A bumper trip and the last of my trips to Scotland for the quest. Planned for two days during my week off before I start working for the railway, I head for Glasgow on the sleeper on the night of Wednesday 20 May 2009. I have managed to get a first class return to Glasgow with a single berth for just £118, a miracle price that I can only assume I got because the overnight train is less busy mid week - I've usually been on a Friday. As an added bonus I am allowed to use the first class lounge at Euston. This is very useful as I do a fitness class before getting the train and it's great to be able to have a shower and change in the lounge, not to mention a few free cups of tea. There's no food though, so I head straight for the buffet when I get on the train and have a small meal before turning in. It's an uneventful trip, I sleep right through past Motherwell but don't dwell after breakfast as the day's quest starts just 15 minutes later.
Thursday 21 May
First trip is a return on the Paisley Canal branch on a four coach 156 DMU. I stay on at the terminus as there is no turnback. It's a fairly busy commuter service on the return to the city. Then it's the East Kilbride branch on a two coach 156 DMU, another straightforward return out and back. All's well so far.
Next I head down to Glasgow Central Low Level to pick up the Lanark train. Low Level is through platforms running at right angles to the terminating platforms, rather like the Circle Line runs under several London termini. It's a three coach 318 EMU. Then I hit a problem. A fire has caused the Wishaw loop to close and this means the next leg of the journey can't be completed. The train should have run via Blantyre, Motherwell, then round a loop to Holytown and Wishaw, rejoining the line south of Motherwell before spurring off to the Larnark branch. Instead it goes to Motherwell then reverses, cutting out the loop and heading straight to Lanark. At Lanark I stay on the train and return to Cambuslang, hoping I can complete the loop later. At Cambuslang I change on to a three coach 318 EMU to the slightly edgy Hamilton Central. Then it's a three coach 334 EMU along the Larkhall branch. This was the first of the Scottish Parliament's re-opening schemes in 2005. Again, there's no turnback so I just stay on the train and return to Central. I'll be spending a lot of time backwards and forwards from Motherwell!At Central there's time to grab a sandwich and coffee then it's back on the trains, another 3 coach 318 EMU to Neilston. Another out and back. Then out to Whifflet on a 2 coach 156 DMU. Interestingly there is a lot of overlap of electrification around Strathclyde, so there are a lot of DMUs travelling under the wires. It makes sense that the Scottish Parliament wants to electrify as much as possible. It also proves that transport is better provided locally. Electrifying to Aberdeen or Perth doesn't matter much to a London-based DFT but in the context of Scotland alone these are big cities worthy of a more efficient electric service. And it benefits London too - if Edinburgh to Aberdeen is electrified there's no need for HSTs to run under the wires for hundreds of miles as they do now before doing a short final run to Aberdeen. Rant over.
Whifflet is actually on the line between Motherwell and Cumbernauld, itself on the line between Glasgow and Falkirk. The line from Glasgow curves in from the north to join it and the train continues south then returns on the opposite platform. As the rain starts to hammer I get on the service coming north from Motherwell, another 3 coach 156 DMU. At Cumbernauld, I stay on and head back to Motherwell. It's a weird arrangement there, there are four platforms with the station buildings and a car park stuck in the middle of the central island platform with a bridge to take you to the exit and the other two platforms. The Wishaw loop is now open but a quick read of the timetable reveals that there is a four hour hole in the timetable for the loop! I decide to leave it until tomorrow morning. Meanwhile I clamber on to a six coach 334 EMU, already quite full, and, as we are entering the evening rush hour, is standing only by the time we head past Central Low Level. Because it's underground the line can travel under the city to join the lines running east to west in the north of the place, neatly connecting South East Glasgow with the areas north of the conurbation. There is no corresponding link from the South West but there are plans to re-open a freight only link to achieve this. If it's going to happen anywhere it will be here!
The train I'm on travels out of the underworld and up on to a viaduct, giving a vision of the impressive view of the Clyde and some of the developments springing up there. I get off at Partick, which has a huge clean new station which is an interchange for the underground and buses - very smart. I cross to the other platform and head back to Central. From here I get a train out to Drumbreck on the Paisley Canal branch - this time it's to go to a fitness class that I do in London that has branches all over the place! It's a nice way to finish a day dashing about.
I just make the return train to Central after the class, then walk to Queen Street. There I pick up a 3 coach 170 DMU (none of the High Level tracks are electrified, though the east west line running in the Low Level station is) to Springburn. Whilst Springburn is a through station on the line to Falkirk, it's also a terminus on a separate branch from Queen Street Low Level. I get on a three coach 320 EMU from the branch from Springburn to Alexandra Parade, the nearest station to my hotel. And there the day ends.
Friday 22 May
A pleasant night in a clean guest house is followed by a huge but welcome breakfast. Then I head back to Alexandra Parade, where I pick up where I left off and get another 320 along the rest of the branch to Queen Street Low Level. From here the amount of time I have left to me, the long period of daylight up here, and the relatively high frequency of trains allows me to pretty much make it up as I go along today. So I just travel according to what is available.
First up is a 320 EMU to Anniesland. As part of the Larkhall re-opening, the spur from Anniesland to Maryhill was also brought back into use with a new station opened at Kelvindale. I've travelled most of this branch before as the West Highland service uses it as far as Maryhill. But as there are stations on the re-opened bit, I have to travel it. A class 170 DMU takes me round the branch and back into Queen Street High Level. Then it's time to walk down to Central Low Level and complete the Wishaw loop. It's actually pretty rural and as I have done much of the route aside from the loop a few times now (!) I take the chance to relax and read. Once we get to Carluke I leap out and tear over the footbridge where I can see the return train - both were 318 EMUs again - and this saves me a bit of time in not having to do the Larkhall branch again.
The return train is actually going all the way to Milngavie so I stay on it beyond Central Low Level to complete another branch. On the return I change at Hyndland and tear over to a waiting 323 EMU that is going to Dalmuir via Yoker - mopping up another line in the process - there are two routes from Queen Street to Dalmuir and I travelled the other one on the way to the West Highland routes previously. At Dalmuir there's a bit of a wait for the next onward service so after helping a lady with a loaded pram over TWO footbridges, I head out to find a up of tea. Frankly it looks like the sort of place English voices get their heads kicked in but I stride out anyway to a sucessful mission.
From here it becomes a real head down affair. There are two more branches to the west side of the city north of the Clyde and I tackle each methodically. First is a 321 EMU to Balloch - the station that serves Loch Lomond. Then it's back to a rural Dalreoch - the landscape changes from rural to urban quickly here - and on to the Helensburgh Central branch on a 321 EMU.
At the large terminus this train becomes a service to Drumgelloch. Perfect! The last branch in Strathclyde. I stay on it all the way back through the city and out to the east to the slightly run down looking Airdrie and Drumgelloch. There's just time for me to look beyond the buffers where the line is being reinstated to Bathgate, providing a fourth route between Edinburgh and Glasgow. Not much work is going on this end, though I gather electrification and station rebuilding is going on at the Bathgate end. Two platforms are to be reinstated at this end as it will no longer be a terminus. This will definitely help the area as it will provide through links for so many more places to Edinburgh that could do with regeneration. After a quick look round it's back into the city centre. I get off at High Street to get some fresh air as I've a big gap before the last trip of the day and walk across to Queen Street.
The final line...the recently re-opened Stirling to Alloa line. The Glasgow - Stirling trains now extend beyond to Alloa, which when I get there I can see really needs the boost that a line re-opening gives. How could they have ever closed the line to a place of this size in the first place? Some of the closures beggar belief. The way it was re-opened was quite neat. Thanks to the deliberate run down of the coal industry and the dash for gas that followed, now that gas is running out we have to import the coal needed for power generation. There has been a massive rise in coal trains in recent years. Up here it comes in at Stranraer and had to travel via the Forth Bridgde to Longannet Power Station in Fife, and was taking up capacity on this obvious bottleneck. By re-opening the line from Stirling to Kincardine, the coal trains can travel through Glasgow and Stirling instead, staying away the bridge. Alloa just happens to be on the route. There is also talk of extending passenger trains to Kincardine and Dunfermiline eventually the same way, which would be useful, but it is just talk at present. After some chips it's back on the class 170 DMU to Queen Street.
And that's it. Scotland is completed. Amazing considering my first trip was Easter 2008, I never thought it could be done so quickly.
I now have a couple of hours to kill so take a long route back to Central via Partick rather than walk it. After a couple of drinks I get a fish supper and get on to the waiting Class 90 and MK2 coaches that comprise the sleeper to London. One more trip to Motherwell as it's the first stop. Then, aside from one interruption when the fire alarm goes off - false alarm! - it's back home - when I next wake up and head to the loo we are passing Carpender's Park. With a slight sense of regret I realise my trip is over. I now have just two lines to complete - ironically both have which have re-opened since I started the quest - one in England and one in Wales. Watch this spot.
Lines covered this time:
Central-Paisley Canal
Central-East Kilbride
Central Low Level-Newton-Hamilton-Motherwell-Lanark
Lanark-Bellshill-Cambuslang
Cambuslang-Hamilton-Larkhill
Larkhill-Central Low Level
Central-Neilston
Central-Whifflet
Whifflet-Cumbernauld
Cumbernauld-Motherwell
Springburn-Queen Street Low Level
Queen Street Low Level-Anniesland via Hyndland
Anniesland-Queen Street via Maryhill
Central Low Level-Newton-Hamilton-Motherwell-Holytown-Carluke
Carluke-Milngavie
Hyndland-Yoker-Dalmuir
Dalmuir-Balloch
Dalreoch-Helensburgh Central
Helensburgh Central-Queen Street Low Level-Drumgelloch
Queen Street-Stirling-Alloa
