Day one - Thursday 2nd September.
Not much more than a week after returning from Inside Track's 'Western Flyer' I was off on my travels again. I was making the most of the (who knows how long-lived) reprieve from Covid clamp-downs on such frivolity. I was off and away on Inside Track's 'Eastern Scot' holiday.
Early morning found me heading north from Wilmslow on a local train to Manchester Piccadilly to join a Trans Pennine Express class 185 train to York, and then on by LNER 'Azuma' to Aberdeen, the start point of this holiday.
Aboard the LNER 'Azuma' bi-mode high speed train from York to Aberdeen, first class. Nothing like as comfy or airy as 'first' in a Virgin West Coast Pendolino. And the at-seat catering was pretty sparse, too. Still, it is a state-run rail company, so what do you expect?
Crossing the Tweed into Scotland over the Royal Border Bridge, looking downstream to the road bridges.
This is what passes for lunch on LNER. Not even a plate for the sandwich! Operator of Last Resort, the DfT call it after taking the franchise away from Virgin. 'Last resort' seems most appropriate! DfT know the cost of everything and the value of nowt.
The East Coast Main Line does touch the coast a few times north of Newcastle, unlike the West Coast Main Line which runs well inland all the way to Glasgow except for one point at Hest Bank.
After arrival at Aberdeen, Steven, our tour guide, took us by coach through the rush hour traffic to our hotel for the next three nights, the Jurys Inn (not 'the Jury's Inn', or even 'the Jury's in') at Dyce.
Day 2 - Friday 3rd September.
Next morning a smaller coach than the 52 seater of the night before turned up for our first foray into the Highlands - but it was still a 42 seater for 18 of us so plenty of room to spread out. Smaller so it could negotiate the tight bends etc. we would meet today.
It's a fair way though the Cairngorms to Aviemore for our first heritage railway visit, so we stopped for a leg-stretch at the Lecht Ski Resort on the way. The weather was not the best, and we were soon into low cloud as we climbed into the hills.
Our coach in IMC (Instrument Metrological Conditions) at Lecht
Aviemore is the start point of the Strathspey Steam Railway. Here our ex-LMS Black Five locomotive is about to run-round the train at Broomhill, the far end of the line.
Broomhill station shed retains its 'Glenbogle' running-in board as the station was used in the TV series 'Monarch of the Glen' bearing that name.
The 'flight deck' of the Black Five No. 5025. This locomotive only came out of a lengthy and extensive restoration earlier this summer.
This is a significant locomotive as although Black Fives were numerous on BR, this was the first Black Five to enter service. The first two batches were built at Crewe works of the LMS and at the Vulcan Foundry, Newton Le Willows. The first of the Crewe-built batch carries the number '5000' and is preserved in the National Railway Museum at York. However, the first one to be completed and enter service was this one, 5025, the first of the Vulcan Foundry batch. So, has the NRM preserved the wrong locomotive?
We continued by road up the route of the erstwhile Spey Valley Railway to Keith, to board a heritage Diesel Multiple Unit (DMU) for the trip to Dufftown on the Keith & Dufftown Railway.
A feature of these first generation DMUs is a view out of the front of the unit through the driver's cab, something that has not been repeated in the many DMUs produced since. I wonder why? Rail union insistence perhaps? Although the driver could (if he was a meanie) pull down blinds to retain his privacy from the passengers behind him. Needless to say, on heritage railways this is never done!
An overgrown intermediate station on the Keith & Dufftown Railway
Tea / coffee and local shortbread was served to us in the Dufftown tea rooms before we re-boarded our coach for the return to our Dyce hotel. A whisky tasting would have been good, but apparently not Covid-compliant.
Day 3 - Saturday 4th September
About an hour's drive from Dyce is the Grampian Transport Museum at Alford, and quite excellent it is with traction engines, cars, motorbikes, bicycles and much more.
The Grampian Transport Museum. Note the 'Outspan Orange' vehicle, based on a BL Mini.
This is nice - an original (Mk1 and much sought after) Moto Guzzi Le Mans in immaculate condition. I was very tempted to sneak it out and ride it home!
It's difficult to think of a car which, however stunning it looked when introduced, doesn't look dated after a decade or two. A rare exception is the Ford GT40. It was built in Britain, commissioned by Ford America and largely Lola-based to win the 1966 Le Mans motor race, which it did. And the '67 and '68 races too. This is a replica and to me it looks as good today as it did back in the mid '60s.
Next stop was Crathes for the Royal Deeside Railway. This little engine (an Andrew Barclay loco named 'Bon Accord') is actually owned by the Grampian Transport Museum and used to haul coal though the streets to the gas works, hence the skirts over the motion.
'Bon Accord' flight deck and fireman
After a ride up and down the line we set off again by coach for the Caledonian Railway, stopping briefly (this holiday comprises lots of tight schedules!) en route at the Falls of Feugh.
Our coach became a mobile sauna for the last few miles to Brechin. Whether this was a fault or 'operator error' we never found out, but happily it was fixed by driver Bertie for our return to Aberdeen.
The Falls of Feugh
As a volunteer on the Churnet Valley railway I am used to the deep-throated tick over of our Sulzer engined Class 33 locos. This class 26 sounded similar, although it is less powerful than the 33. We enjoyed a journey to the end of the line at Bridge of Dun and back behind it.
On returning to Aberdeen we had a walk around the old Aberdeen fishing village. My wife (who does 'family history') tells me that this is where my ancestors came from. No wonder I feel at home in a shed,
This part of Aberdeen is nothing like the 'Granite City' proper
A delight was meeting this friendly cat. She loved company and just wanted lots of fussing!
Day 5 - Sunday 6th September
This was transfer day, to our second location; Edinburgh. It was planned to be by train, but Scotrail were on strike (!) so a 58 seater luxury coach took us south instead. It was a pleasant journey and having seen the route by train on Friday on the way north, it made a change to see it from the road.
The 'High Girders' of the Tay railway bridge I had passed over heading north on Friday, seen here from our coach on the Tay road bridge.
The rolling countryside of the Kingdom of Fife
Crossing the Forth on the new cable-stay road bridge
If you wake up with one of these in your bed, you know you have seriously upset someone! This massive sculpture is known as 'The Kelpies' and celebrates the Scottish legend of that name, where the horses rise from the deep and if anyone pets them they stick to them and get dragged under the waves! Nice, eh?
On again to the Falkirk Wheel, for me one of the highlights of the holiday.
It is a rotating boat lift connecting the Forth & Clyde Canal with the Union Canal reconnecting the two for the first time since the 1930s. It opened in 2002 as part of the Millennium Link project. Planners decided early-on to create a dramatic 21st-century landmark structure to reconnect the canals, instead of simply recreating the historic lock flight which had long fallen into disuse.
Boats enter either the upper or lower caisson, watertight doors are closed, and the wheel rotates 180 degrees so the caissons swap positions. Boats in the upper caisson are thus lowered, and those in lower caisson are raised. Because the boats displace their own weight of water on entering the caissons (Archimedes Principle) each caisson containing boat and water weight the same, so very little power is needed to rotate the wheel.
The wheel raises boats by 24 metres (79 ft), but the Union Canal is still 11 metres (36 ft) higher than the aqueduct which meets the wheel. Boats must also pass through a pair of locks between the top of the wheel and the Union Canal. The Falkirk Wheel is the only rotating boat lift of its kind in the world, and one of two working boat lifts in the United Kingdom, the other being the Anderton Boat Lift in Cheshire.
The upper caisson offer extensive views, including this chimney, all that remains of the former Longannet coal-fired power station which closed in 2016. This makes me feel old; I remember writing a proposal for a computer control system for this station back in the 1980s. We didn't get the job but if we had it would have been designed, installed, commissioned, and run for about thirty years before the station closed!
We enjoyed a trip up the wheel, through the tunnel on the upper level to the canal basin, and back.
Entering the lower caisson
Out of what is now the upper caisson after wheel rotation, we enter the Roughcastle Tunnel under the Antonine Wall
We turned in the canal basin, here looking back to the tunnel we have just come though
We wait for the other tour boat to exit the upper caisson before we enter it to descend
For the descent we were joined in the caisson by a day hire narrow boat
This picture shows the watertight doors in place at the end of the caisson, raised into position from the canal bed before the wheel rotates
We finished the day driving over the Kincardine Bridge in our coach, arriving at our second hotel of the holiday about 7pm. The Doubletree / Hilton is located at North Queensferry on the north bank of the Forth, between the original road suspension bridge and the new cable-stay road bridge. Here is the view from the hotel reception.
Day 5 - Monday 6th September
Today began with a short coach trip to North Queensferry railway station for a train to Haymarket (above), where we re-joined our coach for a city tour of Edinburgh given by a blue-badge guide.
The castle
The two hour tour ended with a climb on foot up Calton Hill for views over the city
This is Old Calton Cemetery, final resting place of philosopher David Hume ("Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous") among many others
The coach picked us up after lunch and took us to Leith to visit the Royal Yacht Britannia. Here is the Bridge; No steering wheel, no engine controls - everything is done by voice commands to the windowless wheelhouse below the bridge, and from where engine commands are sent to the engineroom via engineroom telegraph. Chinese whispers, anyone?
Behind the Bridge is the ship's flag locker for signalling purposes
The view from the Bridge wing
The garage, here housing a Mk1 Land Rover. It sometimes housed the Royal Rolls Royce, minus its bumpers so it would fit.
The aft deck
This room, overlooking the aft deck and with a view over the stern of the ship, is where the Queen liked to take breakfast
The Queen's bed - hardly the height of luxury!
The Duke of Edinburgh's is the same! I dunno, spend billions building and running a massive Royal Yacht, then sleep in a tiny utility bed while on board! Who were they trying to kid?
The only double bed aboard is this one - installed by Prince Charles for his honeymoon cruise with Diana
The officers' ward room
Officers' mess
This is where official dinners were hosted on board
The Queen's office
The Duke's office
On board drawing room
The bar for non-officer crew
Bunks for ordinary seamen and soldiers on board
The Royal Yacht had a band, which had to practice quietly so as not to disturb guests!
Yet another bar. The different strata of crew did not mix on board! It exemplifies the British class system.
The ship's medical area
The engine room showing the high pressure steam turbine and the larger low pressure turbine
After our trip to Leith. it was back on the coach for the transfer to South Queensferry for a cruise on the Forth, under the bridges, on the 'Maid of the Forth'
The three bridges - the new cable-stay road bridge, the 1960s suspension road bridge (suffering from corrosion of the support cables and deck, but still carrying light traffic on one carriageway), and the first bridge across the Forth, the iconic cantilever railway bridge.
The new road bridge. the right hand pier sits on a pillar of rock rising 60 metres from the bed of the river.
In between the new and old road bridges nestles our hotel, on the skyline.
Opened in 1890 and still as good as the day it was built, the Forth rail bridge
Just in front of the parked cruise ships (sans inmates!) at Rosyth there are three Polaris nuclear submarines awaiting scrapping. But not for at least 25 more years when the radioactivity in the reactor room has decayed sufficiently.
The giant crane built by Babcock Rosyth to build the RN aircraft carriers
The bridges from afar
After our cruise we repaired to the nearby Hawes Inn for our evening meal and first inclusive drink of the holiday! Cheers Inside Track (the tour leader purse strings on Inside Track holidays are usually a tad looser than this)! After this, our coach returned us to our hotel for the final night of the holiday.
Day 6 - Tuesday 7th September
The last day of the holiday started with our coach taking us to Ingliston Park & Ride near the airport to board a tram for Edinburgh city centre. We could leave our luggage on the coach as we would meet it again later in the day.
On board the tram, heading for St Andrews Square near to Waverley Station. At Waverley we boarded a train for Tweedbank, the present terminus of the recently re-opened northern section of the old Waverley route to Carlisle closed in the 1960s.
The Borders countryside is undramatic but very easy on the eye
Tweedbank station, with our Class 158 on the left. The re-opened line has proved far more popular than predicted and will probably be extended further south. The chickens of parsimony are coming home to roost, however, as it was only rebuilt as a single track railway with passing loops so capacity is limited. Furthermore, the replacement bridges were only built to single track width so doubling would be very expensive. Short sightedness once again in rail planning! It looks like similar silly cutbacks are about to impact HS2. When will they learn it is so much more cost effective to do it right first time!
More Borders scenery observed from our coach, which met us at Tweedbank and will drop us off in Kelso for lunch.
We ate our lunchtime snacks in the sunshine in Kelso town square. This impressive building was once the town hall but is now a fishing museum.
Our final journey on our coach was on to Berwick on Tweed for trains home. Here is the Royal Border rail bridge seen from the road bridge. My LNER Azuma will be taking me across that bridge in a half an hour or so,
Crossing the Tyne at Newcastle, seen from my 1st class Azuma seat
The LNER Azuma arrived at York on time, and my onward Trans Pennine Express Class 185 from there to Manchester was also on time. It was a hot day and the the aircon on the 185 was defective so it was like a sauna in there (no opening windows of course).
My final train of the holiday was a humble Class 323 electric train to Wilmslow. Lovely units, those - and it had all the top-light windows open so a cool breeze blew the length of the carriage! Bliss!
© Vince Chadwick. September 2021
