Monthly Archives: October 2023

Musings…

21 Saturday Oct 2023

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I’ve a long list of things I want to write about but little time to do it at the moment, so some thoughts and spleen-venting are appearing here. I’ve had a busy few days which has left me with lots of pictures to edit against the clock as I’ve needed to get them out to clients – hence yesterday’s blog purdah. The whole day was spent staring at a screen as I waded through several hundred pictures which needed checking/tweaking. That said, yesterday was a good day to do it as the weather here in the Calder Valley was appalling. It didn’t stop raining once. Even so, we didn’t experience any flooding – unlike poor Chesterfield where I was the previous day. I’ve chosen (by accident more than design) a good couple of days to stay away from the rail network. Our Victorian system was designed when no-one had even dreamt of climate-change. Still, isn’t is a good job we’re building a new railway spine (HS2) that’s designed to cope with our changing climate? Oh, wait…

The one bright spot yesterday was hearing that that Tories were hammered in the two by-elections in what were supposedly ultra-safe seats. The other bright spot is hearing the levels of denial from the Tories over why this has happened. The delusions are weapons-grade. According to many Tories it’s because they’re not right-wing enough. Seriously? Talk about being out of touch! It reminds me of how the hard-left always used to blame Labour defeats on the fact the party wasn’t left-wing enough. Then along came their golden-boy, Jeremy Corbyn and his corbynistas. Corbyn still wasn’t left wing enough to win an election? Oh boy! The Tories are making exactly the same mistake, but then reality denial is a prerequisite of ideological purity. My gut feeling is that the Tories are going to lose the next election in spectacular fashion and then split just as Labour did in the 1980s when some of the centre-left went off to form the Social Democrat Party (SDP). The difference here is that I believe what’s left of the main Tory party will become UKIP by another name (aren’t they already? Ed) which will leave the right having completely abandoned the centre ground of politics. The old ‘one nation’ Tory party is dead, Boris Johnson saw to that when he expelled those people for opposing him over Brexit. Thus, the far-right Tory loons will become increasingly isolated. The SDP had the Liberals to merge with and the Liberals were the 3rd party with a powerbase and MPs. Who will the far-right Tories merge with? Reform? Britain First? Bless!

Sadly, Tory travails were the only high-point of my day. The economy (which they’re ignoring, preferring navel-gazing and stoking culture wars) is hardly in good shape and being hammered by the combination of Brexit, the war in Ukraine and the appalling scenes from Israel/Palestine. The old (apocryphal) Chinese curse ‘may you live in interesting times’ couldn’t be more appropriate. Still, the disaster capitalists are rubbing their hands in glee. Frankly? I’m getting fed up of interesting times. Like any rational person I’d actually prefer some stability but I can’t see us getting that for quite some time. There’s too many nutters around, both rich and poor.

Meanwhile, the rest of us rational poor plebs will try and weather the storm until Sunak decides he’s wrecked the country enough (or made enough money from doing so, which is more likely), leaving the rest of us to have our say via the ballot box. That will be one election where I’ll be staying up all night with the champagne on ice – although I don’t underestimate the challenge Labour will face when they take over.

In the meantime, here’s a picture from Thursday. After the successful launch of the new electric shunter a few of us adjourned to Chesterfield for a pint or two and the chance to catch-up after far too long. Imagine this as me and my old friend Steve Upton (@DriverPotter on Twitter) having adjourned to the Winchester, having a nice pint and waiting for this this to all blow over*…

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/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

* See the 2004 cult film ‘Shaun of the dead’ which was filmed in 2003 with many scenes recorded just around the corner from where I lived in Crouch End, London.

Rolling blog. Chesterfield challenge…

19 Thursday Oct 2023

Posted by in Derbyshire, Photography, Railways, Rolling blogs, Travel

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07:15.

Another day another mission…

I was up with the lark to prepare myself for another day out looking at aspects of the UK’s railways. Yesterday it was training, today it’s innovation. I’m off to have a look at a conversion of a member of a class of locomotive that’s UKs oldest design still in regular service, the venerable Class 08 diesel shunter.

1057 of the 350hp Class 08s were built between 1952 and 1962. Based on an earlier design by the LMS railway they became to standard UK shunting engine, despite their single cab and limited visibility. They’re still in service today although in vastly reduced numbers. This is 08683, seen at Eastleigh on the 29th September this year.

I’ll write about this in detail later. Right now I’ve got to make my way to Chesterfield. I’ll blog throughout the day so feel free to pop back and see what I get up to.

08:20.

Well, there’s been some spectacular skies this morning thanks to low sun and broken cloud reflecting the light, but after that things started falling apart. My first train of the day is a Grand Central service from Halifax to Wakefield Kirkgate where I have a four minute cross platform connection with a train to Sheffield. There’s just one problem. GC left Bradford 3 minutes late and left Halifax 5 minutes late – and we haven’t stopped at Brighouse or Mirfield yet! Now, in theory – we may be able to pull a minute or so back as timings on this section are pedestrian at best, but I’m not optimistic…

A rather battered 180114 arrives at Halifax from Bradford.

We’ve just left Mirfield and made up no time at all. Will I make my connection at Wakefield, well, we have a clear run, so we just might do it, but it’ll be tight!

08:48.

A check of Real Time Trains tells me that nowadays this service stands at Horbury Junction for nearly 10 mins due to pathing. It always used to do this in Wakefield itself. So, now I should make my connection as we’re passing Horbury now.

09:25.

Well, that was a classic bit of piss-poor train regulation! Having passed Horbury Jn my CG service was signal-checked twice before being allowed into Kirkgate. We sat, just outside the station to allow my connection (the service to Lincoln, which left EARLY) to speed past us in the opposite direction!

Thankfully, running just a few minutes behind is a local stopping service to Sheffield which will allow me to make my connection but reduce my time between trains. Mind you, looking at the weather that may be no bad thing. It’s grim out there!

10:05.

Not a vintage day on the railway. My 2 car train burbled its way as far as Meadowhall where it got stuck for some unknowable reason, arriving at Sheffield 5 mins late, giving me just 5 mins to make my connection with an East Midlands Railway service to London via Chesterfield. Only – that’s late too! Thank God I have a few minutes in the bank. And now for the scrum…

10:10.

We’re off. This 5 car Meridan is 25 mins late coming up from London, which hasn’t helped. Add in the usual confusion as folks try and find their reserved seats or ones that are free and the delays mount.

Still, my worries are over. I’ll make the connecting bus that’s being laid on to take us from Chesterfield to Barrow Hill so that’s all that matters. After this any delays don’t matter as I’m not against the clock.

10:35.

Impressive! Stagecoach’s Matt Kitchen in co-operation with Volvo have supplied an electric bus to get us to Barrow Hill.

11:20.

There’s a good turnout here at Barrow Hill.

Here are some technical details of the loco we’ve come to look at…

– and here’s the beast itself!

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/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

Rolling blog. An electrifying day…

18 Wednesday Oct 2023

Posted by in Photography, Railways, Rolling blogs, Wiltshire

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06:30.

Today’s going to be a long one! I’m currently enjoying a coffee in my room whilst checking my kit and making sure everything’s charged up and cleaned whilst keeping one eye on the TV weather reports. Today’s going to be mixed to say the least with a mixture of sunshine and heavy showers forecast, which should make things ‘interesting’ to say the least. The trainees on the electrification course are going to get a taste of what it’s really like working trackside in all weathers! Then, when we’re finished I’ve got to head back to West Yorkshire ready for another interesting event tomorrow.

I’ll blog throughout the day as I can so feel free to pop back and see what I’m getting up to.

08:35.

We’re kicking off here at the Jane Austin training scholl with a classroom lesson on OLE. The first briefing’s being given by Gary Keenor, who’s literally written the book on OLE.

Here’s the plan. Looks simple, doesn’t it?

Here’s some technical jargon for you.

One of the things I enjoy about jobs like this is that I get to learn things, in this case about the intricacies of overhead line engineering. It’s fascinating – especially when you have such knowledgeable trainers as Gary.

13:00.

Having enjoyed lunch and chance to dry out from the rain, it’s time to go back to training.

17:00.

We might have had a soggy morning but that was nothing to what arrived in the afternoon! The forecast was well out and none of the sunny periods expected arrived. Instead we had rain. Lashings of it! Thankfully I’d anticipated these conditions by packing a waterproof housing for my camera. Without it I’d never have been able to get pictures of the group working together to roll out and tension a cable run. I’ll add a couple of camera pictures later. The conditions mirrored those that rail staff face when they’re working, but it was a baptism of fire for trainees where many had never even been trackside before. The day finished early as there was no point in starting another activity after the cable run. So, whilst the rest of the gang made their way back to the hotel to dry off (on the outside, anyway) I hotfoot it to the station to get an earlier train. I’m now on the 16:40 from Swindon to Paddington. This is a busy train but I’ve managed to find a table bay in one of the rear coaches which had free seats. Now I’m enjoying watching the flooded Wiltshire countryside flash by as I head back to the capital.

19:10.

yet again my time in London was brief. I dived off the train at Paddington having chosen the best coach for the quickest route to the Metropolitan underground station (benefits of being an ex-Londoner) so made it to Kings Cross with a couple of minutes to spare in order to catch an earlier train. I’m now on the 18:03 to Leeds which will get me home nearly an hour earlier than I was originally expecting.

Admittedly, the train’s packed, not helped by the fact it’s only a five-car Azuma to Skipton where the first stop was Peterborough. I’ve been resident of a vestibule since the ‘Cross as the seats vacated by ‘posh’ commuters were soon filled by others joining form points East.

22:00.

I’m home and dry – literally! Dawn was good enough to come to the station to pick me up so I’m now letting my PPE air. The weather here in West Yorkshire’s damp but nowhere near as wet as Wiltshire was which is a relief – especially as I’m out and about again tomorrow, only this time on a rather different event – all will be revealed as it happens!

I said I’d post a couple of camera pictures from today – so here they are…

Putting those earlier plans into practice…

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/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

Rolling blog. Positional move…

17 Tuesday Oct 2023

Posted by in London, Photography, Railways, Rolling blogs, Travel

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Today I’m travelling from Halifax to Swindon where I’ll be spending the night in a hotel ready for a commission tomorrow. In railway terms it’s known as a positional move.

Right now I’m on an LNER ‘Azuma’ from Leeds to London, having travelled to Yorkshire’s most bustling city on a busy 3-car Northern service via Bradford.

800102 working the 10:45 from Leeds to Kings Cross.

11:20.

We’re currently at Doncaster, waiting for the road South. This train’s fairly quiet so I’ve bagged a table bay to myself in coach C as most people never venture towards the back of the train. There may be a storm on the way and tomorrow’s job (outdoors) may get ‘interesting’ but here in Yorkshire we’ve high cloud and hazy sunshine. I’m hoping to be able to garner some library shots on my way but as I’m loaded down with a suitcase with all my PPE I’m not going to be venturing far from stations en-route.

Right now there’s time to settle down and do some work – as well as catch up with the latest copy of RAIL magazine which includes my article on HS2 and the bridge over the route near Aylesbury.

12:20.

With the train having called at Peterborough (and stood to time as we were four minutes early) my coach has filled out a bit with a mixture of American tourists, students and what look like day-trippers, all heading for the capital. The weather’s continuing to improve the further I head South. We’ve clear blue skies and cottonwool clouds with long periods of sunshine. Long may that continue! Right now we’re speeding across the Cambridgeshire flatlands ahead of time yet again.

There’s an interesting contrast in this coach. The party of middle-aged and younger Americans are sat chatting. I can’t see them as they’re sat behind me, but I can hear them. In the table bay opposite are three women students. There’s not a word being spoken. One’s sat there with headphones on, staring at her smartphone. Of the pair opposite her one’s on her phone whilst the other has it on the table in front of her as she gazes out of the window.

13:35.

My visit to the capital was brief. I didn’t hang around at Kings Cross because it’s a regular haunt so I immediately headed for the Underground

I decided to cut time short when I arrived at Paddington and saw how devoid of trains it was and how many services were shown as delayed. That was a shame as I rarely visit nowadays but there’s little to shoot in an empty station! In contrast trip across London on the underground was quick and easy. I only had a couple of minutes to wait at Kings Cross St Pancras before a Metropolitan line train arrived to whisk me away.

Comfortable but uncrowded conditions on the Met…

Right now i’m on the 13:31 hrading for Cheltenham Spa as it was the first available train I can use to get as far as Reading

17:25.

I’ve made it to Swindon via a few stopovers on the way, including one at Didcot where I came across evidence of another terminally stupid and short-sighted Tory transport decision. The line from Didcot to Oxford was being electrified when then Transport Minister Crhis (failing) Grayling cancelled the project. Contractors literally walked away from the sceme when it was half-completed, wasting £ms of pounds. Sound familiar? Yep, it’s the usual dither and delay we’ve come to expect from this rotton government. Here’s the legacy. Electric services from Paddington terminate here with a diesel shuttle to Oxford. Madness.

Right, it’s time for me to go to work and meet the good folks from the Permenant Way Institute who are here for their two day practical course which I’ll be shadowing.

22:00.

This blog’s no longer rolling! It’s time for me to call it a day and prepare for tomorrow as I’ve a busy day ahead. Breakfast kicks off at 06:30 before we head over to the training centre to don our PPE and for the students to get experience of what it’s like actually building and installing overhead electrification trackside. There’s a great bunch of participants from all areas of the rail industry so I’m really looking forward to the challenge of getting the pictures needed – despite the weather.

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with on last picture from the day. This is how electrified Thames valley services look nowadays with the diesels displaced and sent to Bristol and beyond. Here’s a Paddington – Didcot service calling at Twyford earlier this afternoon.

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/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

HS2 and the ‘Disintegrated not-a-plan’ aka ‘Notwork North’. A history of Tory dither and incompetence.

16 Monday Oct 2023

Posted by in Hs2, Politics, Railways, Rishi Sunak

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November 2021 brought us, after a long wait, the Integrated Rail Plan (IRP). Less than two years later, it has been blown away by something that is quite the opposite – something that is not integrated, and not all about rail, although if ‘Plan’ means a hastily compiled wish list of things that ought to happen anyway, a Plan it might be.

Of course, there’s two gargantuan holes in this ‘plan’. The £36bn ‘saved’ by scrapping HS2 North of Birmingham doesn’t actually exist as it hasn’t been borrowed yet, and many of the items on the list will fall foul of the footnote hidden away at the bottom of page 24. Few, if any of them are likely to pass the business case test.

The howlers in this Disintegrated Not-a-Plan (DNP), such as promising to build tram routes that opened years ago, have caught attention, but the elephant in the room has escaped comment – despite it being a £12 billion elephant, a third of the promised total spend of £36 billion. That elephant is that, having cancelled HS2 Phase 2 into Manchester, and the new approach from the West that HS2 would have built for Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) trains from Liverpool to share, £12 billion has had to be ‘protected’ for NPR to build an approach all on its own, without the benefit of HS2 trains to share it. Of course if NPR does that, a big lump of cost drops out of HS2 Phase 2b, which will overnight appear a much sounder investment.

It had also been proposed that NPR would take over HS2’s proposed Birmingham – Manchester services, and extend them to Leeds to make up for loss of the dedicated HS2 route via the East Midlands. This however becomes impossible without HS2 Phase 2b to Crewe and Phase 2a from Crewe to Birmingham, as there is no way on Earth that the existing lines have the capacity for those extra trains, particularly at the key bottleneck of Stafford.

Other elements of the IRP, less than two years old, are blown out of the water. The IRP carefully explained how truncating HS2’s Leeds/York line at a disused power station near Loughborough, and taking trains into Nottingham on existing lines, would release more capacity on the Midland Main Line for better interurban and local services that HS2’s dedicated route would have done. That never struck me as plausible, but now the DNP claims that the its predecessor IRP would have led to worse services at stations such as Leicester, Market Harborough and Kettering. No such nicety as evidence is produced to show why the DfT, the specifier of train services, would specify a worsening of services, nor any suggestion as to how the DNP would improve them (spoiler alert – it won’t), let alone improve connectivity between the South Midlands and Yorkshire and the North East in the way that HS2’s original plan would have done.

The IRP explained in great detail why Bradford should not have a new station on a TransPennine high speed line; now apparently that is essential, to the tune of £2 billion. Now I don’t mind at all if Bradford does have a high speed station after all, it’s only down the road from me in Halifax, but what has changed since the IRP to make what was once impossible so essential now?

Turning to other things that the DNP does propose, about £8 billion is apparently going to be spent on mending potholes. But if local authorities were properly funded, the potholes wouldn’t need mending in the first place, as mending of potholes is not a one-off job but an ongoing commitment. So where is the next tranche of pothole-mending funding going to come from – you can only cancel HS2 once! Weirdly this part of the DNP admits that the government is going to do a most un-Conservative thing in borrowing so as to fund revenue expenditure. It’s almost as mad as Liz Truss borrowing £bns to fund tax cuts for the rich.

One very good thing in the DNP is a promise to upgrade junctions north of Ely, downgraded from proper junctions to single-lead connections by Network SouthEast, but now part of the Felixstowe – Nuneaton freight artery. In fact it is so good a thing to increase freight capacity from the East Coast Ports that one wonders why it has been so long coming. But where are those freight trains going after Ely? If running via Nuneaton and the West Coast Main Line to the North West and Scotland, they will simply run into the same congestion one the route via Stafford that Phase 2a of HS2 was meant to relieve by taking non-stop InterCity trains onto their own line.

But the position of the DNP on running HS2 to Euston instead of tipping all passengers out in Zone 2 makes quantum mechanics look simple! In the Prime Minister’s speech to his conference, Euston seemed safe. But subsequent reports suggested that the tunnels from Old Oak and the station itself would only be built if private funding could be found for 10,000 houses with a station on the side. Then Tweets sorry Xs from the Treasury, normally the villain of such pieces, were unequivocal that Euston would be built. As it should be, because to be blunt, without it the £44 billion or so now being invested in Phase 1 of HS2 has no significant value; with Euston, it has.

But what isn’t in the DNP? Nearly everything that matters if you want a step-change in rail capacity in the North. What’s the biggest problem today? Stations, and Manchester Piccadilly and Leeds in particular, both of which eke out capacity by putting two or even three trains into the same platform. This is operationally fragile as well as confusing for passengers, and if you lengthen trains to provide more seats, becomes impossible. By removing the London trains into their own station, HS2 would have freed two platforms at Piccadilly for local services to become at the very least more reliable, , and ultimately more numerous.

A Pendolino arrives at Manchester Piccadilly on the 11th July 2023. Without the new HS2 station (which would be built to the left of the picture) this battered and congested station throat is all the capacity there is.

Is an obscure and shadowy process in a Manchester hotel room really how to decide to spend £36 billion of investment capital?

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/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

15th October picture of the day…

15 Sunday Oct 2023

Posted by in Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Politics, Travel

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You’ll have to forgive me, as I’m having a pensive and thoughtful day so this blog is going to be hard to write. After all, humanity’s world’s not exactly going well right now, is it? I sometimes wonder how much better the planet would be if we hadn’t crawled out of the primordial swamp, grown feet then opposing thumbs and ‘developed’ into homo-sapiens as we seem hell-bent on destroying both ourselves and the planet. For an animal with such a huge brain-pan we can be incredibly dumb.

Right now I’m looking around at what’s happening in the Ukraine and also Palestine and Israel and wondering ‘what the fcuk’? Our capacity for death and destruction seems to outweigh everything else – including the ability to reason. Seeing what’s happening in Israel and Palestine (and that’s before we get into a discussion about whose borders are whose) I’m left thinking of the saying that ‘an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind’. I abhor the violence from both sides, but I’m also old enough to have followed the conflicts in that part of the world since the 1970s and know the answer is anything but black and white – just seemingly intractable.

I’m beginning to feel that the world is becoming a very unstable place for a whole host of reasons – which includes social media and the power of a small bunch of billionaires -and utterly useless, sell-out politicians. Now, I’m not a paranoid, conspiracy-loving person but I’ve always subscribed to the adage ‘follow the money’ – and the money is concentrated in fewer and fewer people’s hands – and philanthropists they ain’t.

Humanity at its best is capable of incredible things. Music, medicine, science and architecture, humour and compassion being just a few. So why’s so much of our time taken up with shit? Maybe I’ve reached that age where I look at what time I have left (whatever that is) and think it’s time explore what’s left of this beautiful planet before we completely screw it up and I can still enjoy it. Yep, I’m in one of those retrospective moods tonight. Anyway – my blog – my rules!

I’ll leave you with a picture that’s less dark than my thoughts. This is what I could do with right now. A palm-fringed beach, sunsets and solitude. Here’s a spectacular sunset at Viti Levu, Fiji, on the 7th March 1999 when the world seemed a very different place. This is the simple, natural beauty of a planet we seem hell-bent on rendering inhospitable, to ourselves and every other creature on it. But hey – it’s so important that I have that SUV to drive down to Waitrose…

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/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

Rolling blog. Making (photographic) hay whilst the sun shines.

14 Saturday Oct 2023

Posted by in Photography, Railways, Rolling blogs, Trans-Pennine Route Upgrade, Travel

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10:35.

Today’s a day full of sunshine and the promise of decent photographic weather. I’ve a dinner date with my in-laws this evening near Huddersfield so I’m going to take the long way there, taking the camera with me to have a look at progress on the Trans-Pennine Route upgrade to see if there’s anything worth getting shots of. I’ll blog through the day, so feel free to pop back and see what I get up to…

12:00.

I’ve made it as far as Dewsbury having arrived here from Sowerby Bridge. Trains are packed today. My three-car was full and standing from Sowerby and rammed after Mirfield. The good weather’s bringing everyone out – including the rail-alers doing the railway pub-crawl. This isn’t the best day for exploring as the Trans-Pennine route West of Huddersfield is closed so services are much reduced. Even ao, there’s a few pictures to be had and sites to note.

My train departs from Dewsbury.

15:15.

Sorry for the gap but I’ve been busy shuttling between Dewsbury and Brighouse whilst enjoying the gorgeous sunshine – and dodging torrential showers! I’d intened to get a few lineside shots but the combination of low sun and rain made that foohardy, which is a shame – but hey ho. Instead I took the opportunity to enjoy Brighouse station joining the TPE network. Right now I’m on my way to Huddersfield, having stopped the latest weather bullet in the shape of this storm that’s just passed over Dewsbury. I didn’t make it to the cover of the canopy before the heavens opened.

Here’s 802213 working 9M32, the 1244 Newcastle to Liverpool Lime Street.

At Brighouse – which joined the TPE network for the day – I captured 802209 stopping at the station whilst working 1P25, the 1154 Liverpool Lime Street to Newcastle.

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/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

Rolling blog. Derbyshire delights…

12 Thursday Oct 2023

Posted by in Derbyshire, Photography, Railways, Rolling blogs, Travel

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06:35.

Up at sparrow-fart once more. It’s a busy morning here at Bigland Towers. I’m preparing to head out for the day and Dawn is busy with her HIT (High Intensity Training) workout in the living room. The weather’s hardly conducive to early starts. It’s dark and cold outside now that temperatures have returned to their seasonal averages rather then the bizarre ones we’ve had recently. According to the thermometer it’s just 3 degrees.

I’ll be walking down to Sowerby Bridge station shortly to catch my first train of the day to Manchester. I’m planning another foray out to Glossop and area. I’ll be blogging throughout the day, so let’s see what happens…

07:35.

Walking downhill to the station was fun this morning. Looking across the valley from the bedroom window it looked everywhereas covered in fog. Once I’d left the house and descended ahundred meters or so the valley was clear. Then, when I looked behind me I realise our cottage was up in cloud level!

I’m now on the late- running 07:22 to Manchester which is a busy four-car set.

07:50.

We’ve now left Todmorden and this train’s getting very busy. As we traversed the Calder valley I realised Sowerby Bridge is lucky as everywhere else IS covered in fog! Today’s the first day of autumn where I’ve observed commuters wearing hats and gloves. Shorts are confined to the back of the cupboard for now. Judging by the number of people clutching hot drinks the local coffee shops will be happy with the change in the weather!

07:55.

We’ve passed through the Summit tunnel into Lancashire and – as is often the case – there’s very different weather on the other side. Rochdale has no fog at all. Instead it’s bathed in winter sunshine!

08:38.

Here’s how busy my train was as it approached Manchester Victoria – and what it was like trying to get through the gateline.

Right now I’m on the train out to Glossop which is much more relaxed as we’re going againt the flow. There’s just a handful of us in the front car. Several of those are young women all using their phones as mirrors as they apply their make-up!

09:25.

The light’s lovely this morning so I stopped off in the middle of nowhere to get a few pictures. Let’s have a guessing game with the station name. It carries the same name a former member of the band “10cc”.

Not a rubber bullet in sight…

10:20.

I’m having a quick break here in Glossop whilst I have a coffee in the lovely little Twig coffee house on the station – and respond to a couple of work emails to sort out next week’s jobs.

The old ticket office (the window is to the right).

Here’s one of my camera pictures showing the old 1,500 dc electrification structures that still predominate along the line, although this section’s had the contact wires simplified.

15:15.

That was a busy few hours! I’ve been exploring the area around Broadbottom station in order to get a few scenic shots in open country as well as check out the remains of the old fan of sidings that was Mottram yard. They were already abandoned when I was a kid, having closed in about 1970 but the arrival sidings remained open for loco changes from electric to diesel. Now the whole site’s woodland. Only a few clues as to their former use remain.

The yard was to the left. The remains of the short platforms for Mottram staff halt can be seen on the remaining lines. The view’s looking towards Manchester.

15:30.

Time for a refreshment break and a beer I’ve never tried before. The glass tells the tale…

18:35.

Home time. Well, heading back across the Pennines at least. I’ve manged to get most of the pictures I was after before the sun disappeared. Plus I’ve had an interesting time exploring and discovering new places. I’ll add a few pics from the camera later. Right now, it’s standing room only on the 18:21 From Manchester Victoria. So much for “but no-one’s travelling by train anymore”.

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/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

11th October picture of the day…

11 Wednesday Oct 2023

Posted by in Derbyshire, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Railways

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Today’s been one of those that didn’t exactly go to plan – but in a good way! After I’d finished editing the latest batch of pictures and getting them off to a client I’d intended to catch up with sorting stuff around the office – a sort of ‘autumn cleaning’ if you like – then blogging about the latest Sunak/HS2 debacle. The weather’s certainly changed here compared to the balmy days we’ve had so far, with temperatures staying in single figures, so I thought it was time to make the place more streamlined – and cosy. Instead I got sidetracked with pitching a story to a magazine which they’ve decided to run with so I became embroiled in initial research. Before I knew it, several hours had passed. Then I had a contact about a short-notice commission which I’ve managed to squeeze into next week. So, that’s the autumn cleaning and long blog out of the window for now as I’ve events in Derbyshire and Wiltshire to attend as well as an article to write.

Now I’m prepping for another day out in the Manchester area tomorrow (expect a rolling blog) as the weather’s promising to be half-decent and I’m running out of time to get the pictures I require, which means an early start tomorrow to make the most of the shortening days. I’m going to miss the long summer evenings, but the consolation is that winter sunlight (when you get it) is far superior to harsh summer sun – especially for artistic shots. Well, if you happen to be in the right place at the right time anyway!

Now it’s time to go as I’ve stuff to prepare. I’ll leave you with an image from the Hope Valley taken on Sunday. You can find the full selection in various galleries on my Zenfolio website, simply follow this link to see which galleries have been updated.

A Trans-Pennine Express Class 185 heads West towards Manchester through the gorgeous Hope valley.

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/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

Rolling blog. Sunshine interlude…

10 Tuesday Oct 2023

Posted by in Derbyshire, Manchester, Photography, Railways, Rolling blogs, Travel

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13:15.

After a few days at home blogging about our lying Prime Minister and the deceit that’s “Network North” I’m having an interlude. Don’t worry, there’ll be another blog on Sunak and his sorry sorry saga of deception and incompetence this evening!

After an appointment in Sowerby Bridge that prevented me leaving earlier I’m now on a train to Manchester as the weather’s really too good to miss and I still have a long list of pictures I need to work my way through for a client. Feel free to pop back and see what I get up to as I’m not entirely sure what that’ll be myself!

Back to short trains and no stabiliser rail…

14:35.

After a relaxing (and sunny) journey to Manchester I added to my daily step total by walking between Victoria and Piccadilly stations through a busy city centre. En-route a plan had formed in my mind, so I’m now on the 14:33 to Glossop. I’m going to be looking at a couple of potential picture locations en-route – and a stop at one of the most misnamed stations in England…

“No mate, this isn’t the train to Stoke!”

15:45.

Maybe I should retitle this blog as the sunshine interlude didn’t last long at all this side of the Pennines!

My visit to Glossop lasted all of 30 mins. Just long enough to recconoitre a few photo sites as the light changed which was rather frustrating. Still, it means I have ideas worked out for the future. Plus, I did update my images of the gorgeous station at Glossop which still boasts a ticket office, barrier staff and a great little cafe.

Glossop station. The former ticket office to the right is now a lovely little cafe. There’s still an office here but it’s moved closer to the gateline.

15:55.

Having had a spin to Hadfield on the Glossop shuttle I’m about to head back towards Manchester.

The end of the line at Hadfield. The last stop on what was then the famous Woodhead freight only route to Penistone which closed in 1981.

16:55.

The beauty of this job is that you get to explore. Some places are better than others but they all add to your knowledge and experience. Here’s a station that only opened in 1985 but those naming it obviously had a sense of humour and tongues firmly in cheek. Meet ‘Flowery Field’…

Seriously?

Apparently, the name is due to its proximity to one of Manchester’s biggest parks. You’d be forgiven for not knowing that as you pass through! I got off to explore at it’s only a few minutes walk from another station on a different line – Hyde North.

This area of Manchester is pretty run down but there was a ray of hope as I cut through a nearby cul-de-sac although it took a minute to sink in. I passed several children playing in the street, drawing on the pavement with coloured chalk – just as my generation did half a century and more ago. They were outdoors interacting with their peers, not stuck indoors in their rooms ‘virtually’ interacting with people miles (or even continents) away.

Hyde North stations and it’s environs lived down to expectations and made me realise why I’d never bothered stopping. It has no architectural merit apart from the old footbridge. There’s a couple of basic shelters of modern design but that’s it. Admittedly, the local friends group have tried to brighten the place up with some art (and good for them) but I fear they’re trying to push water uphill! The area surrounding the station’s a mix of residential and commercial with little appeal. This is as good as it got.

19:30.

My return home way delayed by ‘shit happens’. I decided to have a quick pint in the city centre and ended up helping a woman who limped into the pub after twisting an ankle. She was both embarrassed and tearful so I ended up staying with her and helping her limp to a taxi before the cavalry arrived in the shape of some of her former pupils (she’s a Teacher) in town on a night out. Good deed done for the day I arrived at Victoria to find the new pub on the station was open for business and buzzing.

I’d passed the Victoria Tap earlier but fitting out work was still going on – even though pumpclips were advertising what draught beers were ready. I asked the young lady who served me how long they’d been open. Her reply was “about 3 hours!”

The tap’s only small. It’s a narrow two room establishment at the end of the station but it has a beer garden out back which is by the tram tracks and underneath the station roof. The range of beers is good and the prices are very competitive. A pint of ‘Farmers Blonde’ cost me £4.20.

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/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312