UK Rail Tour '22

 The UK Rail Tour was largely successful but not without three detours, several cancelations and a couple of planning errors. A few Stats: The original plan was to cover 2255 miles in 56hrs 16min travel plus 33hr 8min waiting for connections. There were to be 16 first-class trains and 39 standard of which 11 would have onboard food. What actually happened was 2139 miles in 54hrs 26min travel plus 34hr 37min waiting for connections. That included 20 first-class trains and 33 standard of which only 1 actually had onboard food.  I must add that for the three days of excessive heat most stations and trains had free bottles of water and I saw no evidence at all of any tickets being inspected. All stations with automatic barriers had them all locked open. I had a two-week first-class Rail Rover to cover my entire tour at a total cost of £825 with a Senior Railcard. If I'd had a standard-class Rail Rover and paid the extra for the first-class journeys it would have cost £210 more...

 23 July   I'll be meeting some good friends for lunch at Ramsgate before my final train of the tour takes me back to Ashford, Then I'll return home via London Bridge.  After my exertions at Norwich I'll be getting a cab up the hill from Lewisham!  Gravesend. Just to prove I'm still on my coastal tour.  Good news, bad news. Bonus untimetabled first-class but without air-conditioning.  River Medway,  note WW2 Russian submarine on left.  Whitstable and Thames estuary somewhere near Mick's beach hut.  Believe me, the English Channel is out there somewhere  After a very enjoyable lunch I returned to the station somewhat later than expected because the 10 minute bus service from the Greek restaurant on the harbour ran no buses for half an hour then they all came at once. Now I expect to arrive home about 6.30pm.  Now on the last train of the tour via Dover and Ashford to London Bridge. First Class all the way (getting max value...

 22 July   Highbury & Islington change (circled  yellow ) was wrong, the two platforms are at different levels so my idea of being able to run a train around the whole UK tour would fail here   There are 10 little trains on this map because I'll be on 11 trains in one day. Most of them are very regular, four or more each hour but there are two or three hourly services and if I miss two of them I could be late for checking in to the hotel. The Ipswich Penta Hotel is a deep U-shape with the open end pointing away from the station and reception in the middle of the inside of the U. When I checked out I thought I could see an external door behind reception so asked if there was another way out to get to the station. "No" they said "you must go all the way round the outside".  Ipswich Station, awaiting 10:41 to Chelmsford  Penultimate first class journey, although only 18 minutes.  Chelmsford. Another long wait for the train to Romford. The waits get sh...

 21 July This leg of the tour has always been difficult to plan because there are only three trains per day from Great Yarmouth to Reedham and I'll be on the very first train of the day at 15:16. The next is 17:47 which wouldn't get me to Ipswich until after 9pm.  River Wensum at Norwich  Magnificent station  Interesting train: 2 front coaches, half-length motor unit in the middle which passengers can walk through, 2 rear coaches  River Yare Everywhere I've walked since the start of this tour has been as flat as a pancake until Norfolk, renowned for being flat. A big hill in Norwich and a smaller one in Great Yarmouth. Where would we be without computer problems? My phone received an update a couple of days ago and now the widgets of my two favourite travel apps don't work. I uninstalled Train Times UK (by Croworc) to install latest version but can't find it anywhere! I really should have checked first.  Most train apps concentrate on ticket purchase these ...