Category Archives: ACoRP

Rolling blog: out of office…

20 Wednesday Feb 2019

Posted by in ACoRP, Railways, Rolling blogs, Travel, West Yorkshire

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10:19

Well, out of MY office! I’m currently at ACoRP Towers in Huddersfield as I have a meeting about judging this years ACoRP awards and changes to the ‘It’s Your Station’ category. We’re getting more and more entries each year and the judging criteria needs to be refined to cope with this.

12:02.

It’s been a productive meeting and the IYS category been refined to reflects the growth in stations being entered. I’m looking forward to spending some summer days touring the country to visit more excellent examples of the work community rail volunteers and rail staff get up to. I wonder where I’ll get to this time?

Whilst I was in the meeting news broke that one more Labour MP and three Tory MPs have joined the breakaway Independent Group. There’s a clear feeling that the old parties are too in thrall to their extremist wings to put the needs of the country first. Good luck to the splitters!

Now I’m back on the rails for a while…

13:15.

I’ve popped over to York, where new trains are very much in evidence.

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Meanwhile, over on platform 2 under the magnificent curved roof…
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Both these trains will enter passenger service later in the year, working from London to Scotland and also on Trans-Pennine services. When I see sights like this I have to laugh at the likes of Liam Halligan and Hs2 antis who insist money should be diverted from the project to invest in the North! Another thing they completely miss is that York gains fivefold. Not only does it benefit from new and longer Trans-Pennine trains it also benefits from the modernisation, electrification and enhanced capacity of the Trans-Pennine route. Meanwhile, the intercity fleet operated by LNER is replaced by brand-new Azumas. York will also receive Hs2 services running to Newcastle via the dedicated high-speed line that’ll be built as far North as Church Fenton. Finally, the old Pacers operating Northern services via the Harrogate loop or to Hull will be replaced by more modern trains. So much for Hs2 ‘starving’ the North of investment – Hs2 is part of the investment!

15:11

The weather’s deteriorated and I’ve a few chores to do back in Halifax, so I’m en-route via a rather damp Bradford. The Calder Valley line I’m travelling on now is another sign of investment in the North a £100m renewal & resignalling scheme was commissioned last October. I’ve just passed a new station (Low Moor) which even boasts of daily direct trains to London! Meanwhile, Transport for the North have even more ambitious plans for the line. Funny how none of this got mentioned by Halligan in his Dispatches hatchet job…

16:00.

After a spot of shopping in Halifax town centre I’ve retired for a swift half in one of the town’s excellent micro-pubs, the Pump Room.

These have opened up in the past few years, bringing new life to a town centre that’s seeing an increasing number of shops close. Another place worth visiting is the Victorian covered market.

21:24.

The day’s ending at home, where I’ve been spending time editing the pictures I’ve taken today and uploading them to my Zenfolio website. Follow this link to see which galleries they’ve been added to. Whilst it’s been a steady day workwise it’s been another extraordinary day politically. Some of this stuff you just couldn’t make up! The Labour party continues to descend into an unpleasant farce with the latest instalment being that Derek Hatton, who was only allowed back in the party 48 hours ago, has already been suspended! Apparently, some dodgy tweets he sent a few years ago have come to light! I can’t imagine that it’ll be long before there are more desertions from Labour as the party seems to be descending into a vicious internal war. Mind you, the Tories don’t seem to be in any better state. It’s like a fight’s broken out on the bridge of the Titanic just as the iceberg’s been sighted. God help us all…

Rolling blog: Birmingham return…

13 Thursday Dec 2018

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09:30

Dawn and I are on our way to Birmingham for the ACORP Association Of community rail lartnerships) AGM. It’s not the quickest of journeys to Britain’s second city due to our Victorian rail network. Right now we’re on one of Northern’s no-frills Class 150s heading to Manchester Victoria. In my opinion these are the worst trains Northern have – even the Pacers beat them. They’re very much in as-built form, which means there’s no tables, the seating’s 3×2, it’s difficult to find a rubbish bin and the views are poor because of the window and doorway arrangements.

Admittedly, there’s not a lot that you can do with the major design defects, but Arriva Trains Wales refurbished their 150/2s and brought them up to a much higher standard. I’ll see if I can dig out a picture to compare later.

10:39

After a brisk stroll across central Manchester we’re now sitting on Cross-Country’s 11:05 to Bristol Temple Leads which is being worked by a 5-car Voyager. I can’t wait to be doing this trip on Hs2, although I’ll have to as it’s not going to open until 2033!

11:49.

We’re well on our way to Birmingham now. The train’s pretty empty for a change, I’ve managed to get a table seat and crack on with some picture editing. Dawn and her colleague Hazel have the table opposite me, so I’m leaving them to it!

The weather’s picking up the further South we get, so I’m hoping to get one or two rail shots before the ACORP AGM starts…

12:52.

The ladies have headed off to AGM venue and I’ve nipped off for an hour to get some new library shots of the cross-city line which is operated by these old Hunslet built Class 323s.

26 of these trains (which date from 1992) work around Birmingham with another 17 based in Manchester. They’re nippy units that are comfortable to travel on as well as being popular with drivers. Despite this, they’re due to be displaced by brand new trains from 2020. However, there are plans to transfer these trains to Northern allowing them to replace the 4-car Class 319s there and work in multiple to run 6-car trains (2×319=8, which wouldn’t fit in most platforms).

16:06.

The AGM’s over and there’s six new board members elected from nine candidates.

18:00

Dawn and Hazel with the outgoing Chair of the ACORP board, Peter Roberts, who’s been keeping order for the last 18 years.

Pausing for breath – but only momentarily…

07 Sunday Oct 2018

Posted by in ACoRP, Railways, Scotland, Travel

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After a fantastic few days up in Scotland at the ACoRP awards and some of the wonderful events that Scotrail (and Abellio) arranged for us I’m back at home for a night. The awards was a brilliant showcase for community rail that attracted the biggest audience since its inception in 2005 with over 470 folk attending. I’ll blog about it in greater detail soon, but for now, here’s a few pictures from the night.

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The tables are set, ready for the 470 guests to arrive…

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Just some of the people who won awards that night…

I’m now back in the bosom of West Yorkshire – but not for long! Whilst I was in Scotland I was commissioned for a new project that will see me on the road again tomorrow. I’ve got to be in Cardiff tomorrow evening ready for an event on Tuesday morning. After that, we head up to Birmingham, then I’m back in Glasgow before finally getting home on Wednesday. I’ll flesh out more detail later. In the meantime, here’s a few other shots from Scotland after a trip out to Gourock and the ferry across to Kilcreggan.

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Rolling blog: the fun begins…

03 Wednesday Oct 2018

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I’m currently sat on a Pendolino heading for Glasgow in readiness for tomorrow’s annual ACoRP awards. We’ve got a hectic programme of events over the next few days which have been laid on by our friends at Scotrail and Transport Scotland. First up is a civic reception at Glasgow city chambers this evening. Tomorrow we’re on one of the fabulous Glasgow Central station tours (a real must if you’re ever in the city) before the main event – the awards ceremony itself.

On Friday we’re off for a trip on the Borders railway, so you’ll be seeing plenty of pictures in the next few days. Here’s the first one, taken when we changed trains at Preston – I wasn’t expecting this!

‘Black 5’ 44871 was one of the locomotives used to haul the last steam service on British Railways, the Fifteen Guinea Special on 11th August 1968. It was withdrawn from service the following day.

14:48.

Well, we’ve arrived in Glasgow and picked up our Scotrail passes, goody bags and guides.

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16:20

Plans have changed slightly due to a technical issue, so I’ve had some free time and chance to wander down to Glasgow Queen St station. Like many in the UK. it’s undergoing extensive modernisation. Now it’s also the place to find the latest Scotrail EMU’s, Hitachi’s Class 385s. Here’s a couple of shots.

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This evening we went on to a civic reception hosted by the Deputy Lord Provost of Glasgow, Bailie Philip Braat, who welcomed us to the city. This was held at the magnificent Glasgow City chambers. Here’s a few photos from the event.

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From L-R James Ledgerwood, Head of Economic & Community Development at Scotrail, Deputy Lord Provost of Glasgow, Bailie Philip Braat and Brian Barnsley, Deputy Chief Exec of ACoRP at the reception.

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Rolling blog: Here we go again…

13 Monday Aug 2018

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It will come as absolutely no surprise when I tell you that I’m typing this on a train. This time I’m back on Grand Central’s 07:08 from Halifax to London. Us ACoRP judges are dedicated souls, I’m off to meet fellow Judge Paul Cook in Ashford, Kent to finalise the winners of this years awards. We’d hoped to have finished the job closer to home on Friday, but events got in the way!

At least I have wifi, a power socket and coffee to keep me going for the next few hours. En-route we’ve passed through one of the stations we judged, Brighouse, which is looking splendid right now as the plethora of planters and tubs are in full bloom. Nearby Mirfield is coming on too as the local ‘in bloom’ group have been busy tidying up the massive flower bed that occupies the site of the station buildings and adding more planters and ‘bug hotels’. As my train pulled away I noticed a commuter dead-heading some of the plants as she waited for her train. I love seeing the way ordinary passengers get involved like this.

09:42

We’re currently flying along the East Coast Main Line near Huntingdon, running 6 minutes late due to trespassers on the line around Doncaster earlier. It’s the school holidays and trespass incidents always increase when they’ve broken up. It’s a serious problem for the railways as vandalism also increases. Despite every effort by the railway companies and British Transport police to educate youngsters, we see this problem every year.

10:33

I’m now in London and I’ve swapped the East Coast Main Line for High Speed 1 to get me to Ashford.

It’s always a delight to use this line. Nowadays it’s so quick and easy to get into Kent. It’s a far cry from the days when you had to get across London by tube to Victoria or Charing Cross to catch an old slam-door electric train that would then take hours to rattle and shake its way through suburban South London before arriving in Kent. Now it takes just 38 minutes! Hs1 provides a taster of what Hs2 will be like (only more luxurious, the Hitachi Javelins in Hs1 are designed for moving commuters in/out of London).

The weather here in Kent’s rather mixed, to put it mildly! We’ve just passed through a veryheavy shower that lasted a couple of minutes before we burst out of the other side. I think my trusty fold-up umbrellas going to be very useful today.

20:20

I’m now on the return trip after a successful conclusion to the ACoRP judging and a chance to mooch around Kent, rediscovering old haunts and grabbing a few photos en-route. I dodged all but one shower and even managed to get pictures in the sunshine. I can’t say I’d rush back to Ashford however. There are one or two attractive old buildings but the town centre was a bit of a disappointment. It was all rather bland and uninspiring. As I had plenty of time I took a circular tour back to London via Folkestone, Dover, Ramsgate and Canterbury along one of the very few lines in the SouthEast I’d never traversed, the route from Dover to Ramsgate via Deal and Sandwich. It’s actually a pretty little line that is still controlled by manual signalboxes and even semaphore signals – a rare beast in this part of the world nowadays. Passing through Deal it’s hard to credit that this area was once the location of the Kent coalfield. The last mine at nearby Betteshanger closed in 1989, just short of the centenary of coal mining in Kent. Coal had been discovered during test bores for an earlier attempt to build a tunnel under the channel. The area has a fascinating history as the railway cuts across the bottom of the Roman fort at Richborough, just outside Sandwich. It was from here the Roman successfully conquered Britain during the reign of the Emperor Claudius. I remember cycling around this area back In the 1990s and I’d love to have the time to scan the slides I took. One day…

After a brief stop at Ramsgate to grab some pictures I headed back into London through Canterbury, another old haunt. When I lived in the East End of London our merry band would often come to attend the beer festival which was held on a farm on the outskirts of town. Fond memories!

The weather deteriorated as I returned to the capital and I fully expected to get soaked but they were confined to Kent and London escaped their attention – as did I.

It’s now 21:07 and I’ve glanced up from my screen to realise that it’s pitch black outside! The night’s are starting to draw in again…

 

 

Rolling blog: The final countdown…

06 Monday Aug 2018

Posted by in ACoRP, I love my job, Musings, Northern Rail, Pacers, Rail Investment, Rolling blogs, Transport, Travel

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Paul Cook and I are back on the ACoRP judging trail today, visiting the last 3 of the 25 stations on the shortlist for 2018. There’s two in the Manchester area then one much closer to home back in West Yorkshire. 2018 brought some fantastic entries which means the pair of us are going to have a tough time choosing an overall winner.

Right now I’m heading over to Manchester from Sowerby Bridge on a Northern Rail Class 156. These units were rare visitors to West Yorkshire until recently as they worked services out of Liverpool and Manchester until they were displaced by electrification and an influx of former Thameslink Class 319s.

Northern’s DMU train fleet is a real mixture of cascaded units in a variety of liveries right now. 150s and 153s from GWR and 158s and 170s from Scotrail have been added to the fleet recently (with more to come). Meanwhile, the first of the new DMUs from builders CAF has arrived and sits in the depot at Edge Hill, Liverpool. Clearly, the writing’s on the wall for the old BR ‘Pacer’ fleet…

The run of sunny weather appears to have ground to a halt. We had a superb day at home yesterday. Today the skies wall to wall with grey clouds of a variety of hues and densities. I’m hoping it will recover as I’ve more scenic rail pictures to try and get in the can this week.

12:09.

First visit done! Now we’re moving on from suburban South Manchester out to rural Derbyshire, this time aboard a refurbished Northern Class 150/2. These are my least favorite DMUs. Noisy, slow and with high window cills and poor visibility, they’re less than ideal on scenic lines. The 2+3 seating doesn’t help make them feel any less cramped.

14:24

We’re heading back to Manchester now ready for the final visit. Here’s a clue to where we were visiting.

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The weather’s warming up and the skies are clearing, so I might see the last station at its most colourful…

16:16

Having made the dash over the Pennines to Huddersfield I’m now aboard yet another of Northern Rail’s Class 150 fleet. Oh, for a Pacer with their big windows! Luckily, I’m not on here for long…

18:04.

Dun judging! That’s it for another year. Now I’m bouncing my way back to Sowerby Bridge on a Pacer.

As predicted, the sun had got his hat on and the afternoon’s turned into a lovely evening. I popped into one of my locals, the Jubilee refreshment rooms on Sowerby Bridge station for a celebration beer. The Jubilee is unique in that it tells you when the beer barrel was put on.

As well as being blessed with the Refreshment Rooms the local station friends group has built a very attractive garden by the car park (as well as maintaining tubs and planters on the platforms).

Rolling blog: To Hull – and back…

01 Wednesday Aug 2018

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Day 3 on the rails but today I’m off somewhere in a different quadrant of the country. I have a station to judge on the line between Hull and Scarborough so I’m currently on a Northern Rail service from Sowerby Bridge to Leeds on the first leg of the trip.

As I’m travelling post-peak i’ve managed to bag a table. I need to get some work done on the way as (surprise, surprise) there’s a lot of pictures from the past few days travel to edit and get onto my Zenfolio website.

Admittedly, the world outside the carriage window can be a bit of a distraction, especially on a lovely day like today but this leg of the trip is more like a commute rather than an adventure.

10:38.

Having caught a late-running train to Leeds I had nearly an hour to wait for my connection and explore. Leeds is yet another station that’s changed out of all recognition since my childhood days. It’s undergone a series of redevelopments over tge years and is set for more with the arrival of the new High Speed 2 (HS2) railway in 2033. Here’s a couple of images, the first shows a great bit of artwork on the side of the old BR offices many passengers never even notice.

Here’s the old concourse that was added by the LMS railway.

Despite the torrid time Northern Rail passengers have been having with delays and cancellations, the picture does seem to be improving, as this indicator board shows

Unfortunately, one of the few late trains is mine! The 10:48 to Hull run by Trans-Pennine Express keeps slipping, and slipping and slipping. It’s gone from 3, to 5 to 10 minutes late – which screws up my next connection, leaving me an hour late!

This is the most frustrating thing about the passenger information screens, the information is less than accurate. Logging on to the ‘realtime trains’ website I can see my train has lost time at every station stop and is now showing as over 15m late!

19:21

A very frustrating day. I’ve updated this blog several times during the day and added a load of pictures (via laptop and mobile), but nothing’s ‘stuck’. Will this?

20:00

I’m now on the final leg from Leeds to Halifax aboard yet another ex GWR Class 150. The cascade of trains from other TOCs to Northern is very noticeable right now because most are still in their former liveries. From a photographer’s perspective it’s great. Passengers see it differently. They care about the fact their conmuter train’s doubled in size. They’d be even more impressed if all the extra services promised arrived too and punctuality wasn’t so dire.

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I’m hoping having my home broadband connection will allow me to update this blog as I’ve had a really interesting day. A problem with traveling by Trans-Pennine Express is that their internet connection has the heebie-jeebies when it comes to logging into WordPress, so I have to use my phone to blog from, which is frustrating.

Anyways, back to the narrative. Yes, I missed my connection in Hull. The bright side? The group I was visiting were very understanding and I got to explore. Even though I was only in Hull last year the station’s undergone another change. This time many of the old buildings at the back of the buffer-stops have been swept away and replaced with new. Here’s an example. The newish waiting room’s been replaced by a Starbuck’s. The adjoining buildings are yet to be let.

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I first visited Hull in 2004 when I started writing my bi-annual round Britain trips for RAIL magazine. In those days the front of the station was disfigured by a monstrous 1960s office block built by BR. That’s gone now and the grade 2 listed station hotel it hid has undergone a bit of a renaissance. It’s now owned by Britannia hotels and the downstairs lobby and bar is really rather classy. Here’s the entrance from the station concourse.

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Here’s what it looks like on the inside. Style is returning to railway station hotels…

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Moving on from Hull I did my visit, then pitched up in Bridlington to check out an old institution, the station bar. Sadly, it’s not what it was. The extravagant floral displays have disappeared and the quality of the beer was disappointing. After a number of years the present owners have decided to call it a day and sell up. I wish them both well and hope that whoever buys it keeps the special feel of the place.

Heading back South I stopped off at Beverley, a place that I’d never explored beyond the environs of the wonderful overall roofed station. Today I put that right and I was pleasantly surprised. It’s a lovely little market town with a very impressive cathedral

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Meanwhile, in the Market Square..

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Of course, the railway station which opened in 1846 is rather nice too. It’s a grade 2 listed building and one of only a handful which retain overall roofs.

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Rolling blog: Northbound again (Sorry Dire Straits!)

30 Monday Jul 2018

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No rest for the wicked! My Sunday was spent visiting two different stations in Lancashire and Yorkshire with my Paul Cook, my fellow ACoRP awards judge. As one of them had no trains (the route was shut due to Bolton line electrification work) my wife Dawn ended up acting as chauffeur.

We couldn’t have chosen a worse day to drive! The weather had broken over the weekend so Dawn had the ‘joy’ of driving on the M62 and 61 motorways when you could have water-ski’d on them.

At one point we nearly did as we hit a huge sheet of water on the M61. Thankfully Dawn’s an experienced driver and kept her cool – tho’ the steering wheel did have finger marks in it afterwards! Fortunately, the weather began to break during our first visit and the drive back over to Yorkshire was far less tense.

Visits over we adjourned to the nearby Robin Hood pub in Cragg Vale to discuss the visits over one of their excellent Sunday lunches before going our seperate ways.

This morning I’m back on the rails and heading for Carlisle via Preston as Paul and I have stations to judge in Scotland. The weather’s still changeable but I’m not complaining. We desperately needed the rain and some more wouldn’t go amiss.

11:34.

I’m now in Carlisle, waiting for my ‘partner in crime’ to catch up with me. I’m currently enjoying a coffee under the station roof which was restored to its former magnificence in 2017.

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Carlisle station is now another on the network to be graced with a station bar called the ‘301 Miles‘ which serves an excellent range of draught and bottled beers (plus food) in a high vaulted room with a pair of superb old fireplaces and memorabilia about the railways, beer – and the  city itself.

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15:35.

Station visit done we’re now on the outskirts of Glasgow after heading up the GSW route from Dumfries via Kilmarnock.

22:55.

So many things I could have added today, but socialising with old friends got in the way – and don’t even ask about discussions on a Scottish view on Brexit! Tomorrow’s another day…

 

Footloose…

25 Wednesday Jul 2018

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Sorry for the lack of a blog yesterday. It’s not that I wasn’t doing anything. Far from it – I ended up following the sunshine to Blackpool (of all places) to try and get pictures for two different clients. You’ll see some of the fruits of my labours on my website just as soon as I can upload them. Today I’ve been in Sconny Botland again, with the same sort of mission. The weather was far better than the forecast predicted. I ended up walking miles to research some locations so I’ve had a pretty good physical workout as well as getting pictures. Right now i’m coming full circle. I went from Halifax to Preston to Glasgow via the WCML before checking out locations on EGIP (Edinburgh- Glasgow Electrification Programne). Now I’m returning via the East Coast and York (plus Leeds).

Here’s what the view at Berwick looked like.

It’s funny the places you (unintentionally) end up in this game. After getting some lineside shots I was walking back to the road and spotted this. I’d never even heard of the event before now.

There’s an irony to this today as earlier a UKIP MEP and Brexit zealot called for the treason laws to be revised so that wanting to remain in the EU would be classed as treasonable!

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This is how far some folk in the UK have completely lost the plot.

Right, bedtime for me now. It’s been a long and sweaty day where my Fitbit stats don’t really reflect what I’ve been up to as they don’t account for the weight of my camera bag!

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Tomorrow I’m off judging stations tomorrow, but expect a big photo update by the end of the day, Meanwhile, here’s a teaser. The new Hitachi Class 385s have finally gone into service this week.

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