The Other 50 at 50

This blog has been rather dominated by my diet through January so time for a quick update on the other thing I'm doing for 50 at 50, 50 trains at 50 which is coming on, if slowly.

Sadly I didn't manage to get any tickets to see BBC Radio 4's The News Quiz which buggered up that little outing in late January/early February but I have now booked to go to the West Somerset Railway Spring Gala with my Dad. He's a great fan of the WSR. Well, actually he's a great fan of steam in general but the WSR is a particular favourite of his. He's even been on at least a couple of their train driver courses so he's driven one of their trains up and down the track a few times. So we're meeting down there, both going by train but separately, then we're booked into a hotel in Minehead at the far end of the line before a whole day of gala pleasure and then home via a night at my parent's place. So that's three train days.

I've also sorted out and booked accommodation for a baroque travel plan later in the year where I'm going to take the night train to Glasgow, then get the boat train via Stranraer to Belfast. After a night at the Belfast Hilton I'm taking a scenic train to Londonderry for a night there. Then back to Belfast to catch the ferry to the Isle of Man for three nights there (it's got lots of train lines for such a tiny island) before taking another ferry back to the mainland. Not sure what the total will be but looks like about eight train days.

And I've got the start of a trip to Scotland sketched out which will include going to Kyle of Lochalsh, then across the foot of Skye to catch the ferry to Mallaig to get home again. Thus I get to travel on two of the most picturesque lines in the UK, visit the most westerly mainline station (Arisaig, just south of Mallaig) and the highest (Corrour, a little further down the line) all in one trip.