Track bash July 2021

Day 4 (Wednesday)

Pwllheli to Kilmarnock

Last updated 2021-11-19

The middle day of the trip and also the day I move from Wales to Scotland.

The last significant piece of track I had to do in Wales was the Conwy Valley (I did Llandudno many years ago and have used Holyhead and the ferry on business trips to Ireland). In normal times I'd look at catching the Ffestiniog from Portmadog to Blaenau Ffestiniog, but it's not running all the way and I suspect they're not accepting the All Lines pass either (from memory, they were the only private railway that did). The bus service is useless: either the bus leaves Portmadog shortly before the train arrives or it arrives at Blaenau shortly after the train departs, or both. So it had to be a taxi. I decided not to catch the early train but to have a relaxing start, even if that gave me less time to do things on the way.

At Portmadog I had a wander round the bookshop at the WHR station (introducing myself as an author - they don't get many turning up). The Conwy Valley was another nice scenic ride.

While I've travelled on just about every line in the Manchester area, I have lots of gaps on the Liverpool side. I'd spent a lot of time trying to work out what I could and couldn't do in the time between arriving at Chester and having to be on the last train to Glasgow that connected to Kilmarnock. I would like to have done the Southport route, but I couldn't make it work, so settled for the Chester and Warrington, the part of the original Liverpool and Manchester (Chat Moss) Line I hadn't done, and the route via Ormskirk to Preston. One small disappointment was that the first of these switched to the WCML at Acton Grange rather than continuing on the Helsby lines via Walton Old Junction, but so be it. I wonder if it's more common to go that way in the other direction.

The timing from Liverpool Lime Street to Liverpool Central looked tight, but in fact it's a pretty short walk and in any case we arrived slightly early. Had I missed it, I'd probably have planned to catch the Glasgow train at Wigan.

The Ormskirk route to Preston, like the Kirby one to Wigan, is in two separate halves with buffer stops between them, so that passengers have to change trains. I had been hoping to fit in the Blackpool South branch (having done Blackpool North long ago) but was uncertain if I'd manage because it's only a two minute connection at Preston, albeit on the same platform. At Ormskirk I asked the driver of the Preston train if we were likely to be on time. His response was that this was the Blackpool South train and, therefore, I had nothing to worry about. And so it was.

The rest of the day was routine.

Today's trains table

Today's route table

Today's new lines

• Conwy Valley line
• Chester to Warrington via Helsby
• Part of the Liverpool and Manchester via Rainhill
• Liverpool to Preston via Ormskirk
• Blackpool South branch

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