European Railroad Discussion > Itinerary for Great Britain Trip This Summer

I liked Britain so much on my first visit I have to go back already. I may as well go since I had just enough Airline miles when I booked the tickets at the end of last year. I want to cover some things I missed on the first one; http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?17,3077931,3077931#msg-3077931. I also want to visit the trolleybus museum at Sandtoft for the Gathering, which is their biggest event of the year. The main goal is to try and capture as many of the remaining semaphore works as possible before they go away. I believe that due to the nature of this trip a variety of passes would be the least expensive way to travel for the most part. I should be able to obtain two 3 in 7 Day Rovers a 4 in 8 Day Rovers and several one day Rovers which will cover much of the Midlands, and the North West and Hadrian's Wall. The Hop on Hop off flexibility of the passes will allow me to visit more Stations than I could using advance ticketing. I come up with £272.70 for the three main passes and the various Day Rovers. I would also ride from London Kings Cross to Doncaster for £35.50 on an Advance Ticket and also ride back to London from Birmingham, for £30.00. To save time I will also use an Advance Ticket from Newcastle to Leeds, likely via Doncaster. So, I could ride a lot of trains possibly for less than £400. This is only speculative at this point and is subject to change.
Passes, Rangers and Rovers used {**#(#)} Abbreviation I used with the days available and day of use. You can look at these in more detail by visiting: http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/rangers_and_rovers.aspx
£78.50 East Midlands Rover 3 in 7 days {EM3}
£74.00 Heart of England 3 in 7 Days {HE3}
£67.00 Freedom of the Northwest 4 in 8 Days Rover {NW4}
£17.00 Anglia Plus 1 Day Pass {AP1}
http://www.tfgm.com/journey_planning/Tickets/Pages/tickets_wayfarer.aspx
£11 Greater Manchester (Area) Wayfarer {MW1}
£6.20 The network (Midlands) Daytripper (Greater Birmingham) {NM1}
£19.00 Hadrian's Wall Country Line Day Rover {HW1}
07778641825

Actual Trip
July 2014
25 Friday
Cincinnati OH <Busit to> CVG Lv 2:00 pm Delta Flight DL 3482 [A] Arv 2:15 pm (CST) Chicago ORD IL Lv 6:00 pm (CST) Virgin Atlantic Flight 40 {Virgin Atlantic Flight 40} [A]
Please Note Britain is five hours ahead of Eastern Time, Six ahead of Central
26 Saturday
Virgin Atlantic Flight 40 Arv London 8:45 am (changed in Jan by airline) (originally LHR 8:00 am) (British Time) <Tube> London Kings Cross Lv 11:35 am East Coast Trains Arv 13:13 Doncaster > Ride out to Barnetby and back Sheffield on Saturday only route via Brigg > Doncaster {EM3(1)} Doncaster {Premier Inn Doncaster Central [D]}
27 Sunday
Doncaster [Ride bus to Trolleybus Museum at Sandtoft] Doncaster {Premier Inn Doncaster Central [D]}
28 Monday
Doncaster > Barnetby > East Anglia {AP1} > Nottingham {EM3(2)} Nottingham {Jury's Inn [E]}
29 Tuesday
Nottingham [Look at East Midlands Pkwy to Peterborough Line] > Coventry > Birmingham {EM3(3)}+{NM1} Birmingham {Premier Inn (New Street) [F]}
30 Wednesday
Birmingham > Worcester Shrub Hill > Shrewsbury [Look at Marches Line south of Shrewsbury] > Pontrilas [for three way meet] > Shrewsbury {HE3(1)} Shrewsbury {Station Hotel [H]}
31 Thursday
Shrewsbury [Look at Marches Line south of Shrewsbury] > Manchester {?HE3(2)?} Manchester {MacDonald Hotel }
August 2014
01 Friday
Manchester [See Scarborough Flyer Steam Excursion][Ride Ghost Train (Again!)][Look at area around Buxton][Look at Stockport to Sheffield Line (as far Grindleford)] {MW1} > Manchester? {Manchester MacDonald Hotel [J]}
02 Saturday
Manchester? > Preston > Liverpool > Blackpool > Preston {NW4(1)} {Premier Inn Preston Central [L]}
03 Sunday
Preston [Sunday Only Service between Blackpool, Preston, Clitheroe, Hellifield and Carlisle] {NW4(2)} > Carlisle [Look at Settle and Carlisle and steam excursion over it that day] Carlisle {Hallmark Hotel Carlisle [M]}
04 Monday
Carlisle > Newcastle [Look at Newcastle and Carlisle Railway] {HW1} {Jury's Inn (Scottswood RD) [N]}
05 Tuesday
Newcastle > (Advance Ticket(s), likely via Doncaster to finish up the East Coast Mainline) [O] Leeds {NW4(3)} Leeds {Park Plaza Leeds [P]}
06 Wednesday
Leeds [May take a look at Steam Excursion over Settle and Carlisle that morning?] > Birmingham {NW4(4)} {Premier Inn (Waterloo Street) [Q]}
07 Thursday
Birmingham Chiltern Railways [R] London > London Feltham {Travelodge }
08 Friday
London Lv 9:35 am Delta Flight 19 [A] Arv 12:39 pm Detroit Lv 3:30 pm Delta Flight 4030 Arv 4:27 pm Dayton OH {Mom's House [T]}
09 Saturday Dayton OH <Mom and or Dad> Cincinnati OH

This itinerary subject to change.

Reservations for the Premier Inn's are all the cheap, non-refundable type. Most of the others are flexible, but unlikely to change any. The letters in the [ ] correspond with my reservation numbers at the bottom of my page at home but of course I erased all the reservations numbers before putting this on the Internet here. This trip since I am not taking my dad I will not be driving in the UK, everything you see here is by train, coach, bus and foot. I haven't figured out the Landry days and locations yet, sorry about that.

Jim

Edit: The use of [ ] confused the system and caused some weird text variations. I cleared those up.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/03/20 18:19 by tq-07fan.

Good for you, looks like you have a great trip lined up.

Have a great time.

No heritage railways planned? There are so many great ones to choose from all within a relatively compact distance and most accessible by Network Rail.

No Heritage Railways on this trip. The stuff that is happening now on the real railways will probably be Heritage Railway stock next time I come back, which will not be for at least a couple years but likely more. As I see it, the semaphores and individual signalboxes will mostly be gone by then. The Great Western electrification and the Northwest electrification projects should be done by then which will mean a lot of new EMUs running that do not exist yet. These EMUs will displace the DMUs currently operating in those territories and likely mean that the oldest DMUs will be gone as a result. Also with the Great Western one it probably means a lot less HSTs on First Great Western. I also figure that there will be less older diesels and electrics all over.

Seeing my itinerary here on the Trainorders screen and size I am reconsidering my pass options and may break down and get an England pass from Rail Europe for the eight days in the middle after the East Midlands 4 in 8 Rover is done. Does the BritRail pass have any time or other restrictions? I would be getting a second class pass since most of what I would be riding is Second Class only or too short a trip to bother with First.

Jim

Rail Europe's web site should give you all the details on the various passes available including restrictions. www.raileurope.com

Yes, the RailEurope thing didn't cover one of the concerns. I was wanting to know is if the BritRail pass can be used at any time of the day or if it only can be used after 9 am? If so at today's exchange rate of £1 = $1.65 the eight day pass would save a little as well as open up a whole lot more area to the east of Leeds and stuff.

Jim

BritRail passes can be used at any time of day.

Seat reservations (available on all longer trips) are free if booked in Britain. If you book them in Canada or the US through the agency that handles this, there is a fee. The only time I booked them at home the cost was $14 per segment. If travelling standard class seat reservations are a good idea, but rarely needed in first class. When I have booked our seats in first class, we have always found unreserved seats that we liked better, so we took those. When we have done this we have always told the guard/conductor/train manager what we did and he or she would remove the seat reservation slip to free the seats for others.

I went on and got my 15 Day BritRail England First Class Pass this morning. I didn't realize how different this trip was from the first. On the first trip my dad, using a Senior Pass and I were riding buses in one city then taking the train to the next city then riding the buses there and repeating most days. The Advance tickets really worked well because it was usually only one or two train trips each day. This Summer trip I am in England mostly for the railway related stuff. I did the math several times and came up with that the second class England Pass would save money. Instead I got the First Class BritRail England Only pass and although I am around £29 over what I would have spent on the various second class passes I figure I can make it up in Bacon Rolls, tea and Potato Crisps in First Class. Also I wont have to worry about getting the various tickets in between the National Rail offered passes now plus I can try out the Heathrow Express with the BritRail Pass (I looked it up already).

Jim

On my visit to GB in 2006 I rented a car. I got use to driving on the wrong side of the road fairly quickly and saw a great deal more than if I just relied on public transportation.
Chris

Well. On my original trip my dad and hired a car in Kettering. My dad quickly adapted to driving in the right side of the car on the left side of the road along with shifting with the left hand. I drove a couple miles from Three Horse Shoes to the edge of March where I could not get started into a Roundabout without stalling out. We did a Chinese Fire Drill and I let him drive the rest of the day, in fact he believes that his driving that one day was the only reason I took him along on the trip. This trip, without my dad along I will be fine using public transit and transport. For the people who have never looked into it it is unbelievably better than here in the United States. For about 99% of the places I have listed there are buses that continue the trip to places along the railway with a little walking involved. There are public footpaths as well. I am a bus driver and bus fan so figuring out and riding the buses is as much a fun thing for me as it is a way of getting around. The bus drivers in Britain were quite friendly for the most part and I just like riding buses. I had not drove a stick in so long it just isn't worth it. To quote Clint Eastwood, "A man's got to know his limitations..."

Jim

tq-07fan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I haven't figured out the Landry days
> and locations yet, sorry about that.
>
> Jim

S'okay, Jimmy my boy - we'll stay upwind from you the whole time you're gone!

Have a great trip, too --

timecruncher

yes riding trains in Britain is quite an experience. I have done it about dozen times. Check nationalrail.uk for real time action. I usually get a 1st class Britrail pass and seek the trains with the food. Virgin trains have great food. One first class round trip like from London to Manchester usually pays for a 4 day pass. Suggest a morning Virgin out of Euston to maybe Birmingham for breakfast. Then head to Manchester and visit the Science Museum with the Liverpool and Manchester's 1830 Liverpool and Manchester Railroad station. And then hop a Virgin Train back to London.