Ten most beautiful ... railway journeys

[whole diary]

[grahame]

The top ten: Most beautiful British railway journeys

http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/uk/the-top-ten-most-beautiful-british-railway-journeys-8914059.html

Anything listed that you question. And what would YOUR choices be if we were looking for 10 FGW^▸ (First Great Western) served lines?

[trainer]

The link isn't working for me, Graham.

[grahame]

The link isn't working for me, Graham.

It isn't working for me either now ... and the original link I had to it is broken too. The story was dated "Sunday 3rd November" and I suspect it might have been accidentally published and pulled.   I'll see what happens tomorrow.

[grahame]

Ah - found the text ...

Andrew Adonis asked, on his way to the Cheltenham Literary Festival: 'Is the North Cotswold Line ^ Kemble, Stroud etc ^ the most beautiful in England?' He said it was 'on a short shortlist', so I asked readers to help me compile the best, including the rest of the UK^▸ (United Kingdom)...

1. Edinburgh to Aberdeen Continuing northwards, "none can compete with the Forth and Tay bridges", says Bob Reid.

2. Settle to Carlisle Especially the Ribblehead viaduct, reckons Rupert Greenhalgh.

3. Barking-Gospel Oak on the London Overground. "This journey looks at the urban landscape, but not the showy, award-winning portion," says Paul T Horgan. Nice new rolling stock, too.

4. Cambrian Coast Line in West Wales. Thanks, Mike Ion.

5. Hope Valley in Derbyshire. Suggested by John Taylor and others.

6. West Highland Line from Mallaig to Oban in Scotland. Nominated by Stephen Mann.

7. East Coast Main Line. The view of Durham is prized, but many vote for the "glorious" stretch from Newcastle to Edinburgh (Maeve Sherlock), especially Alnmouth to Berwick when the tide is in (Chris Sharp).

8. North Cotswold Line Nominated by Andrew Adonis.

9. Kendal to Penrith on the West Coast Line. "Stunning," comments Mike Ion. Although I also love the Carstairs to Lockerbie section.

10. Taunton to Penzance Including Brunel's Royal Albert Bridge at Saltash (Ruth Muirhead) and the Dawlish coast (Stephen Mann).

[Chris from Nailsea]

I'd vote for the stretch of line including Brunel's 1859 Royal Albert Bridge at Saltash - still absolutely awe-inspiring! 

[bobm]

I'd vote for the stretch of line including Brunel's 1859 Royal Albert Bridge at Saltash - still absolutely awe-inspiring! 

I'd second that.  If I have a rover ticket and the time I quite often take a train from Plymouth to Liskeard and back to ride over it.  (Even if it means the risk of missing one of the lunchtime Pullmans - that's how awe-inspiring it is!)

[bobm]

Andrew Adonis asked, on his way to the Cheltenham Literary Festival: 'Is the North Cotswold Line ^ Kemble, Stroud etc ^ the most beautiful in England?' He said it was 'on a short shortlist', so I asked readers to help me compile the best, including the rest of the UK^▸ (United Kingdom)...

Has the punctuation gone astray or has he got his North and South Cotswolds muddled?

[Chris from Nailsea]

It's on a short shortlist, apparently.  I rather suspect slapdash journalism. 

[Chris from Nailsea]

I'd vote for the stretch of line including Brunel's 1859 Royal Albert Bridge at Saltash - still absolutely awe-inspiring! 

I'd second that.  If I have a rover ticket and the time I quite often take a train from Plymouth to Liskeard and back to ride over it.  (Even if it means the risk of missing one of the lunchtime Pullmans - that's how awe-inspiring it is!)

It's so awe-inspiring, it's up on the wall in my study: see http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=4211.msg123132#msg123132 

[bobm]

Here's my list

1 Royal Albert Bridge - Saltash
2 Seawall - Dawlish/Teignmouth
3 St Ives branch line
4 Calstock viaduct - Gunnislake branch
5 Cookham to Bourne End - Marlow branch
6 Sonning Cutting
7 Running past the Severn south of Chepstow
8 Passing White Horse Hill at Uffington
9 Arriving at Platform 1 at Paddington
10 Box Tunnel (watching line side rather than on the train)

[Cynthia]

On Lord Adonis' list I'd put Nos 6 & 10 first and second. 

What about the West Somerset Railway? (well, not the bit that passes Blue Anchor Bay maybe....) one of my personal favourites, but that's probably only because it's a steam line (seasonally).

I'm afraid I don't know FGW^▸ (First Great Western)'s journeys well enough to comment on all of theirs.

[grahame]

I'm going to give you just one.   A change of train may be necessary on the way ...

Leaving a major town, the line runs out through suburbs, under a motorway and into countryside with low green hills to our left where, if you look carefully, you can see the path of an old canal.  15 minutes run to a lovely old station with an island platform, canaopy and footbridge as they used to be, and our first stop.   Passenger get off and on, our train starts up and passes over a viaduct over the town, with bustling shops below, before going over a high, high embankment.   Speed is not fast as we vere to the left onto a single track, with hills again to the South East, lush green fields, and plenty happening.  And wherever you look, you'll see electricity pylons.   The driver toots the horn for pedestrian crossings, and the conductor often comes through the train asking anyone for the next station to move to one set of doors.  And the train passes under a bridge and pops out of the countryside and into what looks like a builders yard and industrial area before drawing up at a short platform with a bus style shelter.

Passenger numbers vary here - there will be a few off and a few on, before the train starts up again, under a bridge, behind a few industial units and into the countryside again.   Foorpaths cross, and the land drops away as the train travels along an embankment and bridges over a river before slowing down to take a left turn and join a double track line curving in the opposite way, the combined lines following on through the outskirts of a town to the next stop.  A minute or two here, and we're on our way again.   High up on the hill on the left of the train, you'll spot a white horse, lines leave and join at junctions, and the layout widens out to a junction station with two island platforms. 

People off and on ... clearly a lot of connections here ... and the train restarts. "Anyone for xxx" asks the conductor, as the train stops at the next station by request. Freight yards lie on both sides, a line branches off to the right, we fly over another line, and we can hear the work of the diesel engines yet with little speed gained.   We probably stop at that little wooden platform on the hill, then, oh laboured again, restart as we wind our way between hillocks, with a much mighter set of downs to our left, to the penultimate station on our run.  Clapperboard station buildings;  a few sidings beyond - not quite "as it used to be" but you can see some history here.

And so our final stretch, and the longest run between stations on the line, through a deep greet valley, the line gently curving left and right.   Verdant green is summer, bright yellow in the spring, a patchwork in winter.  Here and there you can spot the river.  A truely beautiful stretch.

And so ... we swing to the right and left, join another line and the tracks widen out again and we come into what's probably the largest station on our journey, and the only one that serves a city, at the end of our journey.  Some of the architecture here is compromised by the awkward addtion of barriers, and there are parts that have seen better days.    But there are things to see and do before we take out train back later on, or perhaps carry on in one of three other directions from here.

The beauty is not only in the countryside, but in the cheerful team who run the trains on this line, the variety in the stations, and in the very ability for us to take this journey all the way through which wasn't possible at all from 1966 when the service closed until it re-opened in 1985.

[eightf48544]

Are we allowed preserved lines if so.

No 1 definitely Ffestiniog to Caernarfon. Longest narrow gauge journey, but do it when the leaves are off the trees. It has to be in that direction. Look out for UL railtours doing one in March from London.

In no particular order
North Wales coast Chester to Bangor
Brockenhurst Christchurch through the New Forest although if open the Ringwood line was better.
Golden Valley Kemble Stonehouse although would have been better in the Gloucester Brincombe 14XX auto trains
Bournemouth to Poole out through the pine clad cutting and down the hill ovelooking Poole Harbour and Sandbanks


Closed lines I regret I never went on:
Brecon and Merthyr  throughout Newport to Brecon and  Brecon and Neath between those two points.
Heads of the Valley from Abergavenny to Merthyr although you can get a good idea of that line drivng the Heads of the Valley road which follows it's route.
Neath and Pontypool Road across the Crumlin Viaduct
Barry Railway on one of the Tredegar Barry Island excursions with a Super D over Walnut Tree viaduct.
Unfortunately i did Dunfries Stranrear a at night but gather that served really wild country.

Aa for Grahame's journey how about Swindon Exeter? Via Melksham (of course) Westbury and Taunton!

[Cynthia]

Grahame, I really enjoyed reading your railway journey.  You really love your Wiltshire, don't you?  Roll on December 8th, when I shall be taking to the rails to enjoy some of the views you describe.

[Rhydgaled]

I too haven't travelled enough of the FirstGW network to really comment, but I'm pleased to see the Cambrian Coast Line made the list in the article, most of the best views on the lines I've travelled were on that line.

However, I would like to nominate the section between Llanelli/Ferryside and Carmarthen for a FirstGW-specific list. While I've never done the section on a FirstGW train, there are a handful of services to/from Paddington and the views are rather good. The only drawback is the double row of pylons which cross between Ferryside and Carmarthen, they rather spoil it, but that aside it's rather nice.