Route suggestions please - Milton Keynes Central(MKC) to "up north"

[WolvertonWorks]

Window of 9 nights towards end of September so within Advance booking horizon. Two of us both with senior railcards. Staying a night (or two) interesting places en route.

We want to revisit Beamish so plan on staying 2 nights in Newcastle and taking the bus there for the day.

We did the Settle-Carlisle line in that direction a couple of years ago and want to do it starting from Carlisle going south.

We've never done Newcastle to Carlisle line so would like to include that.

Also watched youtube the other day where Heighington on the Bishop Auckland line was shown and I fancy a short visit to Bishop Auckland (have been to the railway museum in Shildon before). I see this line appears to go via Darlington (been there a number of times as used to have family there) to Marske where I've been to once about 50 years ago so maybe stay there.

We've never visited Leeds so wondering about an overnight there in either outbound or return direction

Outgoing and return day I'd prefer an interesting route over speed.

So I've currently got:

MKC - Darlington and then overnight in Marske (or maybe two nights in Marske).

Marske to Bishop Auckland, then back to Darlington and on to Newcastle.

Two nights in Newcastle.

Newcastle to Carlisle - can we get down to Settle area on the same day and overnight in Settle area or stay overnight in Carlisle and then go south the following day?

Settle area back to MKC

So any suggestions for outbound route up to Darlington and return from Settle area back to MKC appreciated please?

Thanks

 

[30907]

Outward: Bradford is City of Culture so prefer it to/combine it with Leeds (which has better shops1).
Return: on a Saturday (only) you have the option of the Clitheroe route from Settle, otherwise Bradford/Leeds (as above) then across the Pennines to Manchester and home.

 

[WolvertonWorks]

Outward: Bradford is City of Culture so prefer it to/combine it with Leeds (which has better shops1).
Return: on a Saturday (only) you have the option of the Clitheroe route from Settle, otherwise Bradford/Leeds (as above) then across the Pennines to Manchester and home.

OOH thanks for that - will see if I can work the days so that we are coming south on the Saturday

 

[zwk500]

So any suggestions for outbound route up to Darlington and return from Settle area back to MKC appreciated please?

Having lived in MK with family and friends in Yorkshire I've done this a couple of times. Fastest and most convenient route is in and out of London (particularly from Wolverton), especially if you are comfortable with the walk between Euston and King's Cross.

If travelling in daylight then getting the MKC-Manchester Avanti and TPE is a much prettier route through the Pennines and usually doesn't make a significant difference to the overall journey time. Changing onto a CrossCountry is functional, but unless it offers major time or cost savings I'd try and avoid it, as the train is always cramped and New Street is a nasty environment to change trains in while the alternative of Tamworth is fairly bleak, especially if it's a long connection.

 

[WolvertonWorks]

Thanks to everyone for your replies to my various queries about this trip - here's a report on what we actually did, and it was a brilliant trip with an added bonus of unexpectedly seeing Tornado and Sir Nigel Gresley on Tuesday afternoon

Monday 22nd September 8:24 Avanti from Milton Keynes Central to Manchester Piccadilly - then tram to Manchester Victoria, TPE to Middlesbrough and finally Northern to Marske. Advance tickets. I had imagined that Middlesbrough was a large station, being a junction, so was surprised it was only platforms 1 and 2.

As we still had plenty of day light once we'd found our accommodation in Marske we walked the coast path to Saltburn, had a wander around and then bought walk up tickets back to Marske. The sun was low in the sky and it was extremely difficult to see the screen to use the TVM. Would have been much better if they'd faced it north.

Tuesday morning - again with the visibility of the TVM screen being an issue because of the lovely sunshine - bought walk up returns to Bishop Auckland. Went for a wander around town and some lunch and then as we'd seen Hopetown looking very inviting as we'd passed on the outward journey decided to give Shildon a miss this time on the return and alight at Hopetown. Really enjoyed it and when we entered we were told that they were expecting Sir Nigel between 2 and 2:30 so we joined everyone on the viewing platform to see it. Wonderful - made my day!

We then walked down into the town centre via viewing the Skerne bridge and then to Darlington Bank Top station and the train back to Marske.

The little two carriage trains that run to and from Marske invariably had friendly staff on them, tickets checked every time and I saw no-one being penalty fared for having no ticket.

Wednesday morning used pre-booked tickets from Marske to Newcastle changing at Middlesbrough, and along the line that goes through Hartlepool and Sunderland that has wonderful views along the coast between the towns and cities.

Thursday was a day trip to Beamish using the no 28 bus - sadly no railway option nowadays unless we'd gone via Chester-le-street and bus.

Friday morning advance tickets to Appleby via a lunchtime stop Carlisle - again an interesting route if you like looking out of the window, especially as the scenery changes.

Walk from the station in Appleby to our accommodation was a steep downhill and felt worse Saturday morning going back up to the station for the train to Leeds.

XC from Leeds to Tamworth then LNR to MKC affected by earlier incident so we arrived an hour late but it didn't matter as we'd had a really good five night "railway adventure", seen lots of interesting things and beautiful scenery with the added bonus of Sir Nigel!