European Railroad Discussion > Scotland last week - trains and boats (but no planes)

First holiday in Scotland, apart from a couple of weekends in Edinburgh, since 2015. This time our ultimate destination were the Orkneys, the archipelago of islands off Scotland's north coast which we reached by ferry from the port of Scrabster, adjacent to Thurso, the most northerly point on the national rail network. Our journey to Scrabster was roundabout, we stayed with friends in Edinburgh for a couple of nights, dawdled in the Spey Valley in the Scottish Highlands for a further two nights, eventually reaching Orkney last Tuesday, August 21st. Here are a few pictures I took on the way.

1: We arrived in Edinburgh mid afternoon on Friday 17th, after tea I wandered down to the Edinburgh Suburban Line, a double track freight only line which by-passes Edinburgh's two passenger stations, Haymarket and Waverley. It so happens that on a Friday afternoon there are three eastbound freight trains in just over 75 minutes. This is the first, the GBRf operated 6E45 Fort William to North Blyth alumina tanks behind 66738 Huddersfield Town. You wouldn't believe it from the picture but this is suburban Edinburgh, there are houses and gardens on both sides of the track!
2: Approaching the long closed Morningside station is 70816 on 6B34 from Viewpark (in suburban Glasgow) to the cement works at Oxwellmains near Dunbar to the SE of Edinburgh. With Freightliner seemingly giving up on their class 70s, most are now in store, only Colas persevere with these troubled beasts.
3: On Sunday we left Edinburgh in the rain and headed north, the weather improving all the time. By the time we reached Kingussie in the Spey Valley it was mild and bright. Kingussie is on the Highland Mainline from Perth to Inverness. We went for a walk along the Spey at Newtonmore where I was surprised by this UK Railtour operated Edinburgh to Inverness and back day trip. It was a fill in day out for a UK Railtour organised London to Edinburgh weekend. I had seen an STP (extra) in the day's schedule but hadn't worked out that it might be something special, which this was.

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4: On Monday morning the London King's Cross to Inverness sleeper, 1S66 between Newtonmore and Kingussie. Owing to engineering work on the West Coast Main Line Friday night / Saturday morning and Sunday night / Monday morning sleepers were diverted to and from King's Cross. And owing to limited platform length the Highland sleeper, which usually consists of 16 cars in three sections (Aberdeen, Fort William and Inverness) was split in two, the Inverness portion operating as a separate train. The formation behind the 67 is a coach, lounge and six sleepers.
5: I went back to the B&B for breakfast but before I did the morning Mossend (Glasgow) to Inverness intermodal passed Kingussie about 20 minutes early. The Highland mainline, which is a mixture of single and double track is still signalled with semaphores, 66424 is passing Kingussie's pre 1923 Highland Railway signal box.
6: After breakfast as the weather slowly brightened I took myself off to the area around Crubenmore, between Dalwhinnie and Newtonmore. The trains are pretty mundane, just Scotrail class 170 DMUs, but the scenery is anything but. This is the 09:41 Inverness to Edinburgh.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/29/18 01:06 by 86235.

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7: Dalwhinnie is the site of the highest Scotch distillery in Britain, and here it is being passed by the (momentarily) highest class 170 in Britain, in the form of the 10:11 Glasgow Queen Street to Inverness.
8: Back at Kingussie the returning Inverness to Mossend intermodal, only nine loads on 20 platforms.
9: Something else I wasn't expecting to see, one of the cascaded 2+4 mini HST sets which Scotrail are receiving from Great Western. These will be replacing the DMUs on Scotrail's principle internal services - Edinburgh / Glasgow to Dundee, Aberdeen, Inverness / Stirling, Perth, Inverness. To make them comply with modern legislation disabled friendly retention toilets are being fitted as are sliding external doors. But this set, with some booster blurb on the side remains in First Great Western conditions, without the Dynamic Lines transfers on the passenger cars.

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That HST was the last train I saw, from now on we took to the water.
10: MV Hamnavoe of Northlink, the ferry company which connects both the Orkney and Shetland Islands with mainland Scotland. Hamnavoe shuttles between Scrabster and Stromness on Orkney across the Pentland Firth. It's a 90 minute crossing which is a paradise for bird watchers and you get to see the sea stack, the Old Man of Hoy, too. Truly one of the Great Ferry Journeys of the World.
11: Internal ferry services on Orkney between Mainland and the inner and outer isles are operated by Orkney Ferries. We went across to Rousay on Friday on the ro ro ferry Eynhallow, which rather resembles a landing craft. You have to back your vehicle on! This is Eynhallow arriving at the Tingwall jetty on Mainland, Rousay is across the sound.
12: We left Orkney on Saturday and drove across the North West Highlands to Ullapool where, just after we arrived at our B&B the Caledonian Macbrayne ferry, Loch Seaforth sailed up Loch Broom at the end of the 150 minutes crossing from Stornaway in the Outer Hebrides.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/29/18 03:41 by 86235.

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Scotland is my favorite country to visit. Your photos bring back great memories  A beautiful country and photos to match.

Robert Morris
Dunsmuir, CA
Robert Morris Photography

The ferry in picture 11 is a Landing Craft!  A Landing Craft Medium (LCM) to be exact.

PHall Wrote:
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> The ferry in picture 11 is a Landing Craft!  A
> Landing Craft Medium (LCM) to be exact.

That may indeed be the basis of the design but according to Orkney Ferries it was built for them by Abels Shipyard in Bristol in 1987.

A nice set of photos Nick, many thanks for posting.
Malcolm
New Zwaland.

Nice photos Nick. I am going to assume the single malts where spectacular......

Posted from iPhone

AWESOME ! As usual when I see a posting of yours I start drooling, knowing it is going to be interesting ! You haven't failed again ! Thank you for sharing !!! :):):)

I like the incongruity in #2! 

 Thanks for posting another great photo series with excellent narratives!
Especially like the Class 66 photos.
ALLEN 

Thanks everyone, glad you liked them

CPRR Wrote:
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> I am going to assume the single
> malts where spectacular......

Indeed they were, we did a tour of the Scapa Distillery in Kirkwall which ended with a a tot of Skiren and one of Glansa, the peatier of the two. Whisky isn't the only spirit distilled on Orkney, there's now gin too, Kirkjuvagr from the Orkney Distillery which is right on Kirkwall's harbour front. It's joined the craze for craft gins which seems to be sweeping Britain.

86235 Wrote:
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> Whisky isn't the only spirit distilled on Orkney,
> there's now gin too, Kirkjuvagr from the Orkney
> Distillery which is right on Kirkwall's harbour
> front. It's joined the craze for craft gins which
> seems to be sweeping Britain.

OK, chalk up another reason to visit Scotland again.  Wonderful country, great train riding experiences, but I can't stand whisky.  Gin, on the other hand, is a long time favorite.

Just curious, do they intend to continue short set HST service or will they expand?
Seems like an expensive operation for a short set?

prrmpup Wrote:
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> Just curious, do they intend to continue short set
> HST service or will they expand?
> Seems like an expensive operation for a short set?

Good question, I don't know. The cost of the conversion of the passenger cars is quite high, which may be one reason why only a relatively limited number are being converted initially.

Excellent set of photos as usual Nick. A good variety. I do love Scotland, and made two trips to Orkney. Would you believe I’m in Green River Wyoming enjoying my duty free Scapa whisky whilst on holiday following the UP! Chris uk. (TO will not let me attach iPad pics)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/01/18 21:56 by 55002.

86235 Wrote:
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> prrmpup Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Just curious, do they intend to continue short
> set
> > HST service or will they expand?
> > Seems like an expensive operation for a short
> set?
>
> Good question, I don't know. The cost of the
> conversion of the passenger cars is quite high,
> which may be one reason why only a relatively
> limited number are being converted initially.

I suppose one has to consider the alternative use of the HST sets. They are all around 40 years old and otherwise would be scrapped. So the cost of conversion may be quite high, but how long a life does it provide? My guess would be that someone has done the sums and reckons that this is quite a cheap way of providing a very high quality train. I might of course be wrong ,and this is just sentimental trainspotting. (Not unknown in my experience!)

PS Great Pics, but a shame about your malt problem. Gin is no substitute IMHO.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/02/18 00:41 by spflow.