07:45.

It’s the start of a long day here in Swindon. Our group’s about to assemble in the hotel lobby before heading over to the Network Rail training centre to begin today’s activities. I’ll post a few pictures when I’m able.

At day’s close I’ll be heading back to West Yorkshire, hopefully with as easy a journey as I had yesterday. Let’s see…

17:30.

I’m back! Apologies for the gap but it’s been a busy day with the PWI and wifi at the centre wasn’t up to snuff. I’ll post some pictures later. The delegates certainly enjoyed themselves learning more about the dark art of installing and maintaining the railways overhead electrification systems – and got the chance to get their gloves dirty carrying ot a range of tasks. Running contact wires, then tensioning them. Installing droppers and drilling rails to install bonding – and that was just a few of the activities. There were also demonstrations of tools and other kit by Cembre, Gripple and Mosdorfer. At the end of the day, delegates were presented with a course certificate and their very own section of copper OLE contact wire by Gary Keenor of the PWI/Atkins, the man who wrote ‘the’ book on OLE systems.

Now I’m heading back North. On leaving Swindon I caught a GWR train to Didcot Parkway where I changed for the local service to Banbury as far as Oxford, where the station was packed due to it being rush-hour. I was lucky enough to catch a late-running Cross-Country service (1M58, the 14:45 from Bournemouth).

17:50.

We’re now between Leamington Spa and Coventry, an area I know well for various reasons (people and High Speed 2 mainly). This train’s quietened down as we’ve dropped more people off than we’ve picked up, but I suspect that’ll soon change as ‘Cov’ is always a busy place.

19:00.

We’ve passed through the Cov-Brum- Wolves corridor and (as expected) the train was heaving. This area sees an intercity train become little more than a jam-packed local service. It’s popular with locals because of its speed as it omits all the smaller stations. We’re still busy heading for Stafford, although this is the outer limit of the Black Country commuter belt.

20:40.

My plan for getting home earlier was frustrated by a 31 min late arrival at Piccadilly. The closer we got to the city, the  more congestion we encountered. My dash across the city was to no avail as I missed my connection by 2 minutes. It was leaving from the far side of the station, which left me no chance. To add insult to injury, the next train (20:36) was running late and not due until 21:04, leaving me no option but to catch the 20:57 to Halifax. There’s only one thing to do – seek refuge in the Victoria Tap…

21:00.

The last leg. Having enjoyed a pint and indulged in a spot of people watching (divorced dads in their mid 30s who’re obviously struggling with the reality) and being thankful I’m not in that position, I’m now on a quiet 4-car service heading across the Pennines. It’s been a long day – but a really interesting one that’s presented me with a few challenges from a photographic perspective. But that’s what makes the job interesting. That said, I’m looking forward to a day working from home tomorrow. But I’m not there yet…

22:30.

Home again! Now it’s time to relax, but before I do that I’ll post a few pictures from today for your delectation.

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