Such was my enthusiasm for Edinburgh that I rapidly booked a return trip, where one day would be spent "questing" and one day sightseeing. To make the most of the two days of the weekend, given the time needed to travel there, I opted to go on the sleeper. And of course I've never been on the Caledonian Sleepers and wanted to do that trip! Sadly I couldn't run to a berth so had to go for the seated coach. My previous experience of this in Cornwall wasn't great, though this one is slightly different in that in only makes two stops, whereas the Cornish one is practically a late local train, stopping at every sizable station until Taunton. So late on Friday 18 April I toddled over to Euston, and after a couple in the Doric Arch, ventured on to the platform where Britain's second-longest train awaited me. There are two sleepers - Highland and Lowland. The Highland has three sections for Inverness, Aberdeen and Fort William, splitting at Edinburgh, and it leaves at around 9pm. My train is the Lowland, with two sections for Glasgow and Ediburgh. It's comprised of two sets of Mark 3 Sleeper coaches plus a Mark 3 seated coach with each (the cheap seats!). The whole shebang is topped and tailed by class 90 electric locos. My solitary seated coach loitering at the back of its wealthier cousins holding cabins was closest to the platform entrance. Inside this class distinction was mirrored. We were next to the lounge car, almost like a bar on rails, with free standing chairs and table service. However a sign announced that this was closed to seated passengers, though we could stand at a hatch next to it and plead for refreshments.
Unlike a normal train people generally want to sleep, so there is a minimum of noise aside from one silly loud cow who makes calls until 1am and then wakes at 5.30am and starts to talk loudly to the woman opposite her. She is apologetic when I mention it so no harm done. I want to get some sleep but also, having those anorak tendencies, want to know which route we are taking through the West Midlands where there is a choice of about three lines. We seem to go Coventry, Bescot, Wolverhampton, then Stafford. Once I see the "Welcome to Tesco Stafford" sign loom I know we're past and can settle down. My booked seat was next to somebody else but by Watford no-one had taken the spare double seats in the carriage so I moved over to one of those, giving both parties a chance to stretch out properly. I get a reasonable sleep, looking out every now and then to see where we are. We stop for while at Preston and I recognise the river Luna at Lancaster. It's really atmospheric passing out of the populated areas with their millions of blinking orange lights illuminating no-one now, before seeing the mountains of the Lake District stark against the coming dawn. Then we're into Carlisle and I wonder if there will be a sign announcing us passing over the border, but if there is, I'm asleep before I see it.
Next thing I know, we stop at Carstairs in daylight. Here we are jolted about as the train is divided, the front half going to Glasgow and us going in the opposite direction to Edinburgh. The loco that has been dragged from London now bursts into life and hauls us for the short remaining journey. I didn't realise that this stretch was electrified until now which explains how both the East and West coast companies can easily do services to both major cities. Before I know it, the familiar sights of Waverley appear as we come to a halt about half an hour earlier than scheduled. I've an hour before the next bit of the quest, so I try to find breakfast anywhere but McDonalds, inevitably the only place open at that time. I fail and try to ignore the fat shining through the paper bag before starting the first leg of the day - the Fife Circle!
This is a loop crossing the Forth Bridge then linking many of the major towns of Fife - Rosyth, Dunferline, Cowdenbeath, Glenrothes and Kirkcaldy - before travelling along the north coast of the Forth then back to join itself before heading over the Forth Bridge once more. At this time I cover the route to Kirkcaldy via Glenrothes on a three coach 170. Fife looks a nice place, the clean looking towns nestling amongst pretty countryside with the peaks of the national park in the background.
At Kirkcaldy I change for another three class 170 to Dundee. There are a couple of blokes on the platform talking about one of the other re-openings going on at the moment - from Stirling to Alloa and Kincardine. This may have been chiefly done to allow coal trains from a west coast port to reach Longannet Power Station without using up precious capacity on the Forth Bridge. However as a by product it has given Alloa a rail service once more. The hope is that ultimately there will be a stop at Kincardine and the passenger service will reach right through to Dunfermline again. If it's going to happen it will be here, given the recent record on rail revival.
The highlight of the trip is the Tay Bridge. This is not as spectacular as the Forth Bridge but still an amazing structure, winding along the banks of the banks of the Tay Firth then striking out across the estuary. It takes a few minutes to cross, highlighting just how long a span it is. This is the second Tay Bridge, the first being brought down in a storm in 1879, killing 70 people on a crossing train. Investigations found that some of the riveting on the bridge was sub-standard and the strength of the storm that night just hadn't been allowed for. It spawned two things - a poem by William McGonagall, and a much more over-engineered bridge for the Forth so that there wouldn't be a repeat of the Tay disaster. As it transpired the Forth Bridge was unnecessarily complex, and the new Tay Bridge is somewhat less dramatic. However over a hundred years later, it still has plenty of life in it, whilst the 1960s Forth Road Bridge is considered to be unviable after around 2013!
I have time at Dundee to take a few pictures of the Tay bridges before returning for the inevitable class 170 to Perth. Dundee is an interesting station feeling very much the whole thing is in a deep hollow, where trains curve out of the underworld into the platforms. The journey to Perth is short but scenic, along the north bank of the Tay. I have an hour at Perth and have a look around. It's a pretty town, full of churches and pleasant civic buildings. As well as the inevitable cloned high street. The station is a mix of old and new. There is a new entrance building but it leads to a magnificent sprawling set of platforms as befits a busy junction. The lines from Stirling and Edinburgh meet here and diverge out to Dundee and Inverness. There is a hint of faded grandeur here amongst the echoing footbridges and platforms.
The reason for the hour's wait is for one the less frequent direct trains to Edinburgh, yes, another class 170, which follows the south bank of the Tay through Newburgh before rejoining the Fife line at Ladybank. This is an even more scenic trip, taking in the coastal stretch of the Fife circle before crossing the Forth and into Edinburgh. By now the sun is out and the water sparkles.
I have time to grab a sandwich before another class 170 takes me to Glasgow Queen Street. There are three direct routes between the two cities - Falkirk High, Shotts, and Carstairs. When Airdrie to Bathgate is rebuilt there will be four. I'm on the first of these. It's absolutely packed, showing how vital these links are. I have a couple of hours in Glasgow where I'm looking for a pub called The Old Horseshoe. It takes me a while to find it. It strikes me how much bigger Glasgow feels, how much more "big-city" it is than Edinburgh, like the contrast between York and Manchester. I have a look at Central station before finding the pub, and it is HUGE. Not only has it an enormous concourse, the sort of size that some of the London terminals are crying out for, but it even has platforms at two levels. I look forward to tackling the spider's web of lines in Strathclyde later this year. The pub is pretty good too, large but cosy at the same time, and with a large range of beers, some of them very cheap (£1.30!). I stay for a couple then head back to Queen Street. This time I take an indirect route via Cumbernauld and Falkirk Grahamston, where I change for a train coming from Stirling to Waverley. This is the low level route, Falkirk High being the high level route. I wonder if I should have filled in the gap between Perth, Stirling and Glasgow, but I've spent enough on fares this month!
On the way back I notice there is a guided busway linking Gyle and the Airport to the city. This use of busways really makes sense, because the main deterrent to using buses in urban areas is congestion. Hence the one in Cambridge will be a waste of time because its congestion problem is huge and having a bus running on the roads in the city but guided in the countryside is a nonsense! Eventually there will be a tram between the Airport and my next destination - Leith. Leith is where my hotel for the night is to be. I walk down Leith Walk to reach it, it's a longish walk and not always that nice a walk. I notice a railway bridge over the road has been removed and wonder where the railway went. Leith, as a port, had several lines and stations once, down to none now. In Irvine Walsh's Trainspotting, there is a scene in the then extant disused Leith Central station, where someone jokingly asks if the characters are doing some train spotting. This is actually the reason for the novel and film's title - though it doesn't appear in the film and makes the title a bit of a mystery!
My hotel is pleasant, overlooking a common. I don't fancy the walk back into town, though there are loads of buses, so I wander down to the docks to see what's there. It's had the Cardiff Bay treatment, there are cinemas, shopping centres, etc, as well as the final resting place of the Royal Yacht Britannia and countless bars and restaurants. I find one called The Old Dock Bar where I settle for the evening. I stumble back across a moonlit common to get a very welcome (and uninterrupted!) night's sleep.
Questing is pretty much done for this trip. I spend Sunday looking at museums, galleries, and after they close, doing a mini pub crawl along Rose Street. In the Museum of Scotland is a torn girder from the first Tay Bridge which is of interest. At 11pm I clamber on to the return sleeper. There are less people this time which gives us a more peaceful night. I sleep reasonably well though have to keep sitting up to stretch to avoid seizing up, but time passes quickly, and as if by magic I am delivered almost back to work by 7am.
Itinerary:
London Euston-Carlisle-Carstairs-Edinburgh
Edinburgh-Glenrothes-Kirkcaldy
Kirkcaldy-Dundee
Dundee-Perth
Perth-Kirkcaldy-Edinburgh
Edinburgh-Falkirk High-Glasgow Queen Street
Glasgow Queen Street-Falkirk Grahamston-Edinburgh
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