Strathspey Railway

I did a quick trip up to Aviemore via Inverness from Bristol, £35 each way on EasyJet with an overnight stay (coincidently also £35) at a Travelodge.

 

Coincidentally, we did the Caledonian Sleeper seated coach back in July. Pre-booked with railcard £93 rtn (from Crewe to Aviemore) for my daughter and myself. Couldn't drive it for that. Granted, you don't get a lot of sleep in the seated coach, but for convenience and value I'd certainly consider it again.

 

Still expensive and you lose a night’s sleep. My trip to Fort William next week will cost £60 each way in fuel, I can take all the gear I want and have use of the car while I’m there. The car is the cheapest if you need to drive while you are there.

 

We were meeting people up there, so had transport available to us - totally agree the car is more useful otherwise. I won't drive Wales to Scotland in one go these days, so we always have an overnight in Carlisle area. By the time you drive all the way up there you almost need a day to recover - so to leave Mid-Wales in the evening and get into Aviemore at 8am the following morning seemed very straightforward, convenient and cost effective!

 

I always do it in one go but overnight, much more relaxing with hardly any traffic to contend with. The worst bit is Bridge of Orchy through Glen Coe at 4 in the morning having to keep an eye out for all the deer roaming around. With a young family in the car I can understand why you wouldn’t want to do that.

 

46464 today ..thanks to Foxontour ..and a day rover readily available …had been led to believe by others it was day returns only .

On third trip it’s had a valve issue and could only provide either movement or heat ..we’re still moving …..

 

An alternative for those of you down south.

Take any of the 3 LNER Aberdeen trains, stay in a hotel in Aberdeen or at the airport (Dyce) if you fancy flying, and then hire a car and drive over to Broomhill/Aviemore.

Its not a difficult drive, its very scenic, particularly if you go over the Lecht.
You can get cheap 1st class LNER tickets to Aberdeen no problem.

If you get off the standard Perth/Inverness tourist route you might find you can get cheaper accomidation in the area too.

Aberdeen went through a bit of over expansion in recent years so its no where near as expensive to visit as it used to be.

 

I dunno if "not difficult drive" and "Lecht" go together. Its effectively a drovers track with tarmac. I'd go up to Keith and come down Craigellachie then following the old GNSR Speyside line. About the same time but a far easier drive. And you pretty much go by the Keith And Dufftown Railway's front door.

 

Unsure what Lecht you afe referring too but the one I know has an A road going up it. Its not any more challenging a drive than the A96 you have suggested, which incidentally has far more traffic and accidents on it.


A939 approaching The Lecht, yesterday afternoon - Richard Elliott Aerial Filming (reaerialfilming.com)

 

LNER and cheap are not two words I expect to see in the same sentence.

 

I've only done it the once (well… there and back), in a hire car with a dodgy clutch, and whilst we made it through fine, the snow and ice made it an interesting drive. It's not a drover's track by any means, but it's not the A1 either, and if you're not a confident driver or comfortable in changeable, sometimes hostile, driving conditions, I can see why you might be a bit reluctant.

When we got to Aviemore, the day's loco had failed and there were no trains. Fortunately we could see the funny side, the drive was beautiful through the Cairngorms, and we had a lovely snowy walk around Loch Morlich as our plan B.

Simon

 

The blog for 92219 is now live. The link below should take you to the first entry, but then goes into the latest entry, so you have to work from the bottom if you want to view it in order.
https://92219.blogspot.com/2024/08/nomadic-9f-its-trials-and-tribulations.html
It is mainly pictures with captions, dismantling having taken place during June, July and August. The entries to date cover the loco's history, arrival at the Strathspey and dismantling up to mid July.

 

Great update! Long way to go, but Aviemore have proven more than up to the task.

 

The Lecht road is a great drivers road in the right conditions, but can be quite treacherous if the weather conditions are unfavourable!

Used to be just the right length drive from Aviemore to the Lecht Ski centre in our university minibus, with enough significant, wide open throttle with the turbo singing away to cook some bacon wrapped round the exhaust manifold for brekkie...........

Chris

 

I do hope the bacon was wrapped in tin foil!!

 

Indeed it was. Good times.

 

I wonder what the mechanics made of any fat leakages

 

The Aberdeen University Railway Society's visits to the Strathspey in the Students' Representative Council minibus tended to stop for bacon rolls in the Strathbogie Bakery in Huntly on the way out and then the Haughton Arms in Alford for dinner on the way back from the Boat...

 

Used to live just round the corner from the Haughton, great beer garden on a sunny day!

Another place worth visitng up here is the Kildrummy.

Just been refurbished and the food is as good as ever.

To try and keep us on topic, is there any news about the Grantown extension?

 

To try and keep us on topic, is there any news about the Grantown extension?[/QUOTE]

There hasn’t been any news internally at all, the last update on the Rails to Grantown website was April 2022. I think that as always it is waiting for Transport Scotland to realign the A95 road. Transport Scotland did survey and plan the road realignment, but then went ahead and altered the road for the access to the Cairn distillery at Craggan without taking the Strathspey into account. The last that we heard was that they were still waiting for the altered plans.