European Railroad Discussion > Best places for trackside viewing?

Hello to all from warm Florida, USA,
We are going to northern UK, Scotland and Ireland in late March. Where would be 'SAFE' accesible by auto, places to view trains?
Probably prefer small towns, (no inner cities), volume of trains more important than scenery. Thanks very much for any help.
Rick Brautigan
Delray Beach, Flotida, USA, Earth.

Can you be a bit more specific - Northern UK doesn't mean anything I'm afraid. Do you mean Northern England, and if so North East or North West. Happy to help but need more information.

Sorry...was not more specific....Northern UK is between Carlisle and Edinburgh/ Glasgow

Ok, well from Carlisle there are two lines which head north to Glasgow, crossing the border at Gretna. The main road, the M74 follows the West Coast Main Line through the Lowther Hills. Abington and Crawford are good locations. It's pretty busy, at least three or four trains an hour plus the occasional freight train.

The other line, the Glasgow & South Western, via Dumfries and Kilmarnock, is a secondary mainline with a passenger train each way every couple of hours, plus freight trains (mainly coal). Plenty of semaphore signals between Dumfries and Kilmarnock. Kirkconnel and Sanquhar can be decent for pictures as can the countryside in between. I use a combination of Google Maps and maps on www.streetmap.co.uk to help.

Between Edinburgh and Glasgow, just west of Falkirk, is a triangular junction; Carmuirs East, South and North which is worth seeking out, again a good mixture of traffic. If you are interested in buses Carmuirs is next to the factory where Alexander build bus bodies.

One further point, Scotland passed a 'Right to Roam' act, which means that you have access to all open countryside, irrespective of whether it's enclosed or not. Only domestic gardens have a blanket exclusion.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/24/15 06:49 by 86235.

Many Thanks for your fine commentary.......Looks like Gretna will be the spot for my limited viewing time...

Any idea where in Ireland you are going? Based on my two trips there, I would recommend the following:
Donabate north of Dublin
Limerick Jct.
Mallow

Ireland is pretty much all passenger trains now. The only regular goods trains I am aware of are a liner train from Ballina on Co. Mayo and a mineral train from Tara Mines near Navan, Co. Meath.

You won't find many places to sit in your car but I have had no problems hanging out at the stations. For some examples, see:
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?17,3353431,3353452#3353452
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?17,3348338,3348499#3348499
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?17,1602944,1602962#1602962

Also, there is extensive coverage of Ireland on Google Street View. Once you know where you are going, use it to scout the area for access. FOr example, if this link works, here is a Liner train at Ballina:
https://www.google.com/maps/@54.109626,-9.160114,3a,75y,353.38h,78.12t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1smoIt9iWJ5_uB-cm0fl5shw!2e0

86235 Wrote:
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> One further point, Scotland passed a 'Right to
> Roam' act, which means that you have access to all
> open countryside, irrespective of whether it's
> enclosed or not. Only domestic gardens have a
> blanket exclusion.

What is the situation in England? I've seen plenty of photos in railway magazines that were obviously taken from farmland. Do railfans typically seek the permission of the farmers to do so, or do they simply take their chances about trespassing?

England and Wales have a partial R2R, open land is indicated as such on Ordnance Survey maps. But more importantly England and Wales have always had a tradition of public rights of way - footpaths and bridleways - which give access over private land, and which are maintained by the local authority. Again, they are marked on maps, I use them all the time to get to the lineside away from stations and roads.

Don't forget you shouldn't stop on the side of motorways, the hard shoulder is for emergencies. Even if there is a nice train to watch!

Interesting information. I wonder why nobody in the US talks about that, there's plenty of no trespassing signs in Wyoming, not to mention the RR concerns.