Acton Bridge – Liverpool Lime Street – Glasgow Central – Glasgow Queen Street – Fort William

This trip started off as something altogether different. I had a booking on a three-day Inter City railtour from Crewe to Mallaig, but unfortunately it was cancelled, due to lack of bookings, though I thought it was excellent value. I decided that I was going to make the trip anyway, but using service trains.

Choosing my own timings also gave me the option to start from a more local station, in this case Acton Bridge. I booked my tickets a couple of weeks ago, giving me the chance to take advantage of cheaper Advance option on the longest leg of the journey, and also splitting the booking at Liverpool, Glasgow and Dalmuir which saved a little more. Overall I’ve spent around £100 on rail tickets, which I think is great value.

I was awake a lot earlier than I needed to be this morning, and took advantage of this to travel on an earlier train to Liverpool. I was aware that making that connection was critical to the day, so it made sense to spend time there rather than at home.

Acton Bridge is now my home station. When Iris is on her home mooring I can walk here, and even though she’s in Northwich, it was only a 15 minute drive. Being Friday the small (free) station car park had several spaces. The weather looked promising as I crossed to the northbound platform.

The service was quite busy. My fellow passengers and I were repeatedly amused by the group of young people in the next set of seats, who were talking with what might have been their mum with conversations on a range of subjects from travel to mortgages. As we arrived at Liverpool South Parkway, one of them asked why John Lennon Airport was named after someone they had never heard of instead of someone famous. Several people around me laughed out loud at this.

We arrived in Liverpool more or less on time so I had more than an hour and a half to kill. I walked down to the lovely Bluecoat Centre, got a cup of tea and settled down to do a bit of work. I used to come to concerts here back in the 80s and 90s, but have visited only occasionally since then.

This city really does have some interesting locations, but sadly the interior of the station is no longer one of them. The needs of modern retail and security clearly matter more than allowing people to see this famous old terminus in all its glory.

I had a direct train from here to Glasgow. I rarely use TransPennine, but recall a previous journey from Edinburgh to Manchester which was incredibly uncomfortable. This one was no better. It felt like sitting on the plastic chairs you get in school halls. Horrid. At least there are great views for much of the journey.

Glasgow Central is almost always busy when I pass through, but not stressful in the way that, for example, London Euston is, and I find it quite charming both inside and out.

The way the connections worked gave me another couple of hours in Glasgow. I had time to visit the Gallery of Modern Art, which I’ve wanted to see for ages. The exhibition spaces were smaller than I expected, as not all of the building is publicly galleries. There were a few interesting things in there, and I stayed for an hour or so.

A bit of a tradition when in Glasgow is to visit the Horse Shoe Bar, ideally with Tim (and occasionally others) when we’re on rail adventures, but on my own if not. Apparently it has the longest continuous bar in Europe, at 104 feet. Unlike the last time I was here they had Guinness on tap.

It is interesting to compare Queen Street to Lime Street, having seen them on the same day. I suspect that at one time they looked quite similar, internally at least. Here, a new front has been added so the original station is completely hidden.

My train left in fading early evening light. By the time we were in Dumbarton it was nearly dark, but there were the most wonderful views across the Clyde, which continued until we turned away to the north.

By the time we reached Arrochar, quite a few people were commenting on how cold it was, as the heating was not working. The train manager said he would have a look at it when they stopped at Crianlarich, where the service divides to Oban and Mallaig. It briefly seemed slightly better than it was, but soon went back to how it was and most people sat in coats, with couple huddled together for the rest of the trip.

At Rannoch our train crossed with the Caledonian Sleeper, an hour out of Fort William, on it’s way to Euston by breakfast time.

Shortly before Fort William we stopped at Spean Bridge, where the station building is now a bar and restaurant. Plenty of people were enjoying themselves in there, and it looked very pleasant.

We arrived on time in Fort William and I walked the short distance to my hotel. As I waited to check in I chatted briefly to a couple of police officers who in reception when I arrived. It turned out that they were here to “see” one of the guests. As I walked to my room they were in front of me, about to knock on the door of a room nearby. An unusual end to the day.