Category Archives: ACoRP

Holed-up at home…

10 Tuesday Mar 2020

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Not because of the Coronavirus just because of the weather, as it’s been wet and windy pretty much most of the day – hardly the climate for going out panic-buying toilet roll, which would have got rather soggy! I have to say, it there’s one thing, it’s panic-buying and hording toilet roll? You may run out of food, medicines and alcohol, but at least you’ll have 3 months supply of bog-paper! What are these people thinking – and why are they so damned gullible that if someone on social media’s told ’em to do it, they didn’t have the brains to say “toilet roll, seriously? Why? Sod, that – I’m heading for the booze isle…”

I’m not suggesting that the current scares are much ado about nothing, but this is hardly ‘keep calm and carry on’ territory. I have to crack a wry smile when I wonder how many of those Brexit supporters who talked about the ‘blitz’ spirit and how we can stand up to the dastardly EU because of our stoic mentality are the first ones in the supermarket queue with trollies laden with shithouse paper and anti-bacterial wipes…

What is real is the effects the virus is having on the economy and also travel. The stock market had its worst single day since the crash of 2008, which is painful if (like me) you have investments. I’m avoiding logging on to my accounts at the moment as I don’t want to see the financial carnage. I’ve no idea how long this blip will last but it could take quite some time for the markets to recover the ground they’ve lost, which will have a long-term impact on many people. There were hopes the recovery had started when the FTSE 100 rose by 2% today, but it was a false dawn as the index still closed in negative territory

I’ll be observing the impact the panic is having on travel tomorrow as I’m heading back down to London for the day to get some pictures for a magazine. I had thought of going today but the weather dissuaded me. Tomorrow’s forecast is better. Expect a rolling blog from my travels.

I’ve not had time to finish writing a blog over the past few days as I’ve been busy with other things. We were occupied with walking and socialising on Sunday whilst Monday morning was taken up with a meeting about preparations for judging this year’s Community Rail Awards. It’s something I really enjoy doing but the logistics of visiting over 2 dozen stations across the country in the space of just a few days is challenging to say the least! Much of the rest of my time’s been spent making a dent in scanning more old slides. You can find the results here but I’m adding a little taster to the blog. Almost everything in this scene has vanished now.

Taken on the 23rd February 1991 at Reading, a shunter (under the watchful eye of the driver) is uncoupling Class 47 number 47829 from its coaches to allow the engine to run round the train, which has arrived from the South coast. It will form the 15.45 to Liverpool Lime St. The coaches are long-gone, having been replaced Class 220-221 ‘Voyagers’ back in the early 2000s. 47829 lasted longer. It was scrapped in 2013. Reading station underwent a multi million pound rebuild several years ago, leaving it unrecognisable – and electrified.

Here’s Tonbridge Yard on the 24th February 1991 with a trio of engineers trains ready for weekend work. The Class 33s were classic old Southern engines, having been built specifically for the region.

I won’t be adding any more old slides for a few days. As well as being in London tomorrow I’m in Birmingham on Thursday as I’ll be visiting the archeological work and discoveries on the HS2 site at Curzon St, where the old railway roundhouse has been uncovered. I’ll be writing this up for an article in RAIL magazine, but here’s an idea of what there is to see.

Rolling blog: Bristol, day two…

03 Tuesday Mar 2020

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09:31.

It’s the 2nd day of the ACoRP conference and It’s a more relaxed one for me as I blitzed the event from a photographic perspective yesterday, so today I get chance to listen to the speakers and blog about some of the event.

The first speaker this morning was Neil Priest, Station Enhancements Portfolio Manager, Network Rail.

He’s given a very interesting talk about the perils and success of making stations more accessible and the fun and game of installing lifts on our Victorian network. He also exploded the myth that lifts can’t be installed at unmanned stations. As he explained. “When a lift breaks down, a bloke doesn’t come out of the ticket office with a bag of spanners, we call in a lift engineer” Nowadays lifts are monitored by CCTV and remotely, so it’s not an issue. Many of these schemes take years to complete and Neil explained why that happens, which can be anything from finding there’s disused mineshafts below the station to the fact someone else comes along and builds a new ticket office where you were going to site a bridge!

Afterwards, ACoRP’s Chief Executive, Jools Townsend gave a rundown of the organisations activities and coming programmes – as well as talking about the rebranding of ACoRP as Community Rail Network (CRN) later this year.

12:10.

A lot of the conference this morning has been taken up with three workshop sessions on very different topics. Youth engagement: Talking about ways to involve young people on a range of issues around the railways (including safety) and passing on life skills to teenagers are younger children. The second workshop was on involvement with the wider community, including the disadvantaged to encourage them to be involved through their local community rail groups – and also encourage them to use the railways. The session I’m sat in on at the moment is about tackling loneliness. Apparently, the UK is the loneliest country in Europe (and no, that’s not a political metaphor!) so the session is talking about causes of loneliness in the present day and how loneliness can be identified and counteracted. The presentation wasn’t just about facts, figures and methodology, it also included the experiences of a station group, the Friends of Beeston station, presented by the Secretary of the group, Sarah Hampton. Sarah gave some great examples of how the group has combated loneliness in their own community.

14:15.

We’re back after lunch in the hotel for the first session of the afternoon which is a look at a new reporting system that ACoRP are launching. The Impact Assessment tool, and how it can help organisations and the people involved in them to track their achievements and use the data in a number of ways, such as reports, data assessment and even fundraising.

During lunch I nipped out with ACoRP’s Martin Yallop, who knows my interest in architecture. He wanted to show me a couple of features nearby, including this…

During WW2 this length of tram track bexame a missle thanks to a German bomb. It was blown clean over a row of Georgian town houses and embedded itself in the nearby churchyard

17:10.

Conference finished mid-afternoon but by then my bit was done so I headed over to Temple Meads station early in order to make the most of the sunshine and soend an hour getting pictures before we caught our train North.

It was an interesting interlude as services have changed a lot since I last spent any time here. Now GWR green rather than FGW blue is the dominant colour. With many of the old DMUs having been displaced by former ‘Thames Turbo’ class 165 – 166 units and the HST’s with Class 800 series units from Hitachi although the venerable Class 43s haven’t vanished altogether as ‘Castle’ Class short HST sets (2×4) are used on Bristol – Cardiff services.

The lengthening of trains has also gone hand in hand with the four-tracking of the line North towards Bristol Parkway, enabling more services to run and allowing parallel arrivals or departures, which makes for some interesting photo opportunities like this, which isn’t the sort of sight you’d seen a couple of years ago…

166205 and 165119 arrive in parallel at Bristol Temple Meads.

17:45

Right now a group of us are speeding North towards Birmingham on yet another packed 4-car Cross-Country Voyager, all space has been taken and the vestibules are packed with bodies old and young.

18:50.

We’re now North of Derby on our way to our next stop at Chesterfield and I’ve lost count of the different passengers that have passed through this coach (D) on our trip from Bristol. I was glad to see the back of one at Birmingham, a young man who talked endlessly into his mobile phone and who reeked of BO…

20:27.

The numbers of folks on our Voyager thinned the further North we got. It was reasonably pleasent after leaving Sheffield but I wasn’t sorry to bail out at Leeds. We had 6 minutes to make our connection and hopped aboard the 20:12 to Manchester Victoria with a couple of minutes to spare. Only it’s now 20:26 and we’re still here! Lots of trains are on the move, just not us…

20:36.

Our Conductor has told us that our trains stuck because of a track-circuit failure, so we’ve all abandoned our nice warm, shiny Class 195 for a traditional Calder Valley classic in the shape of a Class 155 in the adjacent platform. We’re still not going anywhere mind…

20:42.

*Puts on best Victor Meldrew impression*…

I don’t believe it! We’d just settled in on our replacement train when it’s Conductor announced that – in fact – our original train was leaving first. Not only that but it had got the road and was leaving any minute now! There was a mad scramble as we all rushed back onto the 195, the only thing missing was the Benny Hill theme tune playing over the tannoy! We’ve even regained our original seats!

22:18.

That about wraps it up for today. We finally made it home around 21:30, considerably later than we expected due to the fun and games at Leeds. Now it’s time to relax and put the feet up ready for another busy day tomorrow. I’ll be working from home as I’ve a considerable amount of pictures from the conference to edit, as well as a new selection of rail shots. Then there’s paperwork to catch up on. At least there’ll be no track circuits to worry about! There might even be a bit of time for blogging on the latest funs and games with the anti Hs2 protests, which are generating a lot of hot air, but little else…

Rolling blog: Bristol fashion…

02 Monday Mar 2020

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Ugh! The alarm went off at 05:30 this morning as we’re off to Bristol. Right now the house is buzzing with activity as we get ready to head off to the station ready to get the first train. According to the internet the trains are running to time this morning, so let’s see how things pan out. We’ll be meeting up with various other ACoRP shipmates on the train from Leeds…

07:20.

So far, everything’s going to plan on this fine, frosty morning. We took a taxi to the station (a luxury for me as I normally walk) and the 07:07 to Leeds turned up on time. Worked by a 3-car CAF Class 195 it had started at Hebden Bridge and had a healthy load of passengers by the time it arrived at Halifax. Now, leaving Bradford Interchange, there’s hardly a spare seat to be had.

As we climbed out of Bradford the skies were fascinating. A complex mass of grey clouds of different hues was turned orange by the rising sun as they appeared to be dropping a curtain of rain (or snow) across a quarter of the city. It was gorgeous.

08:55.

Changing trains at Leeds went without a hitch. We’d given ourselves plenty of time just in case, but the first day working day of Northern under new management didn’t present any problems. Thankfully we weren’t travelling down the West Coast Main Line as a landslip at Dutton viaduct has caused lots of grief as the saturated ground has started shifting, taking the line with it!

Back with Northern, I see that the Dft are already making changes. Former TPE Managing Director Andy Donovan has been announced at the new Northern MD, which sounds like a good move. He had a good reputation at TPE and eh knows the Northern patch. It will be interesting to if the change at the helm improves Northern’s reputation and the visibility of senior management.

Right now we’re on the 08:11 Cross-Country service from Leeds to Plymouth. It’s classic Cross-Country. This 4-car train was rammed into Leeds carrying commuters from York into work. Then it was busy taking other commuters from Leeds to Wakefield. We’ve just called at Sheffield and it’s only now that it’s starting to fulfil its long-distance role. Now there’s a few spare seats and I’ll be interested to see how the composition of our carriage changes along the route.

10:02.

We’re approaching Birmingham at a crawl after we were diverted via Water Orton due to a points failure. The Train Manager, a jovial Geordie, has been very good in keeping us all informed. It’s not a huge delay (4 minutes) but I’ll be interested to see if it has a knock-on effect in Birmingham.

Our two table companions (who’ve changed composition twice since Leeds) are preparing to leave. There’s only a handful of the original passengers left now and I expect more of an exodus at New St. Having been on this Voyager for 2 hours now and spent much of that time inadvertently playing footsie with the person sat on the opposite side of the table I’m starting to feel the cramp. These trains simply aren’t up to the job nowadays but we’re going to be stuck with them for who knows long now that the Dept for Transport has cancelled letting the franchise.

10:16.

We’ve just left Birmingham with only around 20% of the original passengers on board. I remember many years ago the average length of a journey on Cross-Country was around 50 miles. I wonder if that’s changed? I can’t help wondering if there’s not an argument for splitting the Cross-County network nowadays in order to improve resilience. How many passengers will travel all the way from (say) Aberdeen to Plymouth or Leeds to Penzance?

10:30.

Our late arrival in Birmingham didn’t cause us any problems as we still left on time. A crew change has meant the Geordie lilt of or previous Train Manager has now been replaced by a West Country burr of the new incumbent! More of the ACoRP team joined us too. There’s now 5 of us in the carriage.

11:20.

We’re currently heading for Bristol Parkway and the sunny weather we’ve had nearly all the way from Leeds is getting increasingly obscured by cloud. Like the rest of the country, the fields around the railways are muddy and waterlogged. I suspect we’re going to need a considerable spell of dry and sunny weather before they drain. Despite the fact it’s full again, passengers in our coach are remarkably quiet, mainly because most of them are plugged in and staring at one of a variety of electronic devices! Diagonally opposite me there’s on traditionalists old chap who’s actually reading a newspaper but he’s very much in a minority.

12:15.

We’re now ensconced in the Doubletree Hilton in Bristol, preparing for a busy afternoon with some interesting sessions to look forward to…

14:00.

ACoRP’s Chief Executive, Jools Townsend kicks off today’ Community Rail Conference.

There’s a good turnout for the conference too…

There was far too much going on at the conference to blog and take pictures, so picture taking came first. Hopefully, tomorrow will be more relaxed. AT the end of the day a few of us were given a tour of some sights of architectural merit. One of them was a CAMRA national inventory pub – the Kings Head!

The year marches on…

01 Sunday Mar 2020

Posted by in ACoRP, Down memory lane, Hs2, Musings, Photography, Railways, StopHs2

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Yep, today’s the start of a new month, not that there’s been much of a change, as we’ve had yet another storm warning! The only discernible difference is that the days are starting to get longer. I’ve spent much of the weekend scanning yet more old railway slides from 1990, which you can find in this gallery on my Zenfolio website. The latest batch of 60 are from Bristol and also the Tinsley loco depot open day, held on a dismal Saturday in September. Here’s a sample, featuring Bath Rd depot in Bristol – another place that’s long-gone.

BR Class 47 locomotives dominate this view of Bristol Bath Rd depot as the shed provided motive power for cross-country services from the South-West up to Birmingham and beyond, as well as passenger locomotives for the main line to London Paddington as well as servicing freight engines and local diesel multiple units.

As I mentioned in my last blog. I’m back in Bristol tomorrow for an ACoRP (Association of Community Rail Partnerships) conference. The programme shows that it’s going to be a busy event spread over two days but no doubt I’ll have some time to blog/tweet about what’s going on, as well as catch up with some old friends from the world of community railways.

To get to Bristol in time means the pair of us are up at sparrow-fart in the morning, so this isn’t going to be a long blog. I’d hoped to have time to compose one about the collapse of the StopHs2 campaign, but that can wait for another day! It’s not as if there’s anything going on with them anyway. They’ve been very quiet on social media since the Government announced the fact HS2’s been given the green light. Mind you, they’ve also been inactive in the real world too. Their ‘direct action’ campaign at Harvil Rd and Cubbington wood has been completely ineffective at stopping HS2. The penny finally seems to be dropping that they’ll never have the numbers of people on the ground they need. There’s only a couple of dozen regulars and a few ‘weekend warriors’ – who’re especially useless and HS2 Ltd don’t normally work at weekends so there’s nothing to stop! The fact that having a bunch of voyeurs’ watching you make fools of yourself on Facebook isn’t going to stop Hs2 seems to be slowly sinking in too – hence this rather revealing post of one of their Facebook pages.

I’ll blog about this in detail when I have the time. Right now it’s time to pack a suitcase…

Rolling blog: double trouble.

10 Tuesday Dec 2019

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15:15.

You’re being ‘treated’ to two blogs today as the first one was something important that needed to be said and circulated. This one’s the more usual whimsey and musings as I’ve escaped from Bigland Towers for a few hours to join ‘Team ACoRP’ for a pre-Xmas drink in Huddersfield.

The one thing about being a solo freelancer is that Xmas office parties are a bit crap! So, it’s very pleasent when you’re invited to join other friends or colleagues that you’ve worked with over the year.

Right now I’m en-route on a day when the weather has changed completely. Yesterday we had clear skies and glorious winter sunshine, today we’ve got stormclouds and gales, with gusting winds really blowing me around as I walked from home to Halifax station. I almost wished I’d brought the full camera bag to use as ballast as I’m reduced to the Nikon D5 and a single 50mm lens today.

22:51

What a lovely evening! OK, it was a bit frustrating on the rail front with the awful weather and the fact the only new TPE train that graced Huddersfield whilst I was there was unbranded.

The late running (surprise, surprise) 9M12, the 1403 Newcastle to
Liverpool Lime Street worked by 802219 was a mere 9 mins late at Huddersfield, which is almost unremarkable for TPE.

Afterwards I adjourned to the ‘Kings Head’, one of the two pubs on the station, where I met up with the ACoRP team. Some of the group had had ‘Secret Santa’ presents (others had donated the money to charity instead) so we had a happy couple of hours playing table games over a beer (or two).

A MENSA approved brain-teaser. Reconstruct a cube out of wooden shapes…
It’s Jenga, only with little plastic chairs…

The evening after the night before…

04 Friday Oct 2019

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This isn’t going to be a long blog. The pair of us are starting to flag after getting to bed at 03:30 this morning before getting up again just a few hours later at 07:30, but it was well worth it. The ACoRP awards was a fabulous night that went without a hitch due to the great team that delivered the event. The full list of winners can be found here on the ACoRP website.

The days when Community Rail was seen as a sideshow and something eccentric or even irrelevant are long gone. Now the awards are seen as a ‘must attend’ event and have the support of the Department of Transport, Network Rail and the Train Operating Companies themselves, hence the regular attendance of the DfT’s Peter Wilkinson and Network Rail’s Chief executive Andrew Haines to name but two. But the evening belongs to the groups, most of whom are volunteers – who put in the thousands of hours that make such a difference to their stations, and their communities. As one of the awards Judges I feel very privileged to get to meet so many inspiring people who’re doing such fantastic work up and down the country. The community rail awards is our way of ensuring they get the recognition and appreciation they deserve for all the brilliant work that they do.

Here’s a few pictures to give a flavour of the event.

The stage is set and we’re all ready for the guests to arrive…
The coveted trophies and certificates waiting to be awarded.
The drinks reception outside the main room as people gather for the awards.
LNER’s Richard Salkeld is an old friend of ACoRP and helps out every year to organise ‘Heads and Tails’ a fun game that raises thousands of pounds for charity each year.
Two of the guests demonstrate how you play ‘heads or tails’. You win or lose on the flip of a coin. The last one left standing wins a bottle of champagne.
The winners gather together onstage at the end of the awards.

Right, it’s time for bed. Normal service will be resumed tomorrow when I’ve lots of pictures to add to my Zenfolio website. Watch this space…

Rolling blog: tonight’s the night…

03 Thursday Oct 2019

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– As Rod Stewart sang, only this night is going to be akright as it’s the annual ACoRP community rail awards. This year it’s being held in Telford, Shropshire.

Right now I’ve a few hours off to explore before the big event. I’ve never been to Telford before, so after breakfast I had a wander. Built as a new tiwn back in the 1960s you can see that the motor car featured heavily in the town’s design. It’s sprawling and features a lot of car parks. That said, obvious efforts have  been made to provide plenty of footpaths and even some cycleways to compensate. I don’t think the place will win any architectural awards tho’…

12:09.

Not having long I popped down to Wolverhampton for a flying visit to grab a couple of shots before heading back up the line to a place I’ve not visited since 2005, the delightful Codsall station. The old station building was converted into a pub many years ago. Run by Holden’s brewery, it’s a delightful place to visit for a pint, a sandwich and a browse of the railway memorabilia that decorates the walls.


What is it about pubs on stations? You can almost guarantee that you’ll see someone you know! On this occaision and location I bumped into Mike Lamport, an old friend from the industry who used to work in PR, latterly for Silverlink trains and then the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA).

13:00.

Sadly, the weather’s not been kind to me. I’ve managed to get a few shots for the library, but now it’s time to head back and get ready for tonight and a very different style of photography…

16:13.

Right, it’s time to head for the big event. Suitably ‘suited and booted’ and with all the camera kit checked and ready to go I’m off for the staff briefing…

Rolling blog: on the Telford trail…

02 Wednesday Oct 2019

Posted by in ACoRP, Railways, Travel

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07:24.

It’s time to say adieu to the Calder Valley for a few days as we’re off to the ACoRP awards in Telford, Shropshire. First port of call is the ACoRP office in Huddersfield to meet up with other members of staff, then begin our rail journey to Telford via Manchester and Shrewsbury. The rain’s abated, the skies are clear and the sun is rising. What could possibly go wrong? Nothing, hopefully, so stick with me and see how the day goes…

08:50.

Oh, the joys of driving in the rush-hour! Dawn’s usual route from home to Huddersfield is via the infamous Ainley Top roundabout by the M62. On a good day, without traffic or a motorway snarl-up it can be done dorr to door in 15 mins. Today, 35m after leaving home we’re still queueing at the Ainley Top traffic lights!

09:24.

Finally, after 50 mins in the car, we arrived at Huddersfield, having missed the train we were aiming for. All’s not lost as we’re now on TPE’s local service to Piccadilly, where we’ll catch up the others before getting the Transport for Wales service to Shrewsbury. This time of day our train’s quiet. After years of travelling ln jam-packed 185s, I can’t get used to seeing them like this…

Despite our train starting in Huddersfield it still had a 3 minute late departure, but at keast we’re on our way and Dawn can let others worry abkut the driving…

What a beautiful day for crossing the Pennines. The sunshine’s highlighting the seasons change in the leaf colour of the trees en-route. It’s a perfect day for lineside photography, but I’m stuck on a train! We may have been empty at the start but after stopping several times on the way we’re now about half-full. To TPE’s credit, the conductor on this train’s excellent, keeping oeople informed of delays and connections in an informative but relaxed way.

10:40.

Time for a change of TOC. The gang’s all here on Transport for Wales 09:31 to Shrewsbury. At least we’ve all got seats at tables, even if there’s no power sockets.

11:31.

Not a great day on the trains today. Our TfW service is now 9 mins late, having dropped time ever since leaving Manchester Piccadilly. This means we’ll miss our connection at Shrewsbury and have to get the later train. No big deal, but frustrating nonetheless.

12:15.

The enforced delay allowed a mad dash for sustenance as the group tried to find food tgat suited all tastes. Mission successful, we’re now on West West Midlands Railway’s 12:13 to Telford. The weather’s not as cloudless here, but it’s still a great imorovement to the past few days – and it’s dry!

15:00.

On arrjval in Telford we went straight to the venue and got stuck into the various jobs that needed sorting, such as last minute table changes, cancellations and checks. We even found the time to set up a production line and stuff the 450 goody bags we need…

17:09.

Preparatory work done, a group of us are off for a littke jolly to Wolverhampton thanks to WM Trains. You’ll see where they’re taking us shortly….

20:20.

– well that was the plan anyway! We were taken on a trip to a museum I’ve never visited before, but the snapshot we had of the Black Country Museum was so enjoyable I’ll definitely be coming back to explore more of what it has to offer.

We’ve been treated to a private night at the museum, complete with rides on a trolleybus, drinks in the rebuilt Mechanics Institute building, tours of selected old shops and fish and chips from their vintage chippy. I’ve too many pictures to add now, but I will do in the morning (along with links to the museum). Right now we’re being taken back to Telford by road, ready for the big day tomorrow.

The months (and seasons) roll on…

01 Tuesday Oct 2019

Posted by in ACoRP, Calder Valley, Musings, Railways, Weather

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Here in the Calder Valley October began exactly where September left off – in the rainclouds! The rain’s hardly stopped all day except for a few moments when you feel emboldened enough to set foot outside, then it creeps back laughing and soaks you! I went for a walk up through our local woods earlier, all the paths had been turned into rivulets as the ground’s so sodden the water’s nowhere else to go. Apart from me, a few soggy squirrels and a couple of determined dog-walkers the woods were deserted. For the past few days I’ve been lucky to see the other side of the valley, never mind further afield.

I’ve not minded too much as I’ve got plenty to do at home. In fact, this enforced sojourn has allowed me to catch up on a huge amount of paperwork and also led me to have a bit of a clear out of stuff I’ve been hoarding for years but never looked at for decades – and certainly not since I left London. You see, this month hold a rather significant birthday for me. It’s my 60th, and it’s make me somewhat introspective. When you’re younger you collect all sorts of ephemera and stuff you physically clutter your life up with. I’m now of an age where I’m thinking “do I really need this stuff anymore? What value is it going to add to my remaining years”? It’s not as if I haven’t got enough to keep me occupied with all the pictures that I still need to scan so that they see the light of day after decades of sitting in albums. Some of this decluttering is actually a catharsis, allowing me to focus on what’s really important.

Tomorrow all this changes as we escape the valley and me the office to head down to Telford for the ACoRP awards. The weather forecast promises something other than continual rain, so I’m hopeful I’ll be able to get a few library shots to add to the collection as well as everything else. No doubt there’ll be a rolling blog or two coming your way at the same time. In the meantime, here’s a couple of pictures from last years awards which was held in Glasgow.

Compare Richard Salkeld (left) of LNER with Scotrail MD and awards presenter Alex Hynes.

Enjoying the drinks reception before the serious business of the night starts – the awards themselves.

Rolling blog: The last judgement!

06 Tuesday Aug 2019

Posted by in ACoRP, Community rail, I love my job, Rail Investment, Railways, Rolling blogs

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06:25.

I’m beginning the day here in Norwich on the last one for judging this years ACoRP awards. I’ll be visiting two East Anglian stations before beginning the trek back North, although I’ve one or two other things to see first as the East Anglian railway scene is changing fast, what with resignalling schemes and brand new fleets of trains sweeping away the old and familiar. The weather forecast is looking mixed, so let’s see how the day goes…The weather isn’t playing ball with the forecast, instead, it’s another beautiful day, so things are looking up. Which is just as well as I had neither wifi or hot water working in my hotel this morning. I had to boil a kettle to have a wash!Right now I’m getting a few pictures at the station before catching a train to Lowestoft in order to get to Cantley at a sensible time. We won’t be seeing scenes like this for much longer.

In the sidings at Crown Point depot are rows of new Stadler units, just waiting to enter service.

08:22.

My train’s well on it’s way to Lowestoft now and it’s been fascinating to see the changes to the railway, which is still a mix of old semaphore signalling with patches of new, like Reedham, where the old signalbox still stands, albeit boarded up. The former sidings are used as a dump for detritus like old signal posts, rails and sleepers which have been rendered redundant.I’be been interested to see that significant chunks of the new signalling cable are kept in raised metal troughs which presumably keep it safe from flooding, a sensible precaution in this neck of the woods.

08:46.

I’m in Lowestoft but only for 10 mins. Long enough to grab a couple of shots in the sun, then catch the same train back to my destination: Cantley.

11:39.

My visit done, I moved on from Cantley, but not without getting pictures of the hand-operated level crossing gates and signalbox that will be swept away in February 2020. Since my 2018 visit the station’s been fitted with a ticket machine, CCTV and information screens. Throughout the work the local friends group have kept the gardens looking pretty.

I also managed to bag this beastie at Cantley!

DG330289COPY

Now I’m at Haddiscoe, where things haven’t quite gone to plan as the clouds are closing in. I’d intended to use the nearby A143 overbridge which crosses the railway and river as a vantage point to get some trains in the landscape shots but when clouds and their shadows are scudding across the landscape at a rate of knots and the trains are only hourly, the odds against train and sun coinciding are high. And so it was for me, two trains and two cloudy interludes! The luck of the draw…I’m not going to try my luck again, instead I’m moving back up the line towards Norwich.

14:35.

I ended up in Brundall, the junction for the lines to Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft. It’s another link to the past as it also has semaphore signals, a working signalbox and also a hand-operated level crossing. By fluke I bumped into an old friend. Rob Pritchard of Today’s Railways UK magazine was there changing trains. We’d both pitched up for the same reason – we needed pictures of the new Stadler trains in service. Unfortunately, today wasn’t the day as the one I’d shot at Cantley earlier had been taken out of service, so we had to make do with 60yr old Class 37s instead! Here’s the pair of us ready to get some shots.

As the weather’s deteriorated and the 755s aren’t out I’ve begun my journey North using Abellio’s 14:40 to Ely for connections onwards to Peterborough, then off up the East Coast Main line.

15:31.

We’re currently dodging showers on the way from Brandon to Ely, which says something about how much the weather’s changed. The skies are big in the flat lands of the Fens, so you can see the rain approaching from miles away.

16:00.

I spent long enough at Ely to change trains, as the rain arrived at the same time I did there was no point in hanging around. Now I’m trying to outrace the weather. The problem is the clouds are coming up from the South, so the sun’s fighting a losing battle. I’m hoping I might get respite at our next stop, Peterborough although looking at the horizon now we’ve passed March I may be fleeing further! Peterborough looks like it’s getting a right soaking!

20:34.

Homeward bound! I ended up with a brief stop at P’boro and again at Doncaster before heading up to Leeds. The stormy weather dogged me all the way apart from a brief respite in Leeds. Now I’m heading for Halifax and a night sorting out stuff. I have the day at home to wind up what the ACoRP judging, paperwork and packing – then Dawn and I are off to Ireland -so expect blogging of a different nature for a week! Right now I’m signing off until tomorrow.