CRUISING BY TRAIN AND CIRCULAR TOURS

In the nineteenth century, and indeed well into the twentieth, holidays such as we have become accustomed to taking nowadays were not something normally available to those of limited means and so it would have been a rare treat indeed to be able to indulge in even a day away from home. The advent of the railways helped to make it possible for those who were slightly better off, such as clerks and their families, to consider taking time away and advertisements began to appear in publications, including the railway companies’ own timetables, which sought to exploit the possibilities of tempting them into their trains. We have seen in a number of articles in Backtrack how the railways sought to woo holidaymakers with their Holiday Haunts type of publication. In the 1930s the idea of a cruise on the sea was still one for the wealthy although nowadays those of rather more modest means can afford to do so occasionally and a more recent version is to travel on one of the great rivers of Europe such as the Danube, Rhine or Moselle.

Day trips have for long been popular with excursionists, a term not always used favourably by Victorian newspaper editors who tended to report their sometimes unruly behaviour. This article is not, however, intended to look too closely at the idea of the day trip for which readers are referred to Away for the Day by Arthur and Elizabeth Jordan (published by Silver Link Publishing in 1991). Instead I propose to concentrate on a few opportunities which were available to people which would allow a round trip, going out by one route and back by another, and possibly taking more than simply a single day.

Circular Tours

Issue No.1 of the Dundee Railway Timetable, published for June 1876, contained a number of pages on yellow paper which gave details of Circular Tours which could be undertaken from Dundee and Perth. Some required a change of train at Perth and all would have started on the Caledonian Railway at its West station although this is not actually mentioned in these publicity pages. Some would also have required a change of train in Glasgow, again not specifically stated.

The following paragraphs give some details of what was on offer every day of the week except Sundays – some involved coach connections although these would almost certainly have been rather less comfortable on the road stages than the rail-borne legs of the journey. Some included an out and back sail on a loch in a steamer and some involved a steamer between one or more islands and the mainland. In most cases only the main times are shown; the need to change trains, and where, presumably not being made known until the ticket was booked.

Loch Earn and Comrie

This day trip involved leaving Dundee at either 6.35 or 7.40am (Perth at 7.45 or 8.45am) and travelling via Dunblane then over the Callander & Oban (C&O) section as far as Lochearnhead where arrival would be at 10.27 or 11.59am. In each case departure from this station was by coach at 12.05pm for the Lochearnhead Hotel (12.25pm) and then on to Crieff for return by train to Perth and Dundee (8.15pm). The excursion could also be made in the opposite direction by leaving on the