This year's MCRUA trip - to Skeggy!

Yesterday was the annual outing of the Mid Cheshire Rail Users Association by train. The destination this year was Skegness. Well, it is so bracing, isn't it?

07:30, the leading class 66 diesel locomotive of our train (there was another on the rear of the 12 coaches) approaches Mobberley station, where we boarded

We travelled in a very comfortable ex-Virgin Mk2 fist class coach. Here, the train approaches Boston in Lincolnshire having travelled via Stockport, Standedge Tunnel, and Doncaster.

Boston Stump

Arrival in Skeggy. Some passengers had left the train at Lincoln for a look around that city, and some had done so at Wainfleet for a trip around the Batemans Brewery (in the light of subsequent experience of Skeggy, we should have done this!). Our train was 'The Lincolnshire Poacher' but the headboard says otherwise!

Amid occasional  gusty showers, we sought shelter in the lifeboat station

The lifeboat was available for public viewing, and the lifeboat house contained some interesting accounts of daring rescues at sea

The sandy, if bleak, beach

Looking back to the town from the beach

No business today for these beach donkeys as they huddle to find shelter from the wind and rain

The pervasive sound was the hollow popping of 2-stroke motor scooter engines. Skeggy seems to be a mecca for anyone with a Lambretta or Vespa - it took me right back to 1968 when most of my mates had one or the other.

The all pervading smell was that of chip fat. I have never seen so many fish and chip shops; there are four in this picture and a wider angle lens would show many more.

A brace of Lambrettas. Scooters were parked in all available spaces along the sea front.

Our rail journey took us through Lincoln (the return was by the same route as the outbound). Here is the famous cathedral on its hill. To make the picture perfect, there should be a Lancaster or Vulcan bomber in the sky above the iconic towers.


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