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Having been tied up at home recently (not literally you understand) and having had an appointment down in Sowerby Bridge this morning I thought ‘bugger it’ and escaped the valley for a few hours – even tho’ the weather was less than clement. I caught a train from Sowerby Bridge to Leeds via Dewsbury which allowed me a window-seat to observe progress on the Trans-Pennine Route Upgrade (TTU) – not that were huge changes. The most obvious sign that something’s afoot is the amount of new cable troughing that’s sat on pallets by the lineside, waiting to be installed. Well, that and the new stations of course. Morley’s coming along. The old platforms are being demolished and the new station’s slowly gaining a new footbridge with lifts. Farther up the line (or should that be Down the line?) ‘White Rose’ station’s taking shape. I’ll venture out next month to get pictures of progress.

Arriving at Leeds I swapped from Northern to a late-running TPE (surprise, surprise) service to York. There’s TPU work happening on this section too but I’m not familiar with the specifics other than the overhead wires having spread West from Colton Junction to end in the middle of nowhere – for now.

When I arrived at York I found it strangely quiet, although the fact it’s a September Tuesday may have had an impact as there’s bugger-all going on. That said, there’s always something of railway interest, as these pictures prove.

Former East Midlands Trains ‘dogbox’ 153311 is now used as a test train. I managed to catch it in the sidings during its brief layover.
Former Calder Valley class 155 set 155345 rattles the station roof as it rumbles its way to Bridlington. Nowadays, this small class of 7 units are all based at Hull’s Botanic Gardens depot.
Mind the gap. Level boarding is a dream on lots of the railway network, as this shot of passengers detraining from a Blackpool North – York service illustrates.
Grand Central have been having an awful time with reliability of their Angel trains class 180 fleet recently. So much so units have been hired in. Here’s former East Midlands Railway 180110 working 1N95, the 1427 London Kings Cross to Sunderland.

I’ll add these and other pictures to my Zenfolio website shortly. Right now I’m back at home and taking the night off. See you soon…

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