To Scotland again, by train!

I got up at 6am to ride to Crewe railway station for my first time taking the bike on trains. Opening the porch blind to a misty window, I decided it would be a good idea to change my dress code to two base layers and thermal gloves. After a bowl of porridge I loaded the bike and set off, the sun just rising on a chilly misty morning. I was a little nervous about getting to the station on time, but the traffic was light and I made good progress until Crewe Green roundabout where I was held up for a minute by the busy rush hour traffic, but once through it was plain sailing to the station.

At the ticket gate I checked to see if the tickets I had collected at Sandbach the previous day included my cycle reservation, but they hadn’t been printed for some reason. A quick visit to the ticket office ensued, where a very helpful chap printed off the necessary reservations for both today’s trip and the return on Monday. All set, I headed back to the ticket gate and found the lift down to the required platform, where I waited for the train to arrive. Shortly before it did I found a member of staff to come and open the door to the bike storage compartment, and I loaded the bike on board and sat down at my seat. Despite a few hiccups it was a fairly smooth process for my first time with a bike.

A nice relaxed journey ensued, the sun shining on gorgeous scenery as we sped through the Lake District, although after entering Scotland it began to cloud over and the on board screens told of light rain at Glasgow Central. Fortunately it had stopped when we arrived, and I headed out of the station and tried to load my route to Queen Street on my Garmin. This was taking some time as it was struggling to find the satellites, possibly due to the amount of tall buildings around, so I cancelled it and rode off, relying on my map memory to get me there. This worked fine, and it only took a couple of minutes to reach the station.

Queen Street was very busy, and my train wasn’t due for another 45 minutes. When it arrived, I saw it was composed of seven coaches, five of which were going to Fort William and two to Oban, these latter were at the front of the train. Unfortunately I took the front of the train to be the end that came into the station first, and only realised after waiting for a minute to load my bike. A quick dash along the platform to the front ensued, and I finally got the bike loaded and sat down for the three hour journey along the scenic West Highland Line.

We passed the Edrington Distillery and once past the urban surroundings of Glasgow the line travelled alongside the River Clyde, and I saw a few ferries at the shipyards on the far shore. We then passed lochs aplenty including Gare Loch with the Faslane Navy Base, Loch Long and Loch Lomond. The rain had resumed at this point, and it looked very driech outside, however the scenery was absolutely stunning in spite of this, with many tumbling waterfalls rushing down off the hills. We passed Loch Awe and the ruins of Kilchurn Castle, and at Dalmally station I spotted a pair of giant wooden bellows and other wooden objects on the platform. I also noticed a cockerel strutting around! After some glorious views of Loch Etive the train pulled into Oban station where I alighted and rode the short distance to Oban Youth Hostel, my bed for the night.

It had been a very good first experience of taking my bike on the train, even if it was a lot colder in Oban than at home!