06:30

Quite literally! I’ve been woken several times through the night by howling wind beating against the front of the cottage as it blows, unobstructed across the valley. By 05:30 I decided there was no point in trying to get back to sleep so I’m already out and about, finishing my preparations for heading to London via a roundabout route – depending on what damage the latest storm may have done to the railways. At the moment our local line seems to be running fine apart from the odd cancellation, so we’ll see…

08:30.

I’m heading West today so the trip’s started with a walk downhill to Sowerby Bridge. The winds abated and there’s clear skies over the valley on what promises to be a lovely day – not that I’ll be around to see it. I’m currently on the 08:02 to Manchester which is worked by a pair of 2-car Class 158s.

It’s a quiet train. Well, at least it is in the front car! That said, we’ve just crossed the Pennines to call at Littleborough where there’s a healthy number of passengers waiting for us.

10:30.

Having strolled across an unusually subdued Manchester city centre from Vic to Picc I caught a train to my next change point. Crewe. The station’s been a long-time haunt of mine. I first started comming here on my own as a young teenager. Needless to say – it’s changed a bit since 1973! My stay was brief – just long enough to grab a couple of shots and pick up my onward connection to my next port of call, Wolverhampton.

I’m currently travelling on a London North-western Class 350. They’re fine as regional trains go but a bit plain vanilla nowadays. They don’t have tables, plug-sockets or USB ports, which is a bit ‘retro’ in 2024 but the seats (even if they are 3+2) are comfortable enough.

14:30.

I’m gradually making it down (or Up in railway parlence) along the West Coast Main Line. Delays were to be expected and one happened before Birmingham International where we were trapped for 13 mins by a new train that was on test but that had failed. Here’s the culprit.

Next stops were bittersweet as they contain a lot of memories. First off was Coventry where I admired the classic 1960s station and looked askance at the modern (souless) addition which seems to be more a carpark with ticket barriers than a station.

I hopped from Coventry to Rugby, a place I had a lot of happy connections with and where I spent Xmas and Boxing day 2005 stood in the tracks as the big blockade to rebuild the lines all went horribly wrong. A lot of the atmosphere has gone since I first got to know it. The cafe/bar on the island platform’s long gone…

Still, there’s always something of interest passing through and the station sees regular test trains as the new Class 730s are ‘run in’ like this one.

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