Mayflower - EUR 175 & Kings Cross to Great Yarmouth

Couple of recent outings with Mayflower, EUR 175 trips 14th August & Kings Cross to Great Yarmouth 11th September...




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That Letchworth spot is so badly overgrown now. A shame as it used to be clear all the way up the climb.

 

I've had to abandon several locations around here that used to be good. If I haven't been to a location before, if it's not too far, I'll do a recce days before. Relying on Google Earth is no good. I was told that Hitachi told GWR (re their 800 Class Azuma locos) that they would bill them for any damage caused by trackside foliage/branches so GWR wrote to Network Rail telling them that they would forward the bill to them. I'm at a loss as to why we have trees and overgrown bushes alongside railways, anyway.They just cause potential problems not to mention spoiling a view. Do they in anyway protect the railways..winds, maybe ? but then the winds could blow branches onto the lines. Dunno...

Sadly, a young women passenger was killed by a tree overhang near Bath (Twerton) in 2019 when she leaned out of a window but I don't know the financial outcome of that. There seemed to be more emphasis on the warning notice being too small..'Do not lean out of the window' Near the end of the article it states that investigators found the tree branch had decayed and loosened and had been like that for a number of years.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-50067073

 

Yes indeed, its noticeably worse than when I last went in August 2019, I actually arrived early and walked all the way round the field as the intention was to get a different angle to 2019 but quickly realized that was impossible!