Category: Britain

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”

Anyone wanting to see and experience scheduled weekday HST action in Great Britain 2025 has a choice between the three GWR diagrams between Exeter, Plymouth and Penzance or the rather more extensive 15 daily ScotRail Inter7City HST diagrams for express services between Glasgow/Edinburgh and Aberdeen/Inverness.

Having paid numerous visits to Cornwall in recent months, a short break in Edinburgh meant the chance to take a 90-minute journey aboard one of these very comfortable Inter7City HST sets on 18 June 2025 as far as Arbroath, in order to capture a few shots of four and five-car Class 43-powered sets passing the semaphore signals.

Continue reading “HST action at Arbroath”

Four months on from my last visit (February 2025) and it is time to return once again to Pembrey & Burry Port to see whether Network Rail remains on track to complete the resignalling here by November 2025, as promised in its most recent update on the rather long drawn-out Port Talbot West 2 (PTW2) project.

At the time of that February 2025 visit there was no apparent evidence of progress, beyond some new equipment that had been in place for a considerable time, so visiting both Pembrey and Ferryside on this occasion (4 June 2025) it would be interesting to see if there was evidence of progress with the resignalling.

Continue reading “One final summer for the South Wales semaphores”

Almost seven years on from my last visit (August 2018) and the prospect of some fine weather prompts me to pay a return (on 30 May 2025) to a busy Wiltshire junction to witness the varied railway action at Westbury, a place best known to travellers on the Berks & Hants route for its impressive white horse, carved into the nearby hillside.

Like Eastleigh on the South Western Main Line, Westbury sees a great variety of passing passenger and freight traffic, the latter largely comprising stone traffic from Merehead and Whatley quarries, but also including civil engineer workings to and from the large yard south of the station and occasional workings to and from Southampton Docks.

Continue reading “Historic and GM loco action at Westbury”

Spare a thought for those of us who will this weekend (25 May 2025) lose a major rail travel benefit as a result of South Western Railway (SWR) becoming the first rail operator to be nationalised by the Labour Government.

Over the past five years a major benefit for me of working part-time for a FirstGroup company has been an annual allocation of cheap day rover tickets that are valid on any of the First rail operations and, importantly for me, SWR.

Continue reading “Paying the price for SWR nationalisation”

Removal of a number of the semaphore signals controlled by Whittlesea Signal Box in early 2025 and imminent removal of its remaining down trio will leave just one significant outpost of mechanical signalling in East Anglia, apart from a few shunting arms at March and a solitary semaphore controlled by King’s Lynn Junction Signal Box.

That one remaining outpost of main-line mechanical signalling is Manea, a rather remote and sparsely-served village mid-way between March and Ely, where the elimination of main line mechanical signalling in East Anglia is expected to be completed when its quartet of semaphores is finally replaced.

Continue reading “Semaphore swansong at Manea”

Returning south from Newcastle after my visit to Prudhoe and a day riding the Tyne and Wear Metro, I decided to travel back via Carlisle and the WCML (on 24 April 2024), in order to spend a couple of hours at a remote location on the wonderful Tyne Valley Line that boasts the route’s only semaphore distant signal.

A location that I had only recently read about is Milton Gate Box, just east of the station and historic market town of Brampton, where a NER Type N2 box stands at a level crossing on the A689 and controls a trio of semaphores from its 10-lever Stevens frame, including a motor-worked up distant signal (1) close to Brampton station.

Continue reading “Tyne Valley distant delight”

Plans are being developed by Network Rail for a re-signalling of the charming Tyne Valley Line between Newcastle and Carlisle, which would see loss of semaphore signalling at a number of delightful locations, most photogenic of all being Prudhoe.

Here, 12 miles west of Newcastle, a tall and rather magnificent North Eastern Railway (NER) signal box dating from the early 1870s stands on the north side of the line, just west of the station and a level crossing.

Continue reading “Postcard from Prudhoe”

Having travelled the entire Merseyrail network using a day ticket (April 2022) and then repeated the feat with Manchester’s Metrolink (August 2022) it seemed about time to tackle the UK’s original light rail system and see how easy and interesting it would be to ride the whole Tyne and Wear Metro network in a single day.

I have long been a fan of day rover or ranger tickets as a way of covering an entire route or area in a single day, and checking the Nexus website it was good to see that there was no weekday time restriction on its day tickets, unlike the Merseyrail and Metrolink equivalents with their 09.30 weekday start time.

Continue reading “Tyne and Wear Metro in a day”