Ricster Diaries Episode 69 - Christmas Special To Scotland | 21/12/2022

Filmed on 21/12/2022. Tis the season to be jolly. Before we talk about today's outing, this year has flown by and went very fast indeed. Also, a taster of a brand new format for Ricster Diaries for 2023. With many up and some down points but we end the year on a high. For this years Christmas Special, we head across to Edinburgh and Glasgow for the day.
Starting the journey at Scarborough, we catch the all new retimed 05:47 Transpennine Express Nova 3 service bound for York. Quite a few changes made for Transpennine Express and Northern which I'll explain more in 2023. At York, we then change for the 07:35 LNER Azuma service bound for Aberdeen as we rode as far as Edinburgh. Through the stunning Northumberland countryside via Berwick Upon Tweed. We arrive at Edinburgh Waverley right on time.
We managed to sign in without any problems at all for a brilliant trainspotting session of seeing ScotRail Inter7City sets which are still going strong and linking all 7 Scotland cities. More of the Hitachi class 385's are now working more on local and express working diagrams. Rumours heard that both Great Western Railway and ScotRail could be withdrawing their HST's. GWR to use the 5 carriage class 800 and ex East Midlands Railway class 222 Meridians could be bound for ScotRail.
Next, we then catch the 12:45 ScotRail express service for Glasgow Queen Street which is worked by a pairing of class 385's. Oddly, ScotRail was running a reduced service on Edinburgh to Glasgow Queen Street services. From every 15 minutes to every 30 minutes due to the previous weeks industrial action. At Glasgow Queen Street, we get straight down to trainspotting which the staff were very easy of allowing us to film for an hour. We didn't see any ScotRail West Highland services probably due to timing on our our we had there.
Then, we catch the 14:45 ScotRail Express service to our final trainspotting location of the year of Haymarket. For an evening session of just under an hour, it has been a very busy trainspotting session and also see Avanti West Coast class 390 Pendolino which encountered short platform at Haymarket.
Next, we then walked between Haymarket back to Edinburgh via Princess Street to see a rare solders bear which was named Woljek. Luckily for us, the Christmas Market at Edinburgh was well and truly in action with a lot of people taking in the sights and sounds of the Christmas Market. One of the many highlights is the Balmoral Hotel was lit up displaying many colourful lights and light shows.
The journey back, we catch the 18:08 Cross Country Voyager service bound for Birmingham New Street which we rode as far as York. The train was very busy as Cross Country Trains accepted Transpennine Express tickets. Our train was a bit delayed but made up some time and arrived at York 6 minutes late. At York, major issues as Transpennine Express has been cancelling their last 5 services between 19:03 to 23:03. After a tense wait and massive praises by LNER and York Pullman for putting on a rail replacement bus service through to Scarborough. The bus was worked by a Volvo B8RLE MVC Bodied through to Scarborough which massive praises goes to LNER and York Pullman for this.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!
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[@RichardBrooke1971]

I'm sorry you had problems getting back to Scarborough at the end of the day. I reckon that Transpennine Express need to up their game and sort themselves out, as their practice of constantly cancelling train after train after train is making them look unfit to own the Trans Pennine franchise. Still, it was a good day, Scotland's railways look as good as ever, and it looks as though you had a great day. Thank you for sharing Ricky, it's been a pleasure to watch. Looking forward to more in 2023. 🙂

[@RickyNowis]

Well, it does add to the journey but with great work by LNER and York Pullman for arranging rail replacement bus to Scarborough especially at last minute. This is a few days after the industrial action hence why there has been issues on this day. But, it didn't spoil our day. Thank you Richard :-)

[@rafethetrainspotter]

very amazing video ricky have a amazing new year looking forward to the direys in the new year

[@RickyNowis]

Thank you Rafe, happy to hear you have enjoyed it :-)

[@Desiro360]

Great video. Hope you had a good Christmas. 😀

[@RickyNowis]

Thank you. Yes, I had a good Christmas thanks. I hope you did as well :-)

[@Desiro360]

@@RickyNowis you're welcome. Yes I did have a good Christmas. 😀

[@Debbiestrainsandtoys]

🤩 I didn't know that the BTP 170 for scotrail still exists I guess not all the Scotrail turbos are going to EMR

[@RickyNowis]

Yeah, it's still there. Not all of them. East Midlands Railway has 170416 to 170420 but EMR looks like they are getting converted class 170/9 which are ex Southern class 171 units. Soon, they'll have ex West Midlands Railway 170 Turbostar's :-)