My time travelling around the north-west was drawing to a close and with a day of spotting at Manchester Airport under my belt, it was time to start the journey home. The obvious routing for me to get to Peterborough from the airport would be to take a train to Manchester Piccadilly and then change for the direct East Midlands Railway service to Peterborough, but where would be the fun in that? As such, the first leg of my journey home would actually be taking me further away, as I headed to a city on the western edge of England, Chester.

Day two of my mini-tour of the north-west started bright and early at Carlisle station where I’d arrived less than 12 hours earlier onboard an Avanti West Coast Pendolino. Now it was time to head back south, although this journey wouldn’t be with the West Coast Mainline’s (WCML) primary operator, as I would heading to Manchester Airport with TransPennine Express (TPE). This leg of the trip would be in 1st Class with me getting to try out TPE’s premium offering once again, this time on one of their flagship WCML routes.

The end of day one of my mini tour of the north-west saw me heading north, almost to the Scottish border, to stay the night in Carlisle. From Merseyside, and more specifically Headbolt Lane, the easiest way to do this was to head east on a Northern service to Wigan Wallgate and then cross the road (literally) to Wigan Northwestern to jump on a train north. With a 20 minute connection at Wigan, I was initially a bit nervous, but the one minute walk from station to station meant this wasn’t a problem and I was soon waiting on one of Wigan Northwestern’s platforms waiting for my Avanti West Coast service.

Entering service on the Merseyrail network in November 1978 and March 1983 respectively, the class 507 and class 508 units have served the commuters of Merseyside and the surrounding areas for over 40 years. Despite a refresh in the early noughties, the class 507s and 508s were showing their age and a replacement clearly needed. This replacement came on 23rd January 2023 when 777049, the first Class 777 entered service.

Having arrived in York onboard a Grand Central from Peterborough, leg 2 of my trip to the north-west of England would take me across the Pennines and into the north-west itself. This leg I would be taking the first of two journeys on this trip with TransPennie Express, or TPE, from the Yorkshire capital all the way to Liverpool. I’d be travelling in 1st Class for both my journeys with TPE to see the differences between their different offerings and to hopefully enjoy more relaxed journeys on my two day train marathon across England.