Christmas: It can be quite difficult staying motivated while having to work on the website on Christmas Day. To be honest, the only thing that really keeps me going is the odd cuppa that Ewan occasionally brings in.... MERRY CHRISTMAS from all at Railscot - and a Happy 2009!

Paisley East: The office/shop once used by coal merchant John Lyon in Glasgow Road, Paisley, (just round the corner from the former Paisley East yard) photographed in December 2008 complete with classical Lion couchant (one of a pair) still in place above the shop front. The second member of the pair see image [[21161]], stood in the John Lyon coal yard alongside Hawkhead station, some 44 years earlier.

Book: A lot of info can be gleaned from railway stamps. Try a Google Images search.

Fen Ditton Halt: Although much trackbed has been lost to farming, a short stretch (0.33 miles or so) of the Mildenhall branch can be cycled. After residential and industrial developments, a stub of track remains near Barnwell Junction, occasionally serving an oil terminal. View over the site of Fen Ditton Halt (1922 - 1962) looking towards Cambridge. Be warned that access means struggling through hanging brambles!

Christmas: A Merry Christmas and a Happy 2012 to one and all - with a very special thank you to all Railscot contributors throughout the past year.

Leyland: Look what Father Christmas has left! With the railway closed for Christmas Day and Boxing Day, a new footbridge and two of the three lift shafts had appeared by early afternoon. By end of the day the third lift shaft had been craned into position and each had a roof. In the foreground is the old footbridge which will be removed during 2016. Even with atrocious weather conditions that the workforce had to endure during the day, it appears that very good progress has been made.

Leyland: With all the steelwork in place for the new footbridge at Leyland, work moved to completing the lift shafts during the Christmas Day closure of the railway. This view is south west with the old footbridge steps on the right.

Haymarket East Junction: Christmas day morning and with the rail network closed it's a good time for maintenance. 66 427 is sandwiched between ballast waggons. Further west ballast is being scooped out and deposited on the track. I'm sure it will all look lovely by the 27th. The track in the foreground belongs to the trams, not running today.

Haymarket: A quiet Haymarket on Christmas morning with the only sound the thrum of a couple of class 66s involved with track work further west. A silent 66 sits out of the way in platform 0 with waggons full of recently removed sleepers.

Christmas: With many thanks to all our visitors, friends and contributors - A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from Railscot.

(We'll put an unaltered version of this photograph up in due course!)

Christmas: With many thanks to all our visitors, friends and contributors - A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from Railscot.

Salwick: Another vantage point that is going to be trickier after the Blackpool electrification is completed. This view at Salwick on 25th December 2017 looks west towards Kirkham. See image [[18988]] from pre-electrification days.

Kirkham North Junction: All quiet at Kirkham North Junction on Christmas Day 2017. The L&YR signal box did not survive to Christmas as the small pile of bricks in the foreground shows. The layout here has been greatly simplified. See image [[18850]] for an earlier view.

Kirkham North Junction: Looking east towards Kirkham station from the overbridge at North Junction on Christmas Day 2017. The new crossover, allowing trains from Blackpool South to access the Up Line, can be seen. See image [[63648]] for the same location in 2001.

Salwick: The Orange Army at work on Christmas Day 2017 at Salwick. The small signal box did not survive December but this location will still be the point where signalling is handed over, from Preston PSB to the Manchester Control Centre which will cover the line west of this point. See image [[61728]] for the same view a month earlier.

Kirkham and Wesham: Still plenty of work to do at Kirkham before it reopens for Blackpool South trains on 28th January 2018. This was the view on Christmas Day 2017 showing work in progress on the island platform and the new third platform being constructed beyond.

Haymarket: Not something you see every day; a deserted Haymarket station with a track vehicle parked at Platform 4. The day however is Christmas Day 2019 and work is under way at Haymarket East Junction.

Bonnington South Junction: The Powderhall branch was closed three years ago when it lost its raison d'etre, the waste disposal plant; the cleared site now awaits development. There seems to be no hurry though to implement the plan to convert the route to a cycleway, or even lift the track. A Christmas Day 2019 view from the buffers, the site of the junction for North Leith.

Dalry Junction [Edinburgh]: The West Approach Road follows the route of the Caledonian main line out of Princes Street while the Leith branch curved off to the right. Dalry Road station came right at the start of the branch (and one face of the island platform remains) but there were no platforms on the main line. Too close to Princes Street, I would guess, to have local trains blocking the main line.

Preston Maudlands: 397011 leads a line up of CAF EMUs, stabled in front of Preston PSB on Christmas Day 2019. In addition to TPE Class 397s there were also Northern Class 331s. The tracks in the foreground are the Blackpool lines with those of the WCML to Lancaster on the far left.

Garstang Town: A railway photograph - honest! See image [[60695]] taken around sixty years earlier from this spot, which is the site of Garstang Town station. Apart from the road being called 'Station Way' there is no trace of the old railway but behind the bungalow the land falls away sharply where the bridge across Lancaster Road used to be. The two lines of trees beyond stand either side of the old railway embankment, which now forms part of a River Wyre flood defence scheme. The Victorian built house 'Beech Mount' can be seen to the right of the bungalow, the only direct link to the earlier photograph.

Haymarket East Junction: One driving and one along for the hurl. A MEWP heads east during extensive work at Haymarket East Junction on Christmas Day 2019. I don't normally allow tail-lights in my photos (rear-end shots are of course cheating) but it was being driven from the back, and anyway it isn't a train…

Skew Bridge Junction: It is Christmas Day 2020 but the Orange Army is out dealing with the drainage along the cess next to the Up Fast line south of Preston. On the rear of an engineers train to take spoil away from the site is 66199 still in EWS maroon and gold livery waiting next to Skew Bridge Jct.

Fylde Junction: Christmas Day 2020 sees three different types of EMU stabled outside Preston Power Signal Box for the two day break in rail services. Three TPE 397s are alongside the Blackpool running lines but Northern 319 and 331 units are also present.

Haymarket MPD: A ScotRail HST power car sits alone at Haymarket depot on Christmas Day. Its 'mask', like those seen on buses and trams, never looks quite right as a real mask covers most of the face, not the bottom third. I mustn't be seen to carp though (omnes: since when?).

Edinburgh Waverley: Tragically, on Waverley Bridge on Christmas day morning, there are two people who have nothing better to do (the other is behind the camera). On any other day of the year the ramp gates would be open so those arrows wouldn't look so silly.

Preston: This view west along Marsh Lane in Preston shows the WCML bridge in the distance and also, in the right foreground, the ironwork of the old bridge over the filled in section of the Lancaster Canal. This road is normally very busy but this was Christmas Day. To the left at this point, until around 1990, were Ladywell sidings and, on the site of the canal wharves, BR Preston Division offices at Ladywell House. These are now replaced by a hotel and a dual carriageway but see image [[23791]] for a view of the railway sidings from this point in 1985.

Maudland Bridge: Work continues (slowly) on what appears to be an extension to a university car park at Maudland Bridge, and it seems the rails of the old Longridge branch are being covered rather than lifted. This Christmas Day view from Leighton Street looks down onto the old Lancaster Canal overbridge with the entrance to Miley Tunnel beyond. Maudland Curve signal box, which controlled access to Maudland Goods, stood immediately beyond the canal bridge where the railings are now, but with a church as a backdrop rather than the modern UCLAN building seen here.

Pinkhill: The old station building straddling the lines at Pinkhill (closed 1968) had always looked in good nick, but in recent years the rot seems to have (literally) set in, and with a vengeance. I hope it is not too late to save it. I'm not sure what it is used for but one of the windows sports a child-drawn NHS rainbow, so someone had been inside in 2020.

Redford Barracks Branch Canal Bridge: The undersized oval 'plate' on this sole relic of a construction branch is a modern one saying 'Union Canal - Allan Park footbridge'. After a necessarily brief life as a working rail bridge it became useful for pedestrians when the area was developed in the 1930s. It would be a tragedy if the next budding artist lost their footing…