Tyne Valley distant delight

158849 passes the Milton Gate Box up distant signal with 1N59 from Carlisle (08.59) to Newcastle

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.

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Postcard from Prudhoe

156489 approaches Prudhoe with 2A34 from Carlisle (13.32) to Morpeth

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.

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Tyne and Wear Metro in a day

Metro and National Rail services share the route between Pelaw and Sunderland, as seen at Fellgate, where a Metro service to South Hylton formed of units 4017/27 passes 156444 with a service to Hexham

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.

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Favourite photo-spots: Woofferton Junction

67008 passes Woofferton with 1V39 from Manchester Piccadilly (10.30) to Cardiff Central

There are a remarkable five signal boxes among the 14 controlling the busy Marches Line between Shrewsbury and Newport that date from the early 1870s, and two of that number are celebrating 150th birthdays in 2025, namely those at Leominster and at nearby Woofferton Junction.

While Leominster has just two remaining semaphores – both in the down (southbound) direction – there is rather more to appreciate at Woofferton, seven miles to the north, where there are a total of eight semaphores controlled from its 39-lever frame, with three in each direction on the main line, plus entry and exit signals for an up loop.

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Sun, semaphores and HSTs at St. Erth

43186/188 (set GW08) approach signal SE68 with 2P16 from Penzance (13.15) to Plymouth

Exactly a year on since my last visit and the prospect of Spring sunshine tempts me to pay a return visit to St. Erth on 7 April 2025, one of only two locations on the Cornish main line to retain semaphore signalling, but one that has sadly lost its historic footbridge since my April 2024 visit.

This is almost certain to be the final year of GWR HST Castle set workings between Plymouth and Penzance, so my lunchtime arrival would hopefully give me a chance to see two of the three Castle sets in action that day, after taking a 15-minute walk from the station to Rosengrouse Road over-bridge (321 miles 46.25 chains).

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Death of a French branch line

Railcar X73585 approaches the level crossing at Aubusson and a banner protesting against closure of the line on 25 March 2025 with the 13.06 ex-Limoges

Barring a last minute miracle, 31 August 2025 will see closure of a scenic 33km (21-mile) branch line in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of Central France that runs from a junction station at Busseau sur Creuse, around 60 miles east of the city of Limoges, southwards to a small town called Felletin.

Line 25 in the TER Nouvelle-Aquitaine network currently sees two daily round trips, with weekday departures to Limoges-Bénédictins from Felletin at 06.23 and 16.42, and return services from the city at 13.06 and 17.10. But an end-to-end journey time of two hours is almost identical to the time it takes on a “Cars Regionaux” 204 bus and the bus fare is vastly cheaper than the train.

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Gold Cup special on the Cotswold Line

WCR 57313/601 and the Gold Cup Special (1Z53) pass signal MM2 on the approach to Moreton-in-Marsh

Cheltenham’s famous Gold Cup on Friday, 14 March 2025 saw a total of four extra GWR services run from London Paddington via Stroud and the Golden Valley route, while for really well-heeled punters there was the luxury Northern Belle Pullman service that ran via the Cotswold Line to Evesham.

That made the perfect excuse to take a trip ahead of the special as far as Moreton-in-Marsh, for the chance to photograph the Class 57-powered train passing some of the semaphore signals, before heading on to Honeybourne to capture the empty stock as it arrived in the sidings there.

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Wonderful Wainfleet

The “flying banana” New Measurement Train approaches Wainfleet with 1Q49 from Derby to Skegness

More than five years after my previous visit (January 2020) it is time to pay a return visit to Wainfleet (13 March 2025) on the ever-charming 55-mile long Poacher Line from Grantham to Skegness, in the hope of seeing its two semaphore distant signals pulled off for a Class 43-powered NR test train.

This small Lincolnshire town, five miles south of Skegness, is home to the revered Bateman’s Brewery and to an unstaffed station boasting a fine Grade II-Listed Great Northern Railway signal box that dates from 1899 and controls a handful of semaphores, including distant signals W1 in the down direction and W22 on the up line.

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Return to Liskeard

43004/093 pass signal LD32 with 2C68 from Plymouth (11.42) to Penzance

A forecast of fine weather persuaded me to take make a springtime return to Liskeard on Thursday, 6 March 2025, when my challenge was to see if it is possible to get any decent shots from west of the station showing trains approaching up outer home signal LD2 and crossing Moorswater Viaduct.

Having previously trekked out eastwards from the station to photograph trains passing down outer home signal LD35, this would hopefully be an opportunity to photograph the one of Liskeard’s six semaphores that had so far eluded my camera, and also what has been described as Cornwall’s most spectacular viaduct.

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£8.50 loco-hauled return from London to Birmingham

68012 arrives at Birmingham Moor Street with 1R21 from London Marylebone (10.02)

Finding loco haulage on our national network is something of a challenge, and  is currently confined to the sleeper services from London to Cornwall and  Scotland, LNER Class 91 workings between London, Leeds and York, TfW services between Cardiff and Manchester and a handful of Chiltern Railways workings between London Marylebone, Birmingham and Stourbridge Junction.

In a year that will mark 15 years since loco-haulage returned to the Chiltern Railways route in December 2010, I was keen to once again sample the delights of Mk3 coaches and Class 68 haulage, so decided to see how cheaply it was possible to travel in style on the Chiltern route to our second city via High Wycombe and Banbury.

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