Month: September 2024

Loss of examples at Parbold and Chapel Lane Crossing on the West Lancashire Line in February 2024 means that there are now just ten combined home and working distant signals left on our national rail network, three of which control barely a mile of track in an obscure corner of West Cumbria.

These are signals controlled by the signal box at Silecroft, and by the nearby gate boxes at Limestone Hall and Kirksanton, on the Cumbrian Coast Line to the west of Millom, where these remarkable survivors protect two level crossings on the A5093.

Continue reading “Railway wonders of West Cumbria”

More than a decade after my last visit (in 2013) it is time to pay a return to the quaint and historic Isle of Man and spend a few days travelling on the four charming narrow gauge rail systems that make this Crown Dependency at the centre of the Irish Sea such a wonderful place to visit.

Armed with a three-day “Go Explore” ticket (£42.00) my aim (10-12 September 2024) was to travel on and photograph all four of these little railways – the 15½-mile steam railway from Douglas to Port Erin in the south, the 17-mile long Manx Electric Railway from Douglas to Ramsey in the north, the Snaefell Mountain Railway and the unique Douglas Bay Horse Tramway.

Continue reading “Steaming back in time on the Isle of Man”

Railway re-openings have been all but canned by the new Labour Government, so the two scheduled for 2024 look like being the last additions to our national rail network for some considerable time.

While the Ashington Line from Newcastle has been delayed until December, when only a limited number of its new stations will be ready for service, there were no delays to the £116m Levenmouth Rail Link north of the border, which opened as planned on 2 June 2024.

Continue reading “Britain’s newest rail service”

Travelling by bus from Dunblane to Auchterarder earlier in the year (March 2024) had given me the idea for a great vantage point to see and photograph trains from the west side of the A9 trunk road at the point east of Blackford where it crosses the railway line near the Highland Spring bottling plant.

I had subsequently seen various pictures taken from this spot and realised that it offered a fine panoramic location at which to photograph trains passing two of the remaining trio of semaphore signals controlled by the LMS 1933-vintage signal box, which stands next to a level crossing at the north end of the village.

Continue reading “Bonny Blackford”