Author Archives: Paul Bigland

Lockdown. Day 45 (Thursday).

07 Thursday May 2020

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*warning, blog under construction*

Our most varied day of the week began with the weather promising a fantastic day ahead. We had wall-to-wall sunshine and temperatures that made you feel like summer really was on the way. Our day began around 07:30. Both of us were tempted to lie-in, but there was too much to do – despite me having picked up some of Dee’s parents shopping yesterday.

After a leisurely breakfast and time for me to start uploading the batch of old slides I’d been bust scanning we headed out in the car. Our first stop was planned to be our local supermarket to get the fresh veg I couldn’t get for John and Norah yesterday, but the queue stretched right around the car park so we gave it a miss and headed over to Huddersfield instead. On the way Dawn and I discussed the positives and negatives of where the world is now and what we’ll miss when life returns to normal. The one thing we both agreed that we’d miss was the empty roads and absence of traffic noise and pollution.

Huddersfield wasn’t too bad. The roads were still quiet although there were certainly more cars around than at the start of lockdown, but who knows what they’re doing or where they’re going. Our first stop was Sainsbury’s, where the queue was the longest we’d seen it. Then Dawn twigged what I hadn’t. Tomorrow’s a bank holiday so people are stocking up! To be honest, queuing in a car-park in the sunshine isn’t much of a hardship and it didn’t take that long to get in to begin our shopping. The place wasn’t exactly packed once we were through the doors when we split up. Dawn did her parents shopping and I did ours. Well, most of it. For some unfathomed reason I managed to miss several items off the list, which didn’t go down well with ‘Senior Management’..

Afterwards we called in to the Community Rail Network offices in the old water-tower at Huddersfield station. Whilst Dawn sorted out some work there I went for a wander with the camera. The weather was ideal for getting some rail pictures but with so few services running and big gaps in the timetable I also went for a wander through the town. With so many shops closed it was hardly surprising that it was quiet. That and the fact a lot of outlets had closed already before Covid had arrived. Huddersfield town centre isn’t what it was even when I first came up here 10 years ago. But what did catch my eye was the number of queues outside banks. They were the only places you saw groups of people. But why? I couldn’t work it out. The only time I physically visit a bank branch nowadays is on one of those rare occasions when some Luddite organisation still insists on paying me by cheque. So why were these people there? I’ve no idea, but I was curious. What am I missing?

Shopping and office work done we drove over to Dawn’s folks to drop off the shopping and have a chat. Considering the pair of them have had their social wings severely clipped they’re both doing remarkably well, but then they come from a generation that has a different perspective on the definition of ‘hardship’.

We drove straight home afterwards and unloaded our haul of shopping before ‘taking 5’ to enjoy the lovely weather.

 

Lockdown. Day 44 (Wednesday).

06 Wednesday May 2020

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Despite the routine of life at the moment, it still manages to throw you enough curved balls and surprises to make it interesting…

This morning Dawn was first out of bed as I’d had a less than perfect night’s sleep due to our moggie (Jet) deciding that what’s ours is his. He waits until you’re almost asleep then jumps on the bed to wedge himself between us. He’s such an old boy now (eighteen and a half) that most of the time we don’t have the heart to kick him off – but he doesn’t half take up a lot of room. So, despite the fact I’d had a relatively early night I hadn’t had a good one. Dawn bounded out of bed to do her exercise regime in the living room but the most active I got was to make coffee and retreat back to bed with the laptop and catch up with world events before a shower and my ‘commute’ to the office. It was a crying shame to be stuck indoors as the weather was stunning. There may have been a morning chill in the air first thing but that was because there wasn’t a cloud in the sky! Here’s the view from the road above our house (looking across Sowerby Bridge and the Calder Valley) as I walked up the hill to combine getting some of the food shopping for Dawn’s parents and daily exercise.

I’d have loved to have enjoyed a day outdoors, soaking up the sun on such a fabulous day but I had too much to do. I’ve not had chance to edit them and put the results on my website yet but I’ve scanned another forty old slides which include November 1992 to January 1993. It was a period when my life changed completely, so it’s quite strange looking back at them now and remembering. 

Part of the reason I’ve not got them edited today was that other things kept side-tracking me – but in a positive way. A picture request from a magazine saw me scurrying through the archives to dig out what they wanted, then I had a Zoom conference call scheduled to talk about the Community Rail Network awards. Oh, the joys of online meetings! Yes, they’re ideal for when needs must but the idea that these will render travel redundant in future is fanciful to say the least. There’s too many distractions or glitches and body language is next to impossible to read. I lost the call for a few minutes as we suffered a power cut – the second time that’s happened in a week. It was back in an instant but it took several for the internet to reboot.

Finally, I got chance to break away from staring at a screen and retreated into the garden with a good old paper copy of RAIL magazine to catch up on the latest industry news in the sun! The ‘dead tree’ media still has some advantages. You need no batteries or sockets, you don’t need to worry about flare on a screen and you don’t have to fret about a wifi connection. Oh, and you can also use the mag as a sunshade!

The clear skies and sunshine lasted right through to the bitter end when they were overtaken by planet’s rotation and replaced by a glorious dark night and a full moon. If I hadn’t so many things to do I’d have been tempted to set up my camera on a tripod up on the promenade and try some long-exposure shots. Sadly, with the length of exposure that I’d need for what I have in mind the local constabulary may be less than sympathetic in these coronavirus times.

Instead of star-gazing, here’s a look back at the past and the archive pictures I’ve been scanning today. This is Tilbury Riverside station in Essex, just a few days before it closed on the 30th November 1992. Oddly, despite the fact I’d lived in London since 1986, this was the only time I ever visited. I don’t know why, other than it obviously wasn’t a priority at the time, despite the fact I lived just a stones throw from the London, Tilbury & Southend railway in East London. Now, how I wish I had as Tilbury Riverside would have made a fascinating picture study. 

03062. 313787. In the last week before closure. Tilbury Riverside. November.1992 crop

This is how I remember much of the railways from my youth. Decrepit and decaying. Forget the rose-tinted spectacles, the one thing money wasn’t spent on was stations. How many were stripped back to bare platforms and had decent facilities demolished and replaced by bus shelters to save a few quid on maintenance and wages?

Tilbury Riverside is no more but the site is still rail connected as it’s now used by freight trains from the docks. When I’ve had chance to edit the other pictures I’ll add a couple more. Right now it’s time for bed as we’ve a busy shopping day ahead of us…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lockdown. Day 43 (Tuesday).

05 Tuesday May 2020

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Despite getting up before 07:00 I still didn’t get everything done that I’d hoped and planned to. So much for all this time we’re meant to have on our hands due to lockdown! On the bright side, I did achieve a lot. Having left Dawn in bed with our moggie keeping guard over her I made some coffee before heading to the office. It’s not exactly an onerous commute from the kitchen, one flight of stairs and I’m there! The first assignment of the day was to get a the next batch of slides scanned and edited whilst setting up another batch ready to join the queue. Whilst they’re scanning I normally have time to peruse the web and catch up on the days world and financial news in between. The media isn’t making as depressing and perturbing reading as it did a few weeks ago due to the fact so many countries are slowly feeling their way out of lockdown and making plans for the future. Quite how long this process will last before normality returns is anyone’s guess as this would depend on countries having a vaccine against Covid-19.

With this in mind I’m prepared to be in complete lockdown for another week or two yet. I’ve plenty to keep me occupied, so the only real negative impact on me is financial. I’m one of the lucky ones in that I’ve been able to adapt to lockdown without too much mental stress, as has Dawn. I’m not saying it’s been all plain sailing, but at least we’re both going to come out of this still married!

Dawn was back at work today and straight into conference calls, catching up with her colleagues and what’s going on in the world of Community Rail – a sector that’s not had it easy as many of the volunteer groups rely on people who fit into various ‘at risk’ categories.

It was during one of Dawn’s conference calls that the Dell engineer arrived to take another look at my laptop. To maintain social distancing he worked in the kitchen like he did last time. The machine’s now running sweetly (I’m typing this on it new) and I’m hoping the glitches have finally been sorted out and I’ve a machine I can rely on. I’m keeping my old one up to date as a precaution  and basing everything in the Cloud so if anything does go wrong I can rapidly switch between machines. In fact it’s quite useful having both running at times as I can use one for slide scanning and picture editing and the other machine for emails and paperwork. Who says men can’t multi-task!

Once the Dell engineer had left I took a break from staring at screens to get my daily constitutional. The weather was ideal as it was sunny but not too hot so slogging up through the woods to the promenade didn’t leave me in a sweaty mess. After being in lockdown for so long and missing the levels of exercise I used to get I’m trying to ramp things up by increasing my target from the daily minimum of 12,500 steps to 17,000 which means I then surpass all my targets. Thankfully we live in an area where I can do this without putting anyone at risk I’d be buggered if I still lived in North London as 7 miles around a 30 foot garden would be stretching things a bit!

Sadly, with Dawn still working I had to walk solo. Once back at home I settled back down in front of the computers and managed to get 60 old pictures done today. You can find them on my Zenfolio website in this gallery.

I’m moving on through the years now and passed a significant (well, to me anyway) landmark. I’ve finished the years 1989 -1991. 1991 was important to me because in the October of that year I packed in my job as a Housing Officer in Tower Hamlets, paid a years rent on my shared flat and headed off to South-East Asia for a year. By the time I returned in October 1992 I’d visited India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Malaysia. I’d also travelled all the way overland through the Indonesian islands from Sumatra to West Timor and even got as far as Darwin in Australia before running out of time and money! One day I’ll write up my experiences of those days, when backpacking was very different to today…

The trip means that there’s a year-long gap in my UK rail archive, just at a time when the railways were going through another phase of replacing loco-hauled passenger services with yet more multiple units. This meant I was kept busy before I left documenting how things were before they changed forever. Of course, what I didn’t know at the time was that rail privatisation was looming. There wasn’t going to be a general election until 1992 and John Major’s Tories looked unlikely to win…

Here’s a sample picture that shows how much has changed.

03035. 87001. 13.12 to Liverpool Lime St. 87021. 09.10 from Liverpool Lime St. London St Pancras. 12.10.1991 crop

On the 12th October 1991 a pair of Class 87s stand at the buffers at St Pancras station London. No, this isn’t a mistake! Due to weekend engineering work Services from Liverpool were diverted away from Euston and into St Pancras. The trains were diesel hauled from Nuneaton across to the Midland Main Line and then down to Bedford where the Class 87s could run ‘under the wires’ to St Pancras. 87001 (on the left) waits to work the 13.12 to Liverpool Limes St whilst I’d arrived from Liverpool behind 87021 on the right which had worked the 09.10 from Lime St. I’d been back to Southport for the weekend to say my goodbye’s to my family. A few days later I flew out on a single ticket to Delhi, India, where the adventure began…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lockdown. Day 42 (Monday)

04 Monday May 2020

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Another day that didn’t quite go according to plan…

That’s partially because I got up later than expected. Today was Dawn’s last day on holiday and as she was having a lie in I ended up lying in for a bit. Mind you, the fact our moggie had pulled a fast one and dived on the bed during the night didn’t help. Much as we love him, he’s a bugger for pinching the middle of the bed!

Getting up late meant the working day was cut short by a couple of hours, so I spent longer scanning old slides to meet my target and less doing other stuff. Even so, It was a productive day. I hate ones where I feel I’ve not achieved anything. One thing I didn’t manage to sort out was getting my new laptop working again. It’s been faulty since last week. Despite spending over half an hour on the phone to the Dell helpdesk there was nothing to be done, so another of their engineers will be paying me a visit tomorrow. Hopefully, this time the repair will be permanent. The old machine I’m using at the moment is fine for office work but as the battery is fried it can’t move far.

Away from work the day went well. Dee kept herself busy with her exercise regime and then got stuck into the decorating jobs she’s occupied herself with these past few days. Yesterday she did an excellent job of prepping the porch for painting. Today the task was painting the living room window cills and surrounding plasterwork. I love her enthusiasm for getting hands-on with tasks like this as it’s very different from her day job.

The weather’s defaulted back to a mixture of sunshine and cloud, with only the slightest smattering of rain, which was great as it meant that when I finally went cross-eyed through staring at a screen all day I could go for a stroll without getting soaked. I didn’t go far but stuck to the usual woods/promenade/park circuit with a slight deviation to the supermarket. I was surprised how quite everywhere was. I didn’t even have to queue to get into Tesco’s. There’s been a few signs recently that more people are pushing the lockdown envelope at weekends, but there was little sign of that today.

Hopefully, we can start to see the lockdown begin to be relaxed. Although it’s early days yet there are positive signs that the number of cases and death toll is heading in the right direction. I just wish it was possible to have greater faith in the Governments statistics. Quite what the gradual relaxing will look like is open for debate. Right now, I’m not making any plans. besides, I’ve more than enough things to keep me occupied.

Whilst the majority of us are respecting the lockdown and social distancing I saw that the faux ‘Eco-warriors’ from ‘Extinction rebellion’ who’re protesting against building HS2, the new high-speed railway, were displaying their usual weapons-grade hypocrisy by pulling various stunts and protests along the route. Using banners carrying the slogan ‘NHSnotHS2’ they blocked an HS2 site entrance at Euston long enough to get a media photo call. Meanwhile, they had a few useless protesters up trees outside Euston station. All Londoners, of course. Oh, wait a minute…

One of the people up the trees was a certain Larch Maxey. The very same Larch Maxey who (until a couple of days ago) was at the Crackley Woods camp in Warwickshire. It seems the lockdown rules and social distancing don’t apply to these hypocrites. The very same rules they rant and rave about HS2 workers, police and bailiffs not obeying…

Here’s a picture of Maxey taken from one of the protesters Facebook pages.

Maxey

I wonder where the hypocrite will turn up next?

Needless to say, the protests didn’t stop a thing. They attracted some media attention but that was it. Work on Hs2 continued on sites from London to Birmingham with minimal disruption. This is the stupidity and futility of it all, the protests aren’t even a pin-prick to such a vast project which is gaining momentum all the time now that the main contractors are gearing up for what will be the largest construction project in Europe. You might as well attack a Rhino with a pea-shooter!

This evening has been more relaxed. Last night I’d cooked a tofu and tempeh veggie stir-fry, so I added some extra veggies to that to reinvent it for a second night as a quick and easy meal. Afterwards we spent time on a Zoom call with Dawn’s Brother and his family down in Farnham and her parents over in Huddersfield which makes the Covid lockdown more bearable and the distances between us shrink.

Tomorrow Dawn’s back at work and I’ll be kept occupied with scanning and paperwork. I’m hoping to catch up with some writing too (including the blogs I’d been determined to catch up with today!), so it’s goodnight from me with the intent of an earlier start tomorrow.

Lockdown. Day 41 (Sunday).

03 Sunday May 2020

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Wow! I’m way behind with these blogs and desperately trying to find the time to catch up. So much for the idea that there’s nothing to do because we’re stuck at home. It feels like I could do with another month of this just to catch up with all the stuff I’ve been hoping to get done.

It may officially have been the ‘day of rest’ today, but it felt like anything but for me. Whilst Dawn had a bit of a lie-in this morning I was up not long after 07:30 in order to sort out another batch of old slides to scan. I’ve moved on to another album of old railway pictures, this time from 1991. Unlike some of the later albums there’s very few duplicates in it so I have 500 different pictures to scan. As I’m lucky to get 40 done in a day there’s the best part of two weeks solid scanning to get through it. Will the lockdown last long enough for me to get all my old rail slides done? Who knows, so I’m making the most of the time I’ve got.

In between scanning there was the daily chores and everyday life to organise. I was on coffee duty this morning but Dawn made us brunch, which was something very different from our normal fare. Dee made the both of us fresh, home-made pancakes in what turned out to be a bit of a production line. We ate them straight out of the pan with freshly squeezed lemon and blueberry’s and they were gorgeous – although I may have made a bit of a pig of myself by eating six!

The pancake production line with the stove and two frying pans on the go just out of shot to the left. Cook and scoff! 

After brunch we divided our time between different jobs. Whilst I worked in the office scanning more old slides Dawn got stuck into some DIY and a project she’s been wanting to do for a while. The porch to the cottage has been overdue for a repaint for a few years now and with the improving weather it’s an ideal time to tackle the job – which Dee did with gusto! I could hear the furious wire-brushing and sanding from my office upstairs – along with the occasional shouts for advice or plea for supplies of refreshments.

And so the day passed – although I’ve no idea how it did it so quickly. Once the porch was prepared and Dee was occupied clearing up I pinched the ladders to clean all the back windows to the cottage. Well, if we’re going to be stuck indoors we might as well have clean windows to gaze (whistfully) out of!

I’d offered to cook a stir-fry this evening, using some of the Tofu we’d bought from the Moorcock shop, plus some Tempeh I’d spotted in our local Tesco’s. I marinaded both for a few hours in a mix of soy sauces, herbs and spices to give them a flavour boost before cooking them with some of the Moorcock’s organic veg and a load of rice noodles. The result was delicious, although I’m hoping none of the neighbours had any windows open as the mix of chili’s and spices certainly caught the back of the throat as they cooked!

Having eaten I worked off some of the calories by going for an evening constitutional up and down our road as it was too dark to stray through the woods to venture further. Evening time’s ideal to do this as it’s so quiet here. I spent 30 minutes to-ing and fro-ing without seeing a single car on the road. Bliss! Despite the enormous disruption the lockdown has caused to everyone’s lives there’s things I’m going to miss when things return to normal. The absence of road traffic being one. It’s been lovely to have the roads so free of vehicles.

The slides I’d scanned earlier are now on my Zenfolio website. I’ve started where I left off a few weeks ago with a previous album, which contained pictures of the open day at London’s Old Oak Common locomotive depot taken in August 1991. Here’s a sample.

02935. D400. D7018. D821. Old Oak Common open day. 18.08.1991 crop

A line-up of (mostly) preserved locomotives, including a trio of old Western region diesel-hydraulics that were once synonymous with Old Oak Common. At the time, who would have thought this depot would disappear? The whole area was razed a few years ago to make way for stabling sidings for the Crossrail train fleet. Now it’s not just the locomotives that are a memory…

You can find the rest of the pictures from the open day in this gallery. I’ve still a few more to add, which should get done in the next day or two. I’m looking forward to another busy week at home with plenty to keep me occupied, including catching up on a bit of blogging as I’ve been a bit tardy this weekend. Watch this space…

Lockdown. Day 38 (Thursday).

01 Friday May 2020

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*warning. Blog under construction. More tomorrow*

Can we have all that fabulous sunshine back please? Yes, I know we desperately needed the rain and it’s done the gardens and woods a power of good, but it’s cold – and I miss sitting out in the garden!

The day dawned in gloomy fashion, with heavy grey clouds and mist obscuring the far side of the valley, which was a shame as Thursday is our big day out and one the pair of us rather look forward to as we get to do something different outside the confines of the Calder Valley. Admittedly, this week we’ve had a couple of bites of the cherry as we’ve been doing large shops for Dawn’s parents. Yesterday was the farm shop. Today was somewhere neither of us had been before – a fish wholesaler in Huddersfield. Before we left we managed to get a few chores done and have breakfast, only to find that Jet (our cat) had decided to usurp the bed and have a ‘duvet day’. As he’s an old boy now we don’t have the heart to kick him off. Problem is – the little bugger knows it now and often takes advantage!

DG342038crop

Feeling ever so slightly naughty for using the car two days in a row we drove over to Huddersfield up over Ainley Top and under the M62. There’s a slight increase in traffic but there’s still no danger of getting caught in the long queues you’d normally find on a weekday morning as you climb to the roundabout that forms the junction with the motorway. The road into town was equally clear, as was the Leeds Road which took us from the town centre towards Deighton, where we found Sailbrand, which is where John and Norah normally stock up on fresh fish. It’s a little difficult to find as it’s tucked away off the main road on a rather unglamorous industrial estate but both Dawn and I were impressed by their range of fish and the friendliness and helpfulness of the staff. As well as fulfilling John and Norah’s order we stocked up on some gorgeous Hake fillets, Monkfish and some amazing Tuna steaks -and all at very good prices. We’ll certainly be using them again. Heading back into town our next port of call was Sainsburys where we split up. Dawn did her parents shopping whilst I picked up some necessities for us. Luckily the weather had picked up, so queuing in the car-park waiting to be allowed in wasn’t as bad as we feared it might have been. Even so, the cumulative effect of queuing at different places certainly eats up into your day. Having done the ‘big’ shop we called in at Dawn’s work offices at the station for a couple of minutes (just to check on the building) then headed up to John and Norah’s to drop off all the shopping. We didn’t stay long as chatting over the garden gate isn’t as much fun when the wind’s blowing a gale!

On the way home we stopped for a brief few minutes so that I could get a couple of pictures as the views across the Colne valley are rather photogenic and we’d timed it just right for a couple of Trans-Pennine rail services to pass.

DG341995crop

A TPE Class 802 crosses the viaduct at Linthwaite, to the West of Huddersfield. I was relieved to see that these five-car trains can be framed rather neatly by the viaducts surrounds. As you can see by the trees – Spring’s arrived.

DG342001crop

A picture taken from the same location, but this time looking West along the Colne valley with the town of Slaithwaite in the foreground and the moors high above. I’ve only just discovered this shot but I’m planning to be back soon…

DG342007crop

OK, that’s all for tonight, I’ll add more (with many more pictures) in the morning…

Lockdown. Day 37 (Wednesday).

30 Thursday Apr 2020

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Another day dawned with crappy weather but one that was enjoyable anyway as we were stepping off the lockdown treadmill – and it felt quite anarchic! How easily we’re pleased in these strange times!

Our often mundane and routine weekly schedule was being interrupted because we’d some extra shopping to do for Dawn’s parents, which meant – wo hoo! – we had a legimate excuse for a trip out in the car! The mission (which we’d chosen to accept) was to shop for a humoungous amount of meat from the excellent Bolster Moor farm shop which is high above Slaithwaite in the Colne Valley. John and Norah had sent us over their shopping list so we knew exactly what we were shopping for – which would restock their freezer for quite some time.

The trip over was a bit of a doddle as it’s cross-country on back roads. Although there seemed to be more people out and about recently traffic seemed to have died down again which was reassuring as the edges of lockdown have felt like they’re starting to fray. The Farm Shop was certainly taking social distancing seriously. No couples were allowed – only individuals, so Dawn went in and I stayed in the car and filled my time by blogging via my phone. Neither Dee nor I are big red meat eaters, but we do occaisionally indulge so Dawn picked up a selection for us which included minced beef, minced pork, chicken livers and bacon. Another bonus was being able to buy some flour, which is as rare as hen’s teeth nowadays. Bolster Moor have been buying it in industrial quantities and then putting it in smaller bags for resale. Apparently, packaging issues are one of the main reasons for shortages, not the inability of mills to supply the raw material. Folk are running out of packaging, not flour! Dee’s final purchase was one of the shops award winning Pork Pies for us to share as a treat. Admittedly, around this neck of the woods it’s almost impossible to find a pork pie that doesn’t carry the sobriquet ‘award winning’ – but with Bolster Moor’s the title’s well deserved!

Mercy mission done we drove over to John and Norah’s to deliver the goods, along with some other bits we’d picked up for them as part of our shopping trips. I feel for John and Norah, we get to do their shopping but they’re completely cut off from a lot of their normal life. Both of them are active and have a wide circle of friends with (until Covid-19 happened) a busy social calendar – all of which has had to come to an end for now and be put on hold until who knows when.

I’d packed my camera in the car on the off-chance there could be a picture opportunity in the offing but the weather conspired against us, so as we drove across the Colne valley and the railway from Manchester to Leeds a band of rain seemed to take delight in frustrating me by blocking off the views which would have been gorgeous a week earlier as we came back cross country via Slaithwaite – or ‘Slawit’ as some insist on saying – i’ve no idea on the correct way to pronounce it as even the local can’t agree on that one! I sometimes wonder if it’s a class thing in the same way that some people insist the word ‘bath’ has an R in it.

Back at home we dodged the rain and settled back into a routine. Dawn got busy in the kitchen sorting out our supplies whilst I retreated into the office to catch up on some work and process some more old railway pictures that were next in the queue whilst respondng to emails and trying to keep on top of information about the big, wide (lockdowned) world. Tomorrow we have another day where we sally forth – this time to shop for ourselves and visit a fishmongers that Dawn’s folks frequent but we’ve never visited…

 

Lockdown. Day 36 (Tuesday).

29 Wednesday Apr 2020

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Today the weather really has changed. The broken cloud we had yesterday morphed into heavy grey, rainbearing skies this morning making the world look very different when I opened the bedroom blinds. It made me just how lucky that we’ve had over a month of near continuous sunshine just when we needed most. Imagine what people’s spirits might have been like going through lockdown when the weather was appalling?

Having kept my head down all Monday to complete my next article for RAIL magazine on the East London Line it was great to be able to put it to bed and get back to scanning my slide archive as that’s had to take a back seat this past week. I’ve several pages of my first set of pictures from 1989-90 to complete and I’m eager to get them finished as it feels like a milestone in what’s been a bloody long process! It’s not the most exciting of tasks, it’s very much a marathon, not a sprint, but after all these years it feels like the finisheing line’s in sight.

Whilst I’ve been doing this I’ve been kept entertained by a pair of Blackbirds who’re nesting in a tree at the back of the house. They keep foraging for food on the shed roofs opposite my office window and I’ve been helping them by keeping an eye out for the local cats who consider the area their territory. I’m making the moggies feel uncomfortable enough that they don’t hang around, giving the Blackbirds a free-fly zone. We have a cat ourselves but Jet is an old boy who’s 18 and a half, so his bird-catching days are long behind him. Oh, he’ll saunter around outside, but he’s unfazed by our feathered friends nowadays are barely gives them a second glance. The fact he’s as deaf as a post probably helps as he only notices them if they intrude on his line of sight. 

I was so engrossed in the process of scanning and editing several batches of slies that the day flew by. before I knew it we were in to evening. Dawn’s got the week off from work so she’s been busy downstairs with DIY, and getting exercise that way, so I headed out for an evening constitutional on my own, in the rain! There was no way I was going to get my daily target of 12,500 steps. Even so, it was lovely to get out and experience the wind and rain on my skin after a long day sat at a desk.

Here’s a couple of the images I’ve been scanning. This is a classic image of a railway that’s gone forever. On the 8th March 1990 a pair of Class 56s pass at Barnetby East junction in Lincolnshire. Nearest the camera is 56088 with a loaded train of HAA coal hoppers on its way from Immingham Docks to Scunthorpe where the coal will power the steelworks furnaces. In the background is 56090 heading back to the docks with the empties. the signalbox and semaphores here lasted until Christmas 2015 when the area was resignalled. The Four wheeled HAA coal wagons are long gone too, having been replaced with much higher capacity bogie hopper wagons which are kinder to the track (amongst other things). 

0616. 56088. 56090. Barnetby. 8.3.1990 copy

Here’s another, taken at Peterborough a few days later on the 12th March 1990 when the Class 91 locomotives were brand-new. Here’s 91011, named ‘Terence Cuneo’ (after the famous railway artist) out on a test train before entering passenger service. Now, 30 years later the Class 91 fleet is slowly being phased out of mainline service with LNER, although several are planned to remain in traffic until 2022. Will this plan survive the downturn in traffic due to Covid-19? Who knows? 

0648. 91011. Peterborough12.3.1990 copy

If you want to have a look through more of these old photos, follow this link to the ‘recent’ section of my Zenfolio website.