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Cornish semaphore swansong

After many delays, the end is now fast approaching for the fine collection of lower quadrant semaphore signals at Par, Lostwithiel and Truro, with 27 February 2024 signalled as the date when this trio of boxes will finally close.

In the six years since I began writing this blog I have witnessed the end of mechanical signalling in places as far afield as Blackpool North, Humberside, Norfolk’s Wherry Lihes and the North Wales Coast, so now it is time for a final farewell visit (21/22 November 2023) to the Royal Duchy.

Last semaphores before Paddington

800032 departs Moreton-in-Marsh with 1P30 from Worcester Shrub Hill to London Paddington

MORETON-IN-MARSH is a charming Cotswold town that is particularly popular with visitors from the Far East and boasts a remarkably unspoiled railway station and a signal box which can claim to work the closest semaphore signals a train will pass on any journey to or from London Paddington.

Standing at milepost 91¾ Moreton-in-Marsh is a good deal closer to Paddington than either Liskeard (243½ miles) or Pembrey & Burry Port (208 miles) and is a remarkable survivor from the 2011 Cotswold Line re-doubling project, when double track was reinstated from Evesham to Charlbury.

A Hungarian narrow gauge delight

Return visits earlier in the year to travel the only state-run narrow gauge railways in Bulgaria (June 2023) and Czechia (August 2023) had given me a taste for obscure little railways in Eastern Europe, so the lure of cheap flights takes me for a first time trip to see and travel the only narrow gauge railway run by Hungarian state operator MÁV.

This is a 22km (14-mile) 760mm (Bosnian gauge) system that runs inland from a resort on Lake Balaton called Balatonfenyves, a two-hour Inter-City train ride south-west from Budapest. It comprises a 14km (9-mile) route from the narrow gauge station at Balatonfenyves to a place called Somogyszentpál and an 8km (5-mile) branch from a junction called Imremajor to Csisztafüdo, a renowned thermal spa.

New trains and old signals at Pembrey & Burry Port

197112 passes Pembrey Signal Box with 1B63 from Carmarthen (13.04) to Cardiff Central

Re-signalling work is continuing apace in Cornwall and set for completion in late February 2024, when boxes at Truro and Par will close, but the same cannot be said for a similar project in West Wales, if the picture at Pembrey & Burry Port on 7 November 2023 is anything to go by.

Paying a first return to Burry Port since my last visit in February 2023 there was plenty to see in terms of new rolling stock, but precious little evidence that the signal box and semaphores would be replaced by early 2024, as a Ferryside signaller had suggested to me when I visited there three months ago.

Edinburgh’s ghostly Gateway station

As white elephants go it may not be a match for HS2, yet almost seven years after it opened to the public in December 2016 there is no doubting that the £41 million Edinburgh Gateway station has massively failed to live up to its potential as an important new way of accessing Edinburgh Airport.

Spend a hour there on a weekday morning and it is easy to see why Edinburgh Gateway has not enjoyed the success of other Scottish openings and re-openings, such as the routes to Bathgate and Tweedbank, with very limited services calling at the station and a ludicrous £7.50 tram single fare for anyone wanting to take the 1.8-mile, 7-minute link to Edinburgh Airport.

Magical Montrose

43031/183 approach Montrose on 30 October 2023 with 1A39 from Glasgow Queen St. to Aberdeen

Among the ten remaining outposts of mechanical signalling along the scenic East Coast Main Line (ECML) between Edinburgh and Aberdeen, most picturesque of all must surely be Montrose, where a short length of single line sweeps into the town, crossing Montrose Basin on the South Esk Viaduct.

Just north of Montrose station stands Montrose North Signal Box (North British Railway, 1881) which was closed for several years before being re-opened in 2010 as part of a local re-signalling scheme that saw closure of boxes at Montrose South and Usan, southern end of the single-track section.

Scheduled steam returns to Wolsztyn

Pt47-65 storms away from Nowawies Mochy on 20 October 2023 with the 11.43 Wolsztyn-Leszno

Managing to organise a three-night autumn mini-break to Poland, and spend two days riding on Europe’s last standard gauge steam services for a total cost of well under £250.00 might sound pie in the sky, but a recent trip has proved that such things can still be done.

In a crazy world where my return Ryanair flights from Stansted to Poznan cost less (£35.02) than an off-peak return from Haslemere to Stansted (£39.75 with railcard), the total cost of a four-day break, including all fares, food and accommodation, came in at just £224.30.

Favourite photo-spots: Melton Mowbray

43321/303+43357/301 approach Melton Mowbray with 0Z60 from Exeter Riverside to Old Dalby

Many years after it was supposed to have been replaced, there remains a significant amount of mechanical signalling interest along the busy cross-country route linking Leicester and Peterborough, with six of the seven signal boxes along a 20-mile stretch of the line retaining some semaphores.

Largest and most impressive of this half dozen is Melton Station Signal Box, a tall and attractive LMS Type 11c box, which dates from 1942 and stands west of Melton Mowbray station on the north side of the line. A total of six semaphores are among 21 working levers on its 45-lever frame, including a rarity in motor-worked up distant MN19.

Castle HST sets and semaphores at Liskeard

Three years after my last visit (blog: November 2020) it is time to make a day return to charming Liskeard on 3 October 2023, and attempt to photograph the dwindling ranks of GWR’s Castle HST sets and semaphore signals, as well as trekking out to a fine vantage point some way east of the station.

This is an over-bridge on a narrow lane called St. Keyne Road (264 miles 10.75 chains) that offers a fine panoramic view looking west of trains as they pass the first of Liskeard’s six semaphore signals, its down outer home (LD35), which stands just before the line curves west over the short Bolitho Viaduct.

XC HST farewell on the Swanage Railway

At 23.35 on Monday, 18 September 2023 an era of main line HST-worked services finally drew to a close when retro-liveried 43007/43008 brought 1E73 from Plymouth into platform 12 at Leeds, just a minute behind schedule, and the curtain came down on HST working by Cross-Country (XC).

But for one final hurrah, a week later (on 26 September 2023) the celebrity set was out one more time, to work a sold-out charter (1Z43) from Leeds (06.35) to Swanage, with a short lunch-time working to Bournemouth and back before returning from Swanage to Leeds (1Z44) at 16.18.