Beer by train - the Trans Pennine Ale Trail

Today we (Tony, Steve, Malcolm, Frank and me) did this relaxing day out again. It was made popular by James May and Oz Clarke on television a couple of years ago and has got ever more popular at weekends especially with stag and hen parties to the extent that it's almost impossible to get served at the pubs along the trail.

What is the Trans Pennine Ale Trail? It's a journey from pub to pub by train on the Manchester to Leeds line. I can't remember how many times I've done it before, but in view of the weekend overcrowding we did it today, a Thursday.

I was (as usual) tasked with organising it; not an onerous task. Pick a date, pick an outbound train to the start point (Leeds), and a selection of inbound trains back. I decided we'd use the 09:57 from Wilmslow to Manchester Airport, to pick up the 10:35 Trans Pennine Express from there to Leeds, arriving 11:55. First call was at the Scarborough Taps opposite Leeds station, for some excellent ale and a gammon and egg lunch. Here's my plot of possible trains back eastward; Dewsbury, Huddersfield, and Stalybridge have pubs on the station platforms:

Leeds dep.	12:55	13:25	13:55
Dewsbury arr.	13:06	13:36	14:06
Dewsbury dep.	14:36	15:06	15:36
Huddersfield arr.	14:45	15:15	15:45
Huddersfield dep.	15:26	16:26	16:59
Stalybridge arr.	15:43	16:43	17:18
Stalybridge dep.	16:46	17:18	17:46	18:18
Piccadilly arr.	17:05	17:37	18:05	18:37
Piccadilly dep.	17:27	17:55	18:30	18:55
Wilmslow arr.	17:43	18:10	18:46	19:10

A plan like this has to cater for 'spread' as the afternoon progresses; the later train we get from one departure point, the later becomes the choice of trains onward from the next. I think I guessed well - we took the 13:25 from Leeds, though after a pint or two of 'Leeds Pale' (quite excellent) we some how morphed the departure time to 13:35, and strolled across to the station to catch that train. There was no 13:35 departure advertised (not surprisingly) but our luck was in - the 13:25 was delayed by 5 minutes enabling us to catch it with time to spare!

A few scoops at Dewsbury, and we were once more on the move aboard the 15:06 Trans Pennine Express to Huddersfield - so far, right down the middle of my plan! This trend continued after a couple more excellent pints (Copper Dragon) with a 16:26 departure to Stalybridge.

Here we had our only setback of the day. A poor selection of beers, and no food available for Frank, who hadn't eaten at Leeds.

The 17:46 Trans Pennine took us to Manchester Piccadilly, where we boarded the 18:30 Arriva Wales train (to Camarthen) which took us home to Wilmslow.

What a lovely day out; good beer, good food, good company, and without the weekend crowds so it was easy to get served in all the pubs.

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed it, and I expect we'll do it again before too long - spring 2012 seems favorite!

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