There you go, then.
Thank you very much.
All the best, see you next year.
Have a great, see you next year, cheers!
Cheers, thanks then.
Goodbye!
(car driving on gravel)
That's my lovely taxi driver, I didn't get his name.
I'm at Scotscalder.
When in North Scotland, the far north of Scotland,
sneaking a cheeky request stop.
(wind blowing)
So I've come back up the path.
The road is behind me there.
Straight away, the house there, Railway Cottage.
Today was the day that we finished
doing Land's End to John O'Groats,
and we were gonna get the train
just back down from Thurso to Inverness.
And then, if you're trying to knock out stations as I am,
always on the lookout for things,
and there are two stations
up this top end of the Far North Line.
Altnabreac, which is really hard to get to.
And Scotscalder, which I realised is only
a 15 minute taxi journey from Thurso.
So, Roger and Vicky are back up at Thurso
and I jumped in the taxi and came down
and just wanted to knock out Scotscalder.
You come down this little path.
There's a brand new house which has got a sign on it,
and it's the station cottage.
But there's clearly straight away, what I think,
is the original station cottage.
And then, the station itself,
which is just a single platform.
(shoes crunching on gravel)
It's a windy day, by the way,
which explains why there's a lot of wind farms
here in the far north of Scotland.
But, the house here,
does call itself the "Station House".
It's got a little plaque up, the Scotscalder Station.
I would suspect that's the original station building.
The car's in, part of me wants to knock on the front door
and see who lives there, but I'm not feeling that brave.
It's 16:25 now, and the train is at 16:50.
So I've got 25 minutes
(laughing) to explore the single platform of Scotscalder.
Look, there's a little yellow step up,
so the platform's obviously quite low.
I think that's obviously the boarding point.
(wind blowing)
There is a "Help Point".
"There are no ticketing facilities at this station."
What I am amused about is that there's even a sign
for the car park.
I'm not sure who would come and park here
at this remote station,
and then use it as their, I don't know,
it's not like exactly a park and ride for Thurso, is it?
You just drive to Thurso, but there is a car park.
Okay.
And then.
(laughing)
The only travel information is this board of like nothing.
(laughing)
(wind blowing)
(shoes crunching on gravel)
I'm in the waiting room, there's also a litter bin.
I know this because uh, I'll show you.
My video camera is actually on the litter bin right now.
And it is blowing in the breeze, beautifully.
Thank you, litter bin,
for acting as an excellent, kind of like,
additional bonus tripod there.
I just looked up the station stats because I was like,
"It's probably got a very low usage, hasn't it?"
Oh, this might, I haven't decided yet how
once I've done all the least used stations in England,
Wales and Scotland will already be next.
And there's a big debate as to how you should divide
up those regions, sort of by traditional ceremonial county
or modern day, you know, Unitarian authorities.
Big discussion to be had, at some point.
It could be that I'm already visiting
the least used station in something.
(laughing) But, the last five years, it's been
300, 300, 200, two years ago exactly 200,
and then down for the 217 to 18 period,
to 182 passengers per year.
Per year, that is not a lot.
That's probably all the people that just live in there.
That is half, .49, that is half a person
per day using this station.
And I'm just wondering, where the heck is the time table?
(wind blowing)
(shoes crunching on gravel)
I didn't measure it, I just walked it.
The word is coming that the train is coming.
So that direction is Thurso, the train is on its way.
It's got modern day signs, obviously.
What I find a little bit sad is that,
well, one there's a beautiful old clock here,
which I've just Instagram-ed.
But also, in the same colour, there's obviously a point here
where there was an original Scotscalder sign.
Maybe it was a heritage sign, maybe it was a replica
that's also been demolished.
Or maybe it isn't original, but it's gone.
But I really wish they would,
(knocking on metal)
put that back.
Also a hanging basket
without any flowers.
I still haven't found the time table yet, where is that?
(wind blowing)
Sorry about the wind.
Actually, there is a bike rack
and, of course, here's the time table.
So looking at this, uh, yeah.
So coming north, I've gotta find it, here we are.
(laughing)
Four trains.
Yeah, it's the standard pattern Far North Line.
That's Scotscalder Monday to Friday,
heading north on a Sunday.
There's just, is that one or two?
Cause they tend to have that differently,
yeah, there's just one on a Sunday.
And then going back southbound,
it's the same four trains, Monday to Saturday.
One on on Sunday.
I'm on this one, where are we?
I've lost it now, coming out of Wick.
I'm getting the 1650,
there's the "X" for the request stop.
We enter Inverness tonight at 10 past eight,
where I then got like a seven minute connection
onto a Glasgow train that we have to make.
(laughing) Otherwise we have to be in Glasgow tonight.
(wind blowing)
(beeping)
"Please wait." Also, "All calls are recorded."
Yup, this one is.
I've pressed "Information" and not "Customer Services",
I was hoping I might get a recorded message.
That's just gonna beep forever now, isn't it?
Okay. That's just gonna,
(laughing) that's just gonna beep.
(beeping)
(wind blowing)
(beeping)
So that's pretty much it, it is 4:51.
The train is due now.
I can't see it yet, I'm sure it'll be here in a second.
(laughing)
From a beautifully sunny, slightly windy,
and then occasionally calm.
Scottish weather, so changeable.
Scotscalder Station.
Yeah, love it.
(wind blowing)
(beeping)
(train horn)
(train pulling in to station)
Hello!
(high-pitched beeping)
Oh, it's a new trolley, excellent.
(robotic voice reading names)