Month: March 2025

Death of a French branch line

Railcar X73585 approaches the level crossing at Aubusson and a banner protesting against closure of the line on 25 March 2025 with the 13.06 ex-Limoges

Barring a last minute miracle, 31 August 2025 will see closure of a scenic 33km (21-mile) branch line in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of Central France that runs from a junction station at Busseau sur Creuse, around 60 miles east of the city of Limoges, southwards to a small town called Felletin.

Line 25 in the TER Nouvelle-Aquitaine network currently sees two daily round trips, with weekday departures to Limoges-Bénédictins from Felletin at 06.23 and 16.42, and return services from the city at 13.06 and 17.10. But an end-to-end journey time of two hours is almost identical to the time it takes on a “Cars Regionaux” 204 bus and the bus fare is vastly cheaper than the train.

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Gold Cup special on the Cotswold Line

WCR 57313/601 and the Gold Cup Special (1Z53) pass signal MM2 on the approach to Moreton-in-Marsh

Cheltenham’s famous Gold Cup on Friday, 14 March 2025 saw a total of four extra GWR services run from London Paddington via Stroud and the Golden Valley route, while for really well-heeled punters there was the luxury Northern Belle Pullman service that ran via the Cotswold Line to Evesham.

That made the perfect excuse to take a trip ahead of the special as far as Moreton-in-Marsh, for the chance to photograph the Class 57-powered train passing some of the semaphore signals, before heading on to Honeybourne to capture the empty stock as it arrived in the sidings there.

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Wonderful Wainfleet

The “flying banana” New Measurement Train approaches Wainfleet with 1Q49 from Derby to Skegness

More than five years after my previous visit (January 2020) it is time to pay a return visit to Wainfleet (13 March 2025) on the ever-charming 55-mile long Poacher Line from Grantham to Skegness, in the hope of seeing its two semaphore distant signals pulled off for a Class 43-powered NR test train.

This small Lincolnshire town, five miles south of Skegness, is home to the revered Bateman’s Brewery and to an unstaffed station boasting a fine Grade II-Listed Great Northern Railway signal box that dates from 1899 and controls a handful of semaphores, including distant signals W1 in the down direction and W22 on the up line.

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Return to Liskeard

43004/093 pass signal LD32 with 2C68 from Plymouth (11.42) to Penzance

A forecast of fine weather persuaded me to take make a springtime return to Liskeard on Thursday, 6 March 2025, when my challenge was to see if it is possible to get any decent shots from west of the station showing trains approaching up outer home signal LD2 and crossing Moorswater Viaduct.

Having previously trekked out eastwards from the station to photograph trains passing down outer home signal LD35, this would hopefully be an opportunity to photograph the one of Liskeard’s six semaphores that had so far eluded my camera, and also what has been described as Cornwall’s most spectacular viaduct.

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£8.50 loco-hauled return from London to Birmingham

68012 arrives at Birmingham Moor Street with 1R21 from London Marylebone (10.02)

Finding loco haulage on our national network is something of a challenge, and  is currently confined to the sleeper services from London to Cornwall and  Scotland, LNER Class 91 workings between London, Leeds and York, TfW services between Cardiff and Manchester and a handful of Chiltern Railways workings between London Marylebone, Birmingham and Stourbridge Junction.

In a year that will mark 15 years since loco-haulage returned to the Chiltern Railways route in December 2010, I was keen to once again sample the delights of Mk3 coaches and Class 68 haulage, so decided to see how cheaply it was possible to travel in style on the Chiltern route to our second city via High Wycombe and Banbury.

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