Category: Britain

Concluding my trio of summer visits to heritage railways affiliated to the Watercress Line – meaning free travel for working volunteers like me – I head north for an overnight stay in Bury and a couple of days on the charming East Lancashire Railway (ELR).

The town’s former main station, Bury Bolton Street, is headquarters of the 12½-mile line, which from there runs three miles east to Heywood and a link to the national Rail network at Castleton and 9 miles north alongside the Irwell River to Rawtenstall.

Continue reading “Rendezvous at Ramsbottom”

Planning on taking a day train trip from Cheltenham Spa to Bridgnorth to reacquaint myself with the fully re-opened Severn Valley Railway, I was persuaded to put off my SVR journey by a day when I spoke to a couple of enthusiasts in the Cafe Loco at Worcester Shrub Hill to ask why Rail Operations Group Class 37 37800 Cassiopeia was parked up in the centre siding.

I learned that it was there to provide Thunderbird breakdown cover for Porterbrook’s converted Class 319 Hydroflex unit 799201, which was scheduled to be making a test run from Long Marston to Shrub Hill and back later in the day (12 August 2025), but also heard of another interesting special working that day departing from the rail storage facility at Long Marston.

Continue reading “Sun and semaphores at Droitwich Spa”

Continuing my summer-time visits to heritage railways that are affiliated to the Watercress Line – meaning free reciprocal travel for working volunteers like me – I am making a long overdue return to what must surely be the UK’s finest preserved station.

Horsted Keynes station is roughly midway along the 11-mile long Bluebell Railway from East Grinstead to Sheffield Park and has been superbly preserved in Southern Railway 1930s style, which helps account for its appearance in countless films and period TV dramas.

Continue reading “Historic Horsted Keynes”

VIADUCTS are one of the most dramatic features of our railway network and make for great photos, particularly if being crossed by a train, so after some recent successes with the fabulous Moorswater Viaduct near Liskeard, I am now heading to a remote corner of South-East Cornwall to capture trains on the magnificent Calstock Viaduct.

Calstock Viaduct is the most impressive feature on the 12-mile long Tamar Valley Line, and part of a branch line that once ran from a junction at Bere Alston to Callington, was recommended for closure in the 1963 Beeching report, but was reprieved as far as Gunnislake, due to the inadequate local roads.

Continue reading “A call at Calstock”

A little more than 40 years ago, on the night of Saturday, 6 July 1985, I managed to miss the last train from Tunbridge Wells to Eridge, when I paid a farewell visit to the line, but had not realised that there was a replacement bus service from Tonbridge to Tunbridge Wells on that day.

I was working on The Observer at the time and having to work on Saturdays meant only being able to travel late in the evening. I dashed across from Tunbridge Wells Central station but was too late, and had to settle instead for a short trip back on the last ever service from Tunbridge Wells West to Tunbridge Wells Central.

Continue reading “Super Spa Valley Railway”

Thursday, 17 July 2025 proved to be an historic day on the splendid East Midlands Railway (EMR)-operated Grantham-Skegness Poacher Line, with a first ever visit to the route by one of the new EMR Class 810 Aurora units.

A fleet of 33 bi-mode 5-car Class 810s is destined to replace the Class 222 Meridian units on longer distance EMR services, but introduction of the Hitachi-built units has been beset by repeated delays.

Continue reading “Poacher Line debut for EMR Aurora”

Glorious sunshine and guest appearances by some marvellous diesel-hydraulic traction are making for a highly popular gala weekend on the Alton-Alresford Watercress Line, where I have worked as a volunteer booking for the past decade.

Not normally being someone who relishes the crowds, I paid a 90-minute visit on Saturday (12 July 2025) to the footbridge at Medstead & Four Marks station in order to savour some of the remarkable heritage diesel action.

Continue reading “Diesel-hydraulics at Medstead”

Only days after the Midland Railway signal box was celebrating its 100th birthday (5 July 2025) it is time to pay a return visit (on 8 July 2025) to fascinating Peak Forest, near Buxton, and hope to photograph again some of the heavy stone traffic passing the semaphore signals controlled by Peak Forest South Signal Box.

After two highly enjoyable visits in August and November 2024, my ambition this time was to capture a train passing up signal PF16, the motor-worked distant that is mounted beneath Great Rocks Junction’s section signal GR14, and is one of less than a dozen surviving working home and distant signals on the national network.

Continue reading “Summer stone traffic at Peak Forest”

Almost three years on from my visit to the two southernmost outposts of mechanical signalling on the spectacular Settle-Carlisle Line (Settle Junction and Hellifield, September 2022) and time for a long overdue return to the northern end of the S&C. My quest this time is to capture some loco-hauled action at Appleby and also pay a brief visit to Kirkby Stephen.

Since its reprieve from closure in 1989 the S&C has developed into a major tourist artery, with active support from the Settle-Carlisle Railway Development Company, which provides guides on certain trains, a refreshment trolley service between Settle, Appleby and Carlisle and buffet services at a couple of stations.

Continue reading “Semaphores and loco action on the Settle-Carlisle Line”

As another year rolls relentlessly on I am paying a return visit to the Royal Duchy (28 June 2025) to capture – for a third successive year – the special workings that are bound for Penzance and its famous Mazey Day celebrations, the culmination of the two-week Midsummer celebrations in Cornwall known as Golowan.

Having almost been thwarted by train cancellations on this day in 2024, I am heading back to Liskeard, and walking out once again to Moorswater footbridge west of the town, which I first visited in March 2025, in the hope of capturing the special trains as they head west across Moorswater Viaduct.

Continue reading “Mazey Day action at Moorswater”