Category: Articles

Cheltenham Gold Cup day (13 March 2026) makes the perfect excuse for another rail excursion to ever-charming Moreton-in-Marsh, to photograph the luxury £799-a-head Gold Cup Special (1Z25) on its journey from London Paddington to Evesham.

This year’s special, formed of the Northern Belle Pullman coaches was top-and-tailed by West Coast Railways’ maroon-liveried 47812 and 57314 and made a fine sight as it approached and passed the Cotswold station and its array of semaphore signals.

Two days after my visit to Montrose and Craigo and the offer of a bargain-priced £19.00 ScotRail Club 50 flat-fare tempts me to max-out the opportunity and pay my first visit for more than six years to Keith Junction – a 380-mile round trip from Edinburgh, and with the first 130½ miles to Aberdeen happily being aboard another Inter7City HST set.

For the past nine years Keith Junction has been the UK’s most northerly outpost of mechanical signalling, an honour it acquired when the signal boxes at Elgin West and Forres were eliminated in October 2017, while the 2019 closure of Inverurie Signal Box has left just three other mechanically-signalled locations along the Inverness-Aberdeen route – at Huntly, Kennethmont and Insch.

Almost four years on from my only previous visit (May 2022) and the lure of a 90-mile trip aboard one of ScotRail’s comfortable Inter7City HSTs tempts me to take a journey from Edinburgh to Montrose and then a short bus ride on to Craigo, to capture HSTs passing the re-opened signal box and its quartet of semaphore signals.

Craigo is a small village five miles north of Montrose that is home to a Caledonian Railway signal box dating from 1907 and boasting a 21-lever frame. As I wrote following my previous visit, the box was routinely “switched out” for many years, but re-opened on a regular basis when Montrose-Inverurie local services began in 2018.

Exactly three years after the local authority gave its reluctant authority to Network Rail for their removal (on 3 March 2023) the two semaphore signal brackets at Bognor Regis proudly remain in use, with no sign at all of their potential removal.

So on the eve of that anniversary (2 March 2026) the promise of a fine sunny day, along with an appearance by the Inspiration 200 exhibition train, prompts me to take a bus trip to the South Coast resort to capture the charming and unchanging scene.

Loss of the semaphore signalling at Pembrey & Burry Port and Ferryside in October 2025 has left just two mechanically-signalled locations west of Cardiff in South Wales, at Tondu on the Bridgend-Maesteg branch line and at Pantyffynnon on the Heart of Wales Line from Llanelli to Craven Arms.

Having enjoyed time at Pantyffynnon when travelling the full length of Wales’ most scenic railway line in October 2024, I am tempted to make a return visit on 23 February 2026, after discovering that there is the prospect of capturing a LSL-owned Class 37 (37409) on a route-learning run from Crewe to Landore.

Travelling along the North Staffordshire Line from Stoke-on-Trent for a visit to Uttoxeter last autumn [feature: November 2025] had reminded me that mechanical signalling interest along this fascinating route begins a mere five minutes after leaving Stoke, at Longton, and four semaphores controlled by the nearby Foley Crossing Signal Box.

This heavily-fortified signal box (North Staffordshire Railway, 1889) stands around 300 yards west of the rather desolate Longton station, controlling a busy foot crossing and from where an up home signal can be seen. Two other semaphores visible from the station’s down (westbound) platform are a down home and tall up section signal.

Three years after its installation and opening (January 2023) it is time to pay a return visit to the revolutionary lightweight footbridge that stands north of Craven Arms on the busy Newport-Shrewsbury Marches Line, and offers a great vantage point from which to watch trains passing the semaphores controlled by Craven Arms Crossing Signal Box.

Despite the loss of five semaphores when a cross-over for Heart of Wales-bound trains was moved from north to south of Craven Arms station, the rather hideous-looking signal box still controls seven semaphores, with an up (northbound) trio comprising home (CA2) and starter signals, (CA3), both visible from the station, and section signal CA4 north of the footbridge.

Almost two years on from my only previous experience (feature: April 2024) and the offer of a bargain-priced First Class single from Newport to Crewe in the January Rail Sale (£32.80 with railcard) meant a chance to sample once again the fine dining available each day on a handful of Transport for Wales (TfW) Cardiff-Manchester services and one Holyhead-Cardiff working.

As I wrote two years ago, dining on the line is a pleasure that takes me back to my early working career in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when I had some memorable meals aboard the all-First Class Manchester Pullman and was also the only enthusiast aboard the last ever restaurant service in a 4-REP unit from London Waterloo to Bournemouth (2 October 1981)

Diverting West Coast Main Line trains over the scenic Settle-Carlisle Line was once standard practice when the WCML was blocked between Preston and Carlisle, but the famously scenic route had not been used for this purpose for more than ten years, until it regained this role during the first two weeks of 2026.

What made it possible now was the arrival into service of Avanti West Coast’s new bi-mode Class 805 Evero units, primarily designed to operate services between London Euston and Holyhead, but ideally suited to operating the Preston-Carlisle shuttles that were run from 1st to 14th January 2026.