Inverness, halfway point.

 16-17 July

A nice long First-class journey to Inverness to look forward to. The working timetables show food at first-class seating from here all the way to Newcastle.  However, Scotrail are currently running a reduced timetable which excludes all onboard food. Signs in stations say the full timetable and food will return on Wednesday. My last Scotrail service is Tuesday.

But first, and only because I have the time, a journey from Glasgow Central upper level to Glasgow Queen Street upper level by surface trains.  This will take well over 2 hours longer than walking between the stations, but it's possible to do it so I'm doing it.  Briefly: Central to Motherwell to Cumbernauld to Queen Street.

 Awaiting the Motherwell train. 10.53 Lanark on the board

 The Clyde

 Motherwell train was nice, this one to Cumbernauld is a bit downmarket.  Both std class

 Mossend has many Royal Mail trains, passed a few before I took this photo.

 Cumbernauld.  

No lifts, bad signage, couldn't find ramps so had to use stairs, carefully. 45min wait here, the waiting room is locked shut and no seating at all on this platform, not even a wall.  The one and only seat on the other platform is occupied. I later discovered they were waiting for the train on this platform.

 The better quality std class. How d'you like the priority seats?

 George Square from Queen Street station. 

Another long wait. Was considering lunch here but I've arrived in the middle of lunch hour. Must consider that next year. However I have a reserved seat to Inverness and there's a food trolley too

  Good news: Comfort. 

Bad news: there's no trolly service, therefore I must go another 3 and a half hours without food and drink.

 We were doing 100mph on the way here. I'm the wrong side of the train to photograph Stirling castle so have to do with this

 A mere 90mph through Gleneagles

 Then touched 102mph on the way to Perth and it's famous clock.  This stop at Perth is scheduled to be 15min.

 A very deep platform

 The silvery Tay

  Dunkeld and Burnham

 River Tay

 River Tilt at Blair Atholl

 River Garry

 Start of the Highlands

  Approaching Dalwhinnie just past the Pass of Drumochter which, at 460m is the highest point on British Rail.

 Dalwhinnie distillery, the highest in Scotland.

 Kingussie, 1hr from Inverness

 Virtually all the best views etc have been on the other side of the train, but now we get Loch Insh.

 Aviemore station

 and its steam railway

 River Dulnain

The sign for the Slochd summit, at 401m is the second highest point on BR, is on the other side of the train.

 Culloden viaduct. Best seen from the other side!

At 549m and 29 spans, this is the longest masonry viaduct in Scotland.

Glenfinnan viaduct is a mere 381m and 21 spans.

 Approaching Inverness from the east

 Nearest water seen here is the Moray Firth with the Black Isle to the north. To the west you may just make out the Kessock Bridge which leads the A9 northwards and beyond the bridge is the Beauly Firth.

    Royal Highland hotel main staircase.

Fifty years ago this hotel, which forms part of Inverness station, was the Station Hotel. It was generally regarded as one of the top three hotels in Scotland. Far from it today, apart from the magnificent staircase.  Bedroom doors appear to have been recently painted, lets hope corridor walls and ceilings will soon follow.

There was some confusion over my dinner reservation, made weeks ago, and whether I could charge it to my room. The menu is short and laminated and no wine list was offered. The food itself was acceptable.

Breakfast was worse. All vacant tables were completely bare so residents had to search for everything - plates, napkins, cutlery, condiments (all individual like a fast food store) etc. - then nobody came to take my order, all the staff appeared to be doing was clearing tables. I later learnt from the "meet&greet" person that I was on their list for continental breakfast only so I had to go to reception to sort it out. Reception had me listed as full breakfast! Return to "meet&greet" where I was given a small printed list of 5 or 6 hot food items plus a choice of fried or scrambled egg (no boiled or poached) which I had to tick. I received my hot breakfast about 30 minutes after entering the room and it certainly was not worth waiting for.  Lucky I'm not travelling anywhere today.

On my list of worst ever hotel experiences, this ranks third after Abington, which I think has since closed, and the Best Western at Southport.

Sorry about the rant but it makes me feel better, which the restaurant never did.

Continue