A75 Opinions?

[wildcat45]

I'm a sort of Anglo Scot these days and regularly drive the length of th A75.

Mainly drive locally from Gatehouse to either Newton Stewart or Castle Douglas.

When the ferry traffic is light its a great road.

Just wondering about others opinions, stories, thing to watch for. Google says its one of the mist haunted roads in the world.

[Toaster Pilot]

Going to be down that way in the middle of this week in a rental

[XDA]

I travel along the A75 daily and generally a not too bad road. It can be quiet tiresome if you meet the ferry traffic, as you have trucks sitting at near 70mph who aren't afraid to overtake (often on solid white lines/blind bends/crest of a hill...).

I usually drive from Dumfries to Gretna to join the M6 and the return journey back. I tend to stick cruise control on at a speedo indicated 70mph but usually have to pass a lot of slower vehicles. Plenty of good overtaking straights.

I do however see a lot of dangerous/suicide driving, particularly overtakes by frustrated drivers fed up of the 40mph trucks creating a 15 car queue. I've seen no end of near misses! The actual accident rate is very low surprisingly, as I can't recall too many times that the A75 has been closed.

Things to look out for are the scamera vans and marked/unmarked police cars. Some days you never see either, but other days it's overran with police and a scamera van. Also watch for people pulling out infront of you from side roads. This frequently happens to me. Not much else to look out for if I'm honest, just watch your speed and you shouldn't have any problems.

They say the Kinmount straight is haunted. Thats the really wide (overtaking) straight near to Annan. Cant say anything "spooky" has been reported recently.

I like driving the A75. It's a good road with plenty of overtaking opportunities if required. Early morning and late at night tends to be the quietist time to use the road. You could easily set cruise control at a high speed and came across very little traffic.

Toaster Pilot said:

Going to be down that way in the middle of this week in a rental

I'd watch your speed if you value your licence! The police run a tight ship when it comes to speed. Numerous scamera van locations, heavy unmarked car presence from time to time and always a marked a Volvo hiding in a lay-by/driveway/junction.

You can easily reach good speeds on certain sections...

[Toaster Pilot]

XDA said:

I'd watch your speed if you value your licence! The police run a tight ship when it comes to speed. Numerous scamera van locations, heavy unmarked car presence from time to time and always a marked a Volvo hiding in a lay-by/driveway/junction.

You can easily reach good speeds on certain sections...

Cheers - any particularly bad bits for Police presence?

[Jimslips]

XDA said:

I'd watch your speed if you value your licence! The police run a tight ship when it comes to speed. Numerous scamera van locations, heavy unmarked car presence from time to time and always a marked a Volvo hiding in a lay-by/driveway/junction.

You can easily reach good speeds on certain sections...

Trucks are limited to under 60mph these days
Police regularly on the road all over it. No particular bits to watch, use common sense, straights etc

[bigwheel]

Jimslips said:

Trucks are limited to under 60mph these days
Police regularly on the road all over it. No particular bits to watch, use common sense, straights etc

Some N.I. and Eire trucks run without working speed-limiters.
You would be surprised how fast they could go at max revs, 600+ BHP and huge torque.

[XDA]

Toaster Pilot said:

XDA said:

I'd watch your speed if you value your licence! The police run a tight ship when it comes to speed. Numerous scamera van locations, heavy unmarked car presence from time to time and always a marked a Volvo hiding in a lay-by/driveway/junction.

You can easily reach good speeds on certain sections...

Cheers - any particularly bad bits for Police presence?

The whole length of the A75!!

Scamera van sits in one of 3 lay-bys between Gretna and Annan, and in another of 3 lay-bys between Annan and Dumfries. I know the common places they sit, but it's hard to describe to anyone who's not local.

There's a silver unmarked Volvo V70 and also 2 x BMW 3 Series (white and silver).

Where are you driving to/from on the A75?

Jimslips said:

Trucks are limited to under 60mph these days
Police regularly on the road all over it. No particular bits to watch, use common sense, straights etc

You've clearly never been in the ferry traffic convoy then?

As said by somone else, the N.I. and Southern Ireland trucks aren't fitted with limiters/limiter is bypassed.

[BonzoG]

Jimslips said:

Trucks areare supposed to be limited to under 60mph these days

I'm on the A75 quite a lot but more often go down the A77 on overnight runs to Belfast. Being stuck at 50mph (driving a van through a SPECS zone) is no fun when you have an Irish trucker 3ft off your bumper who can and will do 70+mph given the chance. Quickest I've seen was one of those long-bonnet Scania units towing a load of logs at 85mph down the hill towards Ballantrae. fk staying in front of him for any length of time!

[Toaster Pilot]

XDA said:

Stuff

I'll most likely be driving from Stranraer to Gatehouse of Fleet on Tuesday evening, then no doubt to other places on Wednesday and Thursday.

EDIT - BonzoG - where are the SPECS cameras on the A77? That's likely to form part of my travel plans too, or at least was until I heard that dreaded word.

[XDA]

Toaster Pilot said:

XDA said:

Stuff

I'll most likely be driving from Stranraer to Gatehouse of Fleet on Tuesday evening, then no doubt to other places on Wednesday and Thursday.

EDIT - BonzoG - where are the SPECS cameras on the A77? That's likely to form part of my travel plans too, or at least was until I heard that dreaded word.

There are a few places where the scamera van/police sits between Stranraer and Gatehouse. The Gatehouse bypass being one of them. Just look out for people flashing their headlights.

The A77 specs start just after Ayr and end just after Lendalfoot iirc. It's 50mph stretch but most people do 45mph

ETA - Camera locations here: http://www.dgsafetycameras.co.uk/index.aspx?articl...

Camera schedule here: http://www.dgsafetycameras.co.uk/index.aspx?articl...

Edited by XDA on Sunday 13th November 15:14

[BMR]

BonzoG said:

I'm on the A75 quite a lot but more often go down the A77 on overnight runs to Belfast. Being stuck at 50mph (driving a van through a SPECS zone) is no fun when you have an Irish trucker 3ft off your bumper who can and will do 70+mph given the chance. Quickest I've seen was one of those long-bonnet Scania units towing a load of logs at 85mph down the hill towards Ballantrae. fk staying in front of him for any length of time!

Quite a common problem for me as I'm often delivering down that way in a van and have to sit at 50mph. Just on Thursday evening I had a lorry catching me up after all the 30/40 areas (ie out of Turnberry as I was empty I got up that hill quicker but he soon caught me up).

If I'm in the mood I would quite often go a back road through the village of Dailly rather than sit on the A77. With the winter setting in now though I think I'll stick to a main route though!

[BonzoG]

Toaster Pilot said:

BonzoG - where are the SPECS cameras on the A77?

Northbound, they start a couple of miles after Lendalfoot and end 34 miles later near Prestwick Airport. See http://g.co/maps/47zxn

They don't appear to run in one continuous zone for the 34 mile length. Generally where you see a change in speed limit, you're not being watched until the next camera, which will be an 'entry' camera to the next monitored section. There are some reasonably long stretches between villages with no cameras whatsoever, but plenty of signs.

Please don't take this as gospel, however. It's purely anecdotal/the result of about a years experimentation whilst constantly driving up and down to Stranraer. It could just be that I've not been going fast enough to generate a ticket (I don't rip the arse out of it between sections as there is often a police presence) and in fact the whole thing is live.

[wildcat45]

Re D and G unmarked cars. What was said is right about the silver and white 3 series. Add to that a black or dark grey one.

The give away to me is that I think they are supplied by BMW and have London plates.

Also a cunning Astra. Dark grey, looks bog standard down to the steel wheels but it's either very well driven or it has a VXR engine in it. It is very fast.

I think the biggest problem is the queues.

Tractors and trucks you can accept - they are making a living and making progress - but its the car at speeds as low as 30 sometimes, with a couple of miles of traffic behind it.

It makes a lot of people very jumpy. Trucks trying to overtake, all sorts of things.

Is there not a driving without consideration, car etc that they can be got on?

[XDA]

wildcat45 said:

Re D and G unmarked cars. What was said is right about the silver and white 3 series. Add to that a black or dark grey one.

The give away to me is that I think they are supplied by BMW and have London plates.

Also a cunning Astra. Dark grey, looks bog standard down to the steel wheels but it's either very well driven or it has a VXR engine in it. It is very fast.

Yep, the unmarked 3 series' arent the usual SJxx xxx reg. I'm sure they all begin with Lx??

I wasnt aware of a dark grey/black 3 series?? There was a dark grey Saab 9-3 kicking about from time to time though...

There is also newish silver Volvo V70 that's very very active.

Never seen or heard about the Astra before! Any ideas on the reg?

[wildcat45]

It looks like one of the divisional Astras - which are grey/silver - but it has no graphics on it, hidden lights and from memory no visible comms masts etc. Don't know it's reg but my guess it will be on similar plates to the marked ASTRAS.

Also - just remembered last year - saw a wierd one near Glenluce. Silver unmarked Honda CRV.

[XDA]

Cheers Wildcat, will look out for an Astra matching that description.

[wildcat45]

...Just make sure you don't see it a foot of your back bumper 2 up with the light show on!