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Category Archives: Musings

A relaxing weekend? Sort of…

23 Sunday Sep 2018

Posted by in Germany, I love my job, Musings, Railways, Travel

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It’s Sunday night and the weekend’s flown by. The good thing is that I’ve had time with my nearest and dearest, the bad thing is – there’s no rest for the wicked! Most of the last couple of days have been spent trying to catch up with picture editing and writing. I’m gradually working my way through editing the hundreds of pictures I took in Germany last week. You can find the Innotrans shots in this gallery whilst the general railway shots are here. Here’s a couple of samples.

DG308400. Rebuilding the lines between Ostbahnhof and Warschauer Strasse stations. Berlin. Germany. 17.9.18cropp

Rebuilding the lines between Ostbahnhof and Warschauer Strasse stations

DG308712. Stadler Flirt for Greater Anglia. Innotrans. Berlin. Germany. 18.9.18crop

One of the new Stadler FLIRT 4-car bi-mode trains for Greater Anglia on display at Innotrans

As well as picture editing I’ve managed to get the first of my three-part trip around the UK rail network for RAIL written and sent off for editing. This next week will see me spending most of my time at home to get part 2 written and also finish editing the hundreds of remaining pictures from Germany sorted out as well as the shots to illustrate RAIL. Time and weather permitting, I might even manage to get out for the day somewhere…

After that it’s off up to Scotland for this years ACoRP awards which are being held in Glasgow. Thanks to Scotrail and Transport Scotland there’s a lot of activities going on around the awards so it promises to be a great time. Watch this space for comments and pictures.

 

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Thin gruel…

11 Tuesday Sep 2018

Posted by in Brexit, Musings, Politics

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There’s not much of a blog tonight folks, just a few observations and musings. I’ve been working from home again, trying to catch up with writing, picture editing and all those household bits and bobs that I need to before I’m back on the road again in a few days time.

I’ve added more than two hundred rail and travel pictures from around the UK to my Zenfolio website – which you can find by following this link to the latest updated galleries. One of my favourites is this moody view of Inchkeith, seen from the footbridge of Kinghorn station, Fife.

DG308136. Inchkeith seen from Kinghorn. Fife. Scotland. 9.9.18

Much as it’s nice having this time at home, I can’t wondering if our cat (Jet) hasn’t taken out a life insurance policy on the pair of us as he’s started to lie here…

JET

Meanwhile, in Alice in Wonderland, the Brexit shambles limps on. The group of fanatical Brexit supporters in Parliament known as the ERG (European Research Group) have launched their report on the ‘benefits’ of Brexit. As expected, it’s batshit crazy and has already been torn apart by real economists and lampooned by others. Here’s my personal favourite – it’s a picture from the launch by Dan Kitwood of Getty Images in a tweet from Otto English.

otto

And on that note – goodnight!

Time to get my breath back – if only for a moment.

10 Monday Sep 2018

Posted by in Musings, Railways, Scotland, Travel

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Phew! After 8 days continuous travel around the UK by train it felt rather odd to be sleeping in our own bed and not having to head off anywhere this morning. Instead, the furthest I’ve had to travel has been from the bedroom to the kitchen and then my office at the back of the house. I’ve spent the day writing the first of the trilogy from my trip, plus editing the pictures and catching up on all the bits of life I couldn’t whilst out on the rails. It’s also great to be eating home-cooked food again, rather than living off sandwiches and supermarket meals.

I’ll be trying to get back to blogging again ASAP. It’s not that I’ve nothing to talk about or pictures to show – anything but as yesterday was a fascinating trip down the Fife coast after leaving Perth. Here’s a couple of shots to whet your appetites.

DG308087crop

Harvest time in the kingdom of Fife.

DG308090crop

Crossing the River Tay on the railway bridge

DG308125crop

A lovely poem on display at Kirkcaldy railway station

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The original Burntisland railway station. Opened in 1847 it was the site of the worlds first train ferry until it was made redundant by the opening of the Forth Rail bridge in 1890. Derelict for many years, it now houses artist studios and community groups. 

The difficulty (as always) is time. I’ve got the next two days at home, then Dawn and I are off to the National Rail Awards in London as VIP guests. After working there since 2003 as the event photographer, that’s going to feel very different. On Friday we’ll return home for some time with friends back in Halifax, but I’ll be on the road again later on Saturday as I’m off to Innotrans, the massive rail trade show in Germany from Sunday – Friday. Expect a few blogs from there!

In the meantime, I’ll be finishing my RAIL articles, doing my best to add all the recent pictures to my Zenfolio website – and also have some down time – somewhere (somehow).

Casual in Carlisle…

07 Friday Sep 2018

Posted by in Musings, Travel

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Casual because I’m relaxing in my hotel room and away from the mayhem that tends to be a feature of Friday and Saturday nights here. Carlisle is one of those places that relies on everyone from the surrounding villages and towns to descend upon its pubs and bars in search of a good time. It’s not unique, I could list a whole host of such places that I’ve passed through over the years. Chances are every village for miles will be having a night off from its resident idiot as they’ll all be drawn here like moths to a flame.

I know Carlisle of old. I’ve often stayed here for work – such as the round Britain trip I’m doing now for RAIL magazine. In fact I’m back in the same IBIS hotel on Botchergate I’ve stayed in several time before. Botchergate is the main street when you come out of the station and swing Right. It has so many pubs the street’s actually blocked off to traffic at weekend evenings. My hotel room overlooks it.

I’ve travelled up here from Cardiff where I stayed last night. In some ways Cardiff’s not that different to Carlisle, it’s just bigger and the village idiots have a different accent. Oh, and it has an international stadium! Last night Ninian Park hosted a match between Ireland and Wales. To be fair, the supporters (in my experience of them anyway) were pretty good natured – although the town centre was a mess. Here’s a picture of one of the main streets before the match.

Towns like Carlisle have always had their fair share of pubs you wouldn’t want to walk into because of the people who frequent them. If you did it was a bit like walking into a wild-west saloon as everybody turned to look. Now you don’t have to as the smoking ban of 2006 means most of the real miscreants will be stood outside having a fag or vaping so you can gauge a pub without having to set foot over the threshold!

A traditionally British August bank holiday!

27 Monday Aug 2018

Posted by in Bank holidays, Food and drink, Musings, West Yorkshire

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So (naturally), it’s chucking it down! I feel sorry for anyone who’s organised an outdoor event this weekend. After the fabulous summer we’ve had they must have been thinking – ‘well if this keeps up’…Sadly, it hasn’t – certainly here in the Calder Valley anyway. Today’s our second where the rain has been almost continuous. Not the heavy showers that pass and you can avoid if you’re lucky, it’s that light drizzle that manages to penetrate waterproofs and blow under umbrellas. Here’s the view from our bedroom window right now.

DG305918crop

Dawn, my wife, isn’t too unhappy about the turn of events as her plan for today was to be a domestic Goddess and spend much of it batch cooking to stock up the freezer. The project started yesterday with these two fabulous dishes. The first is Karniyarki -Turkish stuffed aubergine, served with salad and a yoghurt sauce.

aubergine

The second is traditionally English – Bakewell tart!

Bakewell

Of course, there’s another  reason Dawn’s not too upset about the weather. It means I’ve no excuse to duck work on finishing off refurbishing our bathroom, so that’s where I’m heading now…

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.

DG305004

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).

Saturday slow-down

04 Saturday Aug 2018

Posted by in Huddersfield, Musings

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Today’s been a rail-free day. Well, free from actual trains anyway as the morning was taken up with editing many of the pictures I’d taken in Liverpool yesterday. I managed to get most of them on my Zenfolio website before Dawn and I were due in Huddersfield. As her brother’s up from Surrey with his son we’d arranged to all go to a bowling alley together with John and Norah, their parents, to make three generations of the Platt family (and me). I’ve not bowled for years – and that was a one off! The last time must have been 12-15 years ago at Finsbury Park in North London when I lived nearby.

Today I managed a reasonable score of 93. I still got beaten by Darren (Dawn’s brother) but all six of us had a thoroughly enjoyable hour. The alley was almost empty when we arrived and packed when we left. What I found interesting was how diverse it was. A group of young Sikh lads were playing in the next lane whilst next to them was a large Muslim family. To our left was a big English family. Ten Pin bowling seems to appeal to all regardless of age or community.

Now I’ve time to sun myself in the family garden and catch up on social media whilst Dawn makes (by popular request) one of her excellent cheesecakes. Darren and I are sloping off to meet some of his friends for a curry in Slaithwaite tonight. Despite having lived in Yorkshire these past 8 years it still amuses me the way no-one can agree how to pronounce the village’s name. Is it Slaithwaite or ‘Slawit’? It depends on who you talk to.

Expect some pictures to be added later. I took the camera bowling, just not my laptop…

Rolling blog: Another day on the rails…

18 Friday May 2018

Posted by in London, Musings, Railways, Rolling blogs, Travel

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09:00

After a night at home I’m heading back to London this morning as I have a job to do early tomorrow that’s not entirely unconnected with a wedding taking place near London. Meanwhile, it’s a bright sunny day and ideal for travelling, so expect a few observations and pictures from my wanderings today. Here’s the first, taken on my walk to the station from a winding cobbled road under the Wainhouse tower. I love this view!

That’s Sowerby Bridge down there. I’m always amazed how green it looks now the trees are in leaf because if you looked at the same view just 50 years ago it would have been denuded of the vast majority of the woodland. This would have been an industrial, not a pastoral view.

10.27

I’m now in Halifax, waiting for the London train after popping into the town’s Borough market to buy breakfast. It’s a lovely Victorian building which has this clock as its centrepiece.

Despite not being as busy as it once was it still has a delightful variety of stalls selling all manner of things.

14.15. I’m now in London after an easy trip down the East Coast with Grand Central. Sadly, it was on one of the class 180s they’ve recently acquired from GWR, not one of their newly refurbished sets which I had the pleasure of travelling in on Wednesday. Here’s how the new Standard Class seats look in 180104;

DG295999

Here’s looking through a refurbished Standard Class saloon.

DG296011

A table bay of four showing off the new seat trim and moquette. I rather like the way the exterior orange stripe has been replicated on the inside.

15:00

After taking a short break to organise a new commission on Monday (which involves another overnight in London or Brighton) i’m on the move again, passing through the perpetually busy Liverpool St station.

Xx

Huddersfield hiatus

09 Wednesday May 2018

Posted by in Huddersfield, Musings, Railways

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I’m working from my satellite office in Huddersfield (aka the ACoRP watertower) today as we’ve a funeral to attend this afternoon. Sadly, Dawn’s Uncle, Ronnie has passed away. On the bright side, he lived to the ripe old age of 93 so he had a good innings.

Today’s another Northern rail strike day so the station’s far quieter than normal. The place is littered with Pacers going nowhere. I can’t help feeling these strikes are futile, all they’re doing is losing the railway revenue and goodwill. Passengers are caught between a rock and a hard place with the intransigence of the RMT union and the determination of the DfT. One wants change, the other opposes it. But change is inevitable, it will come whether the union likes it or not – as railway history teaches us. Whether it was arguments about ‘secondmen’ in the past, or new fleets like the ‘Bedpan’ Class 317s being ‘blacked’ over DOO.

Talking of change, I’ve spotted these new PIS screens at the station which have only recently been installed.

They’re far more informative and much easier to see than the old ones. I hope they’re more accurate as well as previous ones weren’t ‘real time’ which meant the delay times were always all over the place as trains often seemed to move backwards and forwards at the speed of light.

This time of day you’d normally expect the stabling sidings to be devoid of Northern stock. Here’s what it’s like now.

 

The varied week (and month) ahead…

29 Sunday Apr 2018

Posted by in Infrarail, London, Musings, Siemens, Travel

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I’m expecting to have some interesting stuff to blog about this next week as there’s quite a bit of variety in my calendar. Tomorrow I head back to London in readiness for Infrarail, the 3 day railway trade show which is being held at ExCel in London’s docklands. I’ll be there for the opening but then I’ve got to hot-foot it over to London City airport in the afternoon as I’m on a press trip with Siemens to Dusseldorf, a group of us will be visiting their Krefeld plant to see the new Class 717 trains under construction. These trains will be replacing the vintage BR built Class 313’s operating services out of Moorgate and Kings Cross stations in London. After visiting the factory we’ll transfer to the test track at Wildenrath where we’ll have the opportunity to drive one of the new trains, so watch out for pictures on my Twitter account @paulbigland1 and website as well as keeping an eye out for the new blog.

Later that day we’ll be flying back to London, giving me the opportunity to spend a full final day at Infrarail before I head back up to Yorkshire.

There’ll be more variety later in May as I’m off to New York for a week. We’re going to celebrate my wife’s 50th birthday and meet up with some of her family, but I’ve arranged a bit of time to explore, so expect pictures of the New York subway as well as general cityscapes. I was last in the states in 2007, the camera technology’s changed a bit since then, so I’m looking forward to seeing what I can capture. By the way, here’s a link to the 2007 rail images.