There is more than enough weird nonsense today without railfans creating more obstacles to enjoyment. You were on the platform and environs for an extended period, so of course you visited the station.
The rule is essentially that you can't get off the train for 10 seconds and then reboard the train-to visit a station, you should have to spend some time there, right? The issue is with this train is that it stops at Georgemas Junction twice, allowing them to get the same train whilst also spending a whole lot more than 10 seconds there.
The blue light on the Stop boards? They are connected to the TPWS loops that would stop a train that proceeded beyond the Stop board without authority. A steady blue light means the TPWS loop is active, when it flashes that means the TPWS loop has been temporarily isolated and the train can proceed. Drivers working this route will obtain the token for the relevant section via radio, check on their in-cab RETB display that they have the correct token and then signal to the guard '2-1' on the bell buzzer (token in possession). The driver and guard both check that the TPWS isolation light (blue light) is flashing. Guard closes the doors then gives the driver '2-1' (i understand you have the token in possession) and then '2' (station duties complete, train ready to start). The driver can them take power and return the guards '2' on the bell buzzer.
I don’t understand the station at Scotscalder, really in middle of nowhere except a few houses when nearby village of Halkirk which is literally line side has no station and awkward to get to nearest station of Georgemans Junction.
@@hi-viz I have a friend in Halkirk, absolutely crazy trying to get from Georgemans Junction to Halkirk when the railway runs right past Halkirk. You must drive a car to get from the station to Halkirk, which seems counterproductive in this day and age
Georgemas Junction would be the weird exception to the rule, as you alighted the train and it departed before you got back on when it returned, with Georgemas Junction being called at twice on the same service
I visited Thurso & Wick once. We had a Freedom of Scotland Railrover. The train was loco hauled and split at Georgmas Junction. One class 26 stayed in the North. We got to Thurso, caught the workers' bus to Dounreay and stayed on to return to Thurso. Then we caught the us to Wick for our return to Inverness. Unfortunately the next train had derailed at a passing loop locking the line We went a few stations up the line and were then transferred to a ancient coach with a dodgy speedometer, the box of fish was put on a maintenance lorry and we hurtled across the moors to Tain.
You'll love the Kyle of Lochalsh line. Can i suggest Glasgow to Inverness, Inverness to Kyle, bus across Skye, ferry to Mallaig and Mallaig to Glasgow as an adventure?
@@NickBadley I would recommend staying on one of the Small Isles (Eigg has a great B&B, and the one on Canna doesn't look too bad either) if you can squeeze that in. It's a cheap ferry ride off the coast from Mallaig
@iankemp1131 it looks like they have withdrawn the ferry port to kyle of Lochalsh direct bus so we may have to taxi as not enough time to get all the buses accross there and make last train :(
Wick is a very nice place, have been there once when bashing the Far North Line and I do need to visit all those stations even know I got out for a cheeky photo.... IT DOESN'T COUNT! 😂 But the getting on the train at Scotscalder reminded me of how the HST I was getting off at Dunkeld and Birnam, it was parked up to the step like that! Great video
I know they're very similar, but the dimensions of Wick Station are slightly larger than Thurso, in every way. The train goes under the roof at Wick, for a start! Until 1989, the Far North Line was served by a brace of small locomotives (usually Class 20, 26 or 27 - but 37s also appeared from time to time) hauling anything between 7 and 10 Mk 1 passenger coaches, a buffet car (the crews of which worked north as far as Brora and after crossing the footbridge, back south to Inverness from there), and an assortment of parcels vans (remember, the railways carried, newspapers and mail back then, as well as unaccompanied parcels), and before 1988 there were also staffed stations and manual signalboxes. Georgemas also had two platforms back then, and there were additional run-round facilities for the locos, some of whose crews were based at Thurso as well as Wick, so you knew when you were arriving at Georgemas in the northbound direction when you glimpsed the waiting loco in the headshunt, that would draw the (shorter) Thurso portion back in the opposite direction, leaving the train loco to take the rest of the train forward to Wick... The now-missing outer platform wasn't often used by southbound trains, which I guess made it easier to close it when they decided to build the now rarely used freight facility there (there used to be a refrigerator factory nearby). The majority of the stations were lit by just one or two electric floolights fixed at the top of a pole, though some also had flickering oil lamps. As trains generally ran in all kinds of weather back then, they carried emergency supplies in their guard's vans - including drinking water, chocolate and blankets, as it wasn't unknown for trains to get stuck in snowdrits! The journey time was also more than five hours!!
Between Georgemas Junction and Wick there were three intermediate stations. Bower, Watten and Bilbster. There also used to be a line from Wick down to Lybster.
That rule should be changed about travelling on the same train. As long as you depart on another service - even if the same train - then it should count. If you stuck to the rule of using a different train then there are some places where you would not be able to count - like Stourbridge town where there is only one the same train on the line.
I'm pretty sure the vehicle you took at the end is actually a bus and not a coach. If your definition of a bus is anything that a suitably old person can use a pension's concession pass on, it will certainly meet the criteria. Even the Scottish Citylink from Glasgow to Skye meets the criteria. For people in Glasgow, the bus is a holiday trip, but for people in the north of Scotland, it is their link to essential services that you can only get in a city.
I know this isn't the subject of the video but... Idea of a point to point : Tamworth (Staffordshire) to Tadworth (Surrey) Also nice video I should say. I love peaceful rural stations.
As far I see it you got off the train and exited the station. That’s a station ticked off in my book. The fact you then got back on the same train later doesn’t matter. I did that a couple of time on the Heart ❤️ of Wales line when the train was booked to wait at a passing loop for twenty minutes to half an hour.
Fun fact: despite Thurso and Wick’s station buildings being nearly identical, apparently they are built out of different materials! (I wouldn’t be able to tell you which materials though - I read this in some obscure book in a shop in Mallaig, and I never actually bought the book)
Just my opinion, but I think getting on the train when it returned to Georgemas Junction should have been allowed, as it had gone to another station, then came back
Great video as ever. Seeing these videos is making me excited, cause my partner and I are going to Thurso for 3 nights, and getting the train from Inverness in July. Do they have power points on the Trains? We are trying to pre plan. Thankyou.
I think if you have left the platform and gone outside of the station you have visited, period. I do consider it a bit of a 'cheat' calling it a 'visit' if all you did was get off the train and remained on the platform then got on the same train which hasn't gone anywhere else in the meantime. Can you imagine somebody pressing the request stop at every station on the Cambrian coast line, just so they can step off the train and then back on?
I'm actually planning to visit every station on the Far North line someday, which'll take a few day for sure! Alas I must wait for Altnabreac to reopen
This stop request is interesting, here where i live in germany, the train driver just sees you on the platform and stops or you request the stop from the inside.
when you wick in vist the shortest streets in world"s Ebenezer place wick 2.06m [6feet 9in ] and is the Gun hinness book of in Records 2006 and 1 no 1Bistro which is of pat mackays hotel
Surely if you were being pedantic, you went back on the same unit you came in on and then it doesn't count. If counting the same headcode (while the train goes somewhere else and comes back) isn't allowed surely the same unit isn't? 😁😁 Or, of course, it was counted the first time, which of course it was.
I didn't realise some people had such stringent rules about visiting stations. If you've been, you've been, and headcodes be damned!
There is more than enough weird nonsense today without railfans creating more obstacles to enjoyment.
You were on the platform and environs for an extended period, so of course you visited the station.
The rule is essentially that you can't get off the train for 10 seconds and then reboard the train-to visit a station, you should have to spend some time there, right? The issue is with this train is that it stops at Georgemas Junction twice, allowing them to get the same train whilst also spending a whole lot more than 10 seconds there.
@@thomasburke2683 Some people do invent some stupid rubbish dont they.
Sounds like some people need to get out more lol
The blue light on the Stop boards? They are connected to the TPWS loops that would stop a train that proceeded beyond the Stop board without authority.
A steady blue light means the TPWS loop is active, when it flashes that means the TPWS loop has been temporarily isolated and the train can proceed.
Drivers working this route will obtain the token for the relevant section via radio, check on their in-cab RETB display that they have the correct token and then signal to the guard '2-1' on the bell buzzer (token in possession).
The driver and guard both check that the TPWS isolation light (blue light) is flashing. Guard closes the doors then gives the driver '2-1' (i understand you have the token in possession) and then '2' (station duties complete, train ready to start).
The driver can them take power and return the guards '2' on the bell buzzer.
You should have visited Ebenezer Place in Wick, the shortest street in the world. It's shorter than the platform at Beauly station!
I hate finding out cool stuff I literally walked past *after* I go to a place!! 🤣
@@NickBadley Sorry about that 🙁
If it's not on google maps, it's not there!
I don’t understand the station at Scotscalder, really in middle of nowhere except a few houses when nearby village of Halkirk which is literally line side has no station and awkward to get to nearest station of Georgemans Junction.
Halkirk even used to have a station up to 1960, I imagine it was too close to Georgemas for the economics so it got culled while Scotscalder didn't
@@hi-viz I have a friend in Halkirk, absolutely crazy trying to get from Georgemans Junction to Halkirk when the railway runs right past Halkirk. You must drive a car to get from the station to Halkirk, which seems counterproductive in this day and age
Georgemas Junction would be the weird exception to the rule, as you alighted the train and it departed before you got back on when it returned, with Georgemas Junction being called at twice on the same service
I visited Thurso & Wick once. We had a Freedom of Scotland Railrover. The train was loco hauled and split at Georgmas Junction. One class 26 stayed in the North. We got to Thurso, caught the workers' bus to Dounreay and stayed on to return to Thurso. Then we caught the us to Wick for our return to Inverness. Unfortunately the next train had derailed at a passing loop locking the line We went a few stations up the line and were then transferred to a ancient coach with a dodgy speedometer, the box of fish was put on a maintenance lorry and we hurtled across the moors to Tain.
You'll love the Kyle of Lochalsh line. Can i suggest Glasgow to Inverness, Inverness to Kyle, bus across Skye, ferry to Mallaig and Mallaig to Glasgow as an adventure?
It's very much on the bucket list!
@@NickBadley I would recommend staying on one of the Small Isles (Eigg has a great B&B, and the one on Canna doesn't look too bad either) if you can squeeze that in. It's a cheap ferry ride off the coast from Mallaig
Me and my daughter are going to attempt the grand tour of scotland in 18hrs
On Skye it's well worth going by bus up as far as Portree at least, spectacular scenery.
@iankemp1131 it looks like they have withdrawn the ferry port to kyle of Lochalsh direct bus so we may have to taxi as not enough time to get all the buses accross there and make last train :(
Wick is a very nice place, have been there once when bashing the Far North Line and I do need to visit all those stations even know I got out for a cheeky photo.... IT DOESN'T COUNT! 😂 But the getting on the train at Scotscalder reminded me of how the HST I was getting off at Dunkeld and Birnam, it was parked up to the step like that! Great video
I know they're very similar, but the dimensions of Wick Station are slightly larger than Thurso, in every way. The train goes under the roof at Wick, for a start! Until 1989, the Far North Line was served by a brace of small locomotives (usually Class 20, 26 or 27 - but 37s also appeared from time to time) hauling anything between 7 and 10 Mk 1 passenger coaches, a buffet car (the crews of which worked north as far as Brora and after crossing the footbridge, back south to Inverness from there), and an assortment of parcels vans (remember, the railways carried, newspapers and mail back then, as well as unaccompanied parcels), and before 1988 there were also staffed stations and manual signalboxes. Georgemas also had two platforms back then, and there were additional run-round facilities for the locos, some of whose crews were based at Thurso as well as Wick, so you knew when you were arriving at Georgemas in the northbound direction when you glimpsed the waiting loco in the headshunt, that would draw the (shorter) Thurso portion back in the opposite direction, leaving the train loco to take the rest of the train forward to Wick... The now-missing outer platform wasn't often used by southbound trains, which I guess made it easier to close it when they decided to build the now rarely used freight facility there (there used to be a refrigerator factory nearby). The majority of the stations were lit by just one or two electric floolights fixed at the top of a pole, though some also had flickering oil lamps. As trains generally ran in all kinds of weather back then, they carried emergency supplies in their guard's vans - including drinking water, chocolate and blankets, as it wasn't unknown for trains to get stuck in snowdrits! The journey time was also more than five hours!!
Between Georgemas Junction and Wick there were three intermediate stations. Bower, Watten and Bilbster. There also used to be a line from Wick down to Lybster.
That rule should be changed about travelling on the same train. As long as you depart on another service - even if the same train - then it should count. If you stuck to the rule of using a different train then there are some places where you would not be able to count - like Stourbridge town where there is only one the same train on the line.
Good to see another Stu cameo😂
Love the videos nick, my new favourite train channel!! You’ll have to come to Ireland at some stage you’d love the scenery!!!
I'm pretty sure the vehicle you took at the end is actually a bus and not a coach.
If your definition of a bus is anything that a suitably old person can use a pension's concession pass on, it will certainly meet the criteria. Even the Scottish Citylink from Glasgow to Skye meets the criteria. For people in Glasgow, the bus is a holiday trip, but for people in the north of Scotland, it is their link to essential services that you can only get in a city.
Is it a coach? Is it a bus?
It's a stagecoach omnibus!!!😊
That disused station is either Bower, Watten or Bilbster - all disused on the line to Wick
I know this isn't the subject of the video but... Idea of a point to point :
Tamworth (Staffordshire) to Tadworth (Surrey)
Also nice video I should say. I love peaceful rural stations.
As far I see it you got off the train and exited the station. That’s a station ticked off in my book. The fact you then got back on the same train later doesn’t matter. I did that a couple of time on the Heart ❤️ of Wales line when the train was booked to wait at a passing loop for twenty minutes to half an hour.
Fun fact: despite Thurso and Wick’s station buildings being nearly identical, apparently they are built out of different materials!
(I wouldn’t be able to tell you which materials though - I read this in some obscure book in a shop in Mallaig, and I never actually bought the book)
Great video Nick!
Great video sir and of course Nat for supervising you.
Wetherspoons are grim places - best avoided.
Disagree. Strong Disagree.
Fantastic Video. Well Done.
Just my opinion, but I think getting on the train when it returned to Georgemas Junction should have been allowed, as it had gone to another station, then came back
Brilliant video Nick, that gap at Scotscalder is a very big one indeed lol.
Great video as ever. Seeing these videos is making me excited, cause my partner and I are going to Thurso for 3 nights, and getting the train from Inverness in July. Do they have power points on the Trains? We are trying to pre plan. Thankyou.
The trains have USB ports, but no proper sockets, a power bank might be wise!
Enjoy!
@NickBadley Thankyou and for your swift reply. We both have power packs, so will get them charged up :)
Video 3 of requesting Chichester, West Sussex to Chichester, Tyne and Wear Metro point-to-point
What day did you film this & are you still in Scotland.
Love your content, Nick. Got a pointless journey for you. Mill Hill, Blackburn, to Mill Hill, London. Long one 😂
The steady blue light indicates that the TPWS is active and will stop the train.
I think if you have left the platform and gone outside of the station you have visited, period. I do consider it a bit of a 'cheat' calling it a 'visit' if all you did was get off the train and remained on the platform then got on the same train which hasn't gone anywhere else in the meantime. Can you imagine somebody pressing the request stop at every station on the Cambrian coast line, just so they can step off the train and then back on?
I don't know if I will ever make it up there. Achnashellach and Achnasheen are the furthest north stations I've been to.
Great video as always, though I'm a little dissapointed you didnt visit the world's shortest street which is right next to Wick station
If you get off a train at the station, you have visited that station.
I'm actually planning to visit every station on the Far North line someday, which'll take a few day for sure! Alas I must wait for Altnabreac to reopen
Ah! Have fun!
This stop request is interesting, here where i live in germany, the train driver just sees you on the platform and stops or you request the stop from the inside.
Looks like you guys had fun.
And when the light is solid they cannot proceed until it is obtained. It will flash when you're in procession of the token.
why is thurso so full?
Wick - home of the World’s shortest street
what a great video Nick and Natt, i did subscribe to your patreon but cant join your discord
Does Jen get a fee for you renting Stu?
Well that one seemed a little rushed. I noticed sidings and dis-used platforms in there. Would have been nice to point out and any history, if known.
In fairness to you, coaches are busses, but not all busses are coaches.
should've had class 180 on the video picture
Or Command C Command V for Mac users!
Does it really matter different headcodes I don't know some people.
Out of interest, I know its not rail served, but did you visit John O Groats? I like Natt she can join in and stay..
Why would it not count as a visit? 🤔
when you wick in vist the shortest streets in world"s Ebenezer place wick 2.06m [6feet 9in ] and is the Gun hinness book of in Records 2006 and 1 no 1Bistro which is of pat mackays hotel
Wait till ye get up the west Highland. May iauggest booking the railway cottage at Carrour. Then ye will know the middle of nowhere.
I'm going to have to go back to Georgemas Junction and do it 'properly', aren't I?
Any excuse to go back up the Far North Line!
Yes. Yes you are 😅
@everylaststation I thought Nick and Natt were very good in this video, can't say the same about that other guy. 😝
@@robk23oxf😂😂😂😌
Surely if you were being pedantic, you went back on the same unit you came in on and then it doesn't count.
If counting the same headcode (while the train goes somewhere else and comes back) isn't allowed surely the same unit isn't? 😁😁
Or, of course, it was counted the first time, which of course it was.
#A9Posting
:)
Stop putting the girl in your videos because she always in it is not her channel stop it
No lol
Is your channel changing to nick and natt
@@TommyWoodland Why does seeing Nat in a video bother you so much? Or is it girls in general?
@@michaelholdsworth she in it too much is like she is in every video all the time is gonna ✋
@@TommyWoodland I didn't get a word of that, but how about you don't be rude, don't comment and just don't watch if you're that bothered?
something as a scotsman 🟦i have always wanted tp do this, looks fun but if you miss a bus or train you are fooked xx