Rolling blog. The light fantastic?…

16 Monday Feb 2026

Posted by Paul Bigland in Liverpool, Manchester, Photography, Railways, Rolling blogs, Southport, Travel

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Liverpool, Manchester, Photography, Rolling blogs, Southport, Travel

10:25.

The beginning of another week sees me combine business with pleasure for a varied day that promises to be fun – despite the poor weather. Yep, we’re back to heavy grey clouds, rain and possibly snow here in the Calder valley, so I’m having a day out.

Right now I’m on Northern’s 10:00 from Sowerby Bridge, heading for Manchester. Piccadilly, the city’s main railway station is closed for the next 9 days to allow the old trackwork on the approach to the station to be replaced. Only the two through platforms remain open to allow for freight to run to Trafford Park container terminal, and a handful of passenger services to Blackpool North and Liverpool Lime St with a shuttle service working to Oxford Rd to allow connections to elsewhere. Want to go South? Then you’ll be bussed to Stockport where all other trains are terminating.

After checking out how things are going my plan’s to head over to Liverpool, then to Southport, where something rather special is happening. This evening’s the last performance of ‘Lightport’. Billed as “free immersive light and sound experience produced by leading international artists Lucid Creates, that will turn Lord Street into a walk-through rainbow of colour and creativity”. Apparently it will light up a 400m stretch of the famous street, including the Monument, so I though it would be worth checking out.

Watch this space…

12:30.

My arrival in Manchester coincided with what Manchester’s famous for. Rain. Lots of it, which made walking from Victoria to Piccadilly a very soggy experience. Have you ever seen the film ‘Bladerunner’, where it’s always raining? That’s how Manchester felt. Sadly, there wasn’t much to see at Piccadilly. Whilst the concourse is open, the normally bustling trainshed was devoid of activity. A solitary class 66 sat burbling away, whilst a couple of Kirow rail-mounted cranes occupied another platform, having deposited their load of new pointwork.

At present much of the engineering work is taking place out of camera shot so I didn’t hang around and caught a train to Oxford Rd instead, which was rather more interesting (and photogenic). As well as passenger services there was a continuous stream of container trains, all of which were ‘top and tailed’ with a locomotive at each end as insurance in case of a failure (which would really bugger things up).

I’m tempted to come back to get pictures when the weather’s better. As it was, I departed the city under apocalyptic skies to head to Liverpool and my next port of call – which wasn’t a bad choice as the weather’s drier. We’ve even been teased by a few snatches of blue skies!

My 6-car train to Liverpool isn’t too busy. I’ve managed to set up the mobile office in a table bay and download some of the Manchester pictures which I’ll add shortly. Right now, it’s time to enjoy the journey…

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Cheers,

Paul

Take a walk on the wild side…

15 Sunday Feb 2026

Posted by Paul Bigland in Photography, Travel, Walking, West Yorkshire

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hiking, Photography, snow, Travel, Walking, West Yorkshire, winter

Yesterday, Valentine’s day – and for one day only, the weather decided to give us a break from continuous and monotonous rain. Mind you. it had dumped several inches of snow on the high ground, just to make things more interesting! That said, where we live in the Calder valley was just too low to be in the snow line. We could see the stuff on the high ground on the opposite side of the valley, but we had barely a sniff. That worked to our advantage…

Saturday began with clear blue skies and the sort of weather that – after weeks of rain- made you itch to get out. But where to go? Having perused maps and looked at where the snow lay we decided to drive out South, through Ripponden and across the M62 motorway in search of higher ground. We found what we were looking for at Moss Moor, off the A672 to Oldham where you’re over 450m above seal-level and there’s nothing stopping the wind anywhere. Even on a hazy day you can see the city of Manchester miles below. On a good day you can pick out the Lancashire coast.

Leaving the car we headed off South along the Pennine way. Here’s how the world looked…

Looking out over Moss Moor, which is the origin of the river Tame apparently.

Wind conditions in such an exposed location led to some great photo opportunities, where the grass had literally frozen, then was backlit by the low sun.

Dawn strolling through the snow towards the White Hill Trig pint (466m). Believe it or not, the M62 motorway’s just out of shot to the right. Conditions underfoot where ‘interesting’. The fresh snow and drifts were easy to walk in but every so often you hit an area that had been stripped bare by the wind so that you were walking on sheet ice.

Looking across to Close Moss and Marsden (beyond). There’s a very long railway tunnel under here – somewhere…

Having had our fill of the high moors we decided to head back via Baitings reservoir, which was a regular entry in last year’s ‘reservoir blogs’. Here’s how it looked in August last year.

See the modern bridge beyond the old bridge?

It’s here, in the distance. This is how full and overflowing the reservoir is today, with snow on the surrounding hills that will add even more water.

Sadly, the weather’s reverted to type. Today we’ve had grey skies and intermittent rain, a pattern that we seem to be stuck with. Never mind. Bugger the weather, tomorrow I’m having another day out to head over to Manchester and Southport in order to look at two very different events…

Cheers,

Paul

13th February picture of the day…

13 Friday Feb 2026

Posted by Paul Bigland in London, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Railways

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London, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Railways

Today’s been a quiet one here at Bigland Towers for several reasons. I’m still trying to wade my way through editing the hundreds of pictures taken on my recent travels. Plus, the weather’s been crap – but no change there then. Mind you, I say that, but tomorrow we’re forecast to have a whole day of sunshine. Just the one of course, after that we’re back to the rainy conditions that – if you were biblically minded – might have made you consider building an Ark. Well, if you had the space…

For once the constant rain’s been alternating with snow flurries. They’ve achieved sweet FA around here as we’re not high enough up, but when I gaze out across the valley I can see a decent dusting at the higher tops and beyond towards the moors around Marsden. As tomorrow’s Saturday (not to mention Valentine’s day) we’re hoping to make the best of the conditions and get out for a walk somewhere and the idea of fresh snow and blue skies is rather appealing, so watch this space.

In the meantime, here’s today’s picture which was taken in London last Saturday in similar conditions. Rain can be a real aid to photography because of the lighting conditions. Here’s a shot I took of the trackwork at London’s Victoria station where images are almost monochrome well, if it wasn’t for the train in the background, but I think that adds to the effect.

I’ve still lots of pictures to add to my Zenfolio picture website and there’s far too many galleries that have been updated to post individual links, but if you want to browse this ‘recent’ section link you can find what’s been added – and where.

Cheers,

Paul

Derby builds new trains for the Elizabeth line.

12 Thursday Feb 2026

Posted by Paul Bigland in Alstom, Class 345, Derbyshire, London, Photography, Rail Investment, Railways

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Alstom, Class 345, Derbyshire, London, Photography, Rail Investment, Railways

10 new 9 car Class 345 ‘Aventra’ trains for London’s Elizabeth line are currently under construction at Derby by Alstom. Ordered in June 2024 for delivery in 2026 the order saved the Derby site from closure due to a gap in orders before the start of building trains for the delayed and truncated HS2 project.

On Tuesday a selected group of journalists were given a tour of the production line. Here’s a gallery of pictures showing progress on the fleet and the first train.

Building trains at Derby is like assembling a kit of parts. Here’s the welding shop where aluminum sections brought in from off site are joined together to form frames, roofs, bodysides and other sections.

Once individual sections are completed they’re moved around the site between different shops on fleets of bespoke trollies. Here’s a pair of bodysides waiting their turn to enter U shop, where final assembly takes place.

Body ends in U shop waiting their turn to be fitted. ‘A bit like fitting a cap to a tube of Pringles’ was how it was described during our tour!

The cab of a 345 having the drivers control desk and associated electronics installed before being fitted to a bodyshell.

Painted bodysides complete with windows, internal insulation and some cabling waiting to be put on a jig where they’ll be joined to roof and floor sections.

A bodyshell nears completion. Now it gets most internal components and panels installed.

A look inside the bodyshell showing progress on fitting it out internally.

Here’s the next stage as a driving car for 345071 nears completion internally and externally but before the traction equipment is fitted.

The next stage in the line. Completed internally, the bodyshell is supported from below to allow the traction equipment to be slung underneath.

Next, the bodies will be moved to have their bogies fitted, then they’ll be formed into complete units. Despite the fact they’re a follow-on order of a type of train already running on the network they’ll undergo rigorous type testing before being accepted as part of the existing Elizabeth line fleet.

Cheers,

Paul

Alstom, Beacon Rail and CrossCountry reveal the first refurbished ‘Voyager’ train.

11 Wednesday Feb 2026

Posted by Paul Bigland in Alstom, Derbyshire, Photography, Rail Investment, Railways, Travel

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Alstom, Derbyshire, Photography, Rail Investment, Railways, Travel

Yesterday the first refurbished four-car Voyager (220033) was unveiled to the media and invited guests at Alstom’s Derby works, where the work is taking place. Expected back in traffic before the end of the month after undergoing an exam at the Central Rivers depot, 220033 is beginning of a programme which, over the next two years, Alstom will refurbish a total of 136 Voyager (Class 220) and 176 Super Voyager (Class 221) cars at Derby, including an additional 12 trains added to the CrossCountry fleet following their release from Avanti West Coast.

Alstom’s £60 million contract is part of long-distance train operator CrossCountry’s £75 million project to refurbish all of its Voyager fleet and has been funded by rolling stock company Beacon.

The work doesn’t involve altering the internal layout of the trains (except for the ex-AWC sets) but does include new seats, tables, wall panelling, carpets and LED lighting, together with internal and forward-facing CCTV and a passenger-counting system. Double the number of power and USB sockets are being provided, allowing for one for each seat.

Here’s a selection of images from the event.

From left to right; Steve Harvey, Alstom’s Services Director UK and Ireland. Shiona Rolfe, Managing Director at CrossCountry and Adam Cunliffe, Chief Executive Officer at Beacon Rail.

A pair of 1st Class airline seats. The extra seat width allows for the power and USB sockets to be fitted between the seats, underneath the armrests.

One of the refurbished disabled toilets.

A Standard Class table bay, where the power and USB sockets are table-mounted due to the seats being narrower. .

Looking through one of the Standard Class vehicles, showing that the internal layout remains unchanged. What are very noticeable are the new different coloured grab-handles which are designed to be gauge cleared for catering trollies.

The new seats have a longer table compared to the old version, although I’ve not tried using one with a laptop yet. In the longer term there are plans to remove the redundant heating grilles and radiators which take up space at the bottom of the bodyside to create more legroom. The radiators were heated by circulating engine coolant but if the system leaked this could cause engines to shut down due to a loss of pressure, which was less than desirable! Now all heating’s provided by the roof mounted HVAC systems.

The luggage storage area remains unchanged but it’s been repanelled. The ‘funky’ lighting was temporary and fitted to help illuminate the vehicle as it had no shore-supply attached.

Sockets in Standard Class airline seats, showing that the top one is mounted ‘upside down’ to avoid conflicts. Both the older and newer USB-C sockets are provided. Another feature is that the new seats offer more legroom as there’s no footrest bar.

Here’s a closer look at the new seat mocquette and padding. On first try the seats seem to be firm but with sufficient padding that makes them superior to the ‘ironing board’ types fitted to some other long-distance trains…

Cheers,

Paul

Rolling blog. ‘Turned out nice again’…

10 Tuesday Feb 2026

Posted by Paul Bigland in Derbyshire, Photography, Rail Investment, Railways, Rolling blogs, Travel

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Derbyshire, Photography, Rail Investment, Railways, Rolling blogs, Travel

08:10.

George Formby’s catchphrase was running through my head as I made my soggy way to Halifax station. The Pennines are obscured by mist and rain yet again today – and the forecast is no better in Derby, my final destination.

It’s grim up North – and everywhere else apparently…

Right now I’m on a packed and humid Northern service to Leeds which is full of damp humanity heading to work. We’re running several minutes late but it shoukdn’t affect my connection. I’ll be transferring to Northern’s new ‘Yorkshire flyer’ service which is a fast service to Sheffield with just one stop at Wakefield Westgate. It’ll make a useful alternative to Cross-Country trains on the same route as they’re normally packed.

Hopefully, there’ll be enough room on that train to set up the mobile office. Right now I’m jammed in an airline seat with my camera bag balanced on my lap. We’re currently reversing at Bradford Interchange and there’s not a single seat left free in my coach. This train’s going to be extra ‘cosy’ by the time we reach Leeds!

08:55.

My 10 minute late arrival at Leeds proved to be no great disaster as my connection was leaving from the opposite end of the platform I arrived in on – 12. I’m now aboard the ‘Yorkshire Flyer’, a grand name of an ex-Scotrail 2-car class 158, although I suppose its top speed of 90mph does count as ‘flying’ by Northern standards! It’s reasonably busy too – between 50-60% capacity at a guess. That’s allowed me to grab a table bay (which I’m sharing) to set up the mobile office and type-swipe. The only thing I miss compared to Cross-Country is an at seat trolley service. A coffee would have gone down very well right now as I admire the dreary skies outside. Not that you can admire very far, visibility’s limited to about 700m!

12:07.

Oh, hello!

Whilst the internal layout of the Voyagers hasn’t changed the seats have. There’s more legroom because of it.

19:10

Well, that was an interesting day! Not only did we get to explore the first of Cross-Country’s refurbished Voyagers (a project costing £70m), we also got to see a few poor old Class 455 cars hauled off for scrap, walk through the production line of the new Class 345 trains for the Elizabeth line – and have a ride on a 5-car Class 701 on the test track.

The first of the new Elizabeth line Class 345 sets on the production line.

Of course, part of the fun was talking to old friends and colleagues from the industry and his Majesties railway press corps! I’ll go into greater detail about the refurbishment tomorrow and hope to add a few more pictures when I get home later. Right now I’m heading back to Leeds on a late running ‘Yorkshire Flyer’ from Sheffield after having stopped for a quick pint in Derby with an old friend, Robert Pritchard, Editor of Today’s Railways UK.

One of the cabs of 37290 is preserved outside the Alexandra pub. It’s recieved a repaint and had its lights recomissioned.

Cheers,

Paul

9th February picture of the day…

09 Monday Feb 2026

Posted by Paul Bigland in London, Photography, Picture of the day, Railways, Travel

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London, Photography, Picture of the day, Railways, Travel

Normal(ish) service is slowly resuming, but it’s not been without hiccups! My laptop is back up and running, but just as that was sorted out I came down with the lurgi – hence spending the past couple of days mostly confined to bed. Thankfully, what I’ve contracted isn’t anything more exotic than a heavy cold although the initial aches and sore throat had me guessing for a while.

Still, being stuck at home has had its compensations as it’s allowed me to start editing the hundreds of pictures I took in London last week. Admittedly, that’s going to be a slow process as I’ll be off on a mission tomorrow, heading out to Derby for an event. I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it but Dawn brewed some of her excellent pick-me-up. It’s made from freshly juiced ginger, lemon, limes and apple. Add a bit of honey and it’s a powerful remedy.

I’ll try and blog through the day tomorrow as there’s going to be a lot of interesting things to see and photograph. In the meantime, here’s today’s picture from my London trip.

A busy but peaceful scene at Earls Court underground station in the West of London. The station’s the junction for several lines, including District line services that are described on the classic old indicator boards that can be seen in the foreground. The Piccadilly tube line passes through underground.

Cheers,

Paul

Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible…

08 Sunday Feb 2026

Posted by Paul Bigland in London, Photography, Railways, Travel

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life, London, Photography, Railways, Travel

Sorry folks, I’m still having technical issues with my laptop and computer kit, hence the lack of updates since Friday. Hopefully, things will be resolved on Monday – at least so that I can get all my London pictures edited and add a blog or two.

In the meantime, here’s a couple of pictures from Saturday. The weather in London was just as crap as it’s been up North which was a shame as my trip along the Greenford branch aboard GWR’s battery train was a really interesting experience for a whole host of reasons. The area’s changed a bit since I first got to know it in the 1990s – as the modern skyline in this picture shows.

The battery train is dwarfed by its surrounding and the new skyline of Greenford as it makes its way to West Ealing. If only the weather had been better! As you can see, the embankments on the route suffer from subsidence, leaving the track all over the place.

230001 arrives at Greenford. Dozens of railway enthusiasts turned out to sample the trip on Saturday, outnumbering ordinary passengers by several degrees.

See you soon…

Cheers,

Paul

Rolling blog. Avanti!

06 Friday Feb 2026

Posted by Paul Bigland in Avanti West Coast, London, Photography, Railways, Rolling blogs, Travel

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Travel, Railways, Photography, London, Rolling blogs, Avanti West Coast

10:30.

Not quite the day I had planned…

Right now I’m departing a wet and dreary Calder Valley for London. I’m later thn expected for a number of reasons.

Last night my laptop threw a strop. The battery (despite being new last year) decided that it wasn’t playing anymore and gave up the ghost, leaving the machine without power as it refused to run off the mains charger without it. Bugger!

Playing around with the benighted thing ate into the time I’d planned to get ready for going away, hence today’s delay.

I’m travelling sans laptop as a new battery won’t arrive until tomorrow, leaving me to blog/run the mobile office off my smartphone – which will restrict the number of pictures I can add.

To add to the fun and games there’s overhead line problems on the London end of the West Coast Main Line (WCML) but that shouldn’t affect services from Manchester..

So, as I’m restricted in what I can do I might as well sit back, relax and enjoy the journey. Dawn was kind enough to drive me to Sowerby Bridge station so I avoided a soaking and Avanti have provided me with 1st Class travel to/from London to attend this afternoons photo competition awards.

Let’s see how things go…

11:45.

London bound!

My trip across the Pennines was a grey and grim as ever, making me realise just how lucky I was to get out in the sunshine the other day. The stroll between Victoria abd Piccadilly in freezing temperatures was only enlivened by watching a pair of Manchester’s finest nicking and handcuffing two teenage lads!

Now I’m relaxing in coach J of an 11 car Pendolino heading for the capital. There’s only a handful of us in the coach so I have a table bay of to myself.

The food offering was good too. Bangers and mash – just what you need on a miserable winters day like this.

Travelling 1st Class on a Pendolino brings back memories of a different life and a different era.

20 years and more ago I was one of a small pool of freelance photographers the then Virgin Trains (who introduced the Pendolinos) employed on a regular basis. Being London-based I was on hand for some of their most prestigious events involving Sir Richard Branson and many other famous people from the worlds of film, sport and politics. I ended up covering so many jobs and locations that I was given my own 1st Class pass. Of course, in those days Virgin ran both the West Coast and Cross-Country franchises, so I could travel the length and breadth of the Country, from Aberdeen to Penzance!

12:50.

We’ve left Nuneaton, our final stop before London. Passing through the Trent Valley was interesting. The amount of flooded fields and overflowing rivers is a testament to just how much rain we’re having right now. How farmers are going to get crops in this ground is beyond me – unless they’re going to start growing rice.

This line contains so many memories and stories for me, but then I’ve been traversing it for over half a century. Nuneaton reminded me of the time we came here by train for the annual rail press corps Xmas dinner. Arriving by train we were ferried by coach to the test track near Melton Mowbray. As we changed, a screw leapt out of my glasses, which lost an arm as a consequence. We couldn’t find the screw but thankfully someone had a paperclip, which I used to jury-rig a repair!

13:05.

We’re now South of Rugby, a town I have so many memories and stories of. Not least of which is spending much of Xmas day 2005 in full orange PPE trackside, watching the rebuilding of the railway go seriously pear-shaped.

The further South we get the worse the weather seems. We’re in gog and low cloud with rain beating against the side of the train and streaming across the windows.

13:25.

The curse of the WCML strikes again! We’ve just staggered through Milton Keynes on the slow lines. Our Train Manager came on to the PA to let us know this is due to a broken-down train in the Leighton Buzzard area ahead of us. We’re now running 10 down with more delays expected. Good job I don’t have to be at the National Portrait Gallery before 16:00 then! On the positive side – the weather’s brightening up…

14:05.

After lots of stops and starts and zig-zagging between the fast and slow lines we’ve passed Watford Junction, a place I also spent many bank holidays working trackside a decade after Rugby. Now we’re on the last leg into Euston…

14:43.

22:15.

Is that the time? Despite the weather I had a lovely time re-acquanting myself with the centre of London as I walked from Euston, down the Tottenham Court Rd to Trafalgar and the National Portrait gallery. Today’s event has been a great celebration of photography – and diversity. I’ll add some links tomorrow.

Right now I’m tucked up in my single bed in an intŕesting ‘hotel’ in Ealing. I’ll explain more tomorrow.

4th February picture of the day…

04 Wednesday Feb 2026

Posted by Paul Bigland in Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Railways

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Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Railways, Travel

This will be a short blog tonight. Mostly to say sorry for my long absence which has been due to a number of factors. the muse has not been upon me and the recent political ructions in the UK and via Epstein island have left me speechless – unless you fancy a blog full of expletives! No doubt my spleen will need to be vented soon, but right now’s not the time.

Another thing that’s been getting me down has been the persistent dull and dreary weather here in ‘God’s own country’. Quite why God would bless his own country with such execrable weather for the past month is a mystery, but that’s Gods for you, apparently. Today started no different as the Calder valley was so full of fog that if I didn’t know it existed I’d have questioned a belief in it (sorry, God). But, being stir-crazy I decided to head out with the idea of showing how difficult it is for train drivers to see signals in these conditions. God had other ideas. As soon as I arrived at the valley floor the fog lifted, leaving me with no option but to persue it through the valley and across the Pennines into Greater Manchester, where conditions were very different.

I won’t go into too much detail but I ended up in Littleborough where I managed to get some useful pictures along the line where a major flood mitigation project is underway. Then I took a detour to Rochdale to change trains in order to head back East. Which brings me to today’s picture, which is of a tram desperately trying to give a train a run for its money as they both head East with the Pennines in the distance.

Tomorrow I’ll be pottering around locally, but on Friday I head back down to London for a couple of days as I’m at a photo awards event on Friday evening. Remember I mentioned that I’d been a judge for the Avanti West Coast photographic competition? Well, Friday’s when the winners are given their prizes at an event at the National Portrait Gallery. I’m staying overnight with the intention of doing some exploring on Saturday, so expect a couple of rolling blogs.

Cheers,

Paul

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