the loop at Drem where the Alloa Alloer had come to grief last year. No paperwork problems this time however, as we curved away from the mainline at Monktonhall Junction and proceeded into Millerhill Sorting Sidings. The next set of manoeuvres was complicated and much discussion went on about the order of play according to timings. In simple terms we firstly reversed around the curve onto the former Bilston Glen colliery line, and followed this line to its current limit. Then we moved forward, taking the eastern chord back towards Monktonhall before reversing again back into Millerhill Yard. Thus we covered all three sides of the triangle, getting a view of the stub of the former Waverley route to Carlisle and the pair of 37s stored at the back of Millerhill into the bargain. Slightly dizzy after this session of reversals and traversals, we headed back via Newcraighall towards the mainline, immediately branching towards Leith. More trouble befell us here though - not so much of a physical issue with limits this time as a territorial one. Network Rails, DBS and the Forth Port Authority couldn't seem to agree where the limit actually was. In the end, we stopped at Seafield crossing, a little short of Leith South. Another disappointment, and also a very early departure. This meant retreating along the Edinburgh Suburban line for a short distance to await out slot in the station. Eventually, after a long fester in the middle of nowhere, we arrived at Waverley for a brief break.

66039 rests at Edinburgh Waverley
66039 rests at Edinburgh Waverley

Setting off after a quick lunch and a chance for photographs, we sped along the E&G route towards Falkirk, since the emergency possession prevented us from maintaining our booked route via Coatbridge. This was also a disappointment, just because I find any chance to traverse the knot of lines around Glasgow intriguing. Finally reversed at the desolate and abandoned Cadder Yard in the beginnings of a snow storm. Soon retracing our steps to Greenhill Junction, where we were surprised to see the lines to Falkirk Grahamston falling away to our left. We made a fairly sharp stop, and the driver disappeared to the signalpost telephone. Eventually he was seen practically jogging back down the train to the rear loco. As he passed us he muttered "they didn't say which bloody Falkirk". After a swift reversal, using an unusual crossover in both directions, we finally found our way to Grangemouth Junction. This branch worked out a little better, with the train making it right to the NR limit and giving us a chance to see the fair number of DRS locos sitting at W H Malcolm's depot, at last a good result on one of today's obscure branches!

In failing light and gathering snow clouds we departed for the last bit of unusual track of the day. This took us via Stirling, passing Alloa to Dunfermline. I've covered this track previously in the opposite direction, and even visited again to do the short spur into the new Alloa station, so all was familiar. Interesting to see the rather brooding presence of Longannet Power Station in the dark though, and the bonus was running past Dunfermline and into the rarely used Townhill Loop for our final reversal. From here, it was a straightforward dash back to Edinburgh via the Forth Bridge. Had the rare chance to stand at an open window, cold air blasting in as I was simply awed by the structure over which we were passing. An unusual view an iconic bridge, and a great way to end a strange and occasionally frustrating tour around these branches.

My day of rare track wasn't over though, and after seeing off a couple of colleagues, I made my way to the platform to wait for the 20:12 to Glasgow Central. I could have caught a couple of earlier trains back west, but aside from being rather full of the stragglers from the rugby match, they were not booked by the route which my intended train took. Having spotted a discussion about this on the GENsheet list last week, I decided to check if this train really did use the rare connection south of Newton station as shown in PSUL. This was one of very few minor bits of track I haven't done before in Glasgow, and sure enough after a long and rather slow journey through the snowy landscape at Carstairs, we bumped and shuddered over the crossing and passed through Newton station platforms, before curving away to travel via Kinghill and to join the Cathcart Circle at Mount Florida. Another bit of line covered successfully, and an interesting end to a strange day. Rewarded myself with a visit to the Kings House for a Chinese buffet to round off a cracking day out overall. Here's to the next Scottish tour, which all being well isn't so far away!

Movebook Link
 


Railways

 18 years ago

Posted in Railways on Thursday 8th February 2007 at 10:38pm


Over the last couple of days I've been pottering around the house and generally enjoying being on leave and having nothing to do. Because I had a fairly substantial trip planned for the coming weekend I was content not to do too much else. Then, sometime yesterday, things started to conspire against my trip! With a prediction of bad weather, the transport networks were expected to fall to pieces and in true British fashion, we were all supposed to stop doing anything non-essential and just panic-buy bread and milk from our local supermarkets. I was led to expect to wake this morning to a generous carpet of snow and ice, capable of stopping trains and causing chaos. It didn't sound good at all.

In the event, I woke today to a cold and damp morning with no sign of the promised weather. In fact the trail of salt left to melt a path to the station proved more treacherous than the predicted conditions! However, not missing a chance to use a good excuse First Great Western had already cancelled the 06:19 to Bristol. With the earliest departure replaced in part by a bus which had already left to meet the train at Weston, I was stuck hoping that Virgin would honour my ticket on a later train. Then, rather oddly the service appeared to be reinstated on FGW's website, but not on National Rail Enquiries. Decided to set out and chance the 06:19 anyway. The passenger information system at the station was reporting the train running, but bizarrely missing out Bristol Temple Meads and Bedminster on route to Filton. I suspect someone pressed the wrong buttons, because eventually the train terminated at Bristol and didn't go forward to Filton at all. Anyway, the good news was that despite a guard who was rather slow to operate the doors, the rather reluctant sounding 153305 struggled into a slightly white underfoot Temple Meads only a few minutes late.

A fairly swift change onto the 07:29 which was to take me all the way to Glasgow. Found my seat and was almost immediately served fresh coffee. Happily settled in for the longest journey of the year so far. Surprised as we were leaving Bristol by the site of 33025 in the loco spur, apparently on snow-related duties! The journey northwards was fairly uneventful as far as the Midlands, but it was fairly clear from the drivers footprints when he left the cab to telephone at a faulty signal near Barnt Green that the snow was deeper here, and was likely to stick around for some time. With the signal fault and general weather-related slowness, we arrived around 20 down at New Street, where astonishingly another Class 33 (this time 029) was awaiting action!

Not having to worry about a connection, I was happy to let things rumble on at their own pace, and the train became a little busier as we headed north - mostly with people advised to join this as following trains were either late or cancelled. We sat at Crewe for a fair while, as Network Rail tried to decide whether to send us via Manchester to avoid a failed freight at Winsford. Eventually the train limped into a loop and we passed slowly by, now around an hour late. Once North of Weaver Junction the snow had all but disappeared, and we made fair progress northwards. As we crossed the border at Gretna, a slight glow in the sky indicated there was some sunshine up there somewhere, and by the time we were crossing the Clyde we were blessed with bright winter sunshine in the already way too hot carriage!

Having decided to make the most of my time up here, I speedily checked into my hotel for the weekend which was located a couple of doors from the Union Street entrance of Central Station, and was back and rebooked in time for the 14:45 to Largs. The plan was to spend today and tomorrow covering as many as possible of the branches we wouldn't touch on the McBuffer Puffer tour on Saturday. Set out on familiar track via Paisley as far as Kilwhinning, where we headed for the coast via Ardrossan South Beach. Made a mental note I needed to do the branch to the harbour at some point. More pleasant sunshine as we passed the coal loading point at Hunterston and finally arrived in Largs just in time for school finishing. Tried and failed to get an unobscured picture of the unit on the blocks, but found no convenient spot to do so which I could get to quickly, grabbing a fairly poor effort through the catenary.

334014 awaits departure for Glasgow at Largs
334014 awaits departure for Glasgow at Largs

With a train almost full with a rather uncomfortable mix of pensioners and school pupils, we set off back towards Glasgow. Most of the passengers disembarked at either Ardrossan or Saltcoats and again I had a quiet and speedy run back to Central. With the first branchline of the week ticked off and the evening peak about to start, decided to grab something to eat then wander out to The 13th Note to celebrate. Whilst strolling along Argyle Street towards Trongate the 'click' into the Glasgow mindset occurred and I felt just as comfortable as ever in my adopted home-away-from-home City. Really glad to be here given a shaky start to today!

Movebook Link
 


 23 years ago

Posted in Updates on Friday 8th February 2002 at 12:00am


A difficult day. Left the ex-Russell House team once again. Everyone was incredibly nice too, which made it very hard to leave. I suppose this left me feeling bitter towards work and work-related issues. Did a whole lot of loose-end tying today too. Tried to integrate with the real world a bit this evening, but ended up feeling old and tired, which is a bit sad. However, it was good to be out and about for a welcome change. Briefly (and suprisingly) met ex-colleague from the dark days, but was really not awake or focused enough to be very sociable by that time. Overall, I was probably kind of annoying today.

 


 24 years ago

Posted in Updates on Thursday 8th February 2001 at 12:00am


Incorporated patch to fix Gtkdial, and released 0.2.24 stable and 0.3.3 devel packages. Had some pretty positive feedback since posting the latest announcement at gnome.org, but acutely aware of the fact that the program is written in C baby-talk. Please be assured readers, that my latest projects are much less convoluted, and Gtkdial is under severe redevelopment. Managed to get sound working pretty well on good old > - significantly better than it ever worked when I owned the box, and all by virtue of a pair of three quid speakers!

 


Lost::MikeGTN

I've had a home on the web for more years than I care to remember, and a few kind souls persuade me it's worth persisting with keeping it updated. This current incarnation of the site is centred around the blog posts which began back in 1999 as 'the daylog' and continued through my travels and tribulations during the following years.

I don't get out and about nearly as much these days, but I do try to record significant events and trips for posterity. You may also have arrived here by following the trail to my former music blog Songs Heard On Fast Trains. That content is preserved here too.

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