I've had to set up my tent in torrential rain mulitple times.... never good to do so though!

Err... no, that's true... not much fun!

Mind you, it would wash the midges out of the sky...

All is looking good so far, I just need to make sure I don't forget to take something that I'll need!

 

Those little blighters are really annoying little biters... but not as bad as the Horse Flies that are everywhere at this time of the year! Plus I need to be careful of the adders that nesting in the tall grass!

Adders are as far north as Scotland these days?!

Yes and they're multiplying regularly! Ba-dum tisss!

 

Well, things went mostly OK, the shelter I used over the front of my tent did break about 4 days in, but apart from that, I hit all my targets that week! My plan to just have a bike all to myself and go to Loch Skerrow Railway Station, worked perfectly... though I was about 10min late getting back to the dock to catch the first boat, so they had to send another to collect me. My mini chainsaw did what I wanted and cleared some of the dead trees, made a few discoveries etc, though if I go back to the centre next year, I know a place I can park near to the station, without going the long way round and walk down to it, or if I manage to score an electric bike before going, cycle down on one of the days off I have and fix the place up a bit.

That sounds productive - and from the picture there's a surprising amount of wall still standing...?

Oh there's more left than you can see in that photo, as well as a few curious things. It's actually quite an intriguing little site!

Loch Skerrow Station 2.jpg Loch Skerrow Station 3.jpg Loch Skerrow Station 4.jpg

That's definitely quite a lot and much of interest.

 

Any more...? 🙂

Of course! I take photo's of everything, as it's not just what you can see standing, it's what you see fallen!

Loch Skerrow 05.jpg Loch Skerrow 06.jpg Loch Skerrow 07.jpg

Ooh... a bit of platform?

Which reminds me... and I haven't tweeted this one yet... I recently caught up with 455 868 in the retro livery...

More than just a bit 😉

 

Loch Skerrow 08.jpg

Yes - that's virtually complete isn't it?!

 

Surprising how these things last.

Just a length at the end, but yes that side of platform is pretty much intact, just needs clearing of moss and some trees and it'll be right again!

 

I took some time to photograph parts of the surrounding area, found lots of brick from the station just fallen into the stream just behind the mostly collapsed side by whoever broke it up. Not sure how much of the brick is left, but looking around, it might be enough to rebuild that side of the station!

That sounds like you're planning a one-man full scale reversal of Beeching...!!

That reminds me... look what I caught up with a couple of weeks ago... 455 868 in the retro livery... 😀

Well as you see me often giving Network Rail suggestions on places to reopen, or just bring attention to, I do what I can! My next task, should I choose to accept it..... yeh I have, is to get station name plaques made for disused stations, then attach them to the walls where they are located, so that people can see them as they pass, get confused, possibly search online, then possibly start asking Network Rail about or to reopen them! It'll cost me a bit per sign, fitting and in travel, but I am prepared!

 

Figure 2a UK sectoral shares of employment 1920 to 2016.jpg

You managed to 'track' it down!

Ha ha yes... actually that was a sheer fluke; I was passing through anyway and hadn't bothered to search to see what diagram it was on.  It literally just turned up while I was waiting for the one I was catching a few minutes later...

That's how it happens most times I find, chance is a powerful force!!