To Kingussie! - Scotland Trip Part 1

On the 22nd-23rd July 2019, we went on what was by far my biggest trip of 2019, in terms of the number of trains travelled on, to Scotland! Our trip would last 2 days, and include an overnight stay in a remote village in the Highlands, called Kingussie, which was our final destination on Day 1, where we travelled in this first part. Included throughout the whole trip are the majority of the main cities in Scotland: Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, and Inverness, along with some other places. The route we took to reach Kingussie in this first part, starting in our home city, Sheffield, was Sheffield-Doncaster-Edinburgh-Aberdeen-Inverness-Kingussie, with part of the Aberdeen-Inverness section being on a rail replacement bus, which of course, we all love!
As well as the luxury of a bus, another nice part after travelling up on LNER along the East Coast, was trying ScotRail's new Inter7City train in First Class, from Edinburgh to Aberdeen, which was a very cool experience. There's not much that can beat having a nice hot drink in a large, comfy seat, while travelling on a HST over the Forth Bridge! Later on, we somehow also managed to travel in first class again, for free, which was another part that was cool since we had the entire First coach to ourselves, although without any free stuff or a refurbished interior.
We finally arrived into Kingussie late in the evening after a very successful day, that went much better than we both hoped it would, after getting on more HSTs than planned, and what was technically a free first class upgrade. It was certainly an enjoyable first day to our 2 day trip. ON the second day, we would be travelling back down the West Coast Mainline, via Glasgow and Manchester, after completing a large circle around Scotland and the highlands. All that was left after the first day was an Irn-Bru at our hotel and an overnight stay.
Part 2, from the second day:
Thanks for watching!

[@jamesryeland1635]

Awesome Channel

[@qwertyTRiG]

Your eyebrows are astonishingly expressive.

[@HarryParkin]

Well that's certainly something I've not been told before haha! Thanks for watching!

[@alastairbrown1091]

How did you know it was going to be an inter7city instead of a class 170

[@HarryParkin]

We knew it would be one or the other, so a lot of it was luck. We did check all the daily Edinburgh-Aberdeen services before booking, and the 12:30 departure seemed to give us the highest chance of a 7city. We actually didn't know for sure what train it would be before ScotRail tweeted which services they were on that day while we were going Doncaster-Edinburgh on the LNER!

[@alastairbrown1091]

@@HarryParkin did u hear about the crash last week at stonehaven

[@HarryParkin]

Indeed I have, it's absolutely devastating. Especially to think that I traveled on the same line just over a year ago. It's a tragedy that I hope won't be repeated in the future.

[@alastairbrown1091]

@@HarryParkin I was on it the day before the crash

[@HarryParkin]

Wow, that must be really weird. Lucky you weren't on it the day after.