East Anglia Transport Museum

When I was a small child we used to pass through Carlton Colville on the way home from visiting grandparents in Oulton Broad. I would see the buses at the museum and ask whether we could stop to visit. The answer was always that we "didn't have time". Well after over half a century I decided that I certainly did have time so paid a visit on my way home from Happisburgh to the now much bigger East Anglia Transport Museum.

The site is now like a little village with a tram track and a circular trolleybus route plus a railway and various sheds and buildings with displays of vehicles etc. There is also a myriad of street furniture in place around the site road system. Your entry fee includes unlimited travel on whichever trams, trolleybuses, and trains are running that day (or indeed the next 12 months).

I particularly enjoyed the 1959 Bournemouth Corporation Sunbeam trolleybus, much more civilized than the rattly trams. So I rode it twice. 

There's a lot to see here and I spent over two hours - including a stop for tea and cake in the cafe. They have obtained a large plot of adjacent land into which they will be expanding so there will be even more in the future.

There are sheds full of trams, trolleybuses, and buses in various states of repair and/or restoration.

The East Anglia Transport Museum web site is here.

My Flickr Album is here.

And here's a short (3m 26s) video about the trams and trolleybuses.

And although unusually you can get in and out without going through the gift shop I took the opportunity to replace the mug that hit the kitchen floor terminally the previous week for just a fiver.

Happisburgh

I  have known the village of Happisburgh (pronounced Hays-bruh) in Northeast Norfolk since I was a child and we used to holiday in nearby Eccles-on-Sea but it must be about 10 years since I have visited. It’s famous for its lighthouse, once repainted by Anneka Rice (with a bit of help).

 

 

 

Happisburgh is also (in)famous for coastal erosion. Even so it was striking how much of the place had disappeared since I was last here. At the end of Beach Road there were a few buildings and a metal stairway from the clifftop to the beach below. This is the end of the road now.

 

 

 

To get to the beach now there is a steep earthen ramp from the Community Carpark leading down to a long shallow bay beneath the cliffs.

 

 

 

 There never used to be a bay here. When I was a child there was a road, or at least the remains of a road along the clifftops from Happisburgh to Cart Gap near Eccles-on-Sea. This would have bee some way to the left in the following photo. Those posts in the sea are the remains of sea defences that were once on the beach at the foot of the cliffs.

 

 

 

 The lifeboat station that was at the end of Beach Rd. has had to be relocated to the car park at Cart Gap and many clifftop properties along here have been lost to the sea. From Cart Gap south the land is protected by a strong concrete sea wall backed by sand dunes constructed after the North Sea flood of 1953.

 

 

 

On the other side of Happisburgh village there used to be a large static caravan park. This has moved inland now that a large part of it fell in the sea and the rest was no longer safe to use. The roadway that ran around the site now stops rather abruptly.

 

 

 

At the time of writing this Google Maps still shows where the road went even though the satellite image shows the caravan site has gone. 

 

 

 

I was surprised by how much Happisburgh has changed since I first came here. The coastal erosion isn’t likely to stop any time soon, so enjoy a visit while it’s still there.

A train trip to Scotland, part 3.

A train trip to Scotland Day 6: 15/05/2023 Thurso to Inverness.

Trains from Thurso to Inverness are a choice of stupid-o’clock in the morning or 1306, I chose the latter since although it meant an inconvenient hour’s wait between having to check out of the hotel and getting the train, taking the earlier departure would mean killing 90 minutes in Inverness before checking into the next hotel. The weather looked fine so about 1100 I decided to check out and get a picnic lunch to eat down on the promenade. Half way there and the sky darkened and it pissed down. There is a sad lack of shelters in Thurso and the rain lasted just long enough to ensure that there was now not a dry surface available to sit on in Thurso other than an uncomfortable bus shelter or the railway station train shed. The latter became my picnic lunch location. The views aren’t up to much but at least it was dry. I awaited the train and read my book. The train arrived with enough time to offload those who’d ventured from Wick to the bright lights of Thurso and load those of us heading south to leave on time at 1306. Goodbye Thurso, or perhaps Au Revoir.

My allocated seat got swiped by the wheelchair user's wife (I assume) so I'm travelling backwards again apart from the first 10 minutes. I’m on the coast side of the train though so should get better views as we head south. This journey is the reverse of the trip up so sort of familiar. At Kinbrace there were four deer next to the station but the train didn’t stop so if they had wanted to be on it they should have made their intent clear. Held out a hoof or something The expected good sea views came along the north side of Beauly Firth.

 

At Ardgay we paused and then came the announcement that we would remain here for 15 to 20 minutes, delayed by a fault on the northbound train which we needed to pass at Ardgay Station. Once it had arrived we carried on down the line. Conon Bridge and Beauly stations both have such short platforms that passengers have to board or alight from one specific set of doors in the middle of the two coach train, as directed by the guard. In contrast some of the other stations have platforms much longer than will ever be needed nowadays but presumably saw much longer trains in the past. By Muir of Ord we were running only 2 minutes late and were still only 2 minutes late when we pulled into a sunny Inverness. It didn’t feel like it had been a 4 hour journey although I did have my head in a book for quite a bit of it - The Necromancer’s Apprentice by Icy Sedgwick in case you were wondering. I walked out to Premier Inn Inverness not-so-Central and checked in again, nicer room this time but on the road and railway side of the building. I had a whole day in Inverness tomorrow so started looking online for something to do.

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A train trip to Scotland Day 7: 16/05/2023 Inverness and Elgin.

Kilt makers and woollen shops aside the most touristy place to visit in Inverness is probably the castle and as that was closed while they had the builders in I decided to make a side trip to Elgin where the map showed an interesting-looking motor museum. Elgin is a short train ride away. By the time I got to the station I had to put my coat on. Sunny spells and spots of rain, fingers crossed that it didn’t get wetter. I eschewed the ScotRail app and bought my ticket at the station, in the actual ticket office as most of the self-service machines were out of order. £9 return with Senior Railcard isn’t too bad. The train departed at 0946. At Scotland’s newest railway station (at the time of writing) Inverness Airport which opened in February 2023 we paused for 5 minutes, perhaps to fully appreciate what £14m gets you in the way of a station nowadays. The answer is not a whole lot. Two platforms, a bridge with lifts, some bus stop style shelters and some dot matrix displays. And a longish walk to the airport.

 

The Moray Motor Museum is on the other side of Elgin town centre from the railway station, about a twenty minute walk so with the train arriving at 1040 and the museum opening at 1100 I was the first customer through the door, the man hadn’t even finished Hoovering. This is a small museum in one single storey building but has a really nice collection of cars from Veterans to a one-owner Mark 2 Ford Granada, a lot of motoring and other ephemera, and is well worth the tenner admission charge. I spent an hour there and then went across the road as the museum admission includes a complementary tea or coffee in the DIY shop restaurant opposite. However the queue to get a table there was so long that I gave up and went back into Elgin town centre and found a Costa instead.

 

Boosted by a flat white I climbed Lady Hill, which is a prominent piece of high ground to the east of the centre of Elgin and not a member of the Scottish aristocracy. Up there are the ruins of Elgin Castle which are small, and the Duke of Gordon's Monument, which is very large. The view’s not too shabby either.

 

After that I went back to the station for the 1325 train to Inverness. This was delayed till 1337 as it had been held for a customer connection at Keith - that doesn't happen around here, if you miss your connection because of a delayed train then it’s  tough, I got stranded at Ascot once by SWR because of a missed connection to a last train.

 

Back in Inverness I went for an explore. It’s a mixture of touristy, full on tartan and pipes touristy, and ordinary big town shopping centre. I fancied a pint. The Caledonian looked ok so I went in. There were lots of families munching away in raised booths around the outside of the large room and lots of empty tables in the middle. There was no one behind the bar. There was real ale. Some time passed as I stood watched by the ruminating diners. Still no one behind the bar. Fuck 'em then, I walked out and went to The Gellions instead. This turned out to be a very Scottish bar with a big saltire on the wall and a folk music soundtrack. It also had a friendly and attentive barmaid and decent beer at £4.50 a pint. I would have stayed for another but had started yawning so went back to the hotel, collecting something to eat on the way.

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A train trip to Scotland Day 8: 17/05/2023 Inverness to Edinburgh.

I don’t know why I got up so early when my train to Edinburgh didn't depart until 1050 but I was packed and ready to go with an hour to spare so I went and got some food for an on-train lunch. In a piece of excellent timing I was standing by the gateline when the platform was announced so was first on board and bagged a forward facing seat with a cleanish window. We departed on time and the journey was uneventful, I read for most of it to be honest. I arrived at Edinburgh Waverley at 1429 and exited to Princes street via the multiple escalators. The city centre was very busy, a complete contrast to Thurso and Wick. I headed straight to my hotel, the Terrace again, where this time I had a huge room with a giant bed. Later I took a stroll down to Meadowbank Shopping Centre for KFC and then went to the Bellfield Brewery Tap Room for a pint to wash it down. Interesting place with a good range of beers. But probably more fun as a group especially as it was quiz night. Nice beer though, and the one I had in the Artisan Bar on the way back to the hotel was better still. I had a good night’s sleep - at least once the two talkative women next door had settled down.

 

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A train trip to Scotland Day 9: 18/05/2023 Edinburgh to Home.

Up and ready for the trip home, starting with the 1030 LNER Azuma to London King’s Cross. I’d feared that this train would be crowded so had booked a seat to go with my open return ticket. So that’s another train company I’ve had to set up an account with. As it turned out it wasn’t too busy. The seat across the table was occupied to Newcastle and reserved from there to London but the guy that boarded at Newcastle decided to forego the window and sit on the aisle side so we both had legroom. He then proceeded to extract from his bags and spread out on the table and seat lunch, drinks, phone, toiletries, a mouse, a mouse mat, and two laptops! Make yourself at home son. I passed the time reading, listening to podcasts and watching the scenery rush by. The run down the north east coast is still spectacular.

 

At 1449 the train pulled into King’s Cross. All going well so far. It couldn’t last, I got the Hammersmith and City Line to Paddington only to find on arrival that everything was screwed with multiple cancellations and delays caused by a points failure somewhere near Slough. It always seems to me that when it all goes wrong GWR are involved  in some way. A tannoy announcement advised anyone heading for Reading to go via Waterloo instead so I got on the Bakerloo Line and crossed London for a second time. I caught a SWR train to Guildford, not entirely sure if my Super Off Peak ticket was valid but the ticket inspector didn’t query it. An angry posh mum sat opposite on the phone complaining about her little darling being suspended from her public school. It's all so unfair and all the school’s fault apparently. She carried on moaning all the way through Woking before a dropped signal cut her short. At Guildford I caught the next train to Sandhurst, it looked as if it was going to rain just to top things off. In the event I was home at 1735. And dry too.

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I had a good trip despite the hiccups on the last leg (at least GWR has coughed up under delay repay and TfL only charged me for one journey from King’s Cross to Waterloo via Paddington) and enjoyed the North of Scotland. It had been some years since I’d been up there and I hope to return again in the future, whether by train or some other mode of transport. Meanwhile I’ve got about 250 photos to look through and this blog to remind me how much I enjoyed it.

Even if it did take a long time to get around to it. 

Here’s the Flickr Album with all the photos (249) that I took on the trip.

 

A train trip to Scotland, part 2.

A train trip to Scotland Day 3: 12/05/2023 Inverness to Thurso.

I was up at 0730 feeling much refreshed after a good night’s sleep. I had a cup of tea and a hot shower then checked out and walked back to the city centre, stopping at Morrisons’ supermarket to get breakfast and lunch for the journey. It was overcast and a little cold but importantly not raining so I sat by the River Ness and ate my sausage roll, leaving a pile of puff pastry crumbs which I’m sure the pigeons took care of when I’d gone. Returning to Inverness station my train, a two coach Class 158 was already at the platform and ready to board. I had a seat reservation for this trip which was A50. There was nothing on the outside to indicate which of the two was coach A so I guessed correctly that it was the front one, confirmed by the label on the seat. Seat A50 turned out to be a table facing backwards by the cycle storage so lots of legroom. I settled down and was able to confirm to every passenger that got on after me that this was indeed coach A. Because every one of them asked. I was also glad I’d picked up something for lunch as the guard announced that there was no catering service on this 4 hour journey and anyone who wanted to rush out and get something had about 15 minutes to do so. Today was actually a national rail strike day but fortunately this didn’t affect ScotRail - unless it included the caterers. 

We departed on time at 1041 and headed East along the South side of the Beauly Firth. The better views were out of the opposite side of the train but after 10 minutes or so I did spot four hares haring around a field. At Beauly we turned North up through Dingwall and from here it was only getting more scenic. The little train rattles along at a fair pace and I mean rattles as much of the line is old style jointed track rather than modern continuously welded stuff. Oh but the views! Although lineside trees made getting any good photos difficult. There are several request stops along this line where the train slows but does not stop unless someone is waiting to board or has informed the guard that they want to alight. Rogart was the first of these at which we stopped and was accompanied by the announcement that “Rogart has a low platform please take extra care when alighting the train”. Which makes a change from the usual “Mind The Gap”. The unique and picturesque Dunrobin Castle seemed to be the busiest request stop, serving as it always has the turreted, opulent castle, Clan Sutherland's home since the 1400s, and its museum. At Brora we were treated to the loud speakerphone conversation of a bleached blonde in a puffer jacket. Why would anyone do that? I believe the local term is “Ned”.

 

I can see the sea out of the opposite side of the train. Is that a seal? Nope, just dirt on the window. At Helmsdale, which sounds to me like somewhere from Tolkein’s Middle Earth, the sun came out and the scenery got even more impressive - in fact it wouldn’t have looked out of place in Lord of the Rings. From Forsinard to Altnabreac huge stretches of empty moorland upped the wow factor again. At Georgemas Junction the train does the strange thing of reversing to travel up to Thurso before coming back through Georgemas Junction to terminate at Wick. So for the last 10 minutes of the journey I got to travel facing forwards.

 

And so I arrived at Thurso, the most northerly town on the UK mainland, on time and in brilliant sunshine. With half an hour to lose before I could check in to the Premier Inn adjacent to the station I went for a wander round town to check out the lie of the land, get a can of Irn Bru (because Scotland) & a cake, which I ate in the gardens in the middle of the town surrounded by colourful tulips. Not an obviously Scottish scene.

 

My Premier Inn Thurso room on the second floor directly overlooked the railway station, so good for trainspotting if there had been more than 5 trains a day. It seems to be quite a new hotel too, or has recently been refurbished. After a rest and a cuppa and a shower I headed out into the evening sunshine in search of food and since it was Friday only a fish supper was going to suffice. A most excellent fish supper was obtained from the chippy between the Co-Op supermarket and the River Ness which seems to be called either Reid’s according to my receipt or #500 Catering Group - Big Fish, Little Fish in a cardboard box according to Google Maps. I think it just said Big fish little fish on the shopfront. Whatever it’s called I thoroughly recommend giving it your custom if you’re in Thurso. I found a bench by the river and thoroughly enjoyed my haddock and chips. Thus fortified I walked along the river to the harbour mouth and around to the beach. The sun was shining on Dunnet Head to the North East, which is the northernmost point of the UK mainline so what’s that land to the North then? That was Hoy, in the Orkney Islands which I had never realised was close enough to be seen quite clearly from here. You live and learn. At the West end of the beach I climbed the steps and path up onto the cliffs where I found the campsite which must have one of the best views in the UK, perched on the cliff top overlooking the Pentland Firth and Orkney Islands. It’s also across the road from a Lidl so I popped in there for supplies and walked back to the hotel much the same way as I went. I planned to go to Wick the next day but a piece of paper posted in the ticket office window at the railway station said sorry but it would be closed Sat 13th May and there’s no ticket machine. So I downloaded the ScotRail app to buy a return to Wick for the next day. What a palaver. It’s not a good app. Why do I have to activate the ticket that I’ve already downloaded? Why can I only do this on the day? Why no pdf ticket? Why can’t I add it to Google wallet? All completely unnecessary. This feels like a crappy bus company app. It actually made me appreciate the GWR app that I usually use and that’s going some.

 

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A train trip to Scotland Day 4: 13/05/2023 Thurso and Wick.

I breakfasted on seeded wholemeal rolls with soft cheese and Kabanosi so sort of healthy.

I activated my railway ticket in the stupid app, showered, dressed, and was at the station 15 minutes early to get the 1102 departure. There are not enough trains per day to risk missing one. The next one isn't until this afternoon. The return train will be at 1600 so Wick better have enough interest for 4 hours. It’s pleasantly cool with broken clouds but I still packed a waterproof coat in my day bag because Scotland. There is a gull nesting in the cess opposite the platform at Thurso about 12" from the rail. It did not seem happy that I had spotted this fact. It flew a short distance away and watched me. The nest full of eggs was well camouflaged against the ballast without the white gull on top of it. The train arrived, the gull stayed put. The train left on time and rattled along through mostly flat or gently undulating countryside scattering startled lambs across the fields as it went by. It only takes about 28 minutes to get from Thurso to Wick. I finally arrived at Wick three and a bit years later than originally planned and six years after I had the idea of doing so. There were no unexpected celebrations or flags out ;-) 

 

In fact I don’t think I’ve ever come across a town that was so quiet on a Saturday lunchtime. Quiet that is apart from the 2nd hand shop with a set of huge speakers out on the pavement playing pop music. This was next to the street market which was made up of half a dozen yellow tents and a Police car. Two of the tents were empty. There were plenty of retail opportunities available at reasonable rents - i.e. empty shops, much like any other UK town. I walked down to the harbour which still has some working boats, Wick used to be a major herring fishing port, now servicing the offshore wind farms appears to be a bigger business.

 

I found a map of local walks and decided to head south along the cliffs to Wick Old Castle and back which would occupy a couple of hours. The wind proved to be cold but if I put on a coat it was too warm so I took it off again and just walked a bit faster. My route along the cliffs took me along Trinkie Road. The Trinkie is a seawater swimming pool at the foot of the cliffs. Trinkie is the Scottish word for trench and the pool was created about 70 years ago from part of a quarry. When I passed a crew with pressure washers was cleaning the green algae and seaweed from the white painted rocks that form the pool. Ready for the summer visitors I suppose.

 

A sign at the castle car park said the castle was closed due to the danger of falling masonry but the path to the castle remained open so I carried on. On the way up a random old man coming the other way stopped to tell me they "hadn’t made this path properly and should have used quarry dust and rolled it", though why he felt I needed to know this and what he expected me to do with the information I can't imagine. Anyway the castle which is situated on the edge of precipitous sea cliffs turned out to be small enough to see most of it from outside the temporary metal fencing that surrounded it. It’s also within a military firing range so there’s a sentry hut by the path and a flag pole which fortunately today sported no red warning flag.

 

It was a pleasant walk with a lot of seabirds to see and as predicted took a couple of hours there and back so on returning to town I rewarded myself with a pint. In the Alexander Bain. Yes it’s a bloody Wetherspoons, don’t @ me, all the other bars looked a bit sketchy - something to do with the lack of windows, I don’t like going into pubs with no windows, it’s one reason I’ve never been in the Blind Beggar. Wick’s main town centre shop seems to be Poundstretcher so I got some bits I needed there and walked back to the station along the river and across the two footbridges. There was now mist visibly billowing in from the sea so it was nice to get on a warm train back to Thurso.

Wick. Tick.

It was much brighter in Thurso so I had an evening stroll then came back to the hotel to watch TV. Oh, the Eurovision Song Contest. Turned off the TV and read Agatha Christie’s ‘The Man In The Brown Suit’ instead.

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A train trip to Scotland Day 5: 14/05/2023 Thurso and Scrabster.

It was, as they say in Scotland, dreich. It was also Sunday. Not wanting to waste a day hiding from the weather I wrapped up in my waterproof coat and walked along the coast to Scrabster. From the clifftop at Thurso I could see the huge white mass of a cruise ship dominating Scrabster harbour. This it turned out when I got to the harbour was the Seabourn Ovation which at 690 feet long and 92 feet wide is deemed to be a small cruise ship. Even so I wouldn’t want to have to try to hide it.

 

Scrabster is very much a working port with fishery and timber companies filling the harbourside area. It’s also the port for Norhlink ferries to Stromness in Orkney which explains the number of German motorhomes and motorcycles that were queuing up at the port. The ferry port aside Scrabster was very much shut on a Sunday morning which was a shame as by now I was quite wet and would have welcomed some shelter and a hot drink. This was not to be so I turned round and walked back the way I’d come to Thurso.

 

At least the rain was clearing. There Are some nice houses along the cliff top road East Gill between Scrabster and Thurso although they are probably very exposed in the depths of winter. Near where the excellently named Wolf Burn empties into the sea is a second world war pillbox on a small, lumpy promontory sticking out from the cliffs. This is on the site of the ancient Scrabster castle or the 'Palace' of the Bishop's of Caithness, first recorded in 1328. You wouldn’t know this unless you looked it up like I did, there didn’t seem to be anything on the ground to indicate that it was just another WW2 pillbox.

 

All the cafes in Thurso were shut too. I went back to my hotel and of course the sun came out as soon as I arrived but I’d had enough exercise for the time being and decided to spend Sunday afternoon resting my sore feet.

Later I ventured out into the evening sunshine and a northerly breeze that meant it wasn’t as warm as it appeared from indoors. Exploring the back streets of Thurso I stumbled across the ruined Old St. Peter's Kirk tucked behind the houses near the river. You could easily walk past and not realise it’s there, indeed I had previously done just that. I went for a last look at the beach and there was an orange-hulled ship anchored in Thurso Bay, not sure what it was but looked similar to the vessels that service the North Sea oil rigs so maybe that or the offshore wind farms? I would have hung around to get a sunset picture but for the cold wind and that sunset doesn’t happen until past 2130 in Thurso in May so retreated to the shelter of the hotel, TV, and got ready for the journey back to Inverness the next day, the start of the return home.

Part three will follow, Inverness, Elgin, Edinburgh and the long journey home.

Here’s the Flickr Album with all the photos (249) that I took on the trip.

 

A train trip to Scotland, part 1.

A trip to the North of Scotland by train, May 2023.

In 2017 when the All The Stations team of Geoff Marshall and Vicki Pipe finished visiting all the railway stations in the UK they did so at Wick, at the end of the North of Scotland line. Watching that final episode I had the idea that I wanted to visit Wick by train too. A reason to do so wasn’t required – the journey is the journey.

Fast forward 3 years and booked the leave, booked the hotels, booked the tickets, and was all packed and ready to go. It was 20th March 2020. So that didn’t happen.

Another 3 years on and I thought I’d try again. My previous plan had been to take the Caledonian Sleeper to Inverness, then ScotRail to Wick, stay 2 nights and then come home via Glasgow. Since the only company to actively avoid giving me a refund 3 years ago due to not being able to travel because of the Covid 19 lockdown was Caledonian Sleeper they were definitely not getting another chance to screw me over. Also I have more time now since I don’t have to fit trips around work. From what I’ve since read about the Caledonian Sleeper service it seems to be an expensive lottery of a service with no guarantee of a night’s sleep, or even any hot water.

This time I would take daytime trains and stop over in Edinburgh and Inverness on the way to and from Thurso, where I’d stay the weekend and take a trip to Wick and back on the Saturday. I booked my tickets via GWR not because they are good but because I already have an account with them and had physical tickets delivered by post. Having a Senior Railcard now makes for a slightly less painful bill.

So if anyone is interested in the ramblings of an old man on a train trip here’s how it went, helped by some notes I made on my phone as I went along.

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A train trip to Scotland Day 1: 10/05/2023 Home to Edinburgh.

I had by way of deft packing and compression straps managed to get enough stuff for the trip into a 40l backpack. I like to travel light and I like to have both hands free if possible. Also I’ll have a mile walk to and from the station more than once on this trip. Wheelie suitcases are a pain and the handles are never long enough for me to avoid stooping or catching my heels.

The Sandhurst to Reading train was on time for a change. This leg of any trip is always the one that makes me nervous, I’ve had it all go wrong at this stage more than once before and is why I favour flexible tickets over advance singles. The guard actually appeared and checked my ticket, she remarked that I had a long trek ahead and I replied that it had at least started well. At Reading I was to get the 1104 to Paddington but experience has taught me to jump on the first available train, in this case the 1054 from Newbury. Checking later this turned out to be a good move, the 1104 was delayed getting to Reading. Quite normal for GWR. 

No problems with the Hammersmith & City Line so I arrived at King’s Cross with plenty of time before my departure on the 1218 Lumo service to Edinburgh. This was my first experience of a Lumo train and it was a positive one. Their baggage restriction wasn’t going to affect me but thankfully does put off those who cannot travel without taking the entire contents of their home with them. Although I was in a window seat at a table I was a bit hemmed in by the mobile office crowd with their laptops open and plugged in, charging cables tangled round all our feet, even when most of the time they were scrolling on their phones. It’s a bloody long way to Edinburgh but just north of York we were welcomed to “The North '' by a torrential downpour. I hoped this wasn’t to be a foretaste of things to come. We arrived on time at Edinburgh Waverley at 1641.

It was easy enough to find the Terrace Hotel although I’d not registered that the route from the station was up and over Carlton Hill and I’d forgotten what a big lump that is to climb over. From the info on booking.com I’d been a little concerned that the hotel was still in full COVID19 mode but it was OK. The restaurant was still closed, not that I usually eat in the hotel, and a selection of (not cooked) breakfast items could be ordered and would magically appear in the early hours in a paper bag outside your door.  The building itself is part of Royal terrace built between 1823 and the early 1830s and reputedly the longest Georgian terrace in Europe. It’s within the Edinburgh New Town UNESCO World Heritage Site. What that really means is there’s no lift and you’re on the top floor. It’s nice though and quite relaxed, you’re given the room and front door keys and told to just leave them on the table in reception when you check out. I had a twin room with a huge bathroom with a skylight. Also free WiFi that doesn’t require you to hand over all your personal data. I did have to turn off the heating mind you – it is nearly Summer!

Later I walked back to the city centre to find somewhere to eat but it was pretty packed with overseas tourists. Decided nothing more adventurous than KFC would have to do. Walked out of the city to Abbeyhill where it was quieter and to the Artisan’s Bar where a pint of cask Loch Lomond could be had for only £4.30. So I had two and then retired to my hotel bed.

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A train trip to Scotland Day 2: 11/05/2023 Edinburgh to Inverness.

I had a disturbed night’s sleep, nothing to do with the hotel or the bed which were fine but a week or so ago I did something to my shoulder and last night it decided to give me gyp. Getting older sucks.

I ate my breakfast, keeping back a couple of things for the journey then showered, packed, and checked out with plenty of time to walk to Waverley station. With time in hand I was able to climb to the top of Carlton hill and get some photos in the bright morning sunshine. The air was clear and you could see a long way from the top. Coming down the other side I faced several busloads of German tourists climbing up from the city. I found a seat in Princes Street Gardens by Walter Scott’s monument to wait until it was time to go and get the train. Here I could watch a succession of young ladies from the far East posing for Instagram snaps. I took the opportunity to use the station loo before getting on the train, coming out of the gents I was halted by some utter cockwomble trying to wheel his huge fat-tyred electric mountain bike into the toilets. What is it with cyclists? Does the constant battering by the saddle damage their brains?

 

The platform number for the 1033 to Inverness wasn’t announced until 10 minutes before it was due to depart, even though the train was standing at the platform, which resulted in a rush to the ticket barriers as everyone tried to get through. Then we all stood and waited another 5 minutes before then opened the train doors so then there was a scramble onto the train. I bagged a priority seat for legroom purposes, window side but facing backwards. We departed at 1040, perhaps they should have let us on board earlier and could have left on time. Away from Edinburgh the scenery just got better and better and the train was pretty quiet making for a pleasant journey. Managed to spot the surreal looking Falkirk Wheel canal boat lift some way off from the railway.Sitting on a train watching the scenery pass and listening to podcasts is a nice way to travel. The sun stayed shining and yet there were still patches of snow on the tops and upper slopes of the Cairngorms. It stayed bright until about half an hour from Inverness when everything went grey and Scotland disappeared into the mist. By the time we got to Inverness seven minutes late the mist had cleared to be replaced by overcast clouds and a cool breeze.

 

Premier Inn Inverness Central is a bit of a misnomer being nearly a mile walk from the station and not wanting to walk back and forth too many times I got something to eat for tea and a couple of beers on the way to the hotel. Premier Inn now has self check-in terminals in the reception but I gave that a miss as one couple were already fighting it and when they’d finished they still had to join the queue anyway. Not sure what the point of those is if you end up queueing twice. I was given a ground floor room at the back away from the busy road. It was 1630 and my lack of sleep was catching up so I had a cup of tea and then decided on a short nap. Woke up 90 minutes later. Had some food and a couple of beers in front of the TV and then turned in. Slept like a log.

 

Part Two to follow, Inverness to Thurso, the Far North.

Here’s the Flickr Album with all the photos (249) that I took on the trip.

 

1989 Portable Technology, The Casio Digital Diary.

19th April 2023

 

A couple of days ago I was sorting through a filing box of old receipts and user guides to go for recycling and came across this user guide for a device I’d forgotten that I’d ever owned.

 

 

 

My first “PDA” long before the days of smartphones or, for most people, the internet I’d bought this little clamshell device which could store a telephone numbers, appointments, memos, etc. and was a pocket calculator as well. I was even more surprised to find in the bottom of the filing box:

 

 

 

A Casio SF-4000 Digital Diary. It looks well used because it was. I carried this daily and used it at work and you can see the outline of a label that had my name on it just in case I left it somewhere. This little device acted as a "gateway drug” and eventually I moved on to Palm Pilot devices and other things which came after them. I’ve not bought a paper diary in three decades.The “toys” got more expensive though, the receipt for the SF-4000 is still tucked in between the pages of the booklet and shows that on 1st April 1989 I paid W H Smith £3.99 (about £10.00 in 2023 money) and got a whole year’s guarantee - but not covering the supplied batteries. The SF-4000 had only been introduced 12 months previously so was still relatively new technology at the time.

 

 

 

How much technology did £3.99 get me? Well the web site Old Organizers Collection gives these specs:

 

Released in 1988 Made in Japan Memory 31902 bytes
Display Graphic LCD, 95 x 47 dots, 6 lines x 16 chars Keyboard 81 flat keys + 5 function keys
Batteries 3 x CR-2025 PC-Sync No
Size/weight 12.6 (W) x 7.4 (D) x 1.4 (H) cm / 125 g
Functions Phone book, Memo, Schedule, Calendar, Letter memory (to store words and phrases), Data item marker
Comment Casio made the same model for Tandy, the EC-319.

 

As you can see above that keyboard was QWERTY but in a way all its own, particularly the placement of the space button at top right. You really needed the operating manual too, inputting data into the device required some not-altogether-obvious key sequences and navigating is an art. There are dedicated buttons below the screen for the main what we would now call apps - Telephone Directory, Memo, Schedule, Calendar, and a word Memory plus Up and Down navigation keys. Left and right are on row 2 of the keyboard. On the left side of the lower case is the sliding power switch and on the right side of the upper case is a contrast adjustment wheel for the display. Ports and interfaces: Nope, 1989 remember? Although a photo on the above Old Organizers Collection website does show a serial data port on the main circuit board inside.

 

So the big question is after over thirty years stored in a box...

 

Will It Start?

 

It would be rude not to put three fresh CR2025 cells into it and find out, wouldn’t it? 

 

 

 

 It’s very much not obvious without reading the manual how to get at the batteries. First you need to remove the bottom cover secured by 4 tiny crosshead screws. This reveals 3 metal covers secured with slightly different tiny crosshead screws and the instructions for changing the batteries. All the screws have threaded brass inserts to screw into - none of your cheap shite self-tappers into the plastic case here as would be found nowadays. Since as well as powering the device the three cells also protect the massive 32 kilobytes of memory it is important to replace the cells one at a time to avoid losing or corrupting the data on the device. Don’t let the batteries go flat either. A bit late by a couple of decades here, the batteries that were left in it were flatter than a witches tit but at least no damage had occurred internally, gotta love Lithium button cells that don’t leak everywhere.

 

 

 

 On the lower left is a recessed button to clear the memory. Remember that for later.

 

Fresh batteries installed, reassembled, and moment of truth time:

 

 

 

It lives!

As you can just about see in the above photo much to my surprise it turned on. All the buttons seem to work too and there are no dead pixels on the screen. However when I switched it on I got this message:

 

 

 

*** CAUTION ***  

Memory contents

   were broken  ! ! 

 

So maybe leaving the batteries to slowly go flat over three decades was a bad idea. Attempting to add an item to the schedule worked right up until I tried to save (or Set in Casio terms) the entry at which point it complained “not enough memory”. I delved into the book to find out how to check the memory capacity and it reported about 64K of the 32K total was used. Something not right there. Back into the book to find out how to clear the memory and out came the screwdriver again.

 

Powering it up and pressing the hidden reset button resolved the errors. I could now with much RTFM make entries in the telephone directory. I could go to the calendar select a date and then put an appointment in the Schedule. The calendar works for any date from 1st January 1901 to 31st December 2099. 20th century years can be entered as two or four digits, 21st century years have to be entered as 4 digits. It would have given no Y2K problems even if it hadn’t been in the bottom of a box when all that was a thing.

 

So it works. I have no real use for it but it works. It’s interesting to see how far we’ve come with such devices since 1989. How many of today’s devices will work after 30+ years? Not many, certainly all the PDAs and most of the phones I’ve had since I had this Casio SF-4000 are long gone. 

 

It was and is a cool little tool and obviously very well made but thirty-four years on I think I’ll stick with my smartphone :-)

465 - Transport for London's most un-London Bus Route.

 5th April 2023

London Buses Route 465 has the distinction of reaching the furthest distance from London, well measured from Trafalgar Square at least, of any London Bus. It runs between Kingston which used to be in Surrey until 1965 and Dorking which is still very definitely in Surrey. The route is jointly contracted out by TfL and Surrey County Council. For no particular reason other than Route 465 has the distinction of reaching the furthest distance from London I went for a ride on it, starting at Dorking Deepdene railway station because that was the easiest end for me to get to. For varying values of 'easiest' due to GWR's inability to run a reliable train service.

So an hour later than planned I was waiting at Dorking Station Stop A watching out for a red bus.

An ADL Enviro200 MMC ^fn1 reg. no. SN17 MVP duly appeared on time and I climbed aboard and waved my Oyster Card, found a seat at the back, and settled down for the 1h 13m journey to Kingston. I don’t think this was the most comfortable bus for a longish journey, the seats are small and there is hardly any leg room - I had to sit at an angle. It was busier than I’d expected though on a midweek afternoon, there being half-a-dozen on board when I joined.

 

 The bloke in front of me was already settled into alternately sodcasting Tik-Tok or Instagram videos and having a text based argument via Google Translate, occasionally breaking off to talk to his companion on the other side of the bus. Heading out through Westhumble towards Mickleham the bus was held up by the inevitable Surrey Mamils heading up to the Zig Zag Road for the ascent of Box Hill and in Mickleham itself we halted outside the delightfully villagey Running Horses pub to allow the Dorking-bound 465 to pass by in the narrow street.

 

 So far, so slow but the other side of Mickleham the bus gets a faster run on some open roads, the A24 and A246 before turning north east to Leatherhead on the B2122.

 

 Threading our way through Leatherhead town centre I suddenly recognised the Telephone Exchange which I’d visited long ago in a former existence and next to it the Royal Mail Delivery Office, the windows of which will remind British persons of a certain age of a children’s television programme ^fn2

 

We followed a local bus into Leatherhead Railway Station forecourt which proved to be too small for all of us, the local bus, a rail replacement double-decker, and assorted cars resulting in a short wait while the gridlock was resolved and we could get on our way.

 

 North of Leatherhead we crossed over the M25 so were definitely getting more Londonish and I didn’t realize we were about to do that so completely failed to get a photo. Not long after that we passed The Star pub at Malden Rushett which I recognised from reading Diamond Geezer’s blog that morning. I was unable to get a photo of that either but DG did, being not on a bus at the time, so you can look at it there. We were now officially in that London, albeit a dangly outlying bit of it.

The next notable destination is Chessington World Of Adventures. I think I recall going there many moons ago with ex-no.1, her younger son, and her nephew. I can also remember when it was Chesington Zoo. The bus pulled into the little bus station but there wasn’t anyone on board up for that sort of adventure and no one waiting to get aboard.

 

 From here north it got progressively more suburban, crossing the A3 near Tolworth and through Surbiton where the bus filled up quite a bit, unfortunately preventing me getting a shot of the marvellous 1937 Art Deco railway station building. About five minutes later we turned right out of Surbiton Road and followed the River Thames into Kingston town centre.

 

 Kingston, or Kingston upon Thames (or before 1965 Kingston-upon-Thames) was until 2021 the location of Surrey County Council even though it was no longer in Surrey. The council then upped sticks and moved to Reigate having rejected (some might say wisely) moving to Woking. It’s a major shopping destination now of which I have a vague recollection of being dragged around by a couple of Slovaks ^fn3 one day but apart from that had only wandered around the town centre early one evening when the shopping crowds had dispersed. The 465 wriggles through the busy town centre, dropping most of its passengers off at Eden Street for the shopping centres before terminating at the Bus Station in Cromwell Road where I alighted and was glad to see that unlike so much of England the toilets hadn’t been closed.

 

 I went. And then I went for a walk around Kingston in search of coffee, decided it was still too early to eat, and then returned to the bus station to get the 1721 departure on the 465 back to Dorking. For some reason the TfL Go app completely ignored the existence of this bus insisting that the next departure wasn’t until 1751, even while I was sitting next to it for ten minutes in the bus station. Google Maps knew better. Google 1 TfL 0. Not for the first time.

The return journey was busier than the outward one but much more comfortable. I had intended grabbing one of the “priority” seats so I could have enough legroom to avoid cramp but as it turned out ADL Enviro200 MMC LJ16 EXW ^fn4 had enough space between all the seats so I could ride in comfort guilt-free. Albeit older this bus looked to have been refurbished with different moquette on the seats and onboard displays. Maybe they changed the seating plan. Ask someone who knows about buses, I’ve no idea.

My train home from Dorking ran on time for a change.

---

^{fn1. No I’m not, I looked it up online :-P.}

^{fn2 Play School, if you know, you know.}

^{fn3 Not entirely unwillingly I’ll admit.}

^{fn4 I looked that one up as well.}