The Raceway

Sadly, our time visiting our daughter and son-in-law in Budapest came to an end yesterday, but we certainly did a lot together in that magnificent city and had a fantastic time.  I would have no hesitation in recommending Budapest as a really interesting European holiday destination.  We flew from Budapest to London yesterday, so that we can spend the last few days of our holiday doing some 'training' in England.

(photo courtesy of Business Traveller online magazine)

Today we caught a Virgin East Coast train from Kings Cross to York along what was the Great Northern then LNER's mainline 'raceway' up to Edinburgh.  I was like a 'tin of worms going fishing' this morning, looking forward so much to the journey, and most certainly I wasn't disappointed.  I can't help compare today's trip with yesterday's flight, which was about the same length of time.  Chalk and cheese, utterly boring and tedious to really exciting!

More than 30 years ago we visited the UK with a Britrail pass and several times rode on trains called Inter City 125s, which were then fairly new, the 125 indicating the train's maximum operating speed in miles per hour- pretty impressive!!  I was surprised today that our train was a refurbished IC125, still performing superbly and extremely clean and comfortable.  As we blasted up the grade out of Kings Cross, through Gasworks tunnel and soon out of the suburbs of London, I was really rather overwhelmed and impressed by the fact that we were hurtling along the very line that I've read so much about in the past.  The line that saw the absolute pinnacle of steam traction where Mallard set her world speed record, and which was the domain of the A1s/A3s with names such as Flying Scotsman, and the magnificent A4 Gresley Pacifics, followed by the equally impressive Deltic diesel locos.  How incredible would it have been to operate any of those superb locos and trains at speeds up to 100mph (160km/h) on a daily basis.  I found the incredibly rich heritage of this line really overwhelming.  Not to mention extremely enjoyable!!  The IC125s have certainly given excellent service, and are very much the modern day equivalent of their classic forebears.  Interesting that although the East Coast Main Line has been electrified for quite a few years, that a large proportion of passenger trains are still diesel powered.

Anyway, we're now in the beautiful city of York and looking forward very much to visiting the National Railway Museum tomorrow!!