Day 4 – Thursday 15th May

Newcastle – Edinburgh – Leven – Edinburgh – Manchester Airport – Crewe – Manchester Piccadilly

Yesterday I achieved some more of my objectives. I’ve now completed West Yorkshire (apart from a single station that can wait until the weekend). I also visited the north-east and rode the revived Ashington branch. As, as bonuses, I rode on the Tyne and Wear Metro and the Shields Ferry, and had a big meaty baguette at Whitley Bay. Wait – that sounds odd.

The extra flexibility I gained by travelling on Monday has helped a lot. Originally I would have arrived late into Newcastle then needed an early start to visit Ashington before moving on. I will now preserve my original plan minus the Ashington return, so I’ll have plenty of time for a hotel breakfast. But it didn’t work out that way. I felt reluctant to give up the spare time I’d gained, so set out nice and early, skipping breakfast (again).

I was on Newcastle station before 0630. It was just five minutes from my hotel, which was handy.

Train 30 – Newcastle to Edinburgh

A new day means a new Train Operating Company. I was on an LNER service. Normally an LNER service between Newcastle and Edinburgh would have come from London but it was early in the morning so this one started its day at Newcastle. As did I. Because of the early start and short working there were few passengers occupying its nine coaches, and I was just one of four in mine.

The train was an Azuma, the term chosen by Virgin Trains East Coast, who operated the line back then, for its new Hitachi high-speed fleet. They are basically the same trains as GWRs IETs but have attracted less opprobrium for ‘ironing board seats’. I didn’t notice whether the seats were comfortable or not. I suppose that means that they weren’t too bad.

A bottle of water and the breakfast menu were already on my table so I was reassured: I’d be fed and watered by the time I reached Scotland. On leaving Newcastle I was offered a drink so chose tea. Some time later I was offered more water and more tea. I accepted both, putting the water in my bag for later. A concerning period of time elapsed before the food orders were taken but eventually I was enjoying my bacon roll with brown sauce followed by a banana. This isn’t a patch on the breakfasts that were served on trains not all that long ago. On my very first rover in 2006 I enjoyed a delicious full English with the option of Champagne. I had to pay, whereas modern first-class food is included, but I’d happily pay for a good breakfast on the move. Even so I was feeling very content as I relaxed and watched the glorious scenery.

This northern part of the East Coast Main Line is great, making up for the boring southern 200 miles. There are rolling hills and villages but the highlights are the stretches along the coast. I was enjoying my train ride but would have loved being on one of those beaches or coastal paths.

LNER services are usually fast and don’t call at intermediate, minor stations. But things are often different in the early mornings. This train stopped at no fewer that five intermediate stations. The first was Morpeth, which always looks to have more railway infrastructure than a minor stop would require, but I learned yesterday that the goods line network that includes Ashington rejoins the ECML at Morpeth. Morpeth is also the terminus for stopping services back to Newcastle and Carlisle or (as I learned yesterday) Nunthorpe.

After Morpeth was Alnmouth for Alnwick. Handy these days for Harry Potter fans wishing to visit Alnwick Castle, used for some Hogwarts locations. Looking at their website they’re milking the connection, and why not? I find it confusing that the two Aln parts of the station names are pronounced differently.

Although this was just about an all-stations service it did draw the line at Chathill. This station, in the middle of Northumbrian nowhere, is served as an extension of the service that usually reverses at Morpeth. A train from Newcastle had arrived here just over 20 minutes ago before heading back to Newcastle. You missed it? Not to worry, as there’s another train that’s come all the way from Carlisle in just 12 hours time. As a railway location Chathill is odd. RealTimeTrains doesn’t show trains that simply pass through, giving the impression that the two trains a day that terminate here are its only traffic, ignoring the many LNER, TPE, XC and freight trains that fly through every day.

Next stop Berwick-upon-Tweed with the grand Royal Border Bridge. The line curves so you can get a reasonable view of it from the train but the view is spoiled somewhat by the overhead electricity gantries. It looks much better from the ground, as this filched image from Wikipedia shows.

We were now is Scotland. We call at Reston, opened in 2022, then Dunbar. This station lost its platform on the north-bound (Down) line many years ago. Trains stopping in either direction had to cross to the Up side where the platform was on a loop. This was operationally a problem when the line became busier so in 2019 a platform was reinstated on the Down. And we called at it.

Next was East Linton, which reopened (in a different location from the original) at the end of 2023. After that the run into Edinburgh was plain sailing, the sight of Bass Rock confirming that you’re almost there. There are several stations used by Edinburgh commuters but LNER are happy to leave those to Scotrail.

If I were ticking off stations actually called at I’d have done quite well this morning. So far as I know I was on the sole LNER train of the day that calls at some of these wayside towns. Wikipedia thinks that NO LNER services call at East Linton, but that’s wrong as we just did. It does concede that a single LNER train calls at Reston heading north, but none do so heading south.

So here I am, at Waverley. I’m in Scotland for one reason: to sample another reopening. I was up here last May and finished off the Scottish network but they opened the line to Leven four days after I went home.

Train 31 – Edinburgh to Leven

Before catching my next train I wanted more refreshments. I bought a newspaper, a snack and a cold coffee drink from WH Smith on Waverley Station. I was running them through the self-service till when an alert flashed up – my sale needed approval from a member of staff. I asked why. My coffee drink contained caffeine, so mustn’t be sold to children. I understand that this rule came in after a youngster died after over-doing caffeine drinks, but I’d bet big money that not only was he not drinking a Starbucks soft drink but that you couldn’t possible make yourself ill from the caffeine in such drinks.

The train to Leven was another Class 170, so I have little to say. I have travelled many miles on the Scotrail version of these and they do the job well enough. We set off for the short trip past Princes Street Gardens and through the tunnels to Haymarket, where we stopped, as does every other train that passes through. Then we branched off of the Edinburgh-Glasgow Line for new (2016) Edinburgh Gateway Station. This serves a growing area of housing and offices near to Edinburgh Airport. It’s on the A8, has a large park-and-ride car park and is also on the Edinburgh tram line, providing a link to the airport.

We then called at Dalmeny, provoking an episode of PTSD. As we left the station I looked down to the bank of the Forth, far below. I’d had to climb from down there to this station last year in eight minutes flat. It came very close to finishing me off. Still, unpleasant memories were soon forgotten as we crossed the Firth on the Forth Bridge. I love the view of the banks and islands down below.

Once we were across and in Fifeshire we hugged the north bank. I think this line is as nice a ride as the far more famous line along the coast at Dawlish in Devon. We stopped at several stations and the train was well patronised. Just beyond Kirkaldy was passed Thornton South and North Junctions. These take you to the Fife Circle, for Cowdenbeath, Dunfermline and back to the Forth Bridge. Last year I waited on a platform just beyond those junctions for my train to turn round at Glenrothes with Thornton.

So far we were still on the line towards Dundee but we branched off to the right onto a former goods line. This was a pleasant, green, meandering route through gentle countryside. If my memory is correct the branch is double track and the Ordnance Survey 1:25000 and 1:50000 online maps are out of date.

We stopped at Cameron Bridge. Near this station is a huge industrial site that turns out to be a Diageo distillery. Not exactly a cottage industry. After Cameron Bridge we reach the terminus at Leven. It has two platforms, each much longer than the train I’ve arrived on, a footbridge with lifts and a large carpark. The Fife Heritage Railway is next to the new station and there are extensive yards between Leven and Cameron Bridge. I’m not sure which railway owns what.

Looking at the map it looks as of the Leven and Methil are quite large towns so this line may well have a strong future. The Scottish Government must think so as it’s been far more optimistic about this line than the authorities behind yesterday’s Ashington line. This is demonstrated by the fact that a few days after I visited the Leven line the hourly service via Kirkaldy was supplemented by an hourly service via the Fife Circle, doubling the frequency on the branch and adding several more destinations reachable by direct train.

The line continues (continued?) beyond Leven Station to the site of Methil Power Station, now no more.

Train 32- Leven to Edinburgh

I caught the train back to Edinburgh. Again, it was busy, almost full by Edinburgh. Aberdour has a nice station garden. As we approached Inverkeithing we were sent into a loop off the through line. I’d assumed, correctly, that we were being put out of the way to allow a fast train to go ahead of us. Perhaps it was running out of its slot so is trying to make up time? But RTT told another story. We were actually timetabled to cool our heels here for five minutes to allow an Aberdeen to Edinburgh service to pass. That train was running six minutes late but we were made to wait. This irked me at the time but we still arrived at Edinburgh Waverley just three minutes behind schedule, so no real harm done.

And that’s it! The Leven line is a tick and I’ve finished Scotland, for the second time in 53 weeks. Back to England for the final laps.

Train 33- Edinburgh to Manchester Airport

I was running two hours ahead of schedule so had no seat booked on this Trans-Pennine Express (TPE) service to Manchester Airport. It was busy but I did find a good-enough seat. The rolling stock was a new one for me this week, Class 397. Unusually for a modern fast train in the UK this wasn’t built by Hitachi but by the Spanish CAF, like the Northern Class 196 units I used earlier in the week.

TPE have by far the best livery of any Train Operating Company.

The train made the obligatory call at Haymarket, reminding me that an Edinburgh term for the withdrawal method of birth control is to ‘get off at Haymarket’. We then passed through several stations on our way to Midcalder Junction. We turned towards the south here. The other route from this junction goes to Glasgow Central via Shotts. I used the Shotts Line several times last year. It was a bit of a Cinderella line until about five years ago but electrification has boosted its fortunes to the point that if I wanted to go between Edinburgh and Glasgow Central I’d probably use this line rather than the faster and more frequent trains to Queen Street with the subsequent walk to Central.

There are no further stations until we reach Carstairs. The track layout here has recently been extensively revised, speeding up services through what was a bottleneck. We’re at another junction. We could turn right, towards Motherwell and Glasgow. Some Edinburgh to Glasgow trains follow this route, the slowest of the four routes linking those cities. But we turn towards the south. We speed down the West Coast Main Line (WCML), not stopping until Lockerbie. After that it was straight down to Carlisle then the scenic line through the eastern Lake District, calling at Penrith and Oxenholme, then on to Lancaster, Preston, Bolton and Manchester.

I considered getting off at Piccadilly and finding my hotel. But this train was continuing to Manchester Airport and that was on my list. So I remained in my seat.

There was catering on this service and I had rather good cheese and biscuits, the days of substantial meals being long gone. I liked the wooden cutlery and the place maps which looked as if they’d been drawn by the chap who did the book The Island: London Mapped. But the staff did the usual and disappeared once they been down the train. TPE seem to be the worst of all at this, with several staff having a good old chat in the first class kitchen area, undisturbed by passengers needing hot drink refills. Is it laziness, or management instruction?

After using the through platforms at Piccadilly, which are essentially a separate station, we passed by the terminal platforms followed by Longsight Depot on our left, and various maintenance buildings including, I believe, a wheel lathe on my right. We then reached Slade Lane Junction where two tracks diverged from the very busy four-track railway that goes on to Stockport. We were now passing through Manchester suburbs such as East Didsbury. This line continues to Cheshire but we won’t be on it for long, and we won’t stop at any of the intermediate stations. About 10 miles from Piccadilly we take a junction onto a short spur to Manchester Airport Station. The spur and station were opened in 1993. Before that the line up from Manchester (the Styal line) had been quite quiet, now airport traffic has made it busy, with services to Scotland, Wales and many towns and cities in the north of England. I notice that Manchester Airport has four platforms. Stansted has two long ones and a short third platform which is occupied two-thirds of the time by the under-sized Cross Country trains on the Birmingham service. One up to Manchester here, I think.

I got off at the airport and was pleased to discover that the architects had put public toilets on the station. There’s always a temptation to make everyone go into the terminal. The toilets were well hidden but clean.

My next train was to Crewe. The stopping trains on the line between Manchester and Cheshire still run through, but they pop into the airport as they do so. I waited for one of those stopping trains.

Train 34- Manchester Airport to Crewe

After the relative luxury of first class in that 197 it was back to Northern standard-only reality. My train, running several minutes late, was a service from Manchester Piccadilly to Crewe. It was a class 323 electric train, so the same as I’d used on Monday to get out to Hadfield. Utilitarian but not uncomfortable, it would do just fine. I found it slightly surprising that the line was electrified throughout but it was done as part of the WCML project in the 1960s. The airport station didn’t exist so I suppose this was seen as a route for long-distance trains to get from Crewe to Manchester. In fact, looking at the map, this route is hardly any longer than the main route via Stockport. I imagine that the traffic from the airport today precludes its use as a diversionary route. Or does it?

It took about 40 minutes to reach Crewe, calling at a few stations en-route. At Wilmslow a line merges from the left. it’s come from Stockport. We continue on to Alderley Edge, Sandbach and Crewe. I get off at this important junction. The route up from the airport has been new territory for me (tick), but now I just want to get to my hotel.

Train 35- Crewe to Manchester Piccadilly.

The train back to Piccadilly turned out to be the same class 323 that I had alighted from a few minutes ago. The route is via Stockport and is probably the most direct of the alternatives, although this one stopped at very station. We went back to Wilmslow but I was sitting on the other side so saw other things from the window. That is how I saw the radio telescope at the Lovell Observatory at Jodrell Bank. Is it still producing useful information now?

And so back to Piccadilly. I went to the left luggage office to reclaim my case then off to my hotel.