Snow

[williamjm]

Originally when I was booking train tickets last month I was intending to head back down to Cambridge probably sometime later today (Friday). However, this plan was initially changed after the train ticket booking website claimed that the journey would take 11 hours due to engineering works (and this was before the recent extra delays that have been in the news), and I wasn't that keen about being on the train for that long. In retrospect, this may have been a good thing since it seems to have been snowing steadily for about the past 24 hours here and weather of any kind can send the British transport system into chaos. Hopefully it'll mostly have melted by the time I actually head back down to Cambridge on Monday. Meanwhile, the snowy Highland landscape is very scenic, especially since I don't have anything I need to do for the next three days.

Comments

[williamjm.livejournal.com]

I've never been directed down the West Coast line before, but for some reason the website decided to do it this time. Of course, it didn't explain why it was directing me down this excessively long route.

The only risk is heavy snow accompanied by strong winds and/or chill to cause ice on the overhead cables and/or blow them down.

If I had gone down today then I'd probably have been delayed/diverted a bit by the lorry that skidded onto a level crossing and got hit by a train at Dunning (unless the train was going through Fife rather than via Stirling, it depends which train I would have caught).

Also, the sound snow makes on an HST going at 125MPH is really really interesting, and rather pleasant when you get used to it.

Britain was entirely covered in frost when I came up here on the train back in December, which made it very scenic. I guess the same thing will be true of the snow.