tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post8938140840816948215..comments2024-03-26T23:41:10.319+00:00Comments on Authors Electric: A cross-country journey of 720 miles and over sixty years... by Rosalie WarrenKatherine Robertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17196712319655603442noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-30966013235029679272016-11-01T20:36:54.969+00:002016-11-01T20:36:54.969+00:00Thank you Ros, I enjoyed your 60 year journey, not...Thank you Ros, I enjoyed your 60 year journey, not least for making me read Night Mail again....Paul Mullingshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05656301521677046663noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-55918700819551035702016-10-04T16:15:41.099+01:002016-10-04T16:15:41.099+01:00Thank you, Wendy, Dennis and Chris, for adding you...Thank you, Wendy, Dennis and Chris, for adding your own memories and experiences. It's a great way of discovering connections. Speaking of Bristol, Chris, I forgot to mention that my father was born in that city and we sometimes used to stop off there to see relatives. Rosalie Warrenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10790708661647164052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-6207140623954293712016-10-04T12:15:21.125+01:002016-10-04T12:15:21.125+01:00Thanks for a lovely post, Ros. I hadn't realis...Thanks for a lovely post, Ros. I hadn't realised you were familiar with my part of the world. I regularly make the Montrose to Bristol journey. I still have family in Bristol, although my mother died last year at the grand old age of 101. Must have been the Bristol air. Chris Longmuirhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02488093821886798927noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-18398593369327199152016-10-04T10:51:17.294+01:002016-10-04T10:51:17.294+01:00I should have made clear that the engine change wa...I should have made clear that the engine change was at Oxford. Ah, happy, dear, dead days!Dennis Hamleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15781139870037634374noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-31894038945858271472016-10-04T10:46:31.264+01:002016-10-04T10:46:31.264+01:00Ros, what a lovely, evocative post, which awoke so...Ros, what a lovely, evocative post, which awoke so may memories. Yes, I love Cross Country, even though the seats on the once relatively spacious Voyagers are now worse than on any low-cost airline I've been on. When I was little, Cross Country meant merely catching Newcastle - Bournemouth trains from Winchester to Oxford,to change on to the old line to Bletchley (now soon to be reopened), getting off at Winslow. Not far but to eight year-old me positively epic. But they went up the old Great Central through Leicester Central and Nottingham Victoria (a line long defunct and those huge stations no more). But we still use the service from Oxford, which uses the old Great Western main line to Birmingham, though going into New Street rather than Snow Hill. Now it's Banbury, Leamington, Coventry to Brum, and then onward either to Manchester via Stoke and Macclesfield (calling at Stockport where I used to live and teach) or up the WCML to Carlisle and Glasgow - or sometimes Edinburgh) Or it might reach out to the ECML for Newcastle, Berwick and Edinburgh. I was amazed that I could gt a direct train to Edinburgh which called at Wakefield Westgate (where again I used to live and teach). We use Cross Country a lot going the other way to get direct to Bournemouth. We often buy day returns to Bournemouth day for a walk along the beach and, once, the other way, to Carlisle to change for Gretna to suss out the prospects of eloping to get married. Actually to do the deed itself, we drove! The Birmingham-Bristol secton on the other (your) line is memorable because when I was training to be a teacher I used to travel from Temple Meads to New Street most weekends to see my then girlfriend teaching in Birmingham. And the memory of seeing the Bournemouth - Newcastle train come in hauled by a Southern King Arthur or a Lord Nelson and changing it for a Great Western Castle or Hall was so exciting! You don't get that nowadays!Dennis Hamleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15781139870037634374noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-2857109657899007692016-10-04T08:44:17.160+01:002016-10-04T08:44:17.160+01:00I often get that train from Dundee to Birmingham N...I often get that train from Dundee to Birmingham New Street. It's some journey if you're going from Aberdeen to Penzance. Especially if you want a cup of tea as there is no buffet until after Edinburgh. This translates to Berwick by the time they get there act together.Wendy H. Joneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04022089775887274043noreply@blogger.com