The ones that got away....

2020 wasn't a great year, was it? So today, I thought I'd reminisce about the trips that never happened, and when I hope to be able to do them instead. Obviously now I'm working it isn't quite as easy! All of these got cancelled due to covid.

1. The end of the spring term.

I don't think it's a huge secret that I struggled to settle at uni in my final year. It was a couple of weeks into the spring term when I first went to see & Juliet, and it instantly became one of my happy places. And it was with this, and a timetable that left me with no lectures or anything after Tuesday of the final week of the spring term. All I had to do was hand a dissertation in that was due on the Thursday at 3pm. I had a weekend event with a uni society in Sheffield, starting at around 7pm on the Friday, and immediately spotted an opportunity. Now hold on, I know what you're thinking: Charlotte, this is a rail blog, what does a theatre show and uni society event have to do with trains? Well, I managed to fit some trains into the itinerary for this trip. The plan was to get the train to London, check into the hotel and then head out, with my aim being to tick off all of the London Overground stops on the line out of Liverpool Street, before I grabbed dinner and got ready to go and see & Juliet. On the Friday, I was going to head up to Sheffield, where I had a few hours to explore before my friends arrived, in which I was going to get out and do some of the surrounding areas to Sheffield - I hadn't got as far as planning the trip before it was cancelled. 

2.  Various day trips, plus a few days away

I hadn't planned these for certain yet, but they'd have included Matlock, Skegness and visiting Elton and Orston, the least used station in Nottinghamshire. I was also hoping to do a few days somewhere after my final exams, but again hadn't planned it before it became apparent that it wasn't happening. 

3. North Downs line, Reading and the chiltern main line. This was in part a theatre trip, but I was planning on ticking off some trains. I'd have headed to Reading via the North Downs line, before staying over night, and then ticking off the western side of TFL rail on Saturday morning, plus hopefully a few other stations and then heading to the theatre in the evening. On the Sunday I was going to head out of Marylebone to Birmingham before heading over to Nottingham. I'd have done something train related on the Monday before a theatre show in the evening.

4. November. This trip kept changing. The theatre shows got cancelled, so I then decided to do the Liverpool Street Overground services after having done one final extra trip to the Isle of Wight before the 1938 stock went. I'd done a final trip in the summer, but when the opportunity arose for 1 extra trip I took it, but alas it never happened due to lockdown 2. 

Here's all for today, but starting next week I'll be going over some of my final trips of last year, starting in September just before I started my job....

Bucket List

It's been a while, hasn't it?

I last posted on this blog in September, so over 4 months ago now. So, what happened?

I got a job, that's what. I'm now working in a local secondary school, as a cover supervisor. This basically means I deliver pre-prepared work to classes when the teacher isn't available to teach them. As you can imagine, it was a really steep learning curve. We actually had a few cases of COVID-19 in the school at the end of the week immediately before I started, so I was very much thrown in at the deep end. Now I've found my feet, and the current arrangements at my school with the lockdown means that I have slightly more time to breathe. So, here's the plan. Today is a special post to celebrate me reaching 350 Twitter followers (thank you!), and then we will have weekly posts on Saturday at 10am every week. I have a couple of months worth of posts from trips I did in September and October, before lockdown 2 happened, and if I still can't travel at the end of March, when these run out I'll try and figure something out. I'll also be continuing with my girl on a hike series, following my prep for the London Marathon Walk in September of this year. I'll be slotting these in on Saturdays for now but, provided the walk looks like it will be going ahead I'll be starting my proper training in a few months, at which point I'll probably make these into a second post each week. This of course depends on whether I've been allowed to get a train for fun or whether girl on a hike is all I have left to write about. 

Enough of this for now though, it's time for today's special post, which is my railway bucket list.

I've been looking at the trips that, at some point, I really want to do. Obviously I'll be stopping at every station to tick it off, so a lot of these are longer train journeys that skip stations. So, here we go:

1. The sleepers. 

This has 2 parts to it: the night Riviera between London Paddington and Penzance, and the Caledonian Sleeper, which departs London Euston and heads up to a number of Scottish stations. I'd particularly like to use the Caledonian Sleeper portion that heads up to/from Fort William....

2. Stay at Corrour.

Railways and hiking, something I am going to have to learn to love this year. Need I say any more?!

3. The Gerald dining train in Wales

Because trains and food sound like fun. I've been on a boat on the Thames and had lunch, and the idea of dinner on a train sounds like something I'd enjoy.

4. Aberdeen to Penzance 

The longest train service in Britain. It's currently not running because of covid, but I'm hopeful that it will be reinstated.

5. Named trains. 

The ones I'm familiar with include the Flying Scotsman from Edinburgh to Kings Cross, and the Highland Chieftain connecting Inverness with Kings Cross. I'm sure there are plenty more for me to check out though.

6. Least Used Stations. Obviously I have to go through every Least Used station in order to achieve my aim of ticking off every station, but I'd like to be able to get off and explore some of these quieter stations. 

7. Scenic lines

I'm not going to name them all individually, but you know the ones I mean: Heart of Wales and West Highland along with a lot of the other railways in the Scottish Highlands.

8. Visit a station on the opening day

I debated doing this for Warrington West and Worcestershire Parkway when they opened,  but life got in the way. I'll make it happen one day though. 

9. The new Isle of Wight trains 

The class 484s are due to come into service in a few months, once the current upgrade works on the Island Line finish. I'm currently due to be on the Island at the end of May, but this will obviously depend on the covid situation. 

10. Land's end to John O'Groats by public transport.

Using buses and the sleeper alongside other trains. 

I'd be interested to hear what your railway bucket list has on it - either comment below or tweet me @girlonrails98

That's all for today, I'll see you on Saturday to explain what my upcoming plans are, and what trips I had cancelled on me at the end of 2020, and into the start of 2021.