Littlhampton Station : Holiday mini-blog

 A Reminder ...

Internet at Ardgartan ...

... is poor due to hills, not as a result of poor customer service. "Place Holder" mini blogs will be pre-posted (if possible) to which may be added any holiday "snaps" that seem of interest to a wider audience. This set-up will apply to blogs from Saturday 15th to Sunday 24th inclusive.

Littlehampton Railway Station ...

once looked like this ...

... and now looks like this.

Once it had trains hauled by these ...

... then came the electric ...

... and newer electric!

Now trains look like these.

Here is an aerial view from WW2.

Here is today's Google Earth view from a similar direction, i.e. towards the mouth of the Adur river.

There's a lot less railway; and something has happened to that bridge!

Today's train service is relatively straightforward.

There is an hourly "Coastway West" stopping train westbound to Chichester and the same hourly service runs east to Brighton. There are two trains each hour to London Victoria.

Connections are available at Ford for Bognor and the Arun Valley line via Horsham.

Ford is also the stop for the huge Gaugemaster model railway shop, right next to the station.

It's stock is vast and somewhat overwhelming!

Well worth a visit, even if you have no intention (or no funding!) to buy anything!

Ardgartan Aricle Dateline Friday 14th

There is a limit to what you can write about a long and wearisome day on the  M5, M6, M74 and sundry other A roads. Suffice it to say that the fbbs left Seaton at 0615 and arrived at the hotel at 1915 with stops at Michaelwood, Sandbach, Tebay and Moffat.

So  the set-off was just after dawn at Seaton, a dawn which, thanks to the phone camera, looks far brighter than it was.

Axminster gave a better dawn picture!

Nothing of real interest until north of Lancaster, then the Lake District (sans lakes!) was traversed in gorgeous sunshine.

A stop at Tebay for a second snack lunch, the first having been at Sandbach with pre-prepared sarnies etc. The extra menu was a scrumptious scotch pie, far better than the usual peppery minimalist filling.

A pie to be proud of!!

More hills and many wind turbines were features north of Carlisle. The blades are huge.

The coach passed Glasgow as the sun set ...

... and by the time Lochs and Glens drove along the bonny bonny banks of Loch Lomond (there's a song in there somewhere!) you could hardly see it! 

Ben loomed ominously and lights twinkled sweetly at the  waters edge as journey's end approached.

A long ride, but the pretty bits were in gorgeous sunshine, all of which which somewhat diffused the comparative tedium of the first six hours!

And, as pedicted, the internet at Ardgartan is Ard Graft and Ardly Good enough!

 Next Bridge blog : Sunday 16 Mar