Yesterday I got a bus to work, or at least part of the way to work anyway. Normally I would get a train to work, but the rail strike meant that I had to find other means. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t begrudge the strikes. Quite the opposite in fact. The rail network in this country has been decimated through privatisation and a constant lack of investment. The workers should be striking for pay and conditions.
Anyway, I don’t often get the bus, although I’m not averse to public transport by any means. But this bus was a bit different. Like many trains it had USB ports for charging your devices on the go. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that on a bus before. I was quite impressed.
It’s been a long time since I was last on a canal boat, but, as this year was a somewhat significant birthday it seemed like a good idea to celebrate with a few days away on a narrowboat with some good friends.
The boat was May, the pace was slow, and the beer was flowing! Basically, it was a good choice and I’m pretty sure that everyone had a grand time. Perhaps I’ll do it again for another ‘significant’ birthday.
Here’s where I stayed at the beginning of May. It’s a converted rail freight car. It had no electricity of independent lights. The only light was from candles, so it was rather lovely inside. Cosy, friendly and really quite wonderful.
This was a rare treat as part of a trip away for a couple of friends’ birthdays. There are very few pullman cars on regular trains, so if you find one it’s well worth going. The one I visited was excellent, both the food and the service.
These kinds of services are dying out as the train operators decide to get rid of them just to make more profit out of us without offering anything in value at all.
I hope that I can find another one in the not too distant future.
So, after last year’s interesting train trip in the north I’ve been talking to friends about a trip in 2016, which could mean Scotland! That could be nice.
I prefer the old style tickets which needed to be punched and clipped by a guard on the train. Of course on some of the old heritage lines they still do that. These are lovely, much nicer to handle.
A couple of old friends and I decided to take a train holiday of sorts. In fact, to refer to it as just a train holiday does no justice to the vast amount of planning that actually went into this trip. It didn’t entirely work out for us in that we didn’t get all the journeys done that we thought we might, but it was good fun all the same.
We had rail rovers that covered a huge area in the North East of England.
Rail Rover Tickets
These made it possible for us to travel all over the place just with these. It was amazing as I didn’t even know that these things existed before this trip.
Our trip had three bases over three nights. These were, Carlisle, on our first night, Settle, on the second, and Blackpool on the third night. I hadn’t been to any of these, so it was going to be interesting no matter what. Although of course, some places are more interesting than others, if you know what I mean.
On the train to Carlisle
The first stage to Carlisle was very pleasant indeed. We started our trip with G&T’s and moved on to a few pints of a very pleasant ale. Off the train and on to Windemere for another couple of beers!
Nice pint
Day two saw us on the historic Carlisle to Settle line, although we had a few false starts on the way. We stopped off just after the Ribblehead viaduct in Ribblehead station, which was very pleasant indeed. Settle is a little market town and we stayed the night there in a lovely B&B.
Just outside Settle Station
From Settle we went out to Hellifield station and managed to catch sight of the Fellsman steam train going through.
The Fellsman leaving Hellifield Station
The station itself was lovely and retained some original features, although not all. Here are some of the details …
Platform at Hellifield Station
Flowers at Hellifield Station
Detail at Hellifield Station
Detail at Hellifield Station
Detail at Hellifield Station
From their we got another historical line. This time the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway, which is the line that was used in the film “The Railway Children”. In fact, we went through the station that was used. Oakworth station.
Wet day at Oakworth Station
It was a lovely line. Very picturesque and pleasant, and it would have been even better if it hadn’t been tipping down with rain. But never mind. It was a very pleasant trip all the same. One of the reasons it was so pleasant was …
Yorkshire Farmer Ale on the Keighley line
Our final stop on Wednesday was Blackpool, and we arrived just before this lovely sunset.
Blackpool Sunset
We didn’t really get enough time to do much in Blackpool, we visited one or two pubs but that was about it before we had to leave in the morning to get on with the final day of our trip. However, before we left I grabbed a picture of this great old bus.
Vintage bus in Blackpool
Our last day had a couple of notable highlights to it. The first was Lancaster, which we visited twice in one day. The first time finding a nice little bar just near the station with an excellent pint from the Settle brewery called “Light”, and also sampling Fiddler’s crisps.
Beers and crisps
Very nice too actually. The second highlight was visiting Carnforth station where scenes from “Brief Encounter” were filmed. There’s a heritage centre there and a lovely 1940’s style tea room as well.
Photo taken at Carnforth station inside the 1940’s tea room which is part of the heritage centre
Taken at the 1940’s tea room which is part of the heritage centre at Carnforth station. Where “Brief Encounter” was filmed.
So we ended up back at Lancaster for a pint in the Robert Gillow before the train back to London.
A nice pint had in the Robert Gillow pub/bar in Lancaster
And a very good pint it was too. So to end I thought I’d include the last photo from the trip which was taken at the Doric Arch pub at Euston, it sort of sums up everything I think.
I am Ashley Elsdon 