I’d planned to write about our trip back from Cumbria to West Yorkshire, but I’ve been overtaken by events. Instead I’ll leave you with a single picture from today’s travels. The weather across the Lake District has been ‘interesting’ to say the least, but as a photographer that’s how I like it!
Here’s how the hills and woods above Grasmere looked earlier today as yet another rainstorm passed through.
Now we’re back in West Yorkshire, which means what passes for normal service will be resumed shortly!
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What a lovely day! Today’s been my ‘significant’ birthday, although not as significant as it used to be before the rules on when you qualify for the state pension were changed. So, no carriage clock or long-service medal for me then. Those days are way gone – and the fact I’ve been self-employed freelancer for the past 25 years means they’ve not applied to me for a very long time anyway!
Instead, today’s been just another birthday, although I don’t mean to make that sound bad, or ungrateful. Dawn’s done a fantastic job in arranging things which we’ve both enjoyed. The weather here in the Lake District was predicted to be mixed today so we were up bright and early in order to make the most of the conditions. That meant an 08:30 breakfast, after which we headed North through Windermere and Ambleside to Thirlmere. The amount of traffic on the road through Ambleside meant the trip took far longer than it should, but once we were past that bottleneck things eased. Taking the road on the West side of Thirlmere eased us out of more traffic and let us enjoy some lovely lakeside sights like this as the trees shed their multicoloured leaves around streams filling the lake.
Looking South along Thirlmere before we started the climb to Raven Crag.
We’d originally considered climbing Helvellyn but the forecast suggested it’s be an unwise choice. Instead, we opted to ascend one of the smaller Wainwrights in the shape of Raven Crag which sits at the North end of the lake. It’s 450m and quite a fierce climb as it’s steep and unrelenting. That said, the views from the top are well worth it.
The walk down was far easier as we elected to follow a forestry track that was built for off-road vehicles. It certainly saved our knees. The climbing I don’t mind so much, it’s the descending that’s the killer.
Once back at ground level we decided to pay a quick visit to Keswick for a pitstop at a pub as well as check out some of the outdoor shops before braving the traffic on our return. We’d booked in for an evening meal at our hotel. So, after a shower and change of clothes we adjourned to the restaurant for a gorgeous meal of local lamb that was beautifully cooked and tasted delicious!
Now it’s time to call it a day. We head back tomorrow but we’re in no rush – even through the weather forecast is looking less than kind.
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The pair of us have evacuated Bigland Towers for the weekend and decamped to a lovely place near Windermere as I have what used to be (but isn’t anymore) a significant birthday tomorrow, but that was when the pensionable age wasn’t a moveable feast dependent on what year you were born in.
We’re staying in a place Dawn booked for my birthday last year and that we both rather fell in love with. The Wild Boar at Bowness on Windermere. The drive here from West Yorkshire’s a lovely trip as it takes in some fantastic scenery. Today the weather was ideal, showing off places like the Lune valley to their best.
The hotel has a lot of different attractions. One is the fact they brew their own beer. Like this.
What better place to quaff a pint of real ale than sat in front of this?
We ate in the restaurant which serves a range of food, much of it locally sourced. Admittedly, Dawn’s choice of fish may have come from a few miles away!
We’re here for two nights with the intention to spend tomorrow exploring and doing some walking although it looks like today was the best of the climactic conditions. No matter – we’ll enjoy our time whatever the weather deals us.
See you 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/
After the past couple of days travels and exertions I’ve been having a far more sedentary day here at Bigland Towers. That doesn’t mean I haven’t been busy (and I’ve still walked 5 miles) but I’ve not been carrying kilos and kilos of kit, which my knees have rather enjoyed!
Most of my day’s been spent either writing or editing the hundreds of pictures that I’ve taken over the past several days. Yesterday’s are all ready to go to the client and the final part of my bi-annual trip around the UK for RAIL magazine is almost finished. I’ll be having another quiet day tomorrow in order to get everything wrapped up before the weekend as the pair of us will be away again for a little celebration, but more of that another time.
Right now I’ll leave you with today’s picture, which I took on the way home yesterday evening.
A pair of Hull Trains Class 802, (802302 and 304) sit at Kings Cross station, London before working train 1H06, the 18:48 to Beverley. The sets will split on reaching Hull, with only the rear unit continuing on to Beverley. The company run two direct trains a day between the two. Leaving Beverley at 06:06 and 07:53 they return to the Minster town at 18:43 and 21:58. This is the only one of the two services diagrammed for a double set.
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/
Good morning from Swindon. It’s time for breakfast before the group heads off to the local Atkins offices for a briefing and training session, after which we’ll be spending the day at Network Rail training centre at Cocklebury sidings. The centre is separate from the live railway but is fitted out with tracks, switches and OLE. It’s an idea place to learn about the railway without getting in the way of trains.
I’ll add update through the day as I can. I’m only here for the day so this evening I’ll be heading back to West Yorkshire (which could be fun). Watch this space…
08:55.
The trainees and staff from companies involved in the challenge are being briefed at Atkins office.
10:00.
Site briefing before tasks start and people are split into teams.
17:00.
Well, that was an informative and challenging day! I’ll add a few pictures later but what happened was the people who joined the challenge were split into four teams in order to gain hands on experience of assembling overhead equipment from drawings. After that they had the opportunity to get hands on with various tools and also learn about more aspects of the equipment used to electrify the railway. Some of those taking part had never been trackside before.
The training school replicates the real railwayAssembling a new type of adjustable dropper.
The final challenge of day 1 was running out and fixing a catenary wire under tension.
Now the day’s over. The teams have headed back for the night and I’m heading back to West Yorkshire. Hopefully, that won’t be too bad a journey. GWR services are running to time (or very nearly) and it’s a lovely evening to travel. Even so, I don’t expect to get home before 22:00 but hey – I’ve had a profitable and interesting couple of days, so I’m not complaining!
20:00.
The journey home’s been quite painless for once. My GWR train into Paddington was 10 late as it was stuck behind a late running service From Reading, but I had time in the bank but wasn’t too worried. Much as I’d liked to, I didn’t hang around at Paddington as we hadn’t got to the ‘blue hour’ when the sky performs the transition from daylight to dusk where it makes powerful pictures. Instead, I joined commuters on the Metropolitan line for a trip across to Kings Cross. By the time I arrived the skies had darkened enough to make it worth grabbing a few pictures. Now I’m on LNER’s 19:03 heading to Leeds. Today it’s a 9-car train so pretty quiet. I’ve managed to blag a table seat and set up the mobile office and begin editing today’s pictures. Chatting to a regular traveller on this service earlier it seems this is normally a very busy service, but today it’s a 9-car, hence me getting some space. Having wandered through the train to the buffet after the stop at Peterborough I can see what he was saying. My coach is probably the least busy on the train. That said, I’m sat opposite a woman who is slaving away on what’s obviously a company laptop (it has an asset register sticker on the front). Judging by the amount of huffing and puffing she’s obviously not a happy bunny! There’s workers of all kinds on this trip. I’m not the only one with a hard hat on the side of their rucsac. There’s a smattering of leisure travellers as some schools are still on holiday. There’s also a few people with airline baggage tags still attached to their suitcases, which is always a bit of a giveaway.
21:50.
The last leg. Rather than changing at Leeds I’ve had a brief break at a very quiet Doncaster station before catching the following Grand Central service which is mow carrying me directly home to Halifax. I *could* have chosen to use it from Kings Cross but I saw it was a veritable sea of reservation labels. So, choice of a 9 car on which I cold do some work, or sit in the vestibule of a 5 car. A bit of a no-brainer really.
22:20.
Home again…
The cobbles kinda give it away as Yorkshire, don’t they?
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It’s a calm morning here in West Yorkshire as I pack my bags and prepare to begin my journey down to Swindon. I’m not taking the quickest or most direct route, far from it. I don’t need to be there before this evening, which gives me time to stop off on the way. But where? You’ll soon find out…
08:20
My stroll down to Sowerby Bridge coincided with the arrival of a heavy shower which made for a soggy walk. I ended up waering rather than carrying my waterproof PPE jacket!
At the station it was business as usual on Northern with many trains cancelled or delayed. My 08:02 is 7 minutes late, which means I’ll be sprinting between Victoria and Piccadilly later if I want to make my connection.
The state of Northern is an object lesson for those who think ‘renationalisation’ is a magic wand cure for the railways ills. Northern was taken back ‘in house’ by the Department of Transport way back in 2020. Yet, more than four years later it’s plagued with issues. Timekeeping is awful, cancellations rife and Sundays a day to avoid travelling as complete routes are canned on a regular basis.
On my way (finally)…
09:45.
And relax..
Despite the conditions, our Northern driver managed to claw back enough time that my sprint across Manchester paid off. I made Avanti’s 09:15 with less than a minute to spare. Now I’ve stripped off and am cooling down in air-conditioned luxury. Well, standard class anyway!
I see that punctuality is an issue on the West Coast too. We were 4 mins late into Stockport, where we picked up a healthy load of passengers. We gained even more at Macclesfield, which means this 9-car, peak time train is already almost full.
I wonder if we’ll manage to make up any time?
10:15.
– as if!
We crawled much of the way to Stoke-on-Trent where we arrived 10 minutes behind time. Now we’re making slow progress towards Colwich, where we’ll join the main trunk of the West Coast Main Line (WCML). We’re not scheduled to stop again until Rugby but with the route being so congested and with us having lost our path I’m not optimistic. I have a 12 minute connection ahead of me. I suspect the chances of me making it are minimal.
To add to the fun the onboard wifi is awful as it keeps glitching and dropping out, leaving me typing this on my phone. Oh well, there’s little for me to do but window gaze and admire the clouds. They reflect my mood. Dark.
11:30.
Things are picking up. I decided to abandon my connection at Milton Keynes as something interesting was due. Here it is.
Hello stranger!
Yestrday saw the first passenger (albeit empty stock) trains running on the East-West line between Bicester and Bletchley, terminating at Milton Keynes. Both GWR and Chiltern have provided stock. GWR will be using part of the West Coast route as the line into Paddington will be blocked whilst construction begins on the Old Oak Common interchange station with HS2.
13:00.
I continued on to Bletchley where I took a little diversion. There’s a line from the town to Bedford. It’ll become part of East-West rail but right now it’s worked by a trio of Class 150 diesel trains borrowed from Northen. I’ve not travelled on it since these DMUs took over from the aborted Vivarail Class 230s so I thought I’d have a trip out to Apsley Guise and back.
150139 ready to work the 11:45 Bletchley to Bedford.
On my return to Bletchley, and with the clouds closing in I decided it was time to head into London.
15:20.
The last leg! After having a mooch around Euston station – which is much improved now that giant advertising screen’s been switched off – I caught a tube to Paddington and a fast train to Reading.
I rarely travel along the Thames valley by GWR nowadays, so I’m wondering. When did it become fashionable for the majority of passengers to sit in the aisle seats, so that they can ‘reserve’ the window seat for their bag? It’s endemic down here! Having stopped off between trains to get a few shots of Reading I’m now on my final unit of the day – another GWR Class 800 to Swindon. The weather’s bucked its ideas up around here, so there may be the opportunity for a few more shots in the sunshine before I’m due at the hotel.
800321 was my chariot from Reading to Swindon. I’ll give it one thing, it can certainly shift!
17:00.
I’m now checked into the hotel. Yet again my arrival somewhere coincided with the appearance of rain clouds, so there was little point in hanging around at the station. At least there was this welcoming sign on the old Great Western hotel opposite the station.
Arkells is a beer that doesn’t seem to travel well. I’ve never encountered it outside Wiltshire. The irony? There’s another pub across the road. What draught beer was it selling? Timothy Taylors – from Yorkshire!
Back soon. It’s time to meet up with everyone else…
23:55.
So much for ‘back soon’! I’ve had a really interesting night catching up with old friends and some of the people who’ve signed up for this hands-on training session. We had time for a quick drink in the bar earlier. This is what the future of the railway industry looks like. And I like it.
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The start of a new week here at Bigland Towers, although a lot of it will be spent elsewhere – beginning tomorrow. Today’s been spent catching up on work, picture editing and writing. Yesterday we received a bit of a battering from the latest storm (Ashley) which brought strong winds that have brought down a heck of a lot of leaves. Today the wind’s abated, leaving behind a colourful carpet along roads, pavements gardens. The weather’s still very mild for the time of year and clear skies and sunshine have re-appeared after all the rain. This is welcome as tomorrow I’ve got to travel down to Swindon to meet up with friends and colleagues ready for an event the Permanent Way Institution (PWI) are holding on Wednesday, which I’ll be working at. When it was held last year it chucked it down with rain which made the job rather challenging. So, today I’ve also been busy brushing down all my PPE as I need be suitably dressed. Expect a rolling blog from me tomorrow as I make my way down to Swindon via a couple of stops on the way which (if all goes to plan) should produce some unusual pictures.
In the meantime, here’s today’s picture which is another from last week’s trip to Wales. Not that you’d guess where the shot was taken as it looks more like Italy, but that’s the beauty of Portmeirion for you!
Be seeing you…
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We’ve both decided it feels rather strange being back here at Bigland Towers. We weren’t away long – just 4 nights – but the pace of life on the peninsula was very different and I have to say we rather liked it. One of the things we’ve noticed since we’ve been back is the amount of traffic on the roads and numbers of cars clogging the streets. Life feels much more frenetic here. Of course, it’s not all bad. I can walk to the local supermarket (and my local pub). Plus, we have superfast broadband rather than steam-powered internet, but there was something special about having so many beaches close to hand. Coastal views give you a very different perspective and feel compared to being landlocked.
That said, we’ve made the most of a day which has proved to be sunny and mild. I’ve managed to catch up on some work and plans for the week (thank you superfast broadband!), we’ve picked up shopping to make some excellent meals – and we’ve dropped off supplies to Dee’s parents. Now it’s time to relax with a movie and enjoy a meal of spicy prawns with chorizo and garlic bread.
I’ll leave you with today’s picture which was taken on the Afon estuary outside Portmeirion when the tide had turned. Much as I like this neck of the woods you don’t get this in the Pennines.
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/
Our time in Wales ran out today, which was sad as we’d both really enjoyed the area we’d stayed in – and the AirBnB we’d occupied. The weather picked up somewhat too, so we were in no rush to head off, instead we revisted Abersoch during the day when businesses were open. Well, the ones that hadn’t closed down due to the end of the season anyway! This neck of the woods has tourism all year round but it’s plain that the beaches are a big draw so high summer sees the place rammed whilst this time of year many places are winding down. It reminds me of the Greek Islands in that respect. Only with more sheep. And rain.
One place Dawn wanted to stop at was a pretty little hamlet we’d passed through previously. Nestling at the bottom of a valley, Llangian is less than 2 miles from Abersoch. There’s little to the place, although unlike some it still boasts a shop. Oh, and an award – for being a well-kept village! I’ve no idea when this accolade was awarded, apart from the fact Caernarvonshire was abolished on 1974…
I do like exploring country churches as you never know what you’re going to find. In this case it was a memorial to a local man (well, youth really) from a well to do local family who was killed in action during the Crimean war in 1855.
Much as we’d liked to have explored further it was time to head home. We didn’t go direct, instead we headed back via Beddgelert. I was half-hoping to get a shot of a train on the Welsh Highland railway but (bizarrely) the railway seems content to keep its timetable a secret. None are displayed on the station and the company’s website does its best to hide details too. It’s quite bizarre. So, as we hadn’t got a clue what was running (or when) we drove back along the A498 to traverse the Nant Gwynant Pass and stunning autumnal scenery just ahead of the rain.
The beauty of the The Nant Gwynant Pass.
We stopped for a bite to eat and perusal of the multitude of outdoor shops in Betwys-y-Coed. The place was busy but not unbearably so, which made a pleasant change. There’s often bargains to be had here. Dawn treated me to an early birthday present in the form of a new daypack from Trespass which was reduced by 50%. I’d been looking for a new one for ages but I’m picky as one has to meet my needs. The fact it did – and was a bargain was a real result! (thank you Dee x)
Betwys was our last stop. From there we cut across country Northwards to reach the A55 near Conwy, then sped home. Ish. Being ‘poets’ day the main roads were packed – which was a shock after the empty tarmac we’d enjoyed around the Llŷn peninsula. By the time we hit the English motorways the traffic was a real pain as we hit jam after jam on the M58, M6 and M62 which added 30 mins to our journey time. Still, we’re home, dry and safe – and tomorrow’s another day – although I suspect it will involves a lot of picture editing and writing as next week will see me back on the rails before an interesting weekend away in the Lakes…
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There’s a short blog from me today for a number of reasons – not least the fact the wifi where we’re staying is extremely slow tonight. That’s the problem with being out in the sticks. Forget the idea of superfast cable broadband in the middle of nowhere, you’ll be lucky to be able to watch a whole film without it buffering every few minutes. It would take me days to upload pictures to my website. Still, the scenery’s good and everything else can be done another time.
Today we made the must of the improving weather to visit the unique village of Portmeirion. As folly’s go, this one’s been executed on a grand scale. It’s also a stunning collection of rescued buildings (or part buildings) in an amazing landscape that’s also been the setting for one of the most enduring 1960s TV series. ‘The Prisoner’, starring Patrick McGoohan was filmed here in 1967-68. I was an avid fan so Portmerion always held a fascination for me. I’ve not visited the village since 1978 so it as a real trip down memory lane. Here’s a trio of pictures.
I’ll blog more about today when I have decent wifi. Be seeing you…
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/
Paul Bigland 