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Semaphores and loco action at Shrewsbury

67012 approaches signal SUB57 with 1V42 from Manchester Piccadilly (12.30) to Cardiff Central

SHREWSBURY remains a must visit location for anyone interested in our signalling heritage, so returning to Shropshire’s county town for the first time in over a year, my challenge this time was to attempt to photograph both semaphores and a variety of loco-hauled workings that were scheduled to pass on 31 August 2023.

Selecting locations on either side of the town, my hope was to be able to photograph Class 66-working of the regular Dee Marsh-Margam freight, Class 67-worked TfW services between Cardiff and Manchester, a Class 37-powered scrap move of ex-Merseyrail units to Sims at Newport, and a steam-hauled special from Woking.

Re-tracing the Withered Arm

Taking a two-hour bus ride for just £2.00 is the sort of travel bargain I am always keen to sample, so with the Government’s bus fare cap in England extended until 31 October 2023, this seemed like an ideal moment to take a summer trip to the South-West to sample both bus and rail services in Devon and Cornwall.

Following a route that re-traced much of the Southern Railway’s “Withered Arm” – the routes from Okehampton to Bude and to Wadebridge via Launceston – I was intrigued to see how busy would be the modern day bus replacements for these rail routes, which succumbed to the Beeching axe on 3 Ocbober 1966.

A ghostly Polish station that is forever part of Czech Railways

Four times each day a Czech Railways (CD) regional train makes a 60km (37½-mile), 90-minute, trip from the town of Krnov to Jesenik in Eastern Czechia, heading briefly across the Polish border midway through its journey to stop and reverse in a deserted Polish station called Głuchołazy.

Głuchołazy is a small and historic town in South-West Poland that merits a place in railway folklore as being a station in one country that for five days out of seven is only served by the trains of its neighbour, Czechia (Czech Republic).

A delightful narrow gauge survival in Eastern Czechia

Almost a decade after my only previous visit, it is time to pay a return to what has now become the last surviving 760mm (2’ 6”) gauge line in Czechia (Czech Republic), following last autumn’s (October 2022) collapse of the JHMD network in Southern Bohemia, only three months after I had spent a week travelling the system there.

Hoping that I do not have a jinx on these little railways, I am returning to the charming 20km (12.5-mile) line in Eastern Czechia that remains operated by state rail operator České Dráhy (ČD) and runs from a junction station in a village called Třemešná ve Slezsku to a small town called Osoblaha through a narrow rural peninsula of Czechia jutting into neighbouring Poland.

South Wales Pullman Dining

Dining on the line has long been a favourite way to enjoy rail travel around the UK for me and it is clear I am not alone when premium dining seats on special trains that cost upwards of £300 are always the first seats to sell out.

Add to that the huge popularity of dining services on preserved railways and it is clear there there remains a strong desire by passengers to travel by train in style and enjoy some fine dining at the same time.

Gorgeous Garsdale

LMS Black 5 45231 *Sherwood Forester* storms through Garsdale with 1Z39 from Crewe to Carlisle

Among many attractive locations along the wonderful 72-mile Settle to Carlisle (S&C) line, one place that I had long wished to spend time at is remote Garsdale, the next stop after England’s highest station, Dent, when heading north towards Carlisle and a one-time junction for a branch line to Hawes, Redmire and Northallerton.

Having discovered on a visit to Settle Junction last year that Wednesdays are good for freight activity on the S&C, I planned to check the photographic loctions on the afternoon of Tuesday, 1 August 2023, then return the following day, when an added bonus would be a steam special from Crewe to Carlisle, hauled by 45231 Sherwood Forester.

A bargain £12.70 rail tour of Southern England

171811 passes Rye Signal Box with 2D34 from Eastbourne (12.50) to Ashford International

On a Coastway trip from Havant to Hastings earlier in the year (January 2023) I had accidentally discovered that the railcard day return fare of £12.00 (now £12.70) was actually a flat fare, that was valid all the way from Portsmouth or Southampton to Ashford International, a distance via Brighton of 111 miles from Portsmouth and 128 miles from Southampton.

To buy one of these remarkable value tickets you need to book a route via Polegate, but looking at the conditions of this ticket, the permitted routes are those passing either Polegate or Edenbridge, so allowing the intrepid bargain-seeker the chance for a full day circular tour of Southern England, with no restriction on break of journey along the way.

Day return to Edale

GBRf 66722 passes Edale with 4H73 from Washwood Heath to Tunstead Sidings

Two years after my last visit it is time to return to one of the finest spots along the busy and picturesque Hope Valley Line linking Manchester and Sheffield, and spend a few hours watching freight and passenger services passing the handful of semaphores at Edale in the heart of the Peak District.

Completion of a major £145m upgrade of the Hope Valley Line has been delayed until spring 2024, and among other changes will see closure of the signal box at Grindleford and the loss of semaphores there. But the route’s other three outposts of mechanical signalling – New Mills South Junction, Edale and Earle’s Sidings – will remain.

Parliamentary train to Heysham Port

Britain’s shortest boat train route must surely be the 4.2 miles from Morecambe to Heysham Port, on which a “Parliamentary” train provides a daily connection with a ferry sailing to and from Douglas operated by the quaintly-named Isle of Man Steam Packet Company.

The once-a-day service, to a station where the Northern Trains timetable curiously uses its original name of Heysham Harbour, used to originate at Leeds and travel over the Bentham Line to Carnforth and Lancaster, before reversing there and at Morecambe.

Special trains and semaphores on Mazey Day

D1935 (47805) and 47614 pass signal PR5 with 1Z64 from Solihull to Penzance

Mazey Day marks the culmination of the two-week Midsummer celebrations in Cornwall known as Golowan and, besides attracting many thousands of visitors to Penzance, this year’s event on 24 June 2023 also brought a couple of special trains from the Midlands to the Royal Duchy.

As semaphore signalling is due to be disappearning from Truro, Par and Lostwithiel in November, this seemed the perfect excuse to pay another visit to the latter two of this trio and capture the two specials as they passed the doomed semaphores.