07:10.

Today I’ve escaped the bosom of the Calder valley for a day out to London as part of a ‘jolly’. This is to celebrate the 1000th issue of RAIL, a magazine I’ve been involved with for *gulps* 23 years! I fist started accepting photographic commissions from them in 2001, then began writing for them a year later. Now I’m heading to Leeds to catch a train down to London that will be hauled by one of LNER’s Class 91 locomotives that’s been specially renumbered from 91105 to 91000 and named ‘RAIL’. It’s working the 07:41 off Leeds, which is handy! On arrival at Kings Cross I’ll be joining RAIL colleagues past and present for a little ceremony before the train works back to Leeds.

Right now I’m on Northern’s 06:45 from Halifax to Leeds. This mornings walk to the station was conducted in miserable drizzle but it could’ve been far worse. With the way the temperatures have plummeted I wouldn’t have been surprised to have been skating on ice. The 06:45’s made up of a 3-car Class 195 and I’d say it’s between 60-65% full after leaving Bradford. Not bad loadings for this time of morning and I’m sure it’ll be far fuller by the time it reaches Leeds.

I’ll be blogging and adding pictures throughout the day, so feel free to pop back and see how things unfold.

07:50.

Having arrived from Skipton late 91000 has left Leeds seven minutes down.

I wondered if I’d bump into anyone else here. Sure enough, I met my old friend and RAIL colleauge Phil Haigh, who was waiting for the set to arrive.

11:15.

Well, that was fun! We arrived at Kings Cross 15 minutes late, which meant the photo opp in front of the loco was a little rushed! Still, it was great to see some old friends and familiar faces, including Pete Waterman and former newsreader Nick Owen. No doubt pictures will appear in the next edition of the magazine but here’s one from me.

LNER put in a special stop order for the return working to call at Peterborough but I only stayed until Stevenage which gave me time for a ‘planning meeting’ with a couple of other RAIL colleagues. Now I’m heading back into London along an old stamping ground, the Hertford loop. The weather here down in the South-East is gorgeous, it’s one of those crisp sunny days with wall to wall blue skies, so it would be a shame to waste it.

I’ve fond memories of this line from my days living in North London. We used to pop up from Hornsey to Crews Hill to visit the huge garden centres based near to the station and carried all manner of stuff back home on the train. Huge bamboo plants and even goldfish made the trip!

15:45.

Having spent several hours rediscovering old haunts along the Southern end of the East Coast Main line and having performed a loop from Stevenage to London and back via the Hertford loop and main line I’m aboard an LNER service back to Yorkshire with my camera full of library shots. I’ve not explored some of these lines for several years. Then the Class 313s were still running. Now all services are run by new train fleets, or even cascaded new train fleets! It is odd to see some Great Northern Class 387s sporting the red livery of Gatwick Express or the green of GWR. GN has certainly hoovered up and interesting collection of 387s to replace the old BR built 365s. Trains aren’t the only changes. I spent a little time at one of my old local stations (Harringay) only to find the tiny ticket office which was on the footbridge across the tracks has disappeared. I’ve no idea when it was demolished. The news isn’t all bad. I was surprised to find another of my former locals (Hornsey) has gained a small coffee kiosk on the London bound platform, something I never expected to see, but there’s not that many alternatives close to the station, so they’ve clearly found themselves a niche.

17:45.

I’m back in Yorkshire, heading for Leeds after swapping my all-electric Azuma for a bi-mode set which is working to Harrogate. Not that you’d notice the difference – until you saw that there were no overhead wires! Whilst the York train was fairly quiet, this one’s busy with business people making their way home from the capital. There’s open laptops aplenty, although one or two folk look to be more dozing than typing. I know how they feel. I’ll not be sorry to get home as I have an even sillier o’ clock start tomorrow as I’ll be heading to Buckinghamshire via London to look at an HS2 construction project. Hopefully, the weather will be as good as it has been today, although it’s raining again here in’t North.

21:45.

I’m home, fed and watered and preparing for tomorrow’s very early start, so I’ll leave you with a couple of pictures from my travels around the Herts loop.

Tomorrow I’ll be on the first train out of Halifax as I’ve got to get to Wendover in Buckinghamshire, where I’ll be visiting the site of the new HS2 viaduct. I’ll be rolling blogging throughout the day. Well, as long as the coffee holds out…

Goodnight!

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