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Category Archives: Musings

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).

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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.

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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;

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Here’s looking through a refurbished Standard Class saloon.

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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.

Pennine weather watch (No 435)

25 Wednesday Apr 2018

Posted by in Musings, Weather, West Yorkshire

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I love living in the Pennines. I love the Pennine weather less. Whilst my former home in the South can be basking in sunshine and enjoying temperatures that would put the South of France to shame we can be wrapped up in waterproofs! It’s fair to say that the Calder Valley has its own microclimate. Whilst it can be raining in the valley next door we can be basking in sunshine, although it sometimes feels it’s more likely to be the other way round! I’ve come to appreciate the wisdom of Wainwright’s old saying, “There’s no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing.” You just have to be prepared for anything up here.

The last few days are a good example of the changing fortunes. Last Saturday Dawn and I were out walking up to nearby Norland Moor in almost perfect weather, glorious sunshine, hardly any breeze and temperatures that made you think it was summer not spring. Footpaths that were a quagmire only a few days before had dried out, making ideal walking conditions…

 

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Dawn on a footpath high above Sowerby Bridge, which can be seen in the valley below.

Even the sunset played ball!

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Sunset seen from underneath the Wainhouse Tower, back on ‘our’ side of the Calder Valley from Norland

It wasn’t to last, the arrival of a new week heralded the return of the rain, which is rather unfortunate as it’s incompatible with doing what I need to – using electrical power tools outside!  So, today I’m playing hide and seek with this little lot, rain showers sweeping in from the South-East along the valley from Ripponden – as seen from our bedroom window.

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Right, time to get tile cutting…

Bits and pieces

18 Wednesday Apr 2018

Posted by in Brexit, Musings, Politics

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The title of this blog sums up my day. It’s been a real mixture that’s not always gone to plan. I’d originally intended to spend most of it finishing off work on our bathroom which  is a project that’s dragged on for months – much to the wife’s chagrin! To ensure marital harmony I’d set aside a few days to move the project on but fell foul of the Harold Macmillan doctrine (“events, dear boy, events”) to get interrupted by a work issue. I won’t name the party concerned, but it seems a former client was still using pictures that the licence for expired years ago. To their credit the new member of staff who’d taken over got in touch with me as soon as this was pointed out and we’ve got things sorted out, but I ended up trawling through old electronic databases looking for paperwork dating from 2005. The obvious moral of the story is – be good at filing!

Dusting off the archives meant that the bathroom took a backseat. Thankfully, Dawn understood so a divorce was averted!

The frustrating thing is that spring has (finally) sprung and we’ve had temperatures up in the high teens today so my shutter finger’s getting itchy – especially as the forecast is looking great for the next few days. I may need to renegotiate the T&C’s over the bathroom…

Another frustration’s been listening to news of the UK’s never ending political fcukwittery. I can honestly say I can’t remember a worse time than this since the early 1970s. Not only are both major parties embroiled in their own particular shambles – Teresa May with the Windrush backlash and Corbyn with anti-Semitism, both have right royally screwed us over in the Brexit shambles. My only hope is that a huge number of people register their displeasure in the local elections next month and send a clear message to both Labour and Tories that we’re not prepared to jump off the Brexit cliff with them – or for them. Otherwise, I can see a reverse Windrush happening as people abandon a country in (self-imposed) isolation and decline.

Wednesday thoughts…

11 Wednesday Apr 2018

Posted by in Musings, West Yorkshire

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There’s been little time for blogging today despite being at home. I’d a whole series of pictures to edit for a client as well as sorting out paperwork and hacking through my email inbox, before the rather quaint tradition of going to a bank to pay in a cheque. It should have been done ages ago as it was a wedding gift, but the person (whose blushes I shall hide) forgot to sign it! When I lived in London back in the last decade visits to the bank were a weekly chore as so many clients paid by cheque. Now, in 2018 I can’t think of the last time I was paid by one. In fact, there’s only one magazine (who’ll also remain nameless) who I still have to send invoices to by post. Nowadays everything’s done digitally via the internet – which is no bad thing when I consider how much it costs to send stuff via the mail. That’s an expense I’m happy to see the back of nowadays.

Walking into Halifax would normally give me the opportunity to grab a few pictures but the weather’s been a bit grim up North today. The Calder Valley’s been hidden by mist and murk all day. The centre of Halifax wasn’t much better. It reminded me of old newsreels of London and ‘pea-souper’ fog – although that was actually pollution. At least we don’t have to suffer that anymore.

 

It’s grim up North…Underneath that murk is Sowerby Bridge and the other side of the valley, but this is how it’s been for most of the day. Oh, now that spring is here…

 

Despite the bad weather, it’s clear that spring is here. My office window looks out onto the terrace behind our house. It’s not exactly scenic at there’s no wonderful valley vista compared to the front of the house, just a lot of Yorkshire stone some masons converted into walls to hold back the hill, but there’s plenty of bird life. We have both Blackbirds and Wrens nesting outside so I’m often distracted when my peripheral vision picks up their movement. I must set up the camera to try and catch the Wrens. Admittedly, it’s difficult to work and stalk at the same time but they would make a great photo.

Tomorrow I’ll be moving office to base myself in Huddersfield before spending an evening with friends. The weather forecast is crap, so I don’t expect to be doing much with the camera but I may have time to do some writing instead…

The week ahead…

08 Sunday Apr 2018

Posted by in Hs2, Musings, Travel

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There’s a lot to write about at the moment but little time to do it, so here’s a brief look at what’s coming up over the next week.

The pair of us have been based at home for the past few days. Dawn’s been on holiday which has meant I’ve taken a bit of time off in order that we could explore and have some quality time together. We rediscovered an old haunt in a new guise when we walked up to Norland Moor which is on the opposite side of the Calder Valley to where we live. On the edge of the moor is a pub called the Moorcock Inn. It’s new tenants who’re doing some really exciting things with the place – which includes both food and drink. It’s worth a blog in its own right so that’s what I’m in the process of writing – although It’ll take a few days as I’ve other priorities. But here’s a taster (literally), we walked back up to the pub today and sampled some of the food they cook in the smoke ovens which have been installed at the back of the pub. These smoky potato’s are stunning! By the way, the plates and bowls they’re served in have been made in the very same ovens the potato’s have been cooked in.

Tomorrow I’m in Crewe for the launch of a new High Speed Rail Industry Leaders Group (HSRIL) report called ‘Fast Tracking Prosperity’ which is about the benefits of HS2 Phase 2a, so expect a blog about that first.

Later in the week I intend to be in London to add to my picture library, whilst on Thursday a group of rail industry friends are meeting up in Huddersfield for a catch-up and a few drinks. I’m sure there’ll be some more rolling blogging going on…

Monday missive…

26 Monday Mar 2018

Posted by in Musings, Sowerby Bridge, Travel, West Yorkshire

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Welcome to a new week folks! There’s been little time for blogging today I’m afraid. Dawn, my wife, is on holiday this week so my focus has shifted somewhat. Today’s been  a day for household chores and catching up with paperwork more than anything else – although I did have chance to edit and caption a whole selection of pictures from last months Eurostar press trip from London to Amsterdam. You can find the shots in this gallery on my Zenfolio website.

Afterwards we decided to make the most of the spring-like weather as the forecast claims it’s all downhill for the rest of the week. The pair of us enjoyed a lovely walk from where we live on the side of the Calder valley through Scarr woods, then down a steeply cobbled road to join our local canal (the Calder and Hebble Navigation) for an easy walk along the towpath through to Sowerby Bridge. It’s a route we often take as it beats sticking to the shorter but less scenic route via the main road.

It’s funny how, despite visiting a place on a regular basis, you still pick up on something new. Today it was the fact that the Goth clothing shop which had only been open for about 6 months had closed and morphed into (yet another) barbers. There’s a market research deficit on both counts here. OK, the chance of making a living out of selling Goth clothing was pretty slim even though they had no competition, but another barbers? We counted 12 on the main street. So, if you’re hirsute, like eating out and drinking – then Sowerby Bridge is the place to come, otherwise – jog on! Variety ain’t the spice of life here. Being me, I couldn’t help wondering how a bonanza of barbershops will fare in a place where the population is ageing and balding…

I eschewed the chance of a haircut to do some food shopping before we popped in for a ‘swifty’ at the Hogshead Brew-house, one of the latest editions to the drinking dens of Sowerby Bridge and well worth a visit. It’s a spacious, single room bar that brews a variety of beers on the premises. It’s dog and child friendly, with a real mix of clientele – and furniture! One thing that amuses us is their range of crisps. We love the Roast Ox flavour ones, which are certified as suitable for vegetarians!

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Suitably refreshed we walked back up the hill to home for a quiet night in. Whilst Dawn’s cooking Tuna steaks I’ve had time to pen this little missive, tomorrow I’m hoping to tell you about that Eurostar press trip…