August 2023 – RailwayWorld.net

Re-tracing the Withered Arm

Taking a two-hour bus ride for just £2.00 is the sort of travel bargain I am always keen to sample, so with the Government’s bus fare cap in England extended until 31 October 2023, this seemed like an ideal moment to take a summer trip to the South-West to sample both bus and rail services in Devon and Cornwall.

Following a route that re-traced much of the Southern Railway’s “Withered Arm” – the routes from Okehampton to Bude and to Wadebridge via Launceston – I was intrigued to see how busy would be the modern day bus replacements for these rail routes, which succumbed to the Beeching axe on 3 Ocbober 1966.

A ghostly Polish station that is forever part of Czech Railways

Four times each day a Czech Railways (CD) regional train makes a 60km (37½-mile), 90-minute, trip from the town of Krnov to Jesenik in Eastern Czechia, heading briefly across the Polish border midway through its journey to stop and reverse in a deserted Polish station called Głuchołazy.

Głuchołazy is a small and historic town in South-West Poland that merits a place in railway folklore as being a station in one country that for five days out of seven is only served by the trains of its neighbour, Czechia (Czech Republic).

A delightful narrow gauge survival in Eastern Czechia

Almost a decade after my only previous visit, it is time to pay a return to what has now become the last surviving 760mm (2’ 6”) gauge line in Czechia (Czech Republic), following last autumn’s (October 2022) collapse of the JHMD network in Southern Bohemia, only three months after I had spent a week travelling the system there.

Hoping that I do not have a jinx on these little railways, I am returning to the charming 20km (12.5-mile) line in Eastern Czechia that remains operated by state rail operator České Dráhy (ČD) and runs from a junction station in a village called Třemešná ve Slezsku to a small town called Osoblaha through a narrow rural peninsula of Czechia jutting into neighbouring Poland.

South Wales Pullman Dining

Dining on the line has long been a favourite way to enjoy rail travel around the UK for me and it is clear I am not alone when premium dining seats on special trains that cost upwards of £300 are always the first seats to sell out.

Add to that the huge popularity of dining services on preserved railways and it is clear there there remains a strong desire by passengers to travel by train in style and enjoy some fine dining at the same time.

Gorgeous Garsdale

LMS Black 5 45231 *Sherwood Forester* storms through Garsdale with 1Z39 from Crewe to Carlisle

Among many attractive locations along the wonderful 72-mile Settle to Carlisle (S&C) line, one place that I had long wished to spend time at is remote Garsdale, the next stop after England’s highest station, Dent, when heading north towards Carlisle and a one-time junction for a branch line to Hawes, Redmire and Northallerton.

Having discovered on a visit to Settle Junction last year that Wednesdays are good for freight activity on the S&C, I planned to check the photographic loctions on the afternoon of Tuesday, 1 August 2023, then return the following day, when an added bonus would be a steam special from Crewe to Carlisle, hauled by 45231 Sherwood Forester.