between trains...
An hour at Carlisle
28 February 2024
Been here before... Three times this
year, the last two in the dead of night...
This trip was planned some time before
my trips on the sleeper, and would be in
daylight - the 08.09 Avanti service from
Crewe to Glasgow Central would see us
in the border city a minute after ten (and about an hour after
a very pleasant breakfast...), with 57 minutes to wait for our
train to Leeds. We’re having a trip on the S&C!
Just over one hundred years, there was an amazing variety of
traffic to and through Carlisle, provided by three Scottish
companies and four English companies (there’s a reminder of
one of them below). The variety isn’t quite so great today,
but there’s a regular flow of Pendolinos and TPE class 397
units, in addition to the various aging DMUs from the
Geoff’s Rail Diaries
Northern Rail fleet - not forgetting the
Scotrail trains coming down the old G&SWR
route. In the middle of all this excitement (!)
a Freightliner class 66 trundled through the
station before burrowing down to the former
NER line to Newcastle.
The purpose of the trip was, of course, the
ride over the Settle and Carlisle, and very enjoyable it was
too - but it’s not easy to take photos from the train. At
Leeds, there was time to find a bite to eat before boarding
our train to Manchester, where we had a brisk walk betwenn
Victoria and Piccadilly for our train back to Crewe. These last
three journeys cost us just £3.50 each, courtesy of Northern
Rail’s ‘Flash Sale’, way back in January - a bargain, without a
doubt!
