Golspie station, which is on the country's North Highland Line, boasts eight passenger services a day, the 09:18, 12:46, 16:10 and 20:43 northbound, calling at all stations to Wick and Thurso, and the 08:25, 10:12, 14:47 and 18:10 southbound, calling at all stations to Inverness. The trains don't stop necessary stop at all the stations - for the ones that are little used, like Dunrobin Castle, passengers have to request a stop which, if they're waiting on the platform, simply means flagging the train down.
From our house we can hear the trains pass. I love the sound, the spluttering growl of the big diesel engine and the clickety-clack dumpidy-dump of the carriages' wheels. It reminds me of the many journeys we've done by train, particularly on sleepers, when I have so often lain in my bunk listening to the sounds that can only be made by a long-distance train plunging through the night.
There's something very exciting, almost romantic, about a long train journey such as this one, the four-day, four-night Via Rail 'Canadian' service from Toronto to Vancouver on which the food is excellent, the cabins comfortable, the staff superb, and the scenery spectacular.
I started travelling by sleeper when I was young. In 1950 my mother, brother and I travelled from Dar-es-Salaam to Gulwe on the overnight train to stay with a friend of my mother's who farmed near Kongwa. Later, we travelled many times on the Mombasa-Nairobi sleeper pulled by....
....one of these magnificent engines, a Garrett class 59 of East African Railways & Harbours. One of the great moments of these journeys was the walking along the platform to see the engine before we set off, its brasswork beautifully polished by its crew, who were usually Sikhs.
This pre-departure inspection of the engine became a tradition in our family. Here we are at Fort William station on our way to Greece checking on the - as usual - rather ancient diesel which hauled the train as far as Edinburgh.
This service well illustrated the advantages of travelling by sleeper. For a long weekend break we could leave Fort William in the early evening on Friday, be deposited at Euston in time for Saturday breakfast, and return on the Sunday evening service, giving us two full days to enjoy London.
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Your engine pictured "Post Haste" reminds me of the Royal Mail announcement last year of the closure of its own fleet of freight trains to transport mail, ending nearly 200 years of service, with the last trains running in October 2024. A failure, in my view, to expand on an extant utility when the roads are filling up with traffic. A fleet of electric Royal Mail rail delivery vehicles servicing regional sorting depots must surely have been considered, so why the demise of the night mail train? I suspect the price of a stamp has had its influence!
ReplyDeleteYour points are well made! I think part of the problem may be that lack of investment in our railway infrastructure means that the number of 'slots' on the lines is limiting. I know that, if the Scotrail sleeper service misses its morning slot into Euston it can be delayed for hours, as it was on the day we were travelling down to our eldest daughter's wedding
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