06:00.

Another early start here in South London. Whilst I’m closer to where I need to be it’s still a trek to get to today’s main event. Siemens are holding a press conference at their signalling factory as Chippenham, Wiltshire, where they’re going to make a major announcement about investment. What will it be? Who will be there? I’ll found out later this morning. But right now I’ve got to get there, which means getting an 06:28 train to Reading. I’ll be blogging throughout the day, so feel free to pop back and see what I get up to…

06:40.

It’s a surprise no longer. Siemens have sent out their press release, announcing that they’re going to replace their Chippenham factory (the old Westinghouse Brake and Signal establishment) with a brand-new, state of the art production facility in a £100m investment (more later)…

Meanwhile, I’m making my way to Reading aboard an elderly class 455, not that I’m complaining. At least this service is running! When I pitched up at Clapham I noticed a series of services were cancelled, including the Shepperton line, due to a track inspection.

07:15.

If nothing else it’s a lovely journey along the Reading line today. It’s a beautifully sunny but frosty morning with low sunlight and mist that’s creating wonderful shadows amongst the trees that line so much of the route.

09:32.

Ready for the main event…

And we’re off. Look who’s here…

12:20.

Well, that was short and sweet. Announcement over the great and good (and not so good) dispersed with most folk heading back to London – including me as I travelled with an old friend from Porterbrrok who’s now working for the Rail Industry Association (RIA). Siemens had pulled off their 2nd PR coup in as many weeks, first they got the PM and Cabinet meeting at their new factory in Goole. Today they’d got the Chancellor (and so the media) along to their Chippenham announcement.

14:15.

Having passed West Ealing on the way into London and noticing this old friend (in a new guise) I couldn’t resist nipping out to get a picture. The last time I saw this unit was when I was working with Vivarail up at Cop26 in Glasgow.

17:25.

Whilst finding the GWR battery unit was a bonus, that was the last one of the day. What had been glorious weather changed rapidly as clouds moved in from the South and temperatures plummeted. Their seemed little point in hanging around so I made my way into Central London, only to find that another old friend was in the area (the power of social media) so we met up for a ‘swifty’ at Euston to catch up on each other’s railway tales. Now I’m Northbound again, heading to Manchester up the West Coast Main Line on a quiet Pendolino, which is giving me chance to set up the mobile office in order to edit some of today’s pictures – some of which will appear on this blog later…

18:35.

Ho hum. My journey back North’s dragging (but then so were the brakes). We left Euston 10 minutes late due to the Driver having an issue with said train brakes which meant he had to do a train reset. It got us moving, but we continued to lose time all along the route as we weren’t running on tilt. Now, we’re crawling along the line from Macclesfield towards Stockport as – having lost our path – we’re running behind a local all-stations stopping service. We’re currently 32 minutes behind time.

19:25.

A non-stop dash from station to station has seen me arrive in time to catch Northern’s 19:22 from Manchester Victoria to Leeds. It’s been a long day and I’m looking forward to getting home. Looking around my fellow passengers on this busy train I can see I’m not the only one feeling that way!

21:55.

I’m home and it’s time to call it a day. Here’s a last couple of pictures to keep you entertained until tomorrow.

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