North bound

This was snapped from a Virgin train en route to Edinburgh. It's a viaduct along which runs an old disused railway line - there's no line left. I've always wanted to try and capture this shot - and today I got it! This is about half way between J37 and J38 of the M6, looking south down the B6257 which actually goes under the railway and the M6 just a little bit further up the line from where the photograph was taken.

This train journey is a real pleasure - the scenery is fabulous, and I had a whole carriage to myself this evening. I really enjoy the Lancaster to Edinburgh section of my travels.

It's the bit from Edinburgh to Aberdeen that I hate. Loathe-some little carriages, with seats designed to give you permanent spinal injuries, with little space for luggage and not much more for passengers, and no Air Con, so the air is permanently stale and warm and stagnant. Utterly ghastly.

It's as though we took all the good bits out of Rail Travel and amplified all the bad bits and created a ScotRail train. If that's what Scotland comes up with when left to its own devices, then good luck with the independence thing - it will be a disaster.