No late trains for me today. In fact no trains at all – unless you count pictures. Much of my day’s been spent editing yesterday’s images which you can find divided between the following galleries;
As well as the pictures I’ve relisted railway memorabilia and old slides on eBay which you can find here. I’ll add some new bits before the weekend but tomorrow I’ll be back out on the railways, ending up in Sheffield in the afternoon to discuss his forthcoming trip to India, a country I’ve spent rather a lot of time exploring in the past. There’s several places I want to have a look at tomorrow but my itinerary very much depends on the weather which isn’t looking great, especially out East so I may be visiting a few locations where sunny weather would actually be a handicap. Whatever I get up to I’ll be rolling blogging throughout the day.
In the meantime, here’s a picture from one of the locations I’ve been looking at. It’s 9 years since I was last taking pictures here and the railway scene’s changed quite a bit. This is a town where the railroad literally does run through the middle of the house. Well, town anyway. This is Belper, Derbyshire where the coming of the Midland Railway in 1840 split the town in two with this deep cutting.
On the 4th July 2014 a Northbound East Midlands Train to Sheffield passes a loaded coal train heading South. Once the lifeblood of freight on the old Midland Railway, you won’t see many coal trains thundering through Belper nowadays. In fact, looking at the timings for tomorrow (Thursday) I can’t find a single one. The Meridians are living on borrowed time too as they’re due to be replaced by new Hitachi built trains over the next couple of years.
I’ve a small favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
Time to tear myself away from the comfort of home and head off to the final event of the week and a meeting in Derby with friends and colleagues before enjoying a relaxing weekend at home (although our definition of relaxing may not be everyone’s cup of tea!). Hopefully, the railways will play ball today – and I don’t have to have anything to do with TPE, which is always a good start!
Let’s see how I get on…
10:45.
So far so good! Despite an earlier cancellation my Northern service from Sowerby Bridge to Leeds arrived on time. This 3-car service via Bradford’s certainly busy – I’d reckon about 75% full but I’ve managed to find a window seat from which I can admire the rain.
11:55.
Things are looking up! I had a 20 minuter interlude at Leeds which gave me time to take a few pictures before joining Cross-Country’s 11:12 service heading for Plymouth which is made up of two 4-car Class 220s, both of which are busy. I know because I swapped between sets at Wakefield to distance myself from the hen-party who were already breaking open the Prosseco! I’ve managed to find an airline seat in the rear set which is much more civilised. We’ve just pulled out of Sheffield where the weather’s brightening up. There’s still masses of heavy cloud but there’s multicoloured layers and individual formations rather than the uniform dullness West Yorkshire was suffering from.
17:30.
After an excellent meeting and chance to reminisce with old friends it’s time to head home. The railways are still SNAFU which has meant the train I was hoping to catch to Leeds has been cancelled. Instead I’m on plan B which is an East Midlands Railway service to Sheffield where I’ll select plan B. The weather’s changed completely. There’s mow this weird blueish tinge to the sky in which a weird yellow orb hangs…
18:55.
I’m late, but I’m finally heading North from Sheffield to Leeds. The irony? I’m aboard the same Cross-Country train (220031) that carried me South. Whilst I was meeting with friends it’s traversed most of the country. Now it heading back from Plymouth to where it started its day. Scotland.
Trains aside, my meeting turned into a trip down memory lane as other friends turned up. As a group we go back 15-20 years although none of us can work out where the years hsve gone.
Our group of friends is from right and left on the political spectrum. Politics aside the ome thing we care about and agree upon is the railways – and the univeral view is that the current government are awful. Then, when you have a multi-millionaire PM who flies everywhere by helicopter and has no idea of the importance of public transport is it any wonder we’re cynical?
19:50.
My Cross-Country train’s managed to deposit me at Leeds – along with all those who thought they were going all the way to Edinburgh or points in-between. The train’s been terminated due to overhead line damage on the East Coast Main Line which is really going to bugger up some people’s weekend. Still, Rishi’s got a helicopter to gad about in whilst the rest of us bare the brunt of the amount of money his friends have sucked out of the public purse, so that’s alright then.
20:00.
I’m now on the last leg home aboard yet another Northern Class 195.I’m not complaining, I have a table seat, power points and air-conditioned, but more importantly – we’re on time.
22:00.
Home again – and I didn’t get rained on once – which is a bloody miracle this summer! I’ve had a great day catching up with friends and talking over old times, some of which I’d forgotten about. When we think back to some of the things we and other friends used to get up to in days that were more laissez-faire it makes for some great memories and stories that will be best told when some of the main participants are pushing up daisies!
Now it’s time for me to switch off and enjoy the weekend at home. That said, expect a few blogs and lots of pictures to appear here – and there.
I’ve a small favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
As promised by the weather forecast Saturday turned out to be a bright, crisp and sunny day – so the pair of us tore ourselves away from computer screens and headed over to the Hope Valley in Derbyshire for an afternoon out walking somewhere where we’d been promising to revisit but had never got around to doing so. The 517m high Mam Tor and the ridge Eastwards to Lose Hill along the South side of the valley is a wonderful (if at times challenging) walk. The views South across the Hope Valley and North across Edale are sublime.
With the weather being so good the area was teeming with walkers and it was great to see so many people of all ages and backgrounds enjoying walking. Oh, and not to mention the paragliders who were also out in force! The skies above the ridge were teeming with them as they drifted lazily on the winds.
Here’s a few pictures from the day.
The ridge affords some excellent photograph opportunities to capture shots of trains passing through Edale between Manchester and Sheffield. Here’s a Trans-Pennine Express service made up of units 185103 and 185123 working.1B79, the 1226 Cleethorpes to Manchester Piccadilly. Northern trains run the only local stopping service. Here’s one of their Class 195s working 2S72, the 1349 Manchester Piccadilly to Sheffield passing the base of Lose Hill. The autumn colours and low light in Edale were stunning. Walkers descending Lose Hill on their way East into the Hope Valley with the railway curving away in the centre of the picture. The edge of the village of Castleton can be seen to the right.This is the 463m high Win Hill seen Eastwards across Edale from Lose Hill along with some rather moody skies on the horizon.The same view from Mam Tor and zoomed out to show the landscape and colours in slightly different light.
All the high-res versions of these pictures can be found (and purchased) from my Zenfolio website by following this link.
Sadly, I don’t think I’m going to be getting out to do much exploring like this over the next week. Instead, I’ll be glued to a screen at home writing for a living. Not that I’m complaining as there’s a damn sight worse ways of earning a living, and if I get lots of type-swiping done quickly, who knows what I might be able to get up to later in the week?…
I’ve a favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances appreciate all the help that we can get to aid us in bouncing back from lockdowns. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
Paul Bigland 