My day began at Crewe and I was booked on the 9.09am service from Crewe to Edinburgh. Whilst waiting on platform 11 I saw that the rails had been made in Workington. A sad testament to a lost industry for the town. In days gone by, Workington was a world leader in the rail production. I am told the rails in Workington can be found all over the world. In the photo below, you should be able to make out the Workington stamp.
The journey to Edinburgh was largely uneventful apart from one thing: I was able to chat via facebook, to my brother who is in Kathmandu!. He was on a trekking holiday to Everest Base camp, sadly he did not get there as he got some kind of viral infection, and one cannot be ill at over 6000m. Still it passed some time.
On arrival in Edinburgh, I wanted to get to Glasgow Queen Street. I had to book a ticket, but nearly all the ticket machines were not working. Eventually I got a ticket and took the 13.00 to Queen St on the new 385 electric trains, they are fast if a little bumpy at times. Below is a photo of my train from Edinburgh.
The journey back to Crewe involved the 14.40 to Preston, then the 17.17 from Preston to Crewe. The latter was quite full even in first class. At Wigan we went to a different platform, overtook the train I had left at Preston and went on the slow line to Warrington. Not too sure what was going on. Anyway, another good train on the trains.
Fr Paul Harrison' Blog. 