The Flying Scotsman(Brandon McPhee) - An Encounter With The Flying Scotsman at Brampton Station Between Ingleton and Blyth - 7th August 2016

---

---

We wondered whether sleeping above a pub might mean a disturbed night’s sleep but how wrong we were.

We arose fresh and ready to go chasing a spot somewhere between Hexham in the east and Carlisle in the west to watch the Flying Scotsman go by on its run from Leeds to Carlisle.

First though we have another full English breakfast ahead of us. We could have gone for just some cereal but the knowledge that if we leave here with full stomachs we won’t need to stop anywhere for lunch and breakfast should get us through until dinnertime.

We were downstairs just after the prescribed breakfast time of 8.30am and it was all that we expected and really it is pretty hard to resist black pudding for breakfast, well at least for me!

We had a reasonable amount of time to kill before the Flying Scotsman was due along the line that runs parallel to the A69 which runs from east to west from Newcastle to Carlisle. She was due in at 3.30pm at Carlisle and so we envisaged that we should be able to find the right location to see her go by somewhere in the half hour from 3pm.

We took our time after breakfast in packing up and eventually we hit the road and headed north on the A65 towards Kendal where we thought we might take a break and renew our acquaintance with the town we stayed in for 4 days during the BBA V1 of 2009.

The A65 continued on as it did yesterday with twists and turns and lovely views of the countryside despite the weather having clouded over from yesterday and it was more grey and dull.

E hadn’t taken into account that today was Sunday and the shops don’t open to the extent that they do in New Zealand. Kendal wasn’t really a happening place on Sunday morning so we gave away the idea of a stop and carried on further north thinking that perhaps Carlisle which is a larger town might have a little more open than Kendal.

We took the A6 north from Kendal and although it ran close to its big brother the M6 it was still essentially a rural road and we could enjoy the drive and scenery without having to race along at motorway speeds.

All went well with the A6 until we lost the direction in Penrith about 25km short of Carlisle and we gave into the M6 as it was the only road we could find going north that was marked when we found ourselves at a roundabout on the edge of the town.

Carlisle was quiet as midday past as we were looking for a car park and found one within easy walking distance of the station and as we remembered it from 2009, the shopping area for the city.

We weren’t hungry with that full English breakfast being digested but we were ready for a coffee.

Now in all the towns we have been in since arriving in England this time around there has been a Costa Coffee Shop but could we find its location in the Carlisle shopping precinct, no way. So we opted for a coffee from Nero, another franchise we have been seeing as we have travelled from the south to the north.

We did a little window shopping in the mall that was open to pass a bit of time and then decided it was time to head out onto the A69 to find our spot for the Flying Scotsman.

We wondered whether there would be many train spotters up in this part of the country that might be chasing the train and therefore we would come across them as we drove east as they lay in wait for the train to pass.

It didn’t seem that way as we headed eastwards as the traffic was light and where we came across the rail line there were no waiting vehicles with keen train spotters at the ready.

We had the brief timetable for the ‘Waverley’ as this excursion was called presumably replicating a service that the Flying Scotsman used to haul in its glory days. Not that there were any stops planned as far as we were aware for the train other than to take on water as it approached the Newcastle area. Rather they were times scheduled to go past 4 or 5 stations on the way to Carlisle.

Our first station to take a look at was at Brampton just a few kilometres out of Carlisle. In fact it wasn’t the station at all that attracted us rather the mention of timing for the train to pass Brampton Fell.

The word ‘fell ‘indicated to us that the train could either be climbing or descending on the rail line in the area and that might provide a good spot to be for us.

We Googled a business address for an automotive repair shop that came up as ‘Brampton Fell View ‘and so we followed the instructions of how to get there only to find that there was no view of the railway line that we could find and nor any road that led to the rail line at all.

We had however noticed a sign pointing to a railway station so we thought we should check that out for a location. And what a find it turned out to be. It had everything, a right hand curve under a bridge to the long station platform.

A check of what the camera could pick up from the far end of the platform was made and the spot was pronounced perfect.

Now all we had to wait for was the Flying Scotsman train due at 3.11pm and hope that we weren’t invaded by train spotters to spoil the video angle!

The time was only 2.10pm so we had an hour to wait. We walked back to the car in the station car park and got our Kindles out and sat back and read. Gretchen even thought of putting the alarm on her phone on just in case we dozed off to sleep in the next hour and missed the event.

A half hour went by and we didn’t doze off. However a train spotter did turn up and we began to wonder if we should take up the position we had worked out just in case someone else thought it was a good spot too.

So although it was half an hour before the Flying Scotsman was due we walked back over the bridge and down the long platform to claim our spot!

The train spotter we had seen arrived was on the platform on other side of the double track which suited us as he wouldn’t be in the way. Then others started to arrive and thankfully they all went to the other platform.

Some were very keen with their cameras out and trained in the direction of where the Flying Scotsman would come around the right hand curve. We were glad they hadn’t seemingly worked out that we would see the engine first and we hoped they would be happy where they were.

About 10 minutes before the Flying Scotsman was due a lone policeman in full kit arrived and strolled along the platform where by now about 15 or so train spotters had gathered. We assume he was the local bobby sent out to keep the crowds in order and not stand too near the edge of the platform as the train approached.

I couldn’t power on the video camera for too long just in case I ran the battery down and the train was late yet I wanted to get as much of the effect of the engine rounding the corner. So I decided to rely on 4 teenagers sitting on the bridge to give me a clue that the train was approaching as they would see it before I did.

Minutes ticked by, the train spotters by now all had their cameras up to their eyes ready for the moment.

Then I noticed the teenagers on the bridge move and sure enough around the curve came the sleek green steam engine that is The Flying Scotsman, the most well known and photographed railway engine in the world!

This is the link for the minute of video of the event.

What a sight and had I not been prepared I would have missed the moment. As it was I didn’t quite get the engine entering the curve but the video result was still very pleasing and especially when the driver gave a whistle as the train straightened up from the curve and started down the long platform towards me at the far end. It was hard to say what speed it was doing but it whooshed by and the people in the 10 or so carriages were just a blur.

It was all over in seconds but it had been truly worth it! A chance in a million for us from down under to see the Flying Scotsman in action.

The train spotters all looked happy with themselves so we presume they got the photos they wanted and they were all chatting with each other as they left the platform. We got talking to a couple of them and they were very impressed that someone from New Zealand would come all this way just to see a steam engine. We did tell them we have been to a few other places in Europe as well!

We got back to the car and rewound the video to see what we had captured and were very pleased with the result.

A woman and a teenage girl came over and asked what we had been able to capture on video. They had been in a field nearby and had a view of the train from side on as it raced though the countryside. They were very impressed by the video and what we had seen from our position and we think they might have regretted not being on the platform.

We got chatting about this and that and discovered the teenage girl’s grandfather was the ex mayor of Rotorua and she was going there for a holiday in January.

Feeling hyped up by the experience there was a temptation to stay or find another spot to watch the engine on its return journey to Leeds but that would be three hours away and we had an Air BnB booking to get to in Blyth just north of Newcastle.

As we continued the drive along the A69 and seeing the railway line here and there as it crossed under the road we came to the conclusion that we had found the best spot we could at Brampton station to watch the Flying Scotsman go by.

Our hosts Sue and Mike were just home from a wedding shortly before we arrived and they gave us a warm greeting followed by a coffee in their sunroom while we shared stories about our travels. When we booked this en suite room in their home they had been cruising around New Zealand and had called into Tauranga as one of the ports the Celebrity Solstice visited. As it happened we had watched the ship depart to Auckland a couple of days before to pick them up as we had fish and chips down at Kulim Park. What a coincidence!

They had suggested an Italian restaurant in the nearby village of Bedlington but when we arrived there we found they weren’t open for dinner on a Sunday. However to our delight we found a Wetherspoons pub at the end of the village and we got ourselves a cheap two for one deal of pub fare along with a couple of pints of a local lager. We hadn’t had any lunch so we were ready for some tucker as the time approached 8pm.

Tomorrow we will head up the coast a little to do some exploring of the Northumberland coastline.

PS:enjoy the Scottish reel as Brandon plays a tune entitled The Flying Scotsman.On Youtube as usual.

---