On Sunday I managed to get off the boat but arrived in Aberdeen too late to travel down that evening, so the next morning I had a nice relaxed breakfast and wandered off to the station to catch a train just before 10 o'clock. I always feel that a few hours on the train should be a good time to do a bit of reading but it never seems to happen that way. I find I spend more time looking around at the goings on around the carriage or looking out of the window. Train windows are tricky old things to take pictures out of, what with being reflective, at least double glazed and not particularly clean but that's not to stop me trying. It was a lovely sunny day out there, so come and join me for a cup of railway tea and we'll have a wee look out the window together as we make our way from Aberdeen to Glasgow.
Just couple of miles outside Stonehaven there's an old graveyard clinging to the edge of a cliff. There's the barest remains of what was probably the church and no real sign of any village round about it. The future is unstoppable and sooner or later it'll be over the edge and forgotten.
A nice sandy beach - the entire journey is shooting into the sun I'm afraid.
An unknown castle. If you keep your eyes open, the Scottish country side is absolutely litter in the remains of castles - most of them much smaller than this.
Two men ruin a good walk at Carnoustie.
A drilling rig undergoing a bit of work at Dundee.
I was trying to take a picture of a castle on the other side of the loch but, when you're travelling along at 70 miles and hour, sometimes things get in the road. I hadn't actually notice the weather vane until it appeared in
the picture.
At first I thought it was fog and then perhaps that it was something on fire but it transpired that it was some sort of trail following a tractor (which I completely missed), be it something he was spreading or some serious attention needing paid to his exhaust emmissions.
A fancy church spire - in Perth I think.
The Wallace monument just outside Stirling
And again but with some surrounding countryside this time.
Not all lovely - in the distance you can see BPs huge refinery and chemical plant at Grangemouth. I made my living there for 14 years before I went offshore.
Glasgow's Queen Street station and the end of our journey.
7 comments:
Someday we will ALL be over the edge.
These are great, thank you for taking us along with you! I love trains and I would LOVE to travel that countryside. One day I will!
Second comment... I forgot to follow for reply comments. ;o)
I also love staring out of the window on trains, and trying to take pictures through the glass - it sometimes works if you can press the lens right up against the window, but of course it helps if the train company bother to put the coaches through the wash every now and then. I liked the one of the trees with twisty branches, and fully agree with you about the golf - at least the greens look a little more natural than they do in California, where the grass just isn't that green naturally...
If Mr Beeching hadn't had his way back in the 60's was it ?
We'd still have some wonderful train journeys.
Being raised in Fife next to the main Edinburgh/Aberdeen line meant we got to see some of the classic engines on the line.
The Mallard and the Sir Nigel Gresley were two I seem to remember.Great railway days.
It's a fact Janie.
I'm sure Canada looks great from the train too Krista. Less castles more moose I suspect.
Lens right against the glass work Shundo but not much directional control. It's very tempting to exchange a little bit of the greenness in the grass for a little more sunshine (in the long run though I probably wouldn't)
Jim, I think a little though for Mr Beeching everytime I'm standing about in the cold in Dumfries waiting for the 501 to take me on the nearly an hour and a half journey to Kirkcudbright via Dalbeatie - grr. How impressive it must have been to see the Mallard steaming past. I had to google the Sir Nigel Gresley - it's a cracker too. Here she is in 2009 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:60007barrowhill1.jpg
Thanks for the Sir Nigel Gresley link Sandy.She looks a lot cleaner than I remember,but most of them did look sooty.The name plate was often shiny though.
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