It may be Sunday but it’s no day off for me. RAIL magazine have asked me to cover todays 175th anniversary events at Manchester Victoria station. Train services through the Calder Valley are disrupted by engineering work, so ‘bustitution’ from Hebden Bridge Westwards is the order of the day so So Dawn’s given me a lift to Huddersfield so I could catch the 10:52 direct to Victoria. Weatherwise it’s a glorious sunny day and the autumnal colours of the trees look stunning. Let’s see how the day goes…
12:54.
The event at Victoria’s worth a visit. Outside the front of the station there’s two old Manchester buses and a vintage tram.
Insise there are stalls on the main concourse and upstairs on the mezzanine entrance to the arena. They include the East Lancs Railway and the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway society who have an excellent display of old pictures of Victoria station. Many more are included in this commemorative book which can be bought for £5 from their website.
To add to the fun, Queen Victoria herself has dropped in to admire her namesake!
14:03.
Homeward bound! I caught a packed TPE service from Victoria to Huddersfield, where I had enough time between trains for a ‘swifty’ in the wonderful ‘Kings Head’, one of the two pubs the station’s blessed with.
Now I’m bouncing my way home to Halifax on the generously proportioned 13:52 Huddersfield to Leeds via Brighouse. It’s a 3-car 144 and 2-car 150 lash-up, which means I’m the only passenger in the lead car! No doubt the train will fill up later in the journey.
19:46.
After getting back home Dawn and I had some quality time together, enjoying on of our favourite walks from home, down the hill and along the canal into Sowerby Bridge. The sunshine had deserted us, but it’s still a lovely walk this time of year as the leaves on the trees that line our route look stunning. We stopped off for a quiet drink and a chance to read the papers in Williams Bar before strolling back up the hill to home, feeling virtuous having spent Sunday active. Now we’re relaxing at home with a spot of culinary therapy. Dawn’s busy cooking a mixture of chorizo, cannellini beans and spinach which is used as a base for a fish dish whilst I’m waiting in the wings (and a chance at the cooker) with monkfish tails ready to go into a Thai green curry.
As often seems to be the case at the moment, the old axiom that plans never survive the first attack holds fast. I was intending to go back to Manchester today but ended up working in the office far longer than intended as a client (who shall remain nameless) had had been let down by a former member of staff and couldn’t locate a set of pictures I’d taken for them. To be honest, it took me a bit of digging to find them and send them duplicates. By the time all that was done and other bits and bobs sorted out thete wasn’t much point in heading West, so I nipped out to tick off another job on the list instead. Northern were running a special train through the Calder Valley for stakeholders in order to showcase the new Class 195s which will begin working Leeds-Chester services from next Monday, so I hung around to get shots of it in the valley before heading over to Leeds via Bradford and the cross-station interchange to give me a bit of exercise. After grabbing a few shots en-route I boarded a rammed Cross-country service up to York, my final destination. The plan was to get a few shots for a client that would feature the stations magnificent roof, and all went well. I’ll add a few pictures later.
16:58.
I’m now on the homeward leg after catching a busy Cross-Country service from York to Leeds that was made up of a modified HST set fitted with automatic doors. Only one door set had failed, which caued a bit of a scrum as two coachloads tried to exit the remaining working door! It being Friday, the trains were even busier than normal, which added to the chaos.
Leeds was equally as busy, although the new gateline seems to be coping well under pressure. The space it’s created on the platform side is certainly welcome on a day like this.
17:12.
The York – Blackpool service I’m on has been rammed all the way from Leeds. This is what it’s like on the final leg (for me at least) from Bradford. And yes, I’m sat on the luggage shelf!
19:17.
And relax! In our local pub with friends and Mel reading out the Pub Paper quiz in her broadest Lancashire accent!
Yet another early start saw me in the office before 07:30, sorting out a queue of pictures from past and present. First up was finishing scanning and editing another batch of old slides from 2000 which are now on my Zenfolio site. I’ve almost completed the whole album, much to my relief! I’ve no idea what year’s next in the queue, it could be contemporary or something from the 1990s. I’ll find out soon. That done, the lightbox was consigned to the cupboard and the desk cleared to allow me to collate the latest picture choices from a client, get them captioned and added to their website. After that the day descended into the mundane as I dealt with paperwork and emails. Conscious of the fact it was glorious subshine outside I made a bid for freedom early in the afternoon and headed into Sowerby Bridge to head West. I’m currently speeding across Chat Moss aboard an ex-Thameslink Class 319 en-route to Liverpool where I plan to get creative with the camera, even tho’ the sun seems to have deserted me. Let’s see how it goes…
16:09.
Oh, the joys of the all-stations stopper! I made a tactical error by catching this as we were held at Earlestown to let a late running TPE service overtake us. The problem? That TPE was one of the Hitachi Class 802 sets I was hoping to get shots of in Liverpool! Ho hum!
Bugger (pt 432).
My train was held yet again at Roby to ket two more expresses to pass, meaning that, as we approached Wavertree the train I wanted to get shots of went sailing past in the opposite direction! To add insult to injury, the heavens opened as we finally pulled into Lime St over 10 mins late.
This is where patience has to kick in. The light is awful, but there’s great potential, all I can do is wait for dusk to fall and colour return to the sky. I’d break out my old Northern Rail flask full of pea and mint soup, but then I really would look like a trainspotter!
19:15.
It’s almost the end to a frustrating afternoon. I’m heading back to Manchester on TPE’s 18:57 to Scarborough. I’ve managed to get a handful of useful shots but a combination of circumstances reatricted my options. A lot of late running meant that at times the station was almost devoid of trains, which wasn’t what I needed. Once the rush-hour was over I was surprised just how quite the place was. Still, the arch roof and modern (white) lighting made for good surroundings. I’ll add them later. Now I need to think of some new locations for the kind of shots I have in mind…
19:49.
I made a very rapid change of trains at Manchester Victoria, one of those that National Rail Enquiries wouldn’t even suggest. My TPE service came in at platform 3 and my Northern service to Leeds was leaving 3 minutes later from platform 6 which just gave me time to dash across the footbridge and see it coming in. This time of night you don’t hace tk fight your way past slow-moving pensioners, women with buggies or lost looking souls with suitcases the size of a small caravan, so it’s easier! I’m now relaxing on a care-worn but comfortable Class 156 where the heating’s working full belt, so it’s as warm as toast.
I’m out and about slightly later today as I was up and in the office at 06:30 this morning, sipping coffee whilst I edited yesterdays pictures and got them to the client before start of play so that they could make their selection today.
Whilst doing so I caught up on the days news. Apart from the usual Brexitshambles, HS2’s in the public eye as the Oakervee review is allegedly going to be published ln the 19th. What’s interesting is to see how much public support there is for the project. The North’s politicians and business leaders like the CBI and BCC are queuing up to say that any downgrading of the project would be very damaging. In contrast, the dwindling opposition to HS2 is very muted. The remaining campaign group, StopHs2, have neither the money or the recourses to do much. Their ‘Campaign Director’, Joe Rukin spends most of his time playing “Swampy” with the tiny bunch of protestors in woodland camps on the phase 1 route. The penny slowly serms to be dropping that Phase 1 isn’t going to be cancelled and the carrying over of the phase 2a Hybrid Bill onto this Parliaments agenda is sending signals that no-one expects that to be shelved either. The only questions are over phase 2b – hence all the lobbying from the North’s powerful lobby.
There are a few dissenting voices in the North. What’s mildly depressing is the way some here still play regional and party-political politics with a chip on their shoulder about London. They simply won’t accept that HS2 isn’t all about the capital. The positive thing is they’re very much in a minority and have no credible alternatives to offer, just obfuscation and yet more delays.
As a Lancastrian who lived in London for 25 years before moving to Yorkshire I find this envy and resentment of the South both frustrating and (ultimately) self-destructive. It’s daft, not least because many of us “Southerners” were former Northerners who made the most of the opportunities London and the South-East had to offer, rather than sticking with Northern parochialism and the feeling that the North’s “hard done by”.
A case in point was a discussion I had with someone complaining about the fact HS2 tracks wouldn’t reach Newcastle or Teeside. I asked him to make a positive case why they should. All I got back was resentments and political conspiracy theories. Now there’s no doubt the North has been ignored sometimes, but when all it does is moan and say “it’s not fair” it’s easy to dismiss. Concrete evidence of WHY investment in the North should be made and the benefits it’ll bring are harder to ignore, which is why it’s great to see the North’s political leaders embracing the opportunities “Northern Powerhouse” can bring rather than dismissing it as a political stunt. If only others did…
The frustrating thing is there are many inspirational people in the North and some fantastic things happening. If only we could ditch this Southern envy!
11.17.
I scribbled the above whilst changing trains at Hebden Bridge. I’m now aboard a 2-car Class 150 heading to Victoria to see some of the Northern Rail investment all too often ignored by some Northern politicians because the ‘wrong’ political party wrote the cheques for it! I’ll also be popping back to Piccadilly for a couple of hours to (hooefully) add a few more assistence pictures to the collection. Watch this space…
12:05.
Passing through Manchester Victoria I couldn’t help noticing how railway enthusiasts have returned to it’s platforms nowadays. A small group of them huddled at the East end of platform 5. For many years few bothered due to the steady diet of DMUs with an occaisional freight. Now, with a resurgence of freight and loco-hauled passenger services, plus new Nova 2 units snd Class 195s, it’s become a place to visit again!
14:30.
As the weather changes, so do plans. The miserabke weather we’ve been having over the past few days has given way to sunshine and the opportunity to catch some outdoor shots, so Piccadilly’s been postponed. Instead I’ve been getting shots around Manchesters rapidly changing city skyline (pix will be added later). Right now i’m bouncing my way to Wigan aboard an ostensibly ‘stored’ Northern Pacer (142046 for the number crunchers) which has presumably been resurrected to make uo a stock shortage. No doubt the picture will soon change again. Next week the new Class 195s are due to take over Leeds-Chester services, which (in theory) allows more Pacers to bite the dust before the December deadline.
14:37.
As we approached Bolton I noticed that the huge red brick “Beehive Mill” that’s adjacent to the line and been wmpty for years is in the process of being flattened. Cotton mills were an important part of Lancashire’s past, but they’ve no part in its future. Hopefully in 2019 the site can be put to better use.
15:34.
I’m taking a short break in Wigan to get some sonshine shots before heading back across the Pennines. Here’s my chariot, which is looking well for a ‘stored’ train!
17:50.
What a difference a few hours can nake to the weather! As I headed home through Manchester the sun was beating through cloudless skies and turning rail tracks into golden ribbons. I couldn’t resist stopping off at Victoria for an hour to capture some scenes and the opportunity presented by a flag-waving lookout stationed at just the right place on a platform end. I’ll ad some pictures later. Right now i’m on a busy Class 156 heading to Leeds via Brighouse as the 17:37 off Victoria.
I’m on my way to Manchester from Huddersfield as I’m going to be spending much of the day working at Manchester Piccadilly doing people pictures for a client – although I’m sure a few train shots my find their way onto my memory card whilst I’m at it!
Like almost every day this month the weather’s dull and wet with low cloud at a height of just a few hundred metres, hiding the tops of the Pennine hills and giving the Colne valley quite a claustrophobic feel. Apparently, this October is on track to be the wettest since records began, which is no surprise. I can’t remember another one where the rain’s been so persistant or the showers so heavy. The climate’s changing and all but the most dogmatic and blinkered climate change denier can see that.
Luckily, I’ll be working under a station roof, albeit a rather leaky one! Still, let’s be grateful for small mercies. I always enjoy working at Piccadilly as the staff are a great bunch of people who take a photographer in their midst in their stride. So, let’s see how the day goes…
Whilst I was passing through Manchester Victoria one of TPE’s new Hitachi built Nova sets arrived on a Liverpool Lime St – Newcastle service. Sadly, both sets in service today were unbranded, which is a shame as the new livery suits them far more than the existing fleet of Class 185s
802207 stands at Victoria whilst working 9E09, the 0925 Liverpool Lime St to Newcastle.
14:00.
Today’s office – and it’s been a busy one, photographing Network Rail staff offering all manner of assistance to passengers. From carrying their heavy suitcases, pushing wheelchairs or helping VIP’s (Visually Impaired People).
As usual, the staff have bern brilliant, but so have the passengers. No-one’s said no to having their picture taken and some have been really chatty. Every one of them has praised the staff at Piccadilly and the assist system in general. What I found interesting today was how the Network Rail staff I was working with were overwhelmingly young people compared to when I did the same series of shots (for ATOC as RDG was in those days) back in 2005.
15:04.
I’ve knocked off for the day and begun to wend my way homewards, pausing here and there to get shots of some of the stream of new trains coming into service on a weekly basis. Here’s one of Northern’s new CAF built class 195s at Oxford Rd.
17:11.
I had a ‘pit-stop’ at the Stalybridge station buffet on my way back to Huddersfield in order to have a ‘swifty’ and use their wifi to upload some pictures to my website. The buffet was its usual convivial self but what I hadn’t expected was to bump into one of the young men who works for Network Rail whom I’d been photographing earlier. He’d finished his shift and (like me) had stopped off on his way home. As we were both out of work we had an interesting chat. He was in stark contrast to my experience on the platform whilst waiting for my train, which was like being in a Victoria Wood sketch. The area was dominated by a young, overweight woman dressed in her best ‘Primani’ shouting into her phone at a female friend whom she had on speakerphone. Most of it was verbal diarrhoea, apart from the memorable line “I’ve just spent four and a half years in prison and he didn’t writ me once”…
20:15.
I’ve escaped the delights of ‘Stalyvegas’ and returned home to put my feet up, so there’s no more blogging from tonight, just a couple more pictures from the day.
The CAF built Class 195s are becoming a common sight around Manchester – especially on the Oxford Rd corridor. Here’s two of the units passing outside the station earlier today.The second of the Hitachi built Class 802s that was in service today was 802218 which is also unbranded. It’s seen here at Manchester Victoria whilst working 9M08, the 10:02 from Newcastle to Liverpool Lime St. I’m hoping to have a trip on one of these sets tomorrow…
I’ve been busy these past few days scanning more old slides. It feels like a never-ending job as – despite how many I get done – the pile never seems to decline much! There’s still thousands to do, but here’s a look at the latest batch.
Back in May 2000 I left London for a few days to spend time on the North Wales Coast and Anglesey exploring the region taking travel pictures as that was my main focus in those days, the railway stuff was just incidental. Now, looking back I realise just how much has changed since 2000. The irony? The railways were on the cusp of a major change then, as some of the first new trains following privatisation were being introduced in the area. 27 Class 175 DMU’s were being built by Alstom for First North-Western whilst Class 170s were being supplied by Bombardier to Central Trains. Meanwhile, the ‘old guard’ in the form of Class 37s and Metro-Cammell Class 101 DMUs soldiered on operating services along the coast. Now, in 2019 even the trains introduced in 2000 are going to be replaced! The new Transport for Wales franchise will be saying goodbye to the Class 175s in the next couple of years, just over 20 years since they were introduced! Gone are the days when steam locomotives were still in service 100 years after introduction, although in another irony, the Class 37/4s have been reintroduced into Wales as a stopgap, this time into the Welsh valleys once more.
Here’s a small selection of the photographs I took on the trip.
DRS class 20s at Chester whilst working 7C40, the Valley-Kingmoor nuclear flasks.A First North-Western Class 158 working a service to Holyhead passes Conwy Castle. This is one of the classic photographic locations on the North Wales Coast.37415 approaches Conwy castle whilst working 1D60, the 08.17 Crewe – Holyhead. 37429 passes Conwy castle with 1D62, the 08.08 Birmingham New St – Holyhead. A seagull uses a Class 101 DMU as a perch at Llandudno Junction. Unit 101678 was made up of vehicles 51210 and 53746. These Metro-Cammell units stayed in service until 2003.New Class 175 number 175003 is seen sitting on the Down Main next to Abergele and Pensarn signalbox whilst on test runs along the coast. 37429 powers away from Abergele and Pensarn whilst working 1K67, the 12.51 Holyhead – Crewe. Also seen at Abergele and Pensarn is this classic shot from a nearby footbridge showing the unusual semaphore arrangement on the Down line as 150133 passes on the 12.16 Manchester Piccadilly – Llandudno. These signals lasted until Easter 2018 when they were replaced as part of the £50m resignalling scheme that saw the traditional signalboxes between Colwyn Bay and Shotton abolished.37415 runs round its train at Holyhead before heading back into England as 1D99, the 18.22 to Birmingham. 37415 rolls past Holyhead signalbox whilst working 1D99. The North Wales featured a fine array of signalboxes. This is the one at Mold Junction which lasted until 2005. Class 101s stabled at Chester station. From left to right is 53746, 51210 and 53256. Virgin trains Class 47 number 47818 stands at Chester whilst working the 17.30 Euston to Holyhead.Brand new Bombardier built Class 170 number 170635 is seen at Chester whilst on test. Waterman Railways Class 47 number 47705 named ‘Guy Fawkes’ stabled at Chester. In 2003 the locomotive was rebuilt as part of the Virgin Trains ‘Thunderbird’ programme and become 57303.
Having been busy at home this morning I’m escaping from the office for a few hours to get some pictures of the latest investment in rail in the Leeds area. You know, the stuff Joe Rukin of ‘StopHs2’ claimed back in 2018 wasn’t happening as there’s no rail investment for the next 20 years “anywhere on the network” because HS2 had sucked up all the money! You can watch him lie through his teeth here.
It’s not an ideal day for getting out and about as the weather’s pretty crap, but I’m under time constraints as there’s a lot to see in the next month. The changes in the rail network are ramping up as more and more new trains are introduced and work continues to expand the network. On the bright side, the rain means there might be some good shot reflection shots to be had. Let’s see how it goes…
12:25.
As you can see, the weather’s best described as “changeable”!
14:20.
As is my wont, I’m taking the scenic route into Leeds! I changed trains at at Bradford and walked between the two stations. It breaks the monotony of taking the same route all the time and gives me chance to see something different. I’ve added to the detour by taking a trip out to Ilkley, where I’ve not been for a little while.
16:07.
I’m heading to Leeds, honest! I’ve just got sidetracked as it were. After Ilkley I stopped off at Baildon, which is a station on the single track link from Guisley to Shipley. The original station building still survives, although it’s been vacated by the tyre company that had been using it. Despite that, the stations environs are kept looking smart by the local station friends group. I’d not been here since 2010 and there were a couple of photo opportunities (despite the weather) so I decided to stop off.
18:30.I’ve finally made it to Leeds after even more detours and an Aire valley rail service that’s suffereing from lots of delays. It was worth it. The new station concourse may still be a work in progress, but it’s looking good! As well as the cleaned up concourse the old gateline has been removed and a new oone comissioned which-whilst it might be slightly smaller, provides much more room for folk as they flood off trains in the morning rush.
19:21.
Having got a selection of useful shots I’ve called ot a day and I’m heading home, bouncing my way from Leeds to Halifax aboard a Pacer bound for Huddersfield. With the teething problems associated with the new CAF built units, I wonder how long these sets have left?
On October 21st the CAF 195s are meant to take over the recently introduced hourly Leeds – Chester service, which will see the first of the units operating passenger services through the Calder Valley. This should free up a few 150x type units to displace more Pacers.
22:10.
I’m back home in the warm and dry and not a moment too soon! It’s a foul night! The rain started the minute I got off the train in Halifax and it’s not stopped since, the wind’s sprung up and all I can hear is the rustling of the trees and torrents of water running off the terraced garden walls outside my office window. To finish, here’s a small selection of shots from today. You’ll be able to find the full set on my Zenfolio website tomorrow.
331110 calls at Baildon whilst working 2D64, the 1516 Bradford Forster Square to Ilkley.The 322s won’t be around for much longer but for now they’re hanging on. Here’s 322481 working 2D63, the 1451 Ilkley to Bradford Forster Square.Inside the leading vehicle of 322481, showing the rather dated moquette and 3+2 seating layout.There was a lot of late running on the Aire and Wharfdale services today. Here’s 322482 approaching Shipley. It was running empty as 5S40, the 1640 Bradford Forster Square toSkipton as was taken off the service it was diagrammed to work due to the driver turning up late. Here’s 5Z75, the 1636 Skipton Broughton Rd C.S. to Skipton driver training run seen at Bingley on the return trip. These diagrams run to Shipley before reversing. One of TPE’s new Nova 3 sets at Leeds this eveningJourney’s end. My Pacer’s a blur as it pulls out of Halifax on its way to Huddersfield
It’s been several weeks since the last load of rubbish about ‘alternatives’ to HS2, so the right-wing lobbyists, sorry ‘think tank’, at the Adam Smith Institute have dug up rail commentator Adrian Quine to cobble together the latest one. It’s a bit like Frankenstein’s monster, it’s made up of loads of old parts from previous ‘alternatives’ plus some new stuff that’s completely made up – as you’ll see shortly.
But who is Adrian Quine I hear you ask? Good question, I had to ask that too but information is thin on the ground. On Twitter he bills himself as a “Thought leadership consultant” (Gawd! Ed) as well as an ex-BBC broadcaster & “occasional Telegraph columnist”. Apparently, he does say he once worked as a signaller for Network Rail on a “short fixed term contract”.
Quine’s long, cobbled-together piece can be found at this link. Titled “Don’t railroad it through: Rethinking HS2” ere’s a few examples. This is from the opening page.
” Under HS2, a number of key northern cities destinations will lose direct trains to London, including Lancaster, Carlisle and Durham”
Really? And what evidence is offered to support this claim? A link to an HS2 document on the Crewe hub that contains an illustration of a possible service pattern that’s used for modelling purposes and that’s clearly labelled as such, and err – that’s it…
Now, you might expect Quine to know that any timetable and stopping pattern on HS2 and the East and West coast main lines won’t be decided by HS2 Ltd. It will be decided by the Department of Transport, along with input from Network Rail. So this claim is demonstrably false with no evidence to back it up.
There’s more…
“There are still sections of railway where 4 tracks are reduced to 3 or even 2 creating bottlenecks and severely limiting further growth. The mainlines do not directly serve cities such as Birmingham, Manchester or Leeds, requiring the use of slower regional connecting lines that halve speeds for the final 20-40 miles.“
Leaving aside the fact that the line from London to Birmingham is the original main line (not a ‘regional connecting line’) and that Hs2 will be running into Curzon St, the site of the original London & Birmingham railway station, Quine has shot himself in the foot. This isn’t an argument against HS2, it’s an argument FOR it. The idea that you could four-track the line from Rugby to Birmingham through Coventry except at massive expense, disruption and destruction is risible – and 4-track a live main line whilst it’s still in daily operation? Oh, please!
Next we have this:
“maximising current infrastructure by targeting bottlenecks on conventional lines, including building flyovers at key junctions, upgrading the Chiltern route to Birmingham or reopening the southern section of the Great Central railway, raising line speeds to at least 125mph;”
Not these old chestnuts again? “targeting bottlenecks” is like playing ‘wack-a-mole’, all you do is move the problem elsewhere, as those involved in the Staffordshire Alliance work at Norton Bridge know only too well. You’d think a railway expert would too, but that’s the problem with Quine’s work. There’s lots of airy statements about ‘solutions’ but no serious attempt at analysis of them. He’s clearly not talked to anyone who was involved in these projects, hence the equally daft claim that you can upgrade the Chiltern route. A few minutes talking with any of Chiltern’s Management team would soon have put him right on that one. Unfortunately, the document is no longer available on line, but back in (around) 2012-13. Chiltern Railways wrote to the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on High-Speed Rail in support of HS2. They pointed out that the Chiltern route could never be a substitute for HS2 as it didn’t have the capacity along the route, it was impossible to four track all of it and that there was no space left for extra services at Marylebone. Since then there’s even less as Chiltern have opened the new line to Oxford via Bicester. This is a complete non-starter, as any real ‘rail expert’ should know.
As for reopening the Great Central – give me strength! I blogged about that nonsense at length here. On page 23 Quine adds an extra dimension to this lunacy by suggesting that an “existing spur” between the WCML at Rugby and the Great Central at Rugby could be “reopened”
“Reopen the southern section of the Great Central railways far north as Rugby where it would connect with the WCML and a new or upgraded existing spur at Rugby from the WCML to Birmingham via Coventry and Birmingham Airport.”
What “existing spur”? The two lines were never ever linked! Will someone please buy Quine a map? Here’s the area surrounding Rugby station and I’ve highlighted the route of the old Great Central in Red. How on earth are you going to build a Southbound link between the two without demolishing large parts of Rugby? Oh, and if you did by some miracle manage to get it built, how are you going to deal with the fact several miles of the route is now designated as SSSI’s? Get past them and there’s the teeny little problem there’s no capacity left (and no space to build any more platforms) at Marylebone. The idea’s a complete non-starter.
On page 22 we’re told…
“The Euston Express proposal is designed to fully integrate both HS2 and classic WCML services into the existing station, rather than HS2 having a standalone station alongside”.
However, experienced rail expert William Barter tweeted this.
There’s much more. On page 11 Quine opines that,
“HS2 has unnecessarily used 400kph (250mph) speeds in its modelling to promote more impressive ‘end to end’ journey times.”
This is complete nonsense of course, and yet again William Barter (a man who knows a thing or two about such modelling) puts Quine right.
In fact, once Quine tweeted a link to this nonsense, a number of rail professionals and Journalists have jumped in and picked his rubbish to pieces. Here’s just a few examples.
You can find more at the #HS2 hashtag on Twitter. Suffice it to say, this rehash of failed ideas and fantasies is going nowhere. I could spend most of the day tearing it to pieces, but you get the gist. There’s all the usual nonsense about how digital signalling removes the need for HS2 (without the slightest analysis of how this works, especially on a mixed traffic railway), and just about every other excuse you can find. None of which are actually analysed or referenced. Many of the references listed in Quine’s article aren’t from academic sources or journals but from sources that you wouldn’t touch with a barge-pole! They include many media outlets like The Spectator and the Daily Mail, and those paragons of truth and accuracy, the Taxpayers Alliance!
But then Quine is hardly independent, as a few minutes browsing his Twitter account (@adrianquine) shows. He’s singing from the same libertarian, pro-Brexit, anti Hs2 song-sheet as the people he retweets, the odious Julia Hartley Brewer, the IEA’s Richard Wellings, Kate Hoey MP, Brexit Party funder Richard Tice and many others. This makes his next statement on page 26 rather hypocritical.
“The rail industry is notoriously incestuous and is run almost entirely by engineers and career railway people rather than innovators”
Yet again the right-wing lobbyists try to turn their fire on HS2. Yet again they turn out to be using pop-guns….
UPDATE 6th January 2019.
This blog was amended to include the information that Quine mentions in a Telegraph article that he once worked as a signaller for Network Rail on a “short, fixed term contract”
I’m out and about with the camera today, hoping to make the most of a spell of sunny weather to get a selection of client and library shots. Dawn gave me a lift into Huddersfield which was basking in beautiful sunshine but right now I’m ln a Trans-Pennine service heading West into Lancashire where I seem to have hit a weather front. The entrance to the Standedge tunnel appeared to be in fog, so my plans may have to be fluid. Let’s see how the day goes…
13:00.
Perhaps I was a little too optimistic with the weather, but for once, the rain Gods have smiled on me. After leaving Huddersfield I headed for Mossley, a station on Trans-Pennine line in Greater Manchester. There’s some great photo locations around the village, so I headed for a couple of familiar locations where footbridges cross the line with rather scenic backdrops for the pictures. I ended up playing hide and seek with the sun, but for once it played ball just as the train I was after appeared. Here’s the shots.
One of Northern’s new CAF built Class 195s passing Mossley whilst on an empty stock movement, 5Z07, the 0915 Allerton Depot to Huddersfield Sidings.The one I was waiting for. One of TPE’s new Nova 3 sets which was working 1F60, the 0941 Scarborough to Liverpool Lime Street. It was signal checked right in front of me, allowing me to get several shots. Just as it arrived, the cloud cover broke and the sun arrived! The signal check allowed me to ‘leg it’ to another nearby bridge an get a different shot. Here’s 68030 bringing up the rear.
Within a few minutes of getting these shots the sky turned dark and threatening, so I decided to beat a hasty retreat back into Mossley. It was a wise choice. I was within 200 yards of the station when the clouds burst and we were treated to yet another torrential downpour!
Right now the skies are clearing again and I’m deciding on the next move – possibly back towards Huddersfield. Let’s see…
15:31.
After a brief foray to Manchester to check out the light I’m now back in Mossley where I’ve grabbed a couple of useful shots of trains passing along the back of the homes and shops on the main road. The fact the railway is literally knocking on people’s back door causes such space constraints that you get scenes like this!
Whilst waiting for photo opportunities I made the mistake of checking the news too see the latest on the Brexitshambles. It is not good. The British (or more correctly, the English) have humiliated themselves in the face of European unity and the unwillingness of the EU 27 to cave in to Johnson’s unworkable ‘plan’ – and I use that word in the loosest sense. So now the blame game is in full swing, as it was always planned to be. Now we have the pathetic sight of the Leave campaign resorting to crude nationalism and German bashing. It’s sickening, but entirely predictable. Most Leavers don’t have the nous to see this is Schrodingers Brexit, where we can simultaneously have “taken back control” and be ‘bullied’ by the EU (and especially by Germany). It’s the ultimate in fcukwittery, but nothing surprises me about this country anymore.
18:15.
After crossing the bider back into Yorkshure I tried for a few shots around Marsden, then Slaithwaite, onky to find locations I used just a few years sgo are now obscured by tree growth. It’s one of those things that makes me laugh about the Woodland Trust’s scaremongering campaigns. I’ve been living in Yorkshire for less than a decade, but in that time I’ve seen tree growth rise and spread. Look back at old photos of West Yorkshire from the 1950s and the growth of woodland is even more apparent. I was left with just one option, go higher up the valley side. I’ll add pictures later. Of course, by the time I’d climbed a sodding great cloud appeared, but at keast kniw I know where I need to be in the future!
Right now I’m heading back to Manchester to get a few blurry night shots to add to the library. There has to be some advantages to the nights drawing in…
It’s been another damp start to the week here in the Calder Valley with little sign of autumn sunshine, just murky low cloud and mist. It’s a great excuse to stay indooers and catch up on paperwork, picture-editing and chores in the hope I can get out and about for the reat of the week to catch-up with the changes on the Northern rail network and also farther afield as I’ve a long list of shots that I need to get for a commission…
The weekend was a chance to have a lie-in and catch up on my sleep deficit, even if Jet (our cat) had other plans by waking me up at 06:20 on Saturday morning! The little bugger wanted feeding and made a real hue and cry until I did.
The weekend wasn’t all down time. I had to finish editing the pictures from the ACoRP awards ready for Monday morning, so the moggie did me a favour in some ways as I’d got them done by Saturday breakfast-time. On Sunday I started tackling another long-standing job – scanning the 1000s of old rail slides that I have to get them onto my Zenfolio website and available for sale. The album that’s in the queue now is pictures from 2000 when the railways looked very different. I scanned a small selection of pictures from the Manchester area, a few samples of which appear below. In those days Virgin trains were all still loco-hauled as the introduction of the Pendolinos and Voyagers were still a couple of years away. First group ran the North-Western franchise and used an assortment of old BR built trains, including first generation Class 101 DMUs built by Metropolitan-Cammell back in the late 1950s – early 1960s, along with old electric units cascaded from London and the South-East in the shape of ex-Eastern region slam-door Class 305s and 309s. Apart from the liveries, very little seemed to have changed then despite several years of privatisation, but change was certainly in the offing…
On the 14th April 2000 a pair of Metro-Cammell Class 101 DMUs pass at Guide Bridge whilst working services out to New Mills. On the left is 51230 and 45056 whilst the other pair is 51201 and 54347. All four cars were built in 1958. The last handful of 101s were withdrawn in 2003. Former ‘Clacton’ unit 309623 stands in Manchester Piccadilly on the same day. Seven of the units were brought out of storage for use in the North-West in 1994 and remained in service until later in 2000. The 309s were BRs first 1000mph capable electric units.Also on the 14th April 2000, Fragonset Railways 47712 crosses the Stockport viaduct whilst on hire to Virgin trains. It was working the 15:36 from Manchester Piccadilly to Birmingham New St. Fragonset went bust in 2006 and the loco was sold to Direct Rail Services (DRS) who still operate the engine to this day.
Paul Bigland 