"Gavin Hamilton" wrote in message
...

"Jack" wrote in message
...
Once upon a time, Gavin Hamilton
spake thus:

I've done Watford - Chester(reverse on triangle) - Newton-Le-Willows -
Lancaster!

I did something like that (except coming out of Birminghm) on 1S19 one
night in 1987, with IIRC a 31 on the top of 16 coaches!

A bashers delight that trip.

Indeed!

Which brings to mind a strange trip from West Byfleet to Stirling one
sunday
in about 1976. Euston - Glasgow took in Sandbach. Glasgow - Stirling was
from Central, and I've never been able to work out exactly where that
train
went on the way to Stirling:-)

G


Queen Street high-level must have been closed due to engineering works and
services transferred to Central high-level. Your journey that day will have
been either Central-Rutherglen Junction-Hamilton West/Hamilton
Central-Motherwell-Coatbridge Central-Cumbernauld-Stirling or direct from
Rutherglen Junction to Motherwell and then north via Coatbridge/Cumbernauld.
I once got on a train at Queen Street going to Edinburgh, it went through
the tunnel out of Queen Street (high-level) and then suddenly started to
reverse (most alarming) and then went onto the old Glasgow Buchanan
Street-Stirling line (now Queen St-Stepps-Cumbernauld line). It rejoined the
Glasgow-Edinburgh mainline at Larbet, outside Falkirk, went on to the start
of the Forth Bridge and then suddenly started to reverse back along the same
line. Major engineering works that Sunday, adding about 15 mins to a
Glasgow-Edinburgh inter-city journey and caused alarm to many passengers due
to 2 sudden reversals!

Expect even more exotic diversions once the Glasgow Crossrail route opens in
a few years time as it will connect Glasgow Central high-level (and a new
West Street mainline/underground interchange) with Queen Street (both high
and low-level stations). During engineering weekends there'll be lots of
bewildered travellers saying "Where the f*^% are we?" !! Great that Glasgow
is going to have a cross-city line and 3 new city centre stations, once
Crossrail opens.

A