Scenic Railway Journeys -Under-rated and Over-rated

[Greenback]

I love the Cambrian Coast line. It has a good variety of scenery and excellent views, from the cliffs near Tywyn to the bridge at Penrhyndeudraeth with Portmeirion in the distance.

Swansea to Llanelli has nice views of the north side of the Gower peninsula, which was looking very attractive yesterday, being still covered in snow.

I think the Trans Pennine route between Manchester and Leeds is under-rated, while Mrs Greenback loves the Cornish Main Line west of St Austell.

I can't think of any that I would say are over-rated, even the heart of Wales, which has been knocked in this thread, is, I think, worthy of the attention it gets.

 

[cjp]

But they mostly cover the same routes, West Highland Line, Settle to Carlisle, Cumbrian Coast, Devon Coast, Inverness to Kyle, Cambrian Coast, and so on.

There seems to be a literary consensus on which journeys are the best. But are they right? Which journeys and routes are they missing? Which journeys and routes are they over-celebrating?

Basically, which are the most under-rated and over-rated scenic journeys in Britain, according to regular rail travellers like those of us on this forum?

Newcastle to Berwick on Tweed and beyond towards Dunbar has some glorious sea views sadly on the ECMl the trains tend to move like stink and one only gets short glimpses of the coast and inlets.
The glimpse of one remote house by the sea did motivate me to explore to the north of Berwick,just into Scotland, and have a closer look.
A few minutes by train = hours on foot but here is some of what I saw...

Another mystic broken the house being an old old ruin but superb scenery

 

[RPI]

Over rated is the West Highland line, Underrated is Gloucester to Severn tunnel junction.
But St Ives and Newquay are also both scenic/interesting lines but my all time favourite has to be the section of the ECML near Berwick.

 

[aylesbury]

St Earth to St Ives is a good ride especialy when you come out of the cutting and see the sea and bay,the line to Newbury and Westbury is interesting to view.There are plenty of visualy stunning lines to ride on ,the Chiltern line from Amersham to Wendover ,West wycombe to Saunderton.

 

[PaulLothian]

Overrated - Ffestiniog Railway, found nothing great about it when I checked it out back in Sept 2009.

The Festiniog is not as scenic as it used to be mainly because of the tunnel of trees it now travels through. The Welsh Highland Railway has supplanted it in my list of favourites!

 

[RPI]

Forgot to agree about the Cambrian, the line is nice all the way from Newtown to Pwllheli.

 

[Howardh]

Carnforth to Grange. Nothing overly spectacular, but very pretty. Pity the new bridge doesn't sound like you're in the middle of a thunderstorm any more!!

 

[Talbot]

My daily view out the office window takes some beating, Ayr to Glasgow. As soon as you leave Ayr you are presented with fabulous views of the Firth of Clyde, Ailsa Craig, Arran, Kyles of Bute and beautiful world class links golf courses along the way on either side. Then as you head up, you have Kilbirnie Loch and Lochwinnoch with the surrounding hills in the background, superb. The view looks different each day depending on the climate, early morning mist hovering over Arran, and then later on watching the sun set down behind it, giving unreal views, tough job, but someone has to do it

 

[Beveridges]

My suggestion for underrated is going to be the Piccadilly - Hadfield line. Once you're out of the urban sprawl of Manchester I think it is great.

You have to get past Broadbottom before you get any decent scenery on this line. Unfortunately by then, you're near the end of the line.

 

[matchmaker]

Over rated is the West Highland line, Underrated is Gloucester to Severn tunnel junction.
But St Ives and Newquay are also both scenic/interesting lines but my all time favourite has to be the section of the ECML near Berwick.

You have to be joking!

 

[AlterEgo]

You have to be joking!

Indeed!

The West Highland Line is utterly fantastic. I recommend doing it in the height of summer from an evening sleeper from Inverness. Pop your head out of the window to view the scenery, or just sit back in the lounge car with a gin and tonic.

Rail travel gets no better than that in this country.

Just my 2p!

 

[317666]

If you ask me the Cumbrian Coast is very over-rated, didn't find it that scenic at all.

I think the Sheffield - Manchester Piccadilly line (the one that EMT and TPE use, not the one via New Mills) is quite under-rated, I thought it was very scenic through the South Pennines.

 

[khib70]

Indeed!

The West Highland Line is utterly fantastic. I recommend doing it in the height of summer from an evening sleeper from Inverness. Pop your head out of the window to view the scenery, or just sit back in the lounge car with a gin and tonic.

Rail travel gets no better than that in this country.

Just my 2p!

Surely that would be the Highland Line, not the West Highland? It is a lovely route though.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Newcastle to Berwick on Tweed and beyond towards Dunbar has some glorious sea views sadly on the ECMl the trains tend to move like stink and one only gets short glimpses of the coast and inlets.
The glimpse of one remote house by the sea did motivate me to explore to the north of Berwick,just into Scotland, and have a closer look.
A few minutes by train = hours on foot but here is some of what I saw...

Another mystic broken the house being an old old ruin but superb scenery

For anyone wondering, a bit of searching leads me to think that this is the location of the ruined house; just south of Hilton Bay. The house should be in roughly the dead centre of the map linked to.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
... And I agree with Alter Ego et al, there's no way the West Highland line is overrated.

 

[cjp]

You might like to look here
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/gallery/2013/mar/03/britain-10-best-rail-journeys?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487#/?picture=404912498&index=9
There is some agreement with views expressed here although the pictures show views of trains on the line rather than the views from the train - typical sloppy reporting by the Guardian?

 

[mralexn]

Have to agree with another poster that St.Erth - St-Ives is the best. I'm biased though as it is my local line back in the UK.

Over-rated for me has to be Perth - Inverness. One or two good bit's I can recall, but overall a boring run.

It fully depends really on the weather and what train you are on, Ideally for me would be a sunny evening going up to Inverness on the Chieftain, However It is very dully when it is cloudy, and not much to see at all at night :P

 

[Requeststop]

Having just done a rail tour of the UK, and seen a few new lines and renewed my association with some lines I have to say that I just adored the West Highland lines: Absolutely stunning. Other rides I likes for scenery: Llanelli - Clarbeston Road, parts of Bridgend - Barry are wonderful with great views across to Somerset. Bishopton - Gourock and Wemyss Bay are stunning especially across the Clyde.

I have to say that I was really looking forward to the Settle and Carlisle. Yes it was great to see the Ribblehead viaduct, but the most memorable part of my journey from Leeds to Carlisle where the ginger biscuits from the trolley! I suppose there are those who like bleak. For me the West Highland wins for bleak as it has added water (rivers, lochs). Even Rannoch Moor was scenic. Maybe the Yorkies should hire Slartibartfast to re-design Yourkshire in the new Earth. Afterall he won an award for Norway!

 

[RabbieBurns]

Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh.....surely a winner non?

 

[kylemore]

I love the scenery of the West Highlands but I sometimes think the Tourist Board style Hyperbole does more harm than good and at times comes over as a little bit desperate.

Especially among the foreign visitors expectations are raised by such descriptions as "Spectacular" and "Awe inspiring", yes it's impressive but not in the "Swiss" or "Norwegian" or "Canadian Rockies" league.

I come from the area and it is the beautiful scenery combined with the history and heritage which makes me proud to have grown up there.

 

[parkender102]

Tying together the various North Wales Scenic lines mentioned on this thread and the associated Underrated / Overrated thread I'm sure many of you are aware of the fantastic Cambrian Rail Cruise. Covering the route Chester - Llandudno Jct - Blaenau Ffestiniog - Porthmadog - Machynlleth - Shrewsbury - Chester at a bargain price all doable in a day. See Dave Sallerys excellent information page - although based on 2012 timetables will soon be updated with 2013 Times and Prices.

http://www.penmorfa.com/Cambrian/route.htm

Not done it myself yet although started the Chester to Blaenau Festiniog return route the other week only to receive a call to pick up my son from school as he was feeling ill - I'd only just got on the Llandudno Jct to Blaenau train and the doors had closed so had to get off at Glan Conwy and get a bus back to Llandudno Jct to catch the next train home.

 

[Radish]

The beauty of the Scarborough-Whitby line on a summer day - lovely! What silly person decided to close the route and link the latter only to Middlesborough?

 

[LE Greys]

The Aberdeen Road
Well, as an Aberdeen Alumnus, I would say that, but it's an interesting mixed bag. Start off practically underneath Edinburgh, then a few curious views of Haymarket shed, Murrayfield and the airport, then whoa! huge bridge. Then the Fife coast, which is pretty, but slow for most of the route. It gets a bit dull in north Fife, although some nice views of the Ochil Hills. Note semaphore signals starting to appear, this is an old-fashioned main line. Once again, whoa! this bridge isn't so high, but twice as long. Down into Dundee, which looks a bit run down for much of it, then a fast blast up to Arbroath on the joint line. It's mixed from there on, and a bit slow, but Montrose Basin has some wonderful views over to the Grampians, then you emerge from the twisty bit down to Stonehaven, where the bandstand on the hill is actually a war memorial. Another high viaduct and some clifftop running, then through 'Torrey Canyon', the final cutting before the curving descent to cross the Dee into Aberdeen. Nice view of the city lights at night, a bit dreary by day.

 

[yorksrob]

One for the utterly stunning yet not particularly well known category - the Cumbrian coast route. Just beautiful scenery everywhere, pleasant trad buildings, quaint towns (caught the train at St Bees and was utterly charmed). Even the slightly eery sight of the Windscale nuclear power station adds to the lines character.

Also, Northern surpassed themselves yesterday by providing 156's all the way through, so plenty of room to enjoy the views.

TBH I don't usually get that way due to timetabling and cost, but think I might have to make more of an effort in future.

 

[CMS]

Under-rated: Bromley South to Dover Priory via Faversham and Canterbury East.

Over-rated: BML and Horsham branch line - yes, some of the viaducts are amazing but from the train you can't see much and you see the occasionally boring urban sprawl a bit too much! At least on the CML, Chatham is hidden away!