Birmingham to Edinburgh and Return in One Day - Ken Jones

Ken Jones and Roger Burdett have travelled many miles by train since they started their monthly days out, so this time instead of using a Ranger / Rover with lots of different trains, they decided to go to Edinburgh Waverley with fewer trains, but still a lot of miles, starting at Birmingham New Street at 7.08 am and returning to New Street at 9.08 pm using the following journeys.

1] Avanti West Coast Pendolino Birmingham to Lancaster

2] TPE Nova 2 Lancaster to Edinburgh using the recently reopened Carstairs junction – in fact it opened only 2 days before their trip. TPE operate a trolley service on this route

3] Edinburgh to Birmingham 4 hours on an Avanti West Coast Pendolino.

They also bought anytime day returns to Tweedbank to travel on the new Borders Railway and anytime day returns to Inverkeithing to go over the Forth Railway Bridge, breaking the journeys each way at Haymarket, to sample different units.

They were able to do all this for less than £50 each, by using senior railcard, split ticketing, advanced bookings and research.
Photos below of the Edinburgh day out – all taken by Ken Jones.

390 141 is seen at the platform at Birmingham New Street ready for the first part of their journey Class 390

397 012 is seen arriving at Lancaster for the onward journey to Edinburgh Class 397

170 394 waits at Edinburgh for the trip on the Borders Railway to Tweedbank.

The 30 mile railway follows most of the alignment of the northern part of the Waverley Route, a former main line double-track line in southern Scotland and northern England that ran between Edinburgh and Carlisle and was closed in 1969

We have all seen priority seating on buses and trains, but in addition Scotrail have a special Moquette for these seats on their trains.

170 394 waits at Tweedbank for the journey back to Edinburgh

385 028 will take them to Haymarket Class 385

158 726 is seen arriving at Haymarket for the Journey to Inverkeithing

158 727 is seen arriving at Inverkeithing for their journey back to Haymarket

Sign to platform 0 at Haymarket

334 002 is seen arriving at Haymarket for the journey to Waverley station Class 334

Lumo 803 005 is seen at Waverley station

380-109 is seen at Waverley station – the only 380 unit we saw during our visit

Class 380

The recently opened passenger corridor from the southern part of Waverley station to the

main concourse, ticket office and toilets

Plaque in memory of Sir Nigel Gresley at Waverley station placed there in 2001

Short formations of HST are operated by Scotrail on long distance trains within Scotland

and unusually we see two together at the buffer stops. Note also the use of advertising on the

barrier gates

The famous crossover at Waverley station

Many thanks to Ken Jones for this contribution. If you visit a transport event during 2023 please send your photographs to focustransport2011@gamil.com