Postcards - Freedom of the North West 2006 (Part Two)

Continued from Part One.

Tuesday 18 July 2006 - The Cumbrian Coast (And some required track!)

The bridge across the Leven estuary which has been closed for some time for refurbishment, re-opened yesterday.

Journey	Depart sched.	actual	Arrive sched.	actual	Train	Comments
Huyton - Preston	09.08	09.07	09.54		150275
Preston - Whitehaven	10.06	10.06	12.44	12.47	153317 + 156463	A scenic ride around the Cumbrian coast starting with the vast green and sand marshlands of Morecambe Bay with its population of gulls, herons and waders, and then later more rugged coastline and buzzards circling over the woodlands.
Here's a couple of aerial shots of Morecambe Bay which I took a couple of weeks earlier. The long bridge you can just about see in the second picture is across the Kent estuary and is not the one recently closed for refurbishment. Whitehaven is a pleasant town and the pretty harbour features this strange observation platform. The station is still controlled by semaphore signals.
Whitehaven - Workington	15.03	15.22	15.20	15.42	156470
A little further up the coast is Workington, a somewhat faded industrial town which has an equally faded railway station.
Workington - Carlisle	16.25	16.46	17.15	18.05	153301	The line turns inland after Workington and the scenery was woodlands and meadows. I had not expected to do any new track on this rover so it was an unexpected bonus when, after a long delay, we were diverted via Bog Junction (no, really) and Upperby Junction and a reversal to reach Carlisle avoiding a broken rail on the normal route.
Carlisle - Wigan	18.14	18.21	19.41	20.04	220016	The air conditioning on the Virgin Voyager was very welcome on an extremely hot day.
Wigan - Huyton	20.11	20.28	20.36	20.50	142027

Wednesday 19 July 2006 - The Ratty

Journey	Depart sched.	actual	Arrive sched.	actual	Train	Comments
Huyton - Preston	09.08	09.12	09.54	09.56	142001
Preston - Ravenglass	10.06	10.09	12.15	12.20	153352 + 156461
Ravenglass, on the Cumbrian Coast, is the home of the diminutive Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway, known as the Ratty.
Ravenglass - Eskdale	12.50	12.55			River Esk
The railway runs up into the hills, ending at Dalegarth station. Near Dalegarth is the pretty village of Boot. (Which has a couple of nice pubs.)
Eskdale - Ravenglass	14.50	14.51		15.36	River Mite
Back at Ravenglass, this nuclear flask train passed on the main line with no less than four locos.
Ravenglass - Preston	16.49	17.03	19.22	19.27	156463	The preceding train had not yet turned up so this train had five coaches worth of Sellafield commuters squeezed into two coaches, making it somewhat full.
Preston - Huyton	19.50	19.57	20.36	20.43	150147

Thursday 20 July 2006 - Oldham and Blackpool

Journey	Depart sched.	actual	Arrive sched.	actual	Train	Comments
Huyton - Manchester Victoria	09.03	09.03	09.48		142xxx
My train to Oldham stands in platform 2 at Victoria. My reason for choosing to visit the Oldham loop is that there are plans to replace the trains with Metrolink trams. This will, I imagine, change the character of many of the stations on the line. In a later phase of the project, the trams will be diverted onto the streets to better serve Oldham and Rochdale town centres.
Manchester Victoria - Oldham Mumps	10.45	10.45	11.05		142038
The larger of Oldham's two remaining stations is Mumps.
Oldham Mumps - Shaw and Crompton	11.14	11.14	11.19	11.19	156425
At Shaw and Crompton, the all stations service from Victoria terminates, while the limited stop trains continue on to Rochdale and back to Victoria via Castleton. A traditional signal box and an imposing mill building (still in use.) make one feel one has gone back in time.
Shaw and Crompton - Rochdale	11.49	11.58	12.03	12.09	153360
Rochdale - Manchester Victoria	12.23	12.23	12.39	12.42	155344
Manchester Victoria - Stalybridge	12.50	12.51	13.06	13.06	156469	Another opportunity for some excellent ale in the famous station buffet.
Stalybridge - Manchester Piccadilly	13.48	13.53	14.05	14.06	158800
Manchester Piccadilly - Preston	15.45	15.49	16.29	16.31	175111
Preston - Blackpool South	17.12	17.12	17.49	17.51	153357
The main station for Blackpool is Blackpool North, but there is also a branch line serving Lytham and St Annes and ending at a minimal station at Blackpool South. I can't visit Blackpool without looking at a few trams!
Blackpool North - Huyton	19.25	19.26	20.36	20.38	142067	The third consecutive day I've used this service to get home, and for the first time it's on time!

Friday 12 June 1981 - West Lancashire

The ticket twenty-five years ago was an "Area 22 Runabout Season". It covered a different area, including Llandudno but omitting Carlisle and Leeds.

Saturday 13 June 1981 - Morecambe and Carnforth

Monday 15 June 1981 - Wirral and West Lancashire

Conclusion

I enjoyed my week of bashing just as much I had done 25 years ago. I saw many changes and yet much remains unaltered.

One difference, however, stands out, and that is the unreliability of the 21st century railway. On these pages I have marked the logged times in red where a train was five or more minutes late. You can see that there are many of these in the 2006 logs but none at all were recorded in 1981. To be fair, my week in 2006 included the hottest July day on record and some of the delays were because of the weather but this does not explain all of them.