Friday saw me travel back from Southport to West Yorkshire, swapping the coast for the hills and sunshine for cloudy weather – along with a significant drop in temperature!

I was in no rush to get back as Dawn was busy working all day so I had plenty of time to soak up the sun, stretch my legs and get in some exercise before catching the train. I’ve really enjoyed staying at my sisters and reacquainting myself with the town I grew up in (but left so long ago). Splitting my time between between Southport and Halifax gives me the best of both worlds. I’ve lots of stories in the bank to blog about when I have time. But for now I’ve other things in mind.

Dragging my suitcase and camera kit to Meols Cop station I caught a type of train from another chapter of my life – my 25 years living in London, when the Thameslink Class 319s often carried me around the capital. Now, most have gone for scrap, but a few have been converted to bi-mode (diesel and electric) Class 769s which are a staple on Northern services from Southport to Stalybridge and Manchester Oxford Rd.

They’re a definite improvement in quality compared to the old 1980s built Class 150s which are also regulars on the route. Especially as they still have the former 1st Class area with its roomy 2+1 seating, making them ideal to sit back and relax in as the rich farmland of the West Lancashire plain trundles past the window before we call at Parbold where the landscape becomes more hilly. By Wigan the landscape changes again, as the route onwards to Bolton was dominated by the mines and cotton mills of the industrial revolution. Nowadays all the pits have disappeared, as have many of the mills, and the scars on the landscape they left behind are gradually healing.

On arrival at Manchester Victoria I swapped the comfort of my 4-car Class 769 for a rammed 2-car Class 195 which was working a Chester-Leeds service. This was totally inadequate for the numbers travelling but Northern seem to have problems with short-formed services at the moment. I’m glad that I don’t have to do this part of the trip every day as I ended up standing all the way back to Sowerby Bridge. Fortunately, Dawn was available to pick me up as pulling a suitcase a mile uphill whilst wearing a 12kg camera bag is a bit of a minority sport!

Now I have a full day back at Bigland Towers before we’re on the move again – but not by train this time. The pair of us are driving down to Devon where we’ll be staying with friends for a week. Hopefully, I’ll find time to blog. They may not be wordy, but they’ll certainly contain some different pictures of a part of the UK I’ve not visited for many years.

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/

Cheers,

Paul