Yep, I know it’s rather late in the day for a rolling blog but this is the best format to describe the day – and I’m still out and about.
I’d always hoped to get out today but the weather’s been grey and wet, so my original objective of garnering some scenic rail pictures went out of the window. But I did have another idea in mind. A discussion about surviving railway signalboxes has been generated on Twitter following my outing the other day. This reminded me that there was one old box at Pontefract I’d never managed to get a picture of as the sun was in the wrong place. Not a problem today – obviously! That said, I’ve not been around that area for years and was overdueca visit. So, after completing some other work this morning I decided to head off to ‘Pontycarlo’.
Walking down into Sowerby Bridge I jumped the first train to Leeds. I’d have preferred to have caught a Grand Central train direct from Halifax to Ponty but I was too late in the day. The trip to Leeds was fine. The train wasn’t too busy and Leeds station itself was in that quiet time between rush-hours and the mad influx into the city for a Friday night on the town.
My local service to Pontefract was late due to the fact two units had to be joined to form the service and one was late arriving. Sadly, this route’s worked by Class 150s now rather than the old ‘Pacer’ railbuses which I much preferred (although plenty of ordinary passengers would disagree!).
Arriving at Pontefract Monkhill I made a quick dash through a former council (or possibly NCB) housing estate to the kevel crossing where I could spy the old signalbox. It was built by the Lancashire and Yorkshire in 1912 and its showing its age – not helped by a fire that damaged a lot of the wooden structure in 2019.
The colliery it allowed access to (which was to the left of the picture) is long-gone by a decade or more. Now it’s a housing estate. The box itself was originally blanned to have been abolished in 2019 but like many of Network Rail’s resignalling plans it never happened. Who knows how long it’ll last now?
Right now I’m heading back to Leeds aboard yet more late-running Class 150s. It’s been an interesting day. Partly because I realise I got to see the last of the Yorkshire coal traffic by moving up to this neck of the woods in 2010. So much has changed in that time, even though to me it seems recent.
At some point I’ll write a blog dedicated to the surviving signalboxes of West Yorkshire. I have pictures of all but two. Once I’ve snapped those…
One of the joys (and frustrations) of railway photography for someone who’s trying to document the whole scene is it’s a bit like trying to complete a jigsaw. One wgere people keep removing and adding pieces! You’re never going to finish the picture, all you can do is try and leave as few missing pieces as possible.
17:40.
I’m back in Leeds and waiting for the 17:43 to Manchester Victoria to leave. It’s remarkably quiet in the front unit but I suspect that’s because it’s a ‘poets’ day in June. The station’s busy, but that’s with people heading into the city on a night out rather than returning home.
21:45
It’s time to end the day – and the blog. But I’ll do that with a few more pictures. On the way home from Halifax I did pop into our local pub to catch up with friends whom I’ve not seen for a few weeks as Friday night’s quiz night. Here’s some of the types of beer on offer.
Meanwhile, here’s a couple of extra pictures from the day…
LNERs ‘Azuma’ number 800109 is ready to leave Leeds for London Kings Cross. Later in the day, Grand Centrals Bradford – Kings Cross service worked by 180105 is about to call at Pontefact Monkhill whilst working 1A67, the 1450 Bradford Interchange to London Kings Cross.
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Here I am, almost in July – wondering where the bloody hell the year’s going! 2023’s certainly had its interesting moments so far, but I feel that I’ve a long list of things I want to do/see/achieve and I’m only scratching the surface in a race against time.
I’d intended to get out and about today but realised I’d more than enough things to do here at Bigland Towers – especially as I had a couple of hours set aside this afternoon to be part of a ‘Zoom’ seminar. Us Community Rail judges have made ourselves available on 2-hour long scheduled Q&A sessions to help people with their entries for the CRN awards. After the last one I’d contemplated holding the surgery whilst I was travelling but that wouldn’t have been fair on those popping in as you just know technology would let you down at the crucial moment.
So, I stayed at home, ignored the good(ish) weather and edited loads of pictures and dealt with paperwork instead. You can find the latest batch of pictures in the following galleries. Railway stations are here, whilst railway infrastructure and engineering is here. Borth galleries relate to my travels yesterday.
This evening I’ve been busy in the kitchen, giving Dawn a break after her culinary endeavors on our Norfolk holiday. Tonight’s effort was batch-cooking Thai green curry with chicken, which should keep us well fed for a few days and the freezer topped up for the future.
Of course, tomorrow’s another day. Will I make it out anywhere? Let’s wait and see. In the meantime, here’s today’s picture. As I was wading through the archives earlier I realised there’s one batch of pictures I still haven’t done anything with. These are the transport pictures from our visit to Turkey nearly two months ago. Eventually, they’ll go in their own gallery on my Zenfolio website, but for now, here’s a taste.
Modern trams in Sultanhamet Square. If only more cities had this greener form of transport.
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/
The weather’s finally picking up. Well, it’s stopped raining – so I’m off to have a look at recent work on the Trans-Pennine route upgrade (TRU) for the afternoon.
Having walked down to Sowerby Bridge station I fear I may be overdressed as it’s far warmer and muggier than the forecast suggested, shorts and a vest top would have been better than walking pants, polo shirt and a denim jacket. Today may get sweaty!
I’m currently aboard Northern’s 11:22 to Leeds made up of a pair of Class 158s. I’m not going to complain as the air-conditioning’s welcome! Next stop is Batley, then Morley…
Feel free to pop back and see what I get up to during the day…
11:40.
Our first stop was at Brighouse where I spied half a dozen members of the station friends group buzzing around keeping the place clean and maintaining the garden and planters. The station looks stunning at the moment as everything’s in summer bloom. I really need to pop in and get some pictures whilst I can.
Network Rail have been busy too. Sections of the old 4-track route towards Huddersfield have had some serious vegetation clearence carried out. The work’s removed many large trees and opened up views lost for 30-40 years, as well as having made the lineside safer.
14:00.
Time for a break. Detraining at Batley I walked to the site of Lady Anne Crossing, a former road level crossing that’s been reduced to a foot crossing for several years. It was guarded by one of the last operational signalboxes in West Yorkshire, but it was abolished last weekend as it’s been replaced with a footbridge as part of the TRU. Here’s a few pictures.
Looking across to the ramp that’s been built out of the old GNR railway embankment to allow level access to the footbridge from the Eastern side of the railway. Work’s still in progress to create steps as a shortcut, finish some fencing and minor works as well as landscaping.Seen from the new footbridge, a TPE Class 185 bound for Manchester crosses the site of the old foot crossing. Not the new bi-directional signalling which has been commissioned during the blockade. The new footbridge. This was installed by a rail-mounted crane in four lifts over two days. The decommissioned signalbox. This leaves Horbury Junction box near Wakefield as the last operational signalbox in West Yorkshire.
Next stop was at the new station at Morley which opened on Monday after a 9 day blockade of the line which also allowed the work at Batley to be completed. Well, I say completed – neither is as there’s still cosmetic and other work to be done but the point is the facilities they were replacing have closed. TRU staff have worked hard to get these improvements done on time and the new station at Morley is a great improvement on the cramped old station.
The site of the old station. The footbridge and Huddersfield bound platform have already been demolished and track through the site relaid. A stopping service from Leeds to Huddersfield pulls out of the new station. As can be seen, there’s still a lot of work to be completed. The footbridge has temporary steps and no lift towers. Looking down from the footbridge onto the new platforms at Morley.A TPE service from Huddersfield to Leeds calls at the new platform 1.
16:15.
Things haven’t entirely gone to plan! After a brief stop at Dewsbury to upload pictures and avoid showers I caught a TPE service to Huddersfield and back to check out TRU work as things change on a weekly basis. At the moment a worksite’s being set up West of Deighton where two rail overbridges are to be replaced. The new signalling that’s been commissioned streches East from LNW junction by Ravensthorpe to beyond Morley. Huddersfield itself remains little changed – at the moment. I was only intending to change trains at Dewsbury in order to head back to Brighouse but I got caught up in 30 plus minute delays due to kids trespassing on the lines I’d only just traversed. Now I’m finally on a delayed Northern service heading in the right direction.
21:30.
I stopped off in Halifax en-route to home for a swift libation at the Meandering Bear, a bar in town where some neighbours work. As they were both in I ended up chatting and the swift beer turned into two. Oops!
Name your poison…
Back home I was on cooking duty, learning to use our new Ninja air-fryer. Dawn’s already converted but I’ve yet to get to grips with it, although after a couple of tries I have to say I’m impressed.
I’ll get the hang of it, eventually…
Now it’s time to relax. Tomorrow’s another day.
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/
Yes – it’s back! It’s been increasingly difficult to find candidates for this feature as there’s so few people left pretending they can stop HS2 and the ones that are would all (in one way or another) qualify for this title. But one does stand head and shoulders above the others at the moment, and helps illustrate a wider political problem. Step forward Sarah Green, long-time anti HS2 timewaster and fantasist and the new Green party candidate for the forthcoming Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election. This is the seat vacated by that narcissistic sack of custard, former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who abandoned it in a hurry when his lies caught up with him.
In their ‘wisdom’ the local Green Party chose Green as their candidate, replacing another no-hoper and anti HS2 fantasist Mark Keir (blogs passim), who failed to get anywhere in the 2019 election. He came 4th with just 2.2% of the vote way behind Johnson who won with 52.6%. Both Keir and Green have stood (and been rejected) for the Council several times in the past. I’ve no doubt this record will be maintained.
This time the election’s an even more crowded field as this candidate list from Wikipedia shows.
The favourite to win is the Labour candidate, Danny Beales, a local lad who’s currently Camden Counciller. Labour have always come second in the constituency and with the levels of disgust at both the Tory party and Johnson the predictions are they’ll win (albeit narrowly) this time.
Sarah Green will get nowhere, just like the greens candidate (Carolyne Culver) in the Amersham and Chesham by-election in 2021. Culver managed to decrease the green party’s vote in Amersham and I have a suspicion Green may well do the same in Uxbridge. Why?
Green is running a hopeless single-issue campaign that’s entirely focussed on her personal opposition to HS2. It’s a horribly ‘nimby’ and parochial campaign (just like the one Culver ran) based on nothing but scaremongering and exaggerations on the supposed damage HS2 just might do to the area’s rivers and pollution to the Chiltern aquifer that supplies some of London’s drinking water. There’s just one teeny, tiny problem here. None of this scaremongering has ever come true. No streams have been polluted by HS2 and London’s drinking water remains unaffected. A few minor spills of Bentonite (inert drilling mud) and several sinkholes (embarassing, but with no real impact on anything) do not a pollution incident make. Meanwhile, the piles for the Colne valley viaduct (something else Green spread scare stories about) were all sunk without incident and the two tunnel boring machines launched from the South Ruislip portal continue to bore their way Eastwards – away from the aquifer! Of course, none of these inconvenient facts have stopped Green spreading her scare stories, but like the boy who cried wolf, people are getting increasingly bored of hearing them. Even dragging out Jenny Jones from the House of Lords to join in the scaremongering – sorry – ‘campaigning’ hasn’t had the desired effect as the replies to Jones’s Twitter posts have been anything but supportive. As usual, that led the notoriously touchy Jones reaching for the block button even more. Jones really doesn’t like being challenged by anyone – especially people in possession of facts! She is so infamous Greens4HS2 used to sell a T-shirt which said ‘blocked by Jenny Jones’! Here’s a recent bit of nonsense they’ve put out on Facebook. Note the £100m a week figure, which has been plucked from thin air. Also note that they’re protesting about building a green electric railway – outside a green electric railway station that Jones used to get to there from the Lords! Ironic, eh? – only these people don’t do irony (or self-awareness).
Needless to say, people locally and elsewhere seem to be less than impressed, hence Green’s crowdfunder bombing. With only two days left to go it’s stuck on 25% of its modest £2500 target.
5th July funding update. Greens crowdfunder closed on the 29th of June, having raised no more than the £630 (or 25%) shown here. Way short of the £2,500 they wanted.
Whilst Green doesn’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell, there is a wider issue here – which is the Green party’s inability to put forward credible candidates due to their structure. Why aren’t the Greens (unlike their EU counterparts) seen as little more than a repository for protest votes?
Probably because the Green party of England and Wales (the Scots are much more sensible – and independent of GPEW) are not a credible political party. At best they’re a semi-anarchic protest movement who’ve had the luck to get a single MP elected – although that luck may not hold now that Caroline Lucas has announced she’s standing down from her Brighton seat at the next election. Her personal popularity has helped her get elected but if the local party put forward someone of the caliber of their usual candidates, that could change…
Green party members don’t like being told what to do. They’re an undisciplined and contradictory bunch and that’s how they like it. Their problem is – voters don’t, which is why GPEW have never broken through on the national stage and never will. Oh, it’s OK to have some local councillor posturing and prancing around with a placard but people (in general) expect their MPs to have more credibility. Yes, I know some of the Tories 2019 intake have proved to be a bunch of clowns (especially in ‘red wall’ seats) but they’re heading for extinction at the next election. Does anyone in Uxbridge really look at Sarah Green and see someone who they think can represent their best interests in Parliament (never mind Government)?
Greens aren’t bothered by that. Because most of them would never want to be in power anyway as it would mean putting their money where their mouth is. In that respect they’re like a lot of people on the left, they value ideological purity more than making compromises to actually get anything done.
There’s another problem that’s prevalent within the GPEW. Nimbyism. The BBC recently carried an article illustrating how many ‘green’ Cllrs oppose things like solar farms – often on the flimsiest of pretexts. The irony (and hypocrisy) of a party that’s always telling us we’re in the midst of a ‘climate emergency’ but that constantly opposes ways of tackling it (HS2, solar and wind farms) isn’t lost on a lot of people. This is a classic case of Greens ignoring the science by suggesting solar panels should be on roofs not in fields, ignoring the fact that you can’t build the utility scale of solar we need on rooftops. But hey ho – what do experts know compared to green party members? It’s HS2 all over again.
I’m not alone in being frustrated with GPEW, there’s quite a few decent party members who see the problem too, but the way the party is constituted means there’s no way to change things without root and branch reform and there’s no way the majority of the membership would countenance such a thing – which is why – if you really want to see a green future, it’s a waste of time voting green. There’s more chance of stopping climate change than there is getting GPEW to reform.
I’ll watch the result of the Uxbridge by-election with interest. Still, there’s on bright spot on the horizon. Unlike last time, voters will be spared the pantomime sight of former @stophs2 ‘Campaign Manager’ Joe Rukin dressing up as a tree!
5th July update.
More analysis has come out about the campaign which shows why the Green and the greens are barking up the wrong tree as usual. Ben Walker from ‘Britain elects’ has written this very interesting piece in the New Statesman which suggests local issues may well mean it’s not the cakewalk that Labour are anticipating. But that local issue isn’t HS2 – it’s London’s ULEZ (the Ultra Low Emission Zone) proposed by Boris Johnson but enacted by Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan. This offers no help to the Green as she’s entirely focused on HS2 and if pressed would support the ULEZ.
The bookies aren’t impressed by her either. Here’s recent odds on the various parties.
Green and the greens are 300/1 – behind the Reclaim Party, which is the vehicle for failed actor and right-wing bandwagon-jumper Laurence Fox!
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It’s another working week back here at Bigland Towers. The holiday and the weekend flew by all too quickly. Now my focus is centred on work, although parts of the holiday were very much the proverbial busman’s. Sunday was in similar vein as I waded through pictures I needed to get out to clients or just place on my website. It wasn’t too much of a problem as the pair of us had no great plans for the day. The weather forecast predicted thunderstorms so there was little point in planning a great outdoors adventure. In the end the predictions were false. Oh, we had some moody skies- but no pyrotechnics – much to our joint disappointment. What we did gate late in the day was some very heavy showers, which saved me the job of watering the gardens so I’m not going to complain! In the evening the pair of us sat down to watch the finale of the Glastonbury festival with the appearance of Elton John, who was excellent. It certainly took me back a bit. I’ve not been to Glastonbury since 2000 and the last time I saw Elton John live was in 1975!
Today’s been another day where I’ve spent much of my time glued to a computer screen. I needed to finish penning my net article for RAIL which is about the ‘3 peaks by rail’ marathon from the other week. You’ll be able to read all about it in RAIL 987 which will hit the newsagents on the 12th July. Tomorrow my work moves online as I’ll be taking part in an online seminar for Community Rail Network as part of my role as one of the CRN awards judges. Hopefully, on Wednesday (weather permitting) I’ll be out and about looking at the latest work on the trans-pennine route upgrade (TRU) before I’m back to online work on Thursday.
In the meantime, expect more blogs to appear as I’m free to write about other stuff just as ‘me’. O, and there’s plenty of pictures to look at too. You’ll find recent railway images from the Anglia network here, travel images here and social issues photography here. There’s more to come when I’ve finished editing other categories later in the week.
I’ll end with the picture of the day which comes from last weeks outings. I found these old wooden-bodied railway coaches just down the road from where we were staying. These were once a common sight around the country from the early part of the last century as railway companies sold off old vehicles to be used for a variety of uses, from chicken coops to holiday homes. Few remain, which is why I was surprised to find these two still in use as part of someone’s home.
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Today’s been our last day here in Norfolk before heading back to Yorkshire tomorrow. We’ve been extremely lucky with the weather which has been better than was originally forecast and a damned sight better than the conditions we’ve missed up North where there’s been a lot of rain whilst we’ve had hardly a drop here.
This morning we visited the aviation museum at Norwich which is opposite the airport on the old Norwich Rd. The whole area is part of the former Horsham St Faith RAF base and the museum occupies a small site on the other side of the A1270. Whilst the site may be small, it fits a lot into it. The museum buildings house a fascinating history relating to East Anglian airbases during WW2 with lots of memorabilia, aircraft parts, uniforms and hardware, along with informative displays on what the RAF’s 100 Group got up to during the war. Outside the buildings are the aircraft – large and small – from tiny Cessna’s to the mighty Vulcan bomber and Nimrod maritime aircraft (you can book tours of the inside of both). There’s also various cockpits and engines on display. For those interested in aviation or WW2 it’s a great place to visit.
The Nimrod maritime reconnaissance aircraft is based on the old De-Havilland ‘Comet’ jet airliner from the 1950s. The mighty ‘Vulcan’ V-bomber.
Having nipped back to Cromer for a last afternoon stroll on the pier we returned home to pack before nipping out to eat locally at the Black Boys hotel in nearby Aylsham. This popular pub sits in the centre of town on the market square. The four of us dined here last year and enjoyed it so much we returned again this year. I enjoyed the belly pork – a dish I don’t cook at home, so it’s a treat to have when I’m out.
The diet starts on Monday…
Now it’s time to call it a day before an early start tomorrow in order to finish the packing and begin the trek Northwards. Our time down here has flown but there’s plenty for me to do when we get back so I’m not too sad to leave. After all, there’s always next time…
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Apologies for the lack of blogging these past few days but we’re on holiday in Norfolk and I’ve been trying to concentrate on enjoying ourselves. Well, not entirely. I’ve still had to do some work in order to get all the ‘3 peaks by rail’ pictures edited and off to the Railway Children charity and others for a forthcoming article in RAIL magazine, so that’s taken up my evenings rather than blogging. Whilst I’ve been working Dawn’s been enjoying herself in the kitchen, coming up with some wonderful food to feed the four of us.
We’ve been graced with some fabulous weather here in North Norfolk. Back in the Pennines there’s been a lot of rain whilst here we’ve had mostly wall to wall sunshine, leavened by a few clouds. Our days have been spent exploring Cromer and the coast, a trip on the North Norfolk railway and then – yesterday – a sortie over the border into Suffolk to visit Southwold, the lovely seaside town which is home to Adnams brewery. We’ve one day left here before we head back North, so we’re determined to make the most of it. Here’s a few pictures to give you a flavour of the trip.
On Tuesday we enjoyed a couple of trips on the North Norfolk railway behind this beastie, seen here at Holt station.Here’s a classic real ale pub in Cromer. The Red Lion hotel (yes, it also has rooms and serves food). Just a few of the real ales there were on sale during our visit. The pier at Southwold is hardly the grandest (or longest) in the UK, but it’s still a pleasant addition to this seaside retreat.The Sole Bay Inn and lighthouse in Southwold.On the way back from Southwold we stopped at the lovely Rushcutters Arms pub on the Eastern side of Norwich. It has a lovely riverside spot on the river Yare, good beers and a view of the railway. Tonight’s meal cooked by Dawn using fish bought from the excellent Davies Fish Shop in Cromer as well as other local ingredients. From L-R there’s Crevettes, Cromer crab, anchovies and Seabass. That was accompanied by local Asparagus and Dee’s home-made meatballs. Oh, there’s also a tomato salad and scalloped potatoes too…
Don’t worry, once I get back to Yorkshire I’ve lots to blog about, including the latest ‘green’ party anti HS2 lunacy in the first ‘crazy anti HS2 campaigner of the week’ for 2023 – although looking at the way their campaign’s shaping up it won’t be the last…
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We’ve had a relaxed day here in Norfolk so it’s a short blog from me tonight. None of us were rushing this morning although I did spend time working in order to tackle the mountain of pictures I need to edit from ‘3 Peaks by rail’. Then this afternoon we drove over to Sheringham to meet up with an old friend and enjoy sunshine, drinks and ice-cream – just the sort of things you expect of time at the seaside. Admittedly, we did have a quick look at the North Norfolk railway, which made us decide to pop back tomorrow to explore and take a trip along the line.
This evening has been just as relaxed – except for Dawn, who’s been busy in the kitchen cooking. But that’s something Dee really enjoys doing so we didn’t feel too guilty about letting her – and I did muck in to do the washing up and tidying!
The day’s been rounded off nicely by seeing that Parliament voted to accept the recommendation of the Committee looking at Boris Johnson lying to it by 354 to 7. Of course, we all knew he’d done that, but now it’s official. It was hardly the Tory party’s finest hour as most of their MPs were conspicuous by their absence, including Sunak, who seems to have forgotten his pledge of bring ‘integrity’ back to Government. As for the 7 who voted against, they weren’t all the usual suspects. One of them, uber- brexiter and right-wing old fossil Bill Cash has already announced he won’t be standing at the next election. I just hope the constituents of the other six dispose of them by the ballot box when they have the chance. Six of the seven (Bill Cash, Nick Fletcher, Adam Holloway, Karl McCartney, Joy Morrissey and Heather Wheeler) are Tories. The seventh is unknown according to the BBC and other sources, which suggest the tellers could have miscounted. Time will tell.
On that happy ending I’ll leave you with todays picture which was taken at the North Norfolk railway earlier.
This is British Railways ‘standard’ Class 4 2-6-0 number 76084 which was built at Horwich works, Lancashire in March 1957. It’s pictured at Sheringham station before working a train to Holt, the Western terminus of the line.
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/
Well, that was a blast! I’m starting to come down from the buzz of the past few days on ‘3 Peaks by rail’. This morning I heard the fantastic news that the event raised £250,000 for the Railway Children charity which make all the sweat, sprains and sleepless days worthwhile.
Now – after a brief night at home – I’m showered and changed and on my way to Norfolk to catch up with Dawn and her parents at the cottage we’ve rented for the week. I left Halifax on Northern’s 10:03 to Leeds which was (unusually) a five-car train – the first I’ve seen. working the route. I’d hoped to do some writing en-route but the wifi wasn’t working and I couldn’t be bothered setting up the full ‘office’ for the 40 minute journey to Leeds so I relaxed instead. Now I’m on LNER’s 11:05 from Leeds to London as far as Peterborough and editing pictures on the way. I know I’m meant to be on holiday but for freelances that’s an interesting concept as I still have pictures to edit and a magazine article to write! I’m hoping to be able to update yesterdays blog with a few shots later – and (of course) add some pictures to this one too when I’m not dependent on the onboard wifi as (understandably) train companies take a dim view of you file-sharing via their bandwidth.
Right now, we’ve just left Newark, passing a failed Grand Central Class 180 which has been left in disgrace in the sidings. t’s a sad sight. GC are having a torrid time of it at the moment due to such incidents happening on a regular basis. I like the 180s, they’re a good train internally but they’ve suffered with reliability issues throughout their lives. I think it’s time their owners (Angel trains) put them through a life-extension programme and sorted these issues out once and for all. Mind you, it’s not just the 180s that have problems. I’m on a modern nine-car ‘Azuma’ set which has no reservations loaded into the system due to their being a late set-swap. This should have been two-five cars sets so 10 into 9 won’t fit!
13:30.
After a pleasent journey down to an old haunt (Peterborough) I discovered my connection to Norwich was running up to 25 minutes late due to signalling failure – which blew out my next connection and puts me back an hour. Ho hum. The delay gave me time to grab a couple of library pictures before boarding the 2-car Class 158 East Midlands Railway have provided for today’s service. As is tradition with Class 158s the air-conditioning is struggling in the warm weather so I’m glad the train’s only around 60% full.
A London-bound Azuma calls at Peterborough The late-running 12:52 to Norwich
15:45.
Phew! That 158 was like a sauna. Add in the last few days exertions and lack of sleep and I was soon dozing off. I managed to stay awake to observe the lines of stored diesel trains at Potters of Ely, where a number of ex-East Midlands Railway class 156s are laid up which is annoying as Northern could certainly use ’em, but beyond that sleep soon claimed me. I had 50 mins ‘downtime’ at Norwich where I put the camera to use, and now I’m on my way to my final destination – North Walsham – aboard one of the best trains on the UK network, the Stadler built Class 745s.
Someone else had the same idea as me…
The weather here feels muggy with the threat of thunder in the air. A few spots of rain intruded whilst I was waiting for the train but it was half-hearted and never came to anything. I wouldn’t mind a good storm here as you’ll see it for miles in these flatlands.
21:45.
No thunderstorm here in Banningham sadly – just rain. Still, it’s good to be here again although it’s an early night for me and chance to catch-up on some sleep. See you all tomorrow!
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So much for plans! I’d originally hoped to be a rolling blog but that idea went out of the window in the early hours of this morning. Shortly afterwards the chance of blogging at all went with it. You’ll learn now why that is.
Like most of the folks on the train I managed to grab between 2-4 hours sleep on the train to Kingussie before we had to disembark at the even more ungodly hour than normal of 02:25 in order to be loaded on coaches which spent the next 90 minutes getting us to the base of Ben Nevis. The logistical challenges of such a short-notice change shouldn’t be underestimated. Once at the mountain and with the teams off up the mountain there wasn’t much for me to do after we’d worked out the only sensible place for the banner teams would have their photo taken behind. So – I donned my midge net, smothered myself in weapons-grade mosquito spray and crashed out of a few hours. At Ben Nevis this is a rare treat as normally the ground will be too wet or the weather too cold. But today I slept like a log for a couple of hours, preparing myself to spring into action when teams started coming down off the mountain.
It was a good move! By the time I woke up the majority of the midges had buggered off leaving the weather as pleasant as I’ve ever known it at Nevis.
Despite all their exertions over the past few days most teams made it up and down the mountain in good time and there were hardly any stragglers which was a real achievement. In fact, the first couple of teams stormed it. The difficulty with this event is that ‘time waits for no man’ although in this you can translate time for trains. A handful of people couldn’t make it off Ben Nevis in time to catch the special so they had to be ferried by road to Dalwhinnie where we picked them up.
The rest of us were coached back to Kingussie where folk decided their priorities. The toilets at the Ben Nevis visitor centre were out of order, so you either added to your intake or made room – rapidly! We were back on the train at 14:25 accompanied to the sounds of the bagpipes – which was a lovely touch and a nod to Katie Mason’s Scottish ancestry. You’ll see from the pictures I’ll add later
The train back South has been a riot! The atmosphere was superb but tinged with sadness as we’re saying goodbye to Katie Mason who’s been the stalwart of the event these past 20 years. The on-board crew did us proud with the service on-board. Mary Grant from Porterbrook (the event sponsor) joined us and yet again braved the sweaty bodies to prevent trophies to the three teams who’s raised the most money. I didn’t stop for a minute as I was constantly in demand to take pictures – either inside the train or out when we could choreograph them.
There’s so many good pictures to show from the event and I’ll add a few when I get home. Right now I’m on a very late running train from Preston to Halifax. I’ve managed to get a table to myself but that may be because I’ve not washed properly since Thursday!
19th June update.
I’ve finally had time to edit some of the pictures, so here’s a first few. The rest will appear over the next few days…
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/
Paul Bigland 