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Paul Bigland

Category Archives: Merseyside

Rolling blog: westward we go…

12 Friday Jul 2019

Posted by Paul Bigland in Calder Valley, I love my job, Merseyside, New trains, Northern Rail, Photography, Rail Investment, Railways, Rolling blogs, Transport, Travel

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Calder Valley, I love my job, Merseyside, New trains, Rail Investment, Railways, Travel

07:29.It’s a beautiful morning in the Calder Valley today, full of sunshine and feeling like summer, but I’m already Westward bound on the 07:21 to Chester as far as Manchester. Unlike earlier in the week when this was a rammed 2 car Pacer, today it’s a 3 car Class 150+153 lash-up so there was no problem getting a seat and no-one’s been left behind anywhere.Whilst I was waiting at Sowerby Bridge a unique service passed in the opposite direction. Grand Central work an early morning service from Hebden Bridge to Leeds on behalf of Northern Rail. This calls at Sowerby at 07:17.

I’ve always wanted to get a shot of this but didn’t fancy wandering down to Sowerby Bridge at 7am unless I really had to!

07:40.

We’ve just left Todmorden and summer’s drawing to a close in front of me. There’s some humongous grey clouds towering on the horizon and it’s looking like once we pass through Summit tunnel into Lancashire the weather’s going to be a bit wet! Fortunately I’ve a folding umbrella on the camera bag but the conditions might make today’s shoot ‘interesting’ to say the least. PR shots and rain are uneasy bedfellows…I’m off to the Alstom factory in Widnes to shoot pictures of one of Transport for Wales repainted and refurbished Class 175s. I’m not sure if I’ll be allowed to share any pictures just yet, so watch this space…

08:16.

There’s fun and games at Manchester Victoria (where we arrived 5 mins late due to congestion) as a points failure at Earlstown’s having a knock-on effect. I’m now on TPE’s 08:10 to Manchester Airport which I’m taking as far as Oxford Rd. I’d normally walk but those grey clouds I mentioned earlier a currently dumping their load on the city! A sign of how much Victoria has changed in recent years was the fact that as my TPE service pulled in, all four through platforms were then in use by the TOC. It’s a far cry from just a few years ago when Northern had the monopoly on services through Manchester’s second station.

08:47.

I’m on my 3rd train company of the day as I’m now on an East Midlands Trains service from Nottingham to Liverpool Lime St as far as Widnes.

The rain’s stopped for now but the threatening, low clouds hold the promise of more at any moment. There’s just the occaissional tantalising glimpse of blue sky and sudden shaft of sunlight to tease me.

12:51.

I’m still at Alstom in Widnes. After completing a whole series of internal and external shots we’ve taken a coffee break in the hope the weather might change just enough to get a sunny external shot. After that I’ll be calling it a day. The guys need to finish working on the train at it needs to head back to Chester tonight. The bodywork looks really good as thus is a proper paint job, not just a vinyl wrap.

14:05.

Job done! Patience paid off, we waited patiently for a break in the cloud and finally a break in the cloud passed over us in the perfect place for the sun to shine upon us long enough for me to get the shot I wanted.

Now I’m heading into Liverpool to grab a late lunch (and a few more pictures) before heading back across the Pennines.

On the way in we’ve just passed Allerton depot. Talk about changing fortunes! For many years the depot was derelict. Then Northern took it over as a base for the Ex-Thameslink Class 319 electric fleet which were displacing diesels. Now the depot is full of Northern’s next generation of trains, the CAF built 195 and 331s. The picture was the same at Edge Hill carriage sidings. There’s literally dozens of new Northern trains ready to enter service over the next few months as mileage accumulation and driver training is complete.

15:39.

My, Liverpool Lime St’s changed in just a few short weeks! Not only are Class 195s much in evidence, so are some other interlopers in the shape of Transport for Wales who’re operating a new service to Chester. Here’s a couple of images.

Understandably, there are still teething problems with the new Northern sets. Two were being coupled together when something ‘fell off’. After a bit of head scratching and investigation staff on the scene told me it turned out to be nothing more serious than a spanner someone had left where they shouldn’t have! It caused a minor delay.

18:31.

After heading back into and across Manchester the same way I came I’m now on Northern’s 18:21 from Manchester Victoria to Sowerby Bridge. As it’s a 3-car and today is ‘POETS day’ (Piss-Off Early, Tomorrow’s Saturday) my trains neither crowded nor the passengers stressed. That said, I feel sympathy for train crew working this evening as many stations are awash with folk on their way out and expecting to have a good time, as the amount of empty bottles & cans they’ve left behind attest to!

Rolling blog: out and about…

27 Thursday Sep 2018

Posted by Paul Bigland in History, Merseyside, Railways, Rolling blogs, Travel

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Merseyside, Railways History, Rolling blogs, Travel

After several days staring at a computer screen I’ve escaped the office for the day and headed out with the camera. Dawn gave me a lift into Huddersfield, so first stop was to catch up with the guys and gals at ACoRP towers to learn about preparations for next week’s Community Rail Awards in Glasgow. It’s a lovely day here, as this picture shows.

Now I’m on the move, heading West with Manchester Victoria first stop…

12:58.

I’m now back in the city of my birth: Liverpool. It’s a beautifully sunny day here too. I’ve had a mooch around the redeveloping Lime St station where I noticed this lash-up, an East Midlands Trains 156/158 combination working to Norwich!

If you’re foolish enough this would take 5 hours 21 minutes. The 156 is limited to 75mph, it has forced air ventilation (thus noisy open windows) and there’s no trolley service, so bring food parcels and ear-defenders! For the same price you can go via London (albeit changing 3 times) and arrive 5 minutes later!

I wish EMTs cross country option offered more than this nowadays but this is it.

14:03

Much as I love Liverpool, I’m very much on the move today so I didn’t have time to sample any of the cities fabulous pubs. Some of them are real works of art – like the Crown, right next to Lime St station. This is the pubs ornate ceiling.

What I did have time for was a spot of lunch at one of the city centre noodle bars. This one, called ‘Wok and Go’ is just outside Central station. You can get an excellent, freshly cooked Asian meal for a fiver. I rather like the wok lampshades too…

15:46.

I moved on via Merseyrail to Kirkby, one of those very odd hangovers from a different era – the 1970s. This former main line has between Liverpool and Wigan been singled in either direction and the line severed. It’s essentially two separate lines now, the electrified Merseyrail service ends, passengers detrain and walk along the platform, under a bridge, past two pairs of buffer stops and board a Northern Rail service to travel onwards. There’s only two places like this in the UK and they’re both on Merseyrail. The other’s nearby, at Ormskirk.

My Northern steed was one of a pair of Pacers. Two are provided but the rear one’s locked out of use as the platforms at the next station, Rainford, are too short for a 4-car. It’s Rainford I was heading for as it has one of the few mechanical signalboxes left in the Northwest as it’s where the single line begins/ends. Rainford was once a junction and the excellent real ale pub on the road above is still named ‘The Junction’. Here’s the view from the station footbridge today.

In this shot you can see the signalbox which used to stand in the middle of the junction, with lines curving away to the left and right just before the box. You can still see the curve on the edge of the right hand platform whilst the left hand side is completely overgrown by trees. It now a footpath. If you want to learn more about the history of the station and see a collection of old photographs, visit this website.

Here’s an old (undated) picture displayed in the pub.

It shows the Pub, signalbox and footbridge I was stood on!

Rainford’s only one of a couple of dozen locations left in the UK where the signaller physically hands over the single line token to the train driver, then collects it from them on the return.  Here he is in action yesterday.

DG309944crop

17:07.

I’ve stopped off again, this time at a station I’ve never visited: Orrell. The station’s been built in a deep cutting, so access isn’t the easiest. That said, the station friends group (whom I don’t know) are doing some sterling work on difficult terrain. They’ve established planters on the platforms, brought in water butts, edging and added steps to some of the steep banks to make then accessible for planting.

I had a quick wander around the town but it’s not one of those places that has a natural centre, just scattered shops and a couple of closed-down pubs. It has the feeling of a town that’s lost it’s original reason for existance, so it’s a dormitory town for elsewhere.

My next stop was quite depressing: Wigan. I know Wigan of old, since the early 1970s when I first started travelling solo as a teenager. It’s always been a bit of a depressing place. It’s no wonder George Orwell used it in some of his writing. The problem is, it hasn’t got much better. The old industries that grew the town are long gone and I’m really not sure what sustains the place anymore. In the 1990s 2000s I used to change trains here on my way to see my family in Southport. Occasionally we’d stop for a drink if we missed a connection, but there was always an undertow of menace in some of the pubs. That and the bluster of people who knew they were going nowhere. It’s worse now. I had a quick wander in between trains. The big old pub to the right of Wallgate station’s now a shop. It’s one of the few as all I saw in my stroll uphill was bars, barbers, vape shops, bookies, drunks and beggars. None of the normal economic life of a healthy town. Still, now that we’ve ‘taken back control’ thanks to Brexit, I’m sure things will improve…

Moving on I caught a train back to Manchester where I changed for a service back across the Pennines. This time of day the trains are very busy, but that’s no surprise – I’m on another old friend, a 2-car Class 150 that used to operate Gospel Oak to Barking on my local line in North London. It ended up working for Great Western around Exeter and now it’s pitched up here. Northerners complain about poor train services but if you compared loading and fares on this route with (say) a train out of London Waterloo to Basingstoke at the same time of day you can see why that has 12 cars and this doesn’t!

l’ll probably get some flak for that observation, but as someone who’s lived in both areas I know the reality.

My final port of call was Hebden Bridge, where I changed trains once more. At night the place oozes history and atmosphere, all you need is a steam engine to pass through!

DG310012crop

UPDATE 30.9.18
As you can see from the comment to this blog, my observations on Wigan have upset some, so I thought I’d compare Wigan (pop 103,000) and where I live now Halifax (pop 90,472) on Crime statistics UK. Each postcode is taken from the town centres. The comparisons make interesting reading.

crime 2

crime

Now here’s where I used to live, Crouch End in North London!

n8

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