Author Archives: Paul Bigland

Rolling blog: New Zealand. Day 4…

01 Tuesday Jan 2019

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It’s 07:45 in New Zealand and we’re finally shaking off the lurgy that’s laid us both low since the day we arrived. Most of our time has been spent housebound although we did have a lovely New Year’s Eve. For the first time on these trips we’ve booked homestays via the Airbnb network and I have to say, it’s been a lovely experience. We’re staying in an area of Auckland called Mt Roskill, a few kilometres the South of the city centre. The area has a local hilltop park which has a great view of the skytower, which is used as the launchpad for the firework display that announces the arrival of the New Year as Auckland is the first major city to celebrate the arrival of 2019 . Having travelled half-way around the planet there was no way we were going to miss seeing the fireworks, so we dragged ourselves up to the park for a grandstand view. I’m afraid the results were a tad underwhelming! The display lasted for little more than three minutes before fizzling out. A local lad stood nearby summed it up when he said “Aww, there wasn’t even a grand finale”.

DG315372. New Year fireworks. New Zealand. 01.01.19crop

Afterwards we returned to the home of KK and his Chinese Malaysian family where we spent a lovely evening with the extended family, some of whom had flown in from Australia and Malaysia to get together for New Year. Also present was his son-in-law, who was originally from Iran. Many of the family are construction professionals (including KKs wife, who’s a Quantity Surveyor). I had a fascinating conversation with them about the levels of investment and construction in Malaysia (a country I know well), politics and Chinese economic expansion as well as the crisis in housing affordability in many countries. Truly, we are the lucky generation. What struck me was what an international family they were (KK himself had studied in Aberdeen) and how Britain has completely lost the plot with its fears over immigration. People like this are an asset to any country and should be welcomed, not demonised. It seems New Zealand realises this, which is why the population has grown from 3.8 million when I was last here to nearly 5 million now – almost 20% It was an entertaining evening full of fun and laughter, but it made my heart ache as it made me realise how disconnected I now feel from my own backward looking country. 2019 is going to be a very difficult year in the UK.

DG315365. Viking Orion. Auckland. New Zealand. 30.12.18crop

Auckland’s changing skyline, with the cruise ship Viking Orion in the harbour.

Right, it’s time to stop penning this and grab some breakfast before heading out into the city. I’ll write more soon…

12:39.

We’ve had a lovely stroll along to the little suburb of Onehunga, which has an interesting place in social history. In 1893, Elizabeth Yates was elected mayor of the borough, becoming the first female mayor in the British Empire. Her picture is one of many historical images from the town that are on display by the railway station.

DG315405crop

We’d actually come here to catch the train into town only to suffer the curse of railways the world over: bustitution! Nearly the whole of the Auckland suburban network was closed over the holiday period, leaving just one service operating into Britomart.

On the bright side, the town had been without a railway from 1973 until the line reopened in 2010 in a welcome retreat from the country’s previous policy of running down the railways to invest in roads. Now there’s some really exciting projects going on here – as I’ll describe in a separate blog.

The one good thing about the bustitution was it allowed us to see parts of Auckland we wouldn’t have otherwise and I have to say I’ve been impressed. Despite the modern building boom here, there’s still plenty of old ones left which have found a new lease of life, like this one, where we are now…

Just around the corner’s the cities main railway station. It’s pretty unassuming from above ground and could easily be mistaken for an industrial shed…

DG315407crop

Below ground is a very different matter…

DG315417. Britomart. Auckland. New Zealand. 2.1.19crop

Only the two left-hand platforms are in use at the moment due to engineering work – hence all the temporary barriers blocking off the other three. 

DG315422. Britomart. Auckland. New Zealand. 2.1.18crop

 

 

 

Crunching the StopHs2 social media stats: December 2018

01 Tuesday Jan 2019

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Happy New Year folks!

I’ve had a bit of time on holiday to crunch these numbers, so here’s the final series of the year (predictable as they are). Remember that the final few months of 2018 was meant to see the ‘relaunch’ of the anti Hs2 campaign? It never happened. Not only that, but their last ‘great white hope’ – a BBC Panorama programme that they’d worked themselves up into a frenzy about as it would provide the ‘killer evidence’ that would see Hs2 off once and for all turned out to be a damp squib. Aired on the evening of the 17th of December, it made barely a mention in the wider media – manly because there wasn’t a single new thing in it! You can read about it here.

After that, to quote Marvin the Paranoid android, they ‘went into a bit of decline’. It’s clear that the majority of politicians minds are elsewhere in the run up to 2019. Even Stophs2 gave up posting and tweeting before Xmas as it’s obvious they’re wasting their time.

Anyways, Here’s a look at their social media stats. First up is Facebook.

stophs2 facebook

As you can see the only real improvements are to their headline numbers due to people desperately trying to draw attention to the Panorama programme – although many comments on their Facebook page make it clear people were disappointed with it. They have managed to increase their Facebook followers by nearly 3% but as that’s from such a small starting number (after 10 years) it’s not something to boast about.

Meanwhile, over on Twitter, numbers remain flat.

stophs2 twitter

It’s becoming clear that Twitter’s a complete waste of time for them. The only thing it does is show how few of their followers actually bother with it. Remember that headlines behind these numbers. 6.5 MILLION people live on the route of HS2, so 6363 ‘followers’ (and how many of them are real I wonder?) are a tear in an ocean.

As with previous months a browse of their tweets/posts show that the majority are copies of media articles about HS2. Not a single one of them is news about the StopHS2 ‘campaign’ for the simple reason that – there is no news. They’re not actually doing anything! Sure, the media still trot out Rukin & Gaines for interviews, but they always have. There’s not even any news from (the increasingly scarce) local groups anymore. What both social media accounts show is that StopHs2 has little in the way of heavyweight support – and that’s putting it politely! In fact, both their accounts are refuges for the old ‘green ink’ brigade. who (in an earlier age before social media) would’ve had their ranting, batshit letters spiked by the newspapers they wrote to!

That said, there is one bit of news they’ve ignored reporting completely! Instead, it was slipped out by lawyers. Hs2aa, the ‘real’ brains behind the stophs2 campaign (StopHs2 were always strident, student politics types due to Rukin’s background) folded In 2017, but before they did they mounted a last gasp legal challenge under the Aarhus convention. Last month that was finally rejected, hammering the final nail into HS2aa’s coffin.

2019 is going to be a very bad year for StopH2, if they can be bothered to come back off their rather long Xmas hols…

 

New Zealand day 1: Auckland.

30 Sunday Dec 2018

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I’ll fill this blog out later, but here’s a start on describing our first day here in Auckland. It’s been an interesting experience for a whole host of reasons. Firstly, we almost never made it into town. Why? Because some nutter in a car cut up our airport minibus so badly he nearly took the front off! The language from our Roratongan driver was colourful to say the least!

We arrived in town around 9am and headed straight to the harbour area so we could put our suitcases in store and explore without them. I have to say, I don’t recognise most of the Central Business District anymore, so much has (or is being) rebuilt. It’s the same with the harbour area and the railway station. The harbour was home to this floating block of flats – and this is the small one. Wait till you see the size of the other!

The CBD was sleepy when we arrived, it’s now abuzz with shoppers and the harbour packed with folk eating and drinking or promenading in the sunshine.

One thing puzzles me though. Where the hell do central Aucklanders buy fresh fruit and veg? We spent a fruitless (literally) couple of hours looking for a local version of the Indian corner store or even a decent supermarket.

18:01 (NZ). 05:02 (UK).

Bliss! I’m laid on a bed, my first chance to be horizontal since leaving Heathrow on Friday lunchtime! After our abortive shopping trip we decided to go and slake our thirsts before picking up the suitcases and heading to where we’re staying, which is a first for us: an AirBnB. It’s a very pleasant and comfortable house owned by a Malaysian Chinese family in an area call Mt Roskill, to the South of the centre. We’ve not actually met them yet as they’re out, but we’ve settled and and done a shopping run to a large supermarket called One World. It’s been very interesting comparing costs to UK prices – and seeing lots of Kiwi wines that we’ve never even heard of in the UK, some of which seem very good value. Even one of the UKs more expensive UK wines (Villa Maria) is half the price.

Now I’ve had the luxury of a shower, shave and change of clothing I’m going to relax for a bit.

06:34 (NZ). Day 2.

Bugger! A virus we picked up in the UK before we left laid us low and that hour long NAO turned into 13! I blame the festive season and all that kissing strangers under the mistletoe!

Rolling blog: New Zealand here we come…

28 Friday Dec 2018

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06:00

The alarm’s gone off and we’re rising, bleary eyed from bed. Why is it that you so often have a lousy nights sleep when you’re about to embark on a long trip? Nerves, excitement? I’ve been doing this for decades but it still happens. Then one disturbs the other and you’re both tossing and turning! Add in a surreal dream too – at one point I woke up and thought “hang on, I’ll get arrested when I land in the USA!” After a moment thinking “where the hell did that idea come from?” I realised this was tied in to a scenario in a previous dream! I wouldn’t mind, but I’ve not eaten any cheese (renowned for triggering dreams) this Christmas.

Right now, I need coffee – and a shower – in that order!

08:29.

We’re being chauffeur driven to Heathrow T2 by Darren, Dawn’s brother. Mercifully, the roads ate quiet due to the Christmas shutdown.

10:04.

We’re through check-in, security (which was efficient and surprisingly painless) have stocked up on a few bits and now we’re enjoying a bacon and egg muffin washed down with more coffee. Terminal 2 is remarkably quiet compared to how I’ve seen it so it’s quite relaxed.

From here we’re off to Chicago aboard a United Airlines Boeing 767, Then to Auckland aboard an Air New Zealand Boeing 787-900 ‘Dreamliner’ which I’m looking forward to as I’ve never flown on one before.

Whilst hanging around in airport lounges is great for people watching it’s a waste of a few hours that could have been spent sleeping, or doing something more productive. It’s my great complaint about modern air travel. By the time we take off at 12:05 we’ll have been up for 6 hours.

11:16.

Our chariot awaits…

Right, where’s the wine?

11:42.

Boarding’s complete and we’ll be in the air for the next 9 hours, so we’ll see you on the other side of the pond this evening!

15:04 (Chicago time) 21:04 (UK time).

We’ve just landed at Chicago O’Hare. The temperatures a chilly -4 and snow’s forecast but as we won’t be leaving terminal 5 we’re not too bothered.

This hasn’t been a bad flight 3,254 miles in under 9 hours. There’s plenty of legroom on these 767s but the seat pitch is poor. You can’t recline far to get some decent sleep.

The food was pretty good. Due to her allergies Dawn ordered the vegan menu, which produced a very acceptable curry!

The salad accompanyment was just as tasty.

22:58 UK. 16:58 Chicago time.

Getting through Chicago O’ Hare’s a bit of a faff. This is the first transit flight I’ve been on where you have to collect your baggage to go through customs before dropping it off again. At least we already had our ESTA’s after being in New York in May. Even so, it’s quite a bureaucratic process. Now we’ve made it through to T5 departures. I must admit to being a little disappointed by the airport. Considering T5 is the international terminal, it’s not a patch on many. We’re both dog-tired at this stage and desperately hoping we can get some decent sleep on the next flight.

Rolling blog: The longest journey begins with the first step…

27 Thursday Dec 2018

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That said, ours began with a hiccup! We were planning to leave Halifax on the 08:23 train to Leeds, then catch a London train, but Northern cancelled it! We’re now on the 08:43 to Leeds which means our plans to get to Farnham for lunchtime have gone out of the window. Mind you, it’s a strike day on Southwestern Railway, so nothing is certain at that end either. Today is a day to travel with hope rather than expectation!

Hopefully this stuttering start to our odyssey means we’ve exhausted the bad luck at the beginning and can look forward to plain sailing in New Zealand…

09:32.

Our interchange at Leeds was pretty painless as LNER’s 09:45 was waiting for us in the platform. Today it’s being worked by a Class 90 hired-in from DB.

Getting a table seat to work at wasn’t too much of a problem either as this isn’t the busiest of trains. I must say, I like the new electronic reservation system LNER have installed as it’s much easier to read.

10:52

We’re currently speeding down the East Coast Main Line in the same murky weather that’s dogged us for days despite a brief flirtation with blue skies and sunshine South of Doncaster which lifted the spirits as well as the visibility!

11:25.

After a stop at Peterborough our unreserved coach is now almost full with people returning to London after the holiday. Looking around, I notice that out of the eight people I can see, 7 of us are using smartphones, whilst the young Asian lad sat across from me is reading a weighty JG Ballard compilation. Sadly, one young girl is using her smartphone to engage in a mind-numbingly phone call which is mostly a recitation of everything she’s eaten and everyone she’s met over Christmas.

12:50.

After a hop across London on the tube we’re pulling out of Waterloo on the 12:50 to Salisbury as far as Woking. As it’s a strike day there’s no direct service to Farnham.

These diesel units are showing their age now despite their refurbishment. They also seem remarkably noisy, more so than their Northern cousins. That we still have DMUs operating out of Waterloo in this day and age is sad. OK, the line’s not electrified all the way to Salisbury, but how about replacing them with 3rd rail bi-modes for now until a business case can be made for stringing wires up West of Basingstoke?

The weather’s thrown another curve ball. London’s sunshine’s given way to fog to the West, with visibility down to a couple of hundred metres.

13:31

Everything’s gone to plan. Our connection at Woking was fine. We even had chance to grab an (expensive) sandwich from the station cafe that’s been taken over by Starbucks. Now we’re aboard a Siemens Desiro that’s been fitted with the new SWR seat moquette, replacing the attractive SWT red with a patterned dark blue. The carpets received similar treatment. It’s not bad but it does show up the dirt!

Tilford. 15:50.

We’ve kept ourselves occupied since arriving in Tilford. ‘Tilly’, the Platt family dog needed walking, so we volunteered as we were happy to get some exercise after sitting on trains all day. Mist still hung around the river, making it a really atmospheric amble.

Now we’re relaxing at the wood cabin Dawn’s parents have rented before the family all head out for an Italian meal. I wonder if it’s Norwegian wood?

Boxing day blogging.

26 Wednesday Dec 2018

Posted by in Calder Valley, Food and drink, Musings, Travel, West Yorkshire

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I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas day – unless you’re one of the 1000s of Network Rail engineers or contractors working over the holiday – in which case I hope you stayed safe had an easy shift! The weather here was remarkably mild for the time of the year, but then the valley was cocooned in cloud all day which kept the heat in.

We had a quiet day at home apart from a short stint at our local pub (the Big 6) at lunchtime.

Christmas Day lunchtime in the Big 6, when it’s all hands to the (beer)pumps…

It was a mix of regulars and unknown faces as people escape (or are told to bugger off out of the way) from family gatherings for a couple of hours before the real indulgences start around the dinner tables.

The rest of the afternoon and evening there was just the two of us enjoying some quality time together. Our Christmas dinner was anything but traditional. We’d bought some lamb shanks from a local farm shop which Dawn used for a 1st Class mutton (lamb) railway curry using a recipe from Rick Stein. It was divine! The mixture of spices (including cinnamon) really complements the lamb. Dawn served it with a home cooked Sambar (Indian veg curry) and red rice.

The rest of the evening was spent relaxing on the sofa and watching films whilst the cat curled up in front of the fire. Today the pace picks up considerably as we’re packing for New Zealand. Tomorrow we head down to Tilford(Surrey) to catch up with the rest of Dawn’s family for an afternoon, then head for Heathrow on Friday morning for the start of our delayed honeymoon! heading to New Zealand’s going to be a welcome break for a number of reasons. It’s an escape from the UK’s current political madness and shambles over Brexit for a start. There’s also the fact that January’s a drab month in the UK as many people are miserable because of a combination of factors, like the weather and because all the Christmas and New Year bills have come in. It also seems like a long haul to Easter and the next bank holiday!

Unlike our usual January escapes this one’s presenting an interesting logistical challenge on the packing front. Normally, we’d be going to somewhere Equatorial where the weather’s constant and we’d just need clothing for warm weather. Not so in New Zealand, where we’ll be doing a lot more walking and hiking in conditions that can mirror a UK summer. There’s quite a temperature variation too, so there’s a lot more to pack. Normally we’d only take one large suitcase between us. This time we’ve had to borrow a second one. I only hope we remember that when we’re travelling!

Jet (our cat) is most disgruntled as he’s been chucked off the bed to make way for the suitcases which currently look like they’ve been ransacked by overzealous customs Officers. The old boy (he’s 17) has been allowed on the bed recently as he’s been ill. We had to take him to the vets to get some infected teeth removed so he’s been given a lot of leeway and TLC. The problem is, he senses we’re going away, but at least he gets on well with the house-sitters who’ll be looking after him and keeping him company whilst we’re away.

23:13

Phew! Packing done, paperwork printed, instructions left. Now it’s time for a glass of wine and bed. Tomorrow’s going to be the start of a looonnng few days…

Rolling blog: Calder Christmas…

24 Monday Dec 2018

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‘Tis Xmas eve in the Calder valley and the weather’s been in the festive spirit, blanketing Sowerby Bridge in a long cotton wool cloud this morning. Opening the bedroom curtain often reveals an unexpected delight as the weather in the valley’s so changeable. This was the view today.

DG315326crop

Sowerby Bridge railway station’s down there – somewhere!

Pretty as the picture looks it took me a lot of sweat to upload it because the Nikon download software on my computer had a hissy-fit and refused to open. Why is it that 99% of the time you can rely on these things – until you’re actually in a hurry? Is there something built into the software that can sense when it can cause you the maximum stress and blue language? In the end I had to reload the software, wasting a precious hour of the day, but of all the kit that could go on strike, this is one I can’t do without. With it being a Monday (as well as Christmas eve) there’s still work to be done which entails a bit of running around and a trip over to Huddersfield.

14:08.

We’re now over in Huddersfield where it’s a beautifully crisp and sunny winter afternoon. Whilst I’m here I’ve taken the opportunity to get a haircut. I suppose you could call it my Christmas No1!

The town centre seems reasonably busy as people do their last minute shopping/panic buying but the number of shops that have closed this year has left gaps like rotten teeth even in the busiest of areas.

Take Greenwoods for example. I’ve always found them a good mens outfitter with great prices. Sadly, the Halifax branch closed in the summer. Now it looks like the Huddersfield one’s had it too..

They’d join firms like Poundland and Crawshaws as well as the local branch of Card Factory and a number of small locally run businesses. At least next port of call is still thriving: The Kings Head at Huddersfield station.

A trip to the station allowed me to capture what will probably be my penultimate UK rail pictures of 2018.

DG315339crop

A pair of Trans-Pennine Express Class 185s pass at Huddersfield.

DG315341crop

I love the shadows and quality of the light this time of year.

DG315346crop

The new age. One of the former Scotrail Class 170s that has been cascaded to Northern at Huddersfield whilst working 2J67, the 14:49 Huddersfield to Leeds. Although billed as a Trans-Pennine Express service the trains and drivers are provided by Northern.

20:46

We’re in the Xmas spirit now as Dawn’s finished work until February and the Christmas cooking’s begun. This year we’re staying at home and cooking for ourselves, so we don’t have to do traditional fayre. Far from it. Tonight we enjoyed seared tuna with roasted potatos and steamed broccoli with a lemon and herb sauce.

Now we’re in preparation mode and getting ready to cook a traditional Indian sambal to go with the 1st Class Railway mutton (lamb) curry. The lamb’s already marinating ready to be cooked tomorrow. Here’s the ingredients for the Sambal. Sadly, we didn’t have the time to get shallots and okra, so we’ve freestyled a little…

 

The festering season approaches…

23 Sunday Dec 2018

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Not that we’ve been doing much festering today – even if we didn’t set foot outside the front door until 15:30. Dawn’s been busy working from home, trying to clear her desk ready for our new Zealand trip. I’ve been equally occupied with paperwork and scanning old slides. So, here’s a look at the results of my scanning labours.

The pictures I’ve been scanning today are from the Crewe locomotive works open day in August 1996. Even in those days, the works was a shadow of its former self. It still employed a few thousand people, but nothing like the 25,000 of its heyday. Even so, it was an interesting place to visit – especially as the railways were in the early days of privatisation. The works was full of withdrawn or stored locomotives kept as a source of spares or awaited scrapping as well as various locomotives being overhauled or repaired after accidents (a far more common occurrence then than now).

You can find all 62 pictures in this gallery, but here’s a few tasters.

05971. 47466. Crewe works open day. 17.8. crop

47466 is one of a long line of withdrawn Class 47s at the works (47439 is to its left) . Many of them were cut up in March the next year by contractors MRJ Phillips. The parcels and passenger work they’d been used for had been in decline for several years. 466 had been withdrawn as long ago as December 1991. Notice how faded the BR blue paintwork is on the loco compared to a 47473 on the right. 

06006. 08921. Crewe works open day. 17.8crop

The colour of things to come…08921 was being overhauled and repainted in the new livery of privatised company EW&S. Some components for the overhaul would have come from classmates dumped in the yard outside.

06030. Inside the bogie shop. Crewe works open day. 17.8crop

Inside the bogie overhaul shop, work that was gradually drying up as less and less locomotives were being used on the national network and modern equipment didn’t need as much maintenance.

06118. 08849. Stored. Crewe works open day. 17.8crop

08849 was one of a long line of stored or withdrawn shunters present at Crewe.  Once over a thousand strong and ubiquitous across the network, these locomotives had been in decline for decades as local goods yards and the need for shunters was far less.

05992. 86604. Crewe Works. 17.8.96.

86604 freshly overhauled and repainted in Freightliner livery. Who could have predicted then that this locomotive would still be working for (the now privatised)  Freightliner in 2018, 53 years after they were built!

 

 

Saturday selection

22 Saturday Dec 2018

Posted by in Musings, Photography, West Yorkshire

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It’s been one of those slow days where we’ve been pottering around but doing nothing special – partly due to the miserable weather but also due to recovering from yesterday’s entertainments! I shouldn’t really complain about the weather. Whilst grey skies and showers aren’t to everyone’s taste, drinking water is – and our reservoirs are perilously low this year after such a long, dry summer.

Most of our day’s been taken up with the mundane, the sort of everyday chores that fill up a lot of modern day life. Trips to the recycling centre and a local farm shop then braving packed supermarkets (honestly, you’d think people were preparing for the Zombie apocalypse or world war 3, not just Christmas) and finally, giving in and nipping up to one of our favourite local pubs (The Moorcock Inn) for a ‘swifty’ and a chat before a quiet night at home. Whilst Dawn’s busy cooking pan fried hake with sautéed potatoes and steamed broccoli I’ve retreated to the office to scan a few more old slides. Here’s a couple of samples.

05940. Signalbox. Canterbury East. 21.7. 1996.crop

Here’s Canterbury East signalbox on the 21st July 1996. Built in 1911 by the South Easter and Chatham Railway it’s now a grade 2 listed building. It’s elevated so that the signalman could see all the tracks beyond the station roof.

05950. 47725. Kings Cross. 2.8. 1996. crop

On the 2nd August 1996 Class 47 No 47725 sits in platform 1 of London Kings Cross with the stock of an afternoon mail train whilst an electric loco at the front prepares to take this service North to Newcastle at 16:30. Mail trains used to operate out of many of London’s termini until a new rail connected mail centre (the Princess Royal Distribution Centre, or PRDC) opened at Willesden in 2003. In those days these trains would block platforms for hours, nowadays you’d never get away with it as platform space is at a premium.

Right, I’ve been summoned as food’s ready. Now for a glass of wine and a film…

Rolling blog: foodie Friday

21 Friday Dec 2018

Posted by in Food and drink, London, Rolling blogs, Travel, West Yorkshire

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06:34

I’m preparing to head to London for an Christmas lunch with old friends and colleagues today. It’ll be a very convivial afternoon, as will this evening, as I’ve got to head back to West Yorkshire as Dawn and I are out for a Thai meal with a couple of friends – such is the fun of packed social diaries in the run-up to Christmas.

08:21

For once, the Yorkshire weather defeated me. Persistent drizzle (the sort of stuff that manages to defeat umbrellas or waterproofs) meant I abandoned attempts to walk to the station and cadged a lift off Dawn – which got me there considerably quicker and a lot drier! I’m now watching the rain from the comfort of my mobile office, otherwise known as Grand Central’s 08:10 from Halifax to London Kings Cross. Here it is pulling in to Halifax, past the old signalbox which was made redundant in October.

For once, my train’s not too busy, that’s possibly because it’s so close to Christmas, but also the fact the first service of the day (the 07:07) tends to attract most business people as it arrives in London at 10:10 whereas this one doesn’t arrive until 11:14. As I don’t need to be there so early I’m enjoying the space and relaxing atmosphere, although I’m still catching up on some work.

09:32.

The path for this train is characterised by generous timings on the way to Doncaster. We’ve swung between being 1 minute late and 4 early. Having waited for a platform at Wakefield Kirkgate we’d been running early until we reached Marshgate Jn just outside Doncaster where we were held waiting time and for a platform to be free. Platform space has been at a premium here for years, which makes timekeeping difficult. We’re booked a generous 6 minutes to clog one of them up, which has meant our slightly late arrival has turned into a right – time departure. Next stop – London Kings Cross…

10:08

We’ve just passed through gloomy Grantham where the low cloud that’s dogged us all the way from Yorkshire still persists. Despite the fact these Grand Central Class 180s are capable of 125mph I doubt we’ve touched that today until now. We’ve dropped a couple of mins behind time but we’ve obviously got a clear road as the driver’s opened her up for a bit. The speed app on my phone tells me we hit 124 after Stoke Jn at the same time a rainstorm on the edge of the weather front hit us! We weathered that (literally) and now the sun’s managing to break through the momentarily fragmented clouds.

10:35.

The burst of speed didn’t help us as we crawled from Werrington Jn (where Network Rail are preparing to build a new ‘dive-under’) through an empty Peterborough station and on to Holme Jn, which we passed 7 mins late. Sun and speed have both deserted us. This section of line’s very busy, with Thameslink stoppers added into the mix as Great Northern locals, so could well lose more time.

11:54.

I take back my last comment, we did make up 5 mins!

Now, lunch beckons…

17:15

I’m Northbound again after an excellent lunch (if you ignore the eye-watering bill) that included one of my favourites: seared scallops.

Chatham House rules prevent me talking about the event, but there you go.

Right now I’m doing a Jeremy Corbyn – sitting on the vestibule floor of LNER’s 17:03 to Leeds. Any resemblance to ‘Magic Grandad’ is purely coincidental.

17:58.

We’ve just left Peterborough so I’ve graduated from a vestibule floor to a seat.

19:55.

Ho hum. Everything went well until I got to Leeds, when I found my connection (the 19:36) was cancelled. This meant I’d be 15 minutes late as my next train wasn’t until 19:51. I’ve now swapped this..

For something a little less speedy and spacious!

Saturday postscript.

What a fun day! Lunch in London and Thai tapas in West Yorkshire has led to a slightly slower than usual start to the day (I blame the Tequila shots that Froso insisted we buy). Both meals were delicious but I think it’s time to give my stomach a rest today!  If you’re in the area I can recommend Café Thai in West Vale. We’ve eaten here several times and never been disappointed. They have a traditional Thai restaurant on the ground floor whilst upstairs they serve a tapas style menu. Here’s one of last nights dishes.

A good time was had by all…

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