Category: travel

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Steaming down the mainline

The main railway line to Plymouth and Penzance from Bristol passes relatively close to my house and as a result we often venture down to the line when interesting trains pass by. I think living by the trainline has cultured my boys’ interest in trains and as a result I often find myself dragged to Bristol Temple Meads for a “train ride” or to the STEAM Museum in Swindon.

Over the last few weeks the mainline has been awash with steam engines thundering down the railway track. It’s quite amazing and nostagic to see these beautiful pieces of engineering move along the railway track at speed. If you have ever been to a heritage railway the trains move relatively slowly (about 30mph) whereas the steam trains I have seen on the mainline are going significantly faster at about 70mph. They certainly make a difference to the regular HST and Voyager trains we usually see on that line.

At the end of July, there were trains on the Saturday and the Sunday, and this week there were two steam trains within 15 minutes on the Sunday.

The first train had two engines, the 71000 Duke of Gloucester and 60163 Tornado.

71000 Duke of Gloucester and 60163 Tornado.

The Duke was built in 1954 and withdrawn just eight years later in 1962. Just over ten years later and with most of her important parts “missing” she was saved from scrapping and restored to become a regular on the mainline steaming tours. The second engine probably couldn’t be more different, similar in size, Tornado though is just a youngster completed in 2008. A completely new engine though built to a 1940s design (with many modern improvements). They were moving at some speed with steam and smoke billowing from their funnels and pistons.

On the Sunday, it was the turn of 70013 Oliver Cromwell to steam down the line.

BR standard class 7 70013 Oliver Cromwell

This engine was completed in 1951 and retired in 1968.

There is something about these historical engineering marvels and watching them steam down the railway track. I am sure back in the 1950s and before when there was lots of them, they weren’t exactly seen in the same light. I am glad that not only are they still around, but that they still have the fires lit underneath their boilers and allowed to steam at speed through the countryside.

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Finding my way to Olympia

I usually really dislike going to Olympia as it is such a pain to get to. In the past I would, after arriving at Paddington, catch the District line to Earls Court, then wait an age for the tube to Olympia. Returning, there would usually be a bit of wait for a tube back to Earls Course (every 30 minutes) and then at Earls Course wait for the “right” train that would go to Paddington. The pain was the waiting, so what is only a 2 mile distance could take an hour or more to travel, probably quicker to walk!

Notting Hill GateThis time, going to Learning Without Frontiers I decided to try a different approach. I took the District/Circle line to Notting Hill Gate, then the Central Line to Shephard’s Bush before crossing the road and catching the Overground to Olympia.

I was expecting a similar nightmare, but both my outgoing and return journeys were smooth, quick and not too much waiting. So the next time I have to make that trip to Olympia I will be taking the Overground.

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Tally Ho!

I don’t fly very much, we usually holiday in the UK and I think it was 2004 the last time we flew anywhere on holiday. The job however does take me up into the air now and again. In the last two years I have flown to New Zealand, Ireland, Inverness, Edinburgh and Leeds!

I have had a few meetings in Leeds or Yorkshire over the last few years and generally depending on how long I am up there and what I am doing I will go by train or drive. For example at this year’s ALT Conference, where I needed to carry a TV studio I took the car, a few months earlier I took the train. However now and again when the diary is quite full and I need to only be in Yorkshire for the day I fly from Bristol Airport. It’s a very quick flight, about 50 minutes and very convenient as there are some excellent bus services from Leeds/Bradford Airport to Leeds and other places in Yorkshire. It means I can be in Leeds for 10am or even earlier and be home before the middle of the night and also means I needn’t stay over.

The route use to be run by Air SouthWest however they recently went out of business and it is now served by Eastern Airways (even if they use the same planes).

Today I was quite surprised to find that there were only two of us on the flight up to Leeds…

I generally don’t feel that bad about my carbon footprint when flying as I don’t fly that often and where possible I will do stuff online or via the phone. Today I feel really bad, as the carbon cost of this flight per person must be so much more than it usually is. I can’t think to imagine how much this must be costing the airline and the loss they are making on this flight. I guess they will still need to fly up to Leeds, as they may be picking up passengers there for their onward flight to Aberdeen and I also guess they need the plane in Aberdeen as the flight from there will be needed.

It should be said that I am getting a very good inflight service and I had a choice of seats, though I did find it funny that even though there were only two of us on the flight, we couldn’t choose where to sit, we had to sit in our allocated seats because of the weight distribution in the aircraft. Just a bit nervous about going to the loo just in case I upset the trim of the plane. The nerves are probably compounded because it’s a plane with propellers and I really don’t feel comfortable flying in a plane with propellers . I don’t know why, it just seems much closer to flying than I feel happy with, I keep thinking I should be wearing goggles and shouting out tally ho!

Wonder how busy the flight home will be?

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The Finishing Line

I watched this film by British Transport when I was a young lad and I struggled to sleep that night as it freaked me out.

Warning, this 1970s information film does contain graphic and disturbing scenes and was shown to persuade children not to play games on the railway network.

If I remember rightly I saw it on Nationwide, however what I do remember is the film disturbed me out so much that I couldn’t sleep that night. I should also point out that I also never played on the railway either!