Fort William, Scotland, North East Railtours.

It's been a while since I posted due to life and further adventures in Scotland and as I have been majoring on these parts for some time, some readers will be pleased to know that I will be posting from south of the border from the next blog onwards. If anyone wants to see anything in particular please feel to comment.
North East Railtours (formerly Whitley Bay Horticultural Society) have been running day charter rail tours around the UK for as long as I can remember from railway stations in the North East of England. Charter (or special) trains need to fit in around the timetabled services with the routes and timings having to be painstakingly worked out, particularly on scenic remote lines such as The West Highland Line (shown above). Many of the outpost or picturesque lines are made up of single track and passing places where if a locomotive fails, most of the services on that day suffer passenger delays.
As a background to this post, there have been issues with The West Coast Railway Company (WCRC) that own the railway engines used for these trains. A driver of a WCRC steam train failed to stop at a warning signal in Wootten Bassett, Wiltshire last year and as a result the licence to operate was withdrawn from the company. It was the intention of Network Rail who withdrew the licence, to ensure the safe operation of future outings with a view to renewing it as soon as feasibly possible. As a result, the proposed tour in May 2015 was cancelled at short notice and the renewal of the license earlier in 2016 did not allow enough marketing time to repeat the trip this year. Provisional timings that the operator received for this outing were ridiculously early in the morning and with the lack of uncharted territory generally elsewhere, it was decided to combine their efforts alongside the Scottish Railway Preservation society (SRPS) in fewer outings mainly to English destinations.

As the SRPS already run numerous tours from various starting points in Scotland, it seems unlikely that this day trip will ever run again. This set of photos is a nostalgic look back at the May 2013 event. Unfortunately the weather wasn't great and as a result the image quality suffers too, apologies for that as I have so many great images taken from the train window on previous occasions.

The day began very early in the morning with the sun rising over the Northumbrian coastal town of Alnmouth.

Breakfast is a sterling effort cooked on the train and served in mass catering style near Edinburgh.

On passing Glasgow the train follows the north side of the River Clyde and on reaching Helensburgh, the railway line is known as The West Highland Line.

The stations have a country feel with unique West Highland Line architecture.

The landscape becomes more scenic eventually turning to remote and desolate moorland. It is usually uncommon but always advisable to watch for wildlife such as deer.

On arrival in Fort William, the clouds were very low as seen behind Duncansburgh Mackintosh Parish church.

Even the Crannog fish restaurant at the loch shore couldn't provide the colour to brighten the day !!

I did come across a bizarre sculpture near to the waters edge of Loch Linnhe. To me it looked like a celebration to water skiing but further investigation revealed it was made of old mountain equipment to honour the local mountain festival.

There are not a lot of shops in Fort William but most seem to represent a mix of clothing and tartan tourist stores. This one gives the more interesting variety of the British weather depicting the sale of both Umbrellas and Ice Cream. There wasn't a lot sold of the latter on this day.

Lastly, due to the long train journey, the time allocated at Fort William was about 2 hours giving enough time to walk up and down the main street and visit the favourite shops. The larger woollen mill at the far end of the street is usually a step too far as my dabbling with sign alterations show ...

Wemyss Bay railway station, Inverclyde.

You'll all be pleased to know (including myself !! ) that this is the last post in the South West Scotland series. There's no need for me to remind anyone that it has taken me over 1 year to post about 1 weeks travel.
It may seem a bit unusual to talk about a railway station but this is one of my favourites. In the past I have only visited the station by special charter trains but there were too many people about to capture the place properly. Having arrived by car, visited Rothesay and Mount Stuart by the ferry, it seemed an ideal opportunity to photograph it late in the day between the ferry arrival / departure times.

Wemyss Bay railway station first opened in 1865 with the extension incorporating the pier being designed by Glasgow Architect James Miller and completed in 1903.
The 19th century Industrialists of Glasgow opted to escape the city by living to the west of the conurbation and along the Clyde coast. With the rich history of shipbuilding in Glasgow, Clyde steamers provided the means of reaching the new found holiday destinations of Dunoon and Rothesay.
The Steamers initially sailed directly from Glasgow to Rothesay with options of Dunoon and Largs. In 1841 a rail route was opened from Glasgow to Greenock that reduced the journey times significantly by an hour to the destinations of Largs and Rothesay. The ferry service from Glasgow still ran many years later, but due to river pollution, only the poor used it with economy fares. On a similar theme, there were concerns about the wealthy having to pass through the poorest part of town from Greenock railway station to the dockside.

... variations on a theme ... 

There were operational difficulties between rival railway companies who  owned the boats and large financial losses resulted. It was necessary to have a dedicated railway station / pier terminal to improve the situation and an extension to Weymss Bay (for Rothesay) was built in the late 19th century.

The 10 mile branch to Wemyss Bay that opened to passengers on 15th May 1865 was most unusual in that it was designed to carry passengers first and not freight.

The formative years were not easy due to all the different rail and ferry companies not agreeing on a variety of operational issues.

Steamers ran complex routes and were often late causing trains to miss their paths on a single railway line network. Competition from the later Gourock extension and pier caused some disagreement due to platform rights at the brand new Glasgow Central station.

The enlarged and updated Wemyss Bay station created a statement of railway grandeur that defied other terminus rivals on the Clyde coast.

The station underwent a major restoration programme and was completed in 1994.

Time to allow the sun to set on my South West Scotland travels ...

Glasgow Transport Museums (old and new)

The Riverside Museum is situated on the north bank of the River Clyde to the west of the city centre. The European Museum of the year 2013 stands in an area of regeneration across the river from what was the site of The 1988 Glasgow Garden Festival. Interestingly enough, this is probably where the regeneration of Glasgow began.
The £74 million pound museum was somewhere that I had on my list of things to do for some time but the experience didn't quite match my expectations. More of that it a moment.

( Personal note: It has been over three months since I last posted and even though it seemed that I had forsaken this blog, I hadn't abandoned it. The Spring and Summer have been a mixture of sad and happy times giving me some severe time problems of blogging availability. Thankfully the balance of life is now leaning towards the happy times. Additionally I didn't feel too inspired about this post in the series due to the repetitive nature of the indoor images and my search for the older material. I haven't got a set blogging night anymore so I'll have to see what I can do when time allows in each week.)

After a period of 23 years in an old tram shed on the outskirts of the city centre, The Glasgow Museum of Transport was relocated to a new site behind the Kelvin Hall in 1987. The exhibits grew from initially the disused and preserved trams from the depot into an eclectic collection of moving vehicles.

The Kelvin Hall location closed on 18th April 2010 ironically just six days after my visit here so I was quite pleased to document some of these images. It was another year before the new building was completed and opened on 21st June 2011.

In the old building, the Scottish based car dealer Arnold Clark sponsored a display of classic cars in the style of a sales showroom.

It was an unbelievable chance to get up close with some routine and classic cars of yesteryear.

The Ford Anglia was the first car I had the chance to have a ride in as a young boy. The car belonged to my step brother in law who worked for Ford influencing my choice of car in later years. As a tribute following his passing away earlier this year, I would like to say that other than my parents holiday snaps, he was my first real photographic influence and an early motoring travel inspiration.

Don't ask me why, but when I was at school my dream car was a Ford Capri. In later years I once saw a Classic car Capri owner struggle to parallel park it due to the long body nose of the engine.

The Mini Metro made by Austin was a popular car in its day. Even though I wasn't a fan of it, it has some meaningful nostalgia to me as it was the car I learned to drive and pass my test in. In its favour the rear view was excellent for visibility and reversing manoeuvres.

My Dad owned a Mini for 11 years and it was the only car he ever owned in my lifetime. The car was driven everywhere in the North of England, Scottish Borders, Firth of Clyde, Lancashire and Yorkshire Coastline, Somerset and London.
My Dad tried to do a lot of the repairs himself with partial assistance from my step Brother in law and with exception of the windows and the roof, most things were replaced two or three times. I remember the saturday mornings as a young teenager when we didn't go out for the day having to help with the maintenance by holding / passing tools and spare parts.
The experience wasn't a good one as the Mini engine was so compact and difficult to gain access. One day my Dad burst a new radiator trying to squeeze it into the correct space and it was just one of the things that put me off car maintenance for life  ... haha.

One of the more unusual elements about the 1987 - 2010 Museum of Transport was the recreation of a 1930's Glasgow road called Kelvin Street.

The Regal Cinema entrance seemed authentic enough and played Scottish transport related documentaries.

A few reconstructed shops gave the street display in the museum some realism and atmosphere.

The Glasgow Subway system was built in 1896 and is the third oldest in the world. Following cracks in a roof at one of the stations and numerous other outdated equipment and practices, the system was closed down for major renovation and modernisation in the 1970's. A tube train and a replica of a pre 1977 Glasgow subway station was preserved and recreated respectively.

Updating and Modernisation comes to us all as we move on and into the 2011 built Riverside Museum.

Unfortunately the Arnold Clark Garage is converted from an accessible showroom to just a wall ...

... such a pity that you can't look inside these vehicles anymore.

Many years later after my dream, the Ford Capri is still out of my reach for another visual reason !

In one way I was pleased with some of the images I captured on my second visit but it seems to me that the love of transport has been compromised for the love of art in this building. Many new visitors may see the museum as a radical building, some as a piece of Scottish Heritage, another just as a rainy day activity. For me its all about the building now and less about specific machinery ... shame.

One of the scary and yet radical sights of the day was a historic railway engine poking its nose out from an upper floor alcove.

In a sense the museum stays close to the historic roots it once had with the original Glasgow Tram collection.

... as the visitor can still get up close and personal with these artefacts. 

The re-created street is a little different these days

... However the subway station is still here ...

as is the tube train on the platform ...

... and the ghosts from the past ....  !!