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If you are in the Littleborough area, I strongly recommend Ramsden Clough near Walsden.

Just got back from Church Stretton, where I led (at short notice standing in for an injured leader) a good 8.75 mile walk with 1370 feet of climb. We left the coach by Church Stretton station, walked into town and up through Ashbrook on the road that leads to the very busy Carding Mill Valley...

It's still required to show a negative test to be admitted to visit a care home or hospital, which seems perfectly reasonable. At the care home I visit, they let me see my friend in the garden without a test and without masking up.

I went round to Vue on Thursday and booked the first 5 performances of the 2022-23 series of live relays from Covent Garden at the desk for £104.90, choosing my invariable seat at the end of row D, which has a wide gap between it and row C, so I can stretch my legs out and be sure of not having...

Rather off topic, but an interesting comparison with something I read today: the US magazine Trains, September issue page 38, says that the Florida East Coast in the 128 miles from Cocoa to West Palm Beach has 156 grade crossings. This line is being upgraded and doubled as part of the...

I was surprised to be told by a taxi driver, before boarding, that his black cab was cash only. Fortunately I had £17 in £1 coins on me, the last remnant of a large sum in cash which I had received a week or two ago, and which I have been spending to get rid of; and I knew the fare was between...

I would be very happy to pay for my pass, say £100 a year; it would still be good value for my regular journeys twice a week Southport to Ormskirk to visit a care home, plus occasional other use. Currently I'm paying £30 a week in taxi fares to travel one way, returning on a Stagecoach bus (the...

I enjoyed most (6.5 miles) of a good walk with the Ramblers from Betws y Coed to Dolwyddelan last Sunday in temperatures of 31 C. Fortunately the early part of the walk, where most of the climbing was concentrated, was in tree-lined shade. We left Betws and walked along the river Llugwy as far...

I do this from the north end of Lord Street to my doorstep stop at the south end (Morrisons/Wellington Street), when the walking club coach drops me at the north end; after a 10 mile walk I'm sometimes too tired to walk even that distance, after sitting on the coach for a couple of hours. But on...

The bay platform wasn't long enough for 6 cars; in LMS and BR days it was worked by 5-car trains, 3 +2, and this is why some 2-car sets were included in the LMS build. The bay could not have been extended because of the bridge at the southern end, which also created a short section of...

It may interest some on the forum who are local that the Freshfield Animal Rescue charity shop on the corner of Portland Street and Shakespeare Street in Southport had a stack of about 20 or 30 Wisdens for sale (last couple of decades as far as i could see) for a few pounds each when I was in...

I've just organised a holiday for which I was allowed 2 "free place" refunds which came to £638; as I had collected over £700 of the £9966 due in balances in cash from people who didn't have cheque accounts, I was just given the cash back, nearly all in £20 notes, when I went to the coach...

If you are going to split the Borderlands Line anywhere, Shotton would be better, as it would allow Merseyside to North Wales or v.v. with only one change.

Grange over Sands on the Furness line would get my vote for the smaller station category, and Ulverston on the same line is not far behind it. Several of the stations on the Settle and Carlisle have been well restored and maintained.

Appley Bridge (which is the first station in the Greater Manchester ticketing area) could have much better parking than it has, if the industrial premises that occupy the station yard were relocated. There is room to enlarge the car parking area quite significantly.

The Coasts and Peaks Rover could include Wigan- Southport and Sandhills-Southport.

My grandad worked goods trains from St Helens Jn and Arpley in the years 1908-42 and would no doubt have passed your grandad in his box - or been stopped by him.

The nearest parallel I can think of is the case of the Malmesbury branch, which originally diverged from the old GW main line at Dauntsey; when the Badminton route was built, it crossed the branch, but a curve was not put in until 1933, and the branch junction was then transferred to Little...

I am fairly sure that we went on a family holiday to Bournemouth in the early 1960s (I know it was the year of the Great Train Robbery, because we saw the newspaper placards reporting it when we arrived at Waterloo on a day trip up to London), which involved our Liverpool-Bournemouth train...

Last week on that blazing hot Sunday, I led a no. 2 walk from the site of the former Hartside Top café on the A686, between Penrith and Alston, down to Melmerby. The walk was planned to be nearly all downhill, and we set off down a bridleway, surprisingly wet in places, to Selah Bridge and on...