A week in Cornwall

[jnjkerbin]

From the 20/7 through to the 27/7 I was on holiday in Cornwall. This involved quite a lot of rail travel and so I thought I might mention it here.

Day 1: 20/7/12: An unfortunate occurrence, overcrowding and a long, long journey

Having finished work/school just the day before it felt rather early to be getting up at 0800. A quick check of the computer showed that there were delays of up to an hour into and out of Paddington due to a person hit by a train at Hayes and Harlington. Some trains seemed to be being turned back at Reading but in some good news, the train that formed my service from Paddington was running on time and about to call at Exeter. It really shows the amazing distance that the HSTs travel each day with one set forming the 0541 PNZ-PAD, the 1206 PAD-PNZ (My train), and then the 1739 PNZ-PAD! In total more than 900 miles in 1 day! To think that these more than 35 year old trains cover such a huge distance is quite fascinating.

I arrived at Dunton Green in good time for the 1009 to Charing Cross arriving only a few minutes late because of a bit of congestion at London Bridge, soon to be a thing of the past (perhaps). It was then a quick journey on the surprisingly empty Bakerloo line to Paddington. It seemed that the service was recovering well with our service arriving late but after a good turnaround departing just 1 minute late. A bit of slow running through Hayes and Harlington meant that we arrived at Reading about 10 down. It was then fast to Exeter and we had made up a good bit of time by then. However, the platform was very busy there and the train was packed for the stretch along the Dawlish sea wall. I was on the wring side of the train and so didn't see a lot but at Plymouth the train emptied out and we had a wonderful journey onwards to Penzance which made up for the busy first part. It was lovely though to step off the train at Penzance (17 minutes late!), look out across the bay and then make our was to to our cottage.

Total miles: 329m 16ch
Total time on trains: 6h21m
Total time from start to finish: 7h17m

Day 2 coming soon!

Joe

 

[CC 72100]

From the 20/7 through to the 27/7 I was on holiday on Cornwall. This involved quite a lot of rail travel and so I thought I might mention it here.

Day 1: 20/7/12: An unfortunate occurrence, overcrowding and a long, long journey

...the 1206 PAD-PNZ (My train), ....


Joe

That one is always busy. I normally do the train in front, which terminates at Plymouth and then pick the 12:06 up from Plymouth if travelling further South. I can generally get a seat no problem, but not the whole row of 2 that you can normally get to yourself on HSTs in Devon + Cornwall.

 

[jnjkerbin]

Day 2 21/7/12: A tiring day, noisy sprinters and busy services
Today the plan was to get a Cornwall day ranger and go on some branch lines. The plan was Penzance-Plymouth-Gunnislake and return-Liskeard-Looe and return-Truro-Falmouth and return-Penzance. If you know the lines in Cornwall you will know that I was planning to miss out two branch lines - St Ives and Newquay. My plan was to do St Ives another day and to leave Newquay as it was rather inconvenient to fit in. After the long journey the day before, a train was one of things I would have liked to see least.

However this was soon forgotten once we got underway on a deserted 0840 to Paddington. It got busier towards the end and we decided to go and window hang for the last few miles into Plymouth. It was then a relaxed walk over to the other side of the station where a 150/1 was waiting for us, my first journey on this class. It was surprisingly busy but there were still seats available when the door closed and we pulled out. Having been some years since I strayed into DMU land I was surprised by the noise as we started up. Before long we took the branch at St Budeaux. After collecting the token we set off again, under the Royal Albert Bridge and along the banks of the Tamar. I've got to say that this line was my favourite in Cornwall especially Calstock viaduct, climbing up the hill to Gunnislake and Bere Ferrers station.

Back in Plymouth we had about half an hour before our train to Liskeard. Before long another HST turned up to take us on. We soon got to Liskeard and after having a short walk into town (not very appealing) we came back to the station to wait for the train to Looe. By now we were rather tired and decided we would leave Falmouth for today and travel on it another time.

Soon a 150/2 arrived to whisk us down to Looe. Unfortunately, we were sat opposite a rather unpleasant group of people who insisted on swearing every time the driver cab door slammed (which is quite a lot what with the reversal at Coombe Junction.) Perhaps I would have enjoyed this line more if we had more pleasant company but for this reason it was beaten by Gunnislake. We soon arrived in Looe and after a pasty which seemed to have more gristle then anything else in it it was back to a busy Looe station for the run to Liskeard with marginally more enjoyable company. At Looe we didn't have long to wait before yet another HST arrived for our run back to Penzance. The journey went quickly until Truro when someone who seemed a little worse for wear boarded the train and after having snorted something got rather excited when we arrived at Camborne. He got off here and before long we were at Penzance after an enjoyable but rather tiring and in some places grotty day.

Total miles: 204m 64ch
Total time on trains: 6h30m
Total time from start to finish: 11h46m