Category Archives: Musings

Interesting times. Part 5.

22 Sunday Mar 2020

Posted by in Coronavirus, Food and drink, Musings, West Yorkshire

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The pair of us are ‘enjoying’ our first weekend in a new Coronavirus world where the country is gradually shutting down, bit by bit. Now the pubs clubs and cafe’s have closed. Sadly, it seems a lot of people still haven’t got the memo – or think it doesn’t actually apply to them.

Saturday actually started with a rare luxury – a lie in. Well, what was the rush when much of the country’s in shutdown? Where are we gonna go, join a supermarket queue? Instead Dawn prepared breakfast whilst I finished editing some more old slides from 1991 and the new pictures of a deserted rail network that I’d taken on Friday. Here’s a sample of each.

It sure as hell doesn’t look like this anymore! On the 25th April 1991 73209 is seen at Stratford Low Level alongside 313010 which was working a North Woolwich – Richmond service. The Class 73, which was normally to be found working Gatwick Express airport services was in the area with an inspection saloon.
Despite the Coronavirus and plummeting passenger numbers, the future’s not all doom and gloom. Here’s the new platform at Leeds station taking shape.

Despite the surreality of the situation we find ourselves in we decided to make the most of the improving weather by driving up to Norland Moor to enjoy a long walk in solitary conditions. Whilst the Moor’s popular with dog walkers and mountain bikers, Hyde Park it ain’t!

The view from Norland Moor looking back across the Calder Valley to the Wainhouse Tower as it was last August.

We encountered a few people but it was mostly couples like ourselves, all who understood the need for distance right now. The only problem we encountered was the fact the moor’s so exposed there was an eye-watering biting wind blowing across it – which made us less keen to tarry! Having enjoyed a constitutional and a break from being cooped up we dropped into Sowerby Bridge and the local Lidl to pick up some supplies. Sadly, many of the shelves had been stripped bare of the stuff we needed. We’ll be damned if we’re going to join ridiculous queues early in the morning, so if it’s not on the shelves we’ll do without. I still find it bizarre the way people are panic buying and some of the shit they’re picking up. OK, alcohol and certain foods I can understand, but shampoo and washing powder? You’re meant to be at home self-isolating – just how many changes of bloody clothes do you need? You could sit at home in only your undies for all most people care – just as long as you remember to turn off your webcam when you’re in those conference calls!

Back at home we hunkered down for the evening and enjoyed cooking as therapy. Dawn prepped some veg for me, after which I cooked up a big batch of Cucumber curry to eat that evening and to add to the freezer. I can just imagine some of you saying to yourselves “Cucumber curry, seriously?” but it’s actually a gorgeous South Indian dish made with cucumber, red peppers and peanuts in a cream coconut sauce, finished off with a variety of fried spices.

Suitably sated, we binge-watched a few episodes of an Aussie series on Netflix called ‘The Glitch” which is about a group of people returning from the dead. We weren’t sure what to make of it at first, but it’s curiously addictive as it has several plot twists. It certainly takes your mind off other things…

Today (Sunday) initially began as a re-run of Saturday with me scanning pictures and Dawn preparing breakfast but the weather was so gorgeous we decided to shelve some of the chores we’d planned to get out again whilst we still can as it looks like further restrictions on movement are inevitable due to the sheer number of clowns still congregating.

The fact today’s Mother’s Day made it even more daft. I wonder how many people who’ve ignored the advice have now seen their mother for the last time? Whilst my parents passed away years ago Dawn is fortunate enough that both hers are still alive – but there’s no way on God’s green earth we were going to go anywhere near them today. Her Father’s 85 and Mother 79. Both of them are active yet both of them are heeding the advice to self-quarantine as they understand the risks.

Instead, the pair of us decided to go for a stroll locally along the Calder and Hebble navigation, which is the canal below us in the valley bottom. We walked as far as the locks at Salterhebble, where there’s boat moorings with park benches, the perfect place to sit and enjoy the beer we’d brought with us and watch the world go by for half an hour before walking home. The canal towpath wasn’t very busy and the people we met were all conscious of giving each other a wide berth so it was a stress free time.

Quiet, isn’t it? This is the Copley viaduct where the railway from Halifax (off to the right) crosses the road, the canal – and later the river Calder off to the left before meeting the line from Brighouse at Milner Royd Junction.

In fact, the weather was so pleasant we actually sat outside the cottage on our front garden wooden bench for the first time this year, soaking up the sun whilst listening to the birds in the trees across the road, who seemed to be enjoying the good weather as much as we were. If you closed your eyes, it was possible for a few brief moments to forget all the trouble in the world and indulge your senses, enjoying the simple pleasures of the heat of the sun on your skin and the melodic birdsong gracing your ears.

Next week will be a curious one as it’ll be the first full week where the pair of us will be self-isolating by working from home. The picture in the outside world’s still fluid so who knows how things will look by Friday, or what will happen in the intervening days, but right now all we can do is take one day at a time. The forthcoming weeks and months are in the lap of the Gods…

Interesting times: Part 3.

19 Thursday Mar 2020

Posted by in London, Musings, Photography, Railways

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Considering that I’ve had jobs and events cancelled left, right and centre – I should be a man of leisure, but life never works out the way you think it might. Instead, I’ve found myself busy with trying to arrange work to fill the gaps, continue scanning old pictues and (safely) escape from quarantine to enjoy the fact Spring’s on it’s way and enjoy little victories.

Shopping around here is still a bizarre experience. Our local supermarkets have the look of places that have been visited by looters! Today I celebrated a small success by popping into one on the off-chance and being at the right time to pick up a dozen eggs. Sounds bizarre, doesn’t it? A couple of weeks ago, who would have thought that this would even have been an issue? I still can’t get my head around the whole bog roll shortage. Today I was amused to see that the shelves in a local Tesco’s had been stripped clean of cans and bottles of shit lagers, which is possibly an indicator of who’s doing the panic buying. There was still plenty of decent beers, wines and spirits to be had but the piss was in short supply…

Like many others, I’m still trying to come to terms with all this. To put things in perspective, by the end of today there had been a grand total of three confirmed cases of Coronavirus across the whole of Calderdale – out of a population of 210,000. We’re in the group of the lowest in the UK. Sure, there’s bound to be more undiagnosed cases here, but it’s not exactly the Black Death.

I’m not trying to make light of things here, just add some perspective – honest! Let’s face it, we need some humour at the moment and if the likes of Monty Python can’t supply it, who can? With the boot on the other foot I was morbidly fascinated to see how many older people still couldn’t resist the lure of Wetherspoons in Sowerby Bridge earlier, despite all the warnings about gatherings. We could be seeing an interesting experiment in self-inflicted social Darwinism playing out over the next few months.

Back from my mission to buy eggs I’ve been continuing to be productive by scannning more old slides from what now seems a much simpler age to my Zenfolio website. Here’s a couple of samples.

It’s Sunday the 14th April 1991 and Romanian built 56026 keeps UK built 47473 company in platform 7 of the old St Pancras station where they’d been stabled for the weekend. St Pancras was a BR traincrew depot and in those days driver still signed both passenger and freight traction.

Meanwhile, just down the road at Farringdon..

31511 heads up a wiring train at Farringdon on the cross-London Thameslink route. Diesel locomotives were extremely rare in this neck of the woods.

We live in interesting times…

15 Sunday Mar 2020

Posted by in Food and drink, Halifax, Musings

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– as the supposed old Chinese curse goes…

We’re certainly doing that with first the Brexit shambles and now the panic over the pandemic! The picture seems to change almost hourly as there’s a new development or story reported in the mainstream media or fed by social media.

For Dawn and I, yesterday seemed perfectly normal, although how long this will continue I have no idea. The pair of us went out for brunch in Halifax, visiting the wonderful Piece Hall to eat at ‘Elder’, a cosy café on the ground floor of the historic building. With what’s going on we’d expected Halifax to be quite but in fact it was teeming and we had to wait to get a table at the café! We both ordered the same brunch, a delicious mushroom Benedict, poached eggs and a béarnaise sauce served on potato rostis, accompanied by fried mushrooms.

Dawn had a coffee whilst I washed mine down with a bottle of Pale Ale from the Saltaire Brewery.

Suitably fed and watered we went off to do a spot of shopping to make a few strategic purchases rather than panic buying! Yorkshire being Yorkshire, we didn’t encounter a single person sporting a facemask. Having completed our chores we popped into one of the new bars in town. ‘Kobenhavn’, which is situated in the Westgate Arcade. It’s a modern bar on three levels which has an excellent selection of craft beers and real ales. They also cater for wine drinkers, have tea/coffee and a range of non/low alcohol drinks. Dawn was taken by some of the beers and enjoyed one of the Veltins whilst I went for “Pride and Joy”, a Pale Ale on handpump from local company Vocation Brewery which was very well kept. The bar was almost empty when we arrived but half an hour later it was teeming with beer aficionados of all ages and sexes.

It was a pleasant interlude, knowing that it might be the last time we were doing something like this for a while. The entertainment wasn’t over yet as this critter and some of his friends were on display outside in the arcade.

We’re fortunate that where we live the surrounding woods are home to many owls, who you often hear in the evening – although none are as majestic as this beastie, the Eurasian eagle-owl

Before heading we had one last chore to do which was to pop into the Tesco’s in Sowerby Bridge to pick up some supplies. Oddly, it’s the only Tesco’s in the area that sells their own-brand alcohol free Presecco. We’ve been sampling different brands and this is without doubt the best we’ve found. Whilst we were there we couldn’t miss the shelves which has been stripped bare of bog-roll and all the other stuff that’s on the list of essentials for those who’ve joined in the panic-buying jamboree…

Seriously?

Returning home to dump our purchases and change the fun was far from over as the rest of the evening was spent at a friend’s house, where the ‘6 from the 6’ were getting together to celebrate the birthday of one of our number, Tony Allan (of Phoenix Brewery fame). We were hosted by Fran and Aubrey, who’d cooked up a fantastic array of Caribbean recipes which catered for all tastes as we had vegetarian, chicken and lamb dishes. It was a lovely sociable evening. One only hopes the coming Coronavirus circus doesn’t mean we won’t be able to do such things for a while…

Today (Sunday) things have been a little more relaxed. We’ve been observing the unfolding world chaos via the social and mainstream media and thinking “the world really has gone mad”. At the same time we’re trying to make sense of it all and consider what we might need to do as it’s looking increasingly likely that many European countries, including the UK, are going into various degrees of shutdown.

So, we’ve been doing some strategic shopping ourselves. And no – I don’t mean panic buying bloody toilet rolls! Instead we’ve stocked up on a few everyday provisions that mean we don’t have to visit shops that often. We’ve been buying slabs of cooking staples like tins of chick-peas and chopped tomatoes just in case the Government, which doesn’t seem to know its arse from its elbow – decides to do something really daft. Oh, and I’ve stocked up on the wines and beers, so if nothing else I can always drown my sorrows at the stupidity of it all.

We did have a wonderfully light hearted moment when we were out. Whilst we were stood in the checkout queue I noticed the woman behind me had a large bottle of vodka in her shopping so I mentioned to Dawn that – if we run out of hand sanitizer you can always make some up using alcohol. Dawn (at the end of her tether) decided to count to 10 in a theatrical fashion. The elderly couple ahead of in the queue obviously overhead this and the woman turned around and laughed, saying “I’ll have to try that!”. Looking back at her more doddery husband who was slowly packing the shopping she observed “we couldn’t self-isolate for four months. I’d end up killing him!” I couldn’t help but sympathise…

These times are about to get a lot more ‘interesting’. Over the rest of the month I have several jobs lined up on the railways that include a fair bit of travel. Will any of them be cancelled? Who knows? I think next week could prove to be very fluid with things changing day by day. On the bright side, I have a home office, several articles and blogs to write and a large collection of old slides to scan, so I’ve plenty to keep me occupied in the case of an enforced stay at home. The difficulty at the moment is the uncertainty and the inability to plan – and I’m one of the lucky ones! I’m not living hand to mouth, I’m not on a zero-hours contract and I have the ability to ‘cut my cloth’. I feel for those who don’t, and I can’t help but wonder how all this is going to pan out. I’ve been a resident of this planet for 60 years now and I’ve never seen such strange times. At least it’ll give me plenty to write about…

Holed-up at home…

10 Tuesday Mar 2020

Posted by in ACoRP, Musings, Photography, Railways

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Not because of the Coronavirus just because of the weather, as it’s been wet and windy pretty much most of the day – hardly the climate for going out panic-buying toilet roll, which would have got rather soggy! I have to say, it there’s one thing, it’s panic-buying and hording toilet roll? You may run out of food, medicines and alcohol, but at least you’ll have 3 months supply of bog-paper! What are these people thinking – and why are they so damned gullible that if someone on social media’s told ’em to do it, they didn’t have the brains to say “toilet roll, seriously? Why? Sod, that – I’m heading for the booze isle…”

I’m not suggesting that the current scares are much ado about nothing, but this is hardly ‘keep calm and carry on’ territory. I have to crack a wry smile when I wonder how many of those Brexit supporters who talked about the ‘blitz’ spirit and how we can stand up to the dastardly EU because of our stoic mentality are the first ones in the supermarket queue with trollies laden with shithouse paper and anti-bacterial wipes…

What is real is the effects the virus is having on the economy and also travel. The stock market had its worst single day since the crash of 2008, which is painful if (like me) you have investments. I’m avoiding logging on to my accounts at the moment as I don’t want to see the financial carnage. I’ve no idea how long this blip will last but it could take quite some time for the markets to recover the ground they’ve lost, which will have a long-term impact on many people. There were hopes the recovery had started when the FTSE 100 rose by 2% today, but it was a false dawn as the index still closed in negative territory

I’ll be observing the impact the panic is having on travel tomorrow as I’m heading back down to London for the day to get some pictures for a magazine. I had thought of going today but the weather dissuaded me. Tomorrow’s forecast is better. Expect a rolling blog from my travels.

I’ve not had time to finish writing a blog over the past few days as I’ve been busy with other things. We were occupied with walking and socialising on Sunday whilst Monday morning was taken up with a meeting about preparations for judging this year’s Community Rail Awards. It’s something I really enjoy doing but the logistics of visiting over 2 dozen stations across the country in the space of just a few days is challenging to say the least! Much of the rest of my time’s been spent making a dent in scanning more old slides. You can find the results here but I’m adding a little taster to the blog. Almost everything in this scene has vanished now.

Taken on the 23rd February 1991 at Reading, a shunter (under the watchful eye of the driver) is uncoupling Class 47 number 47829 from its coaches to allow the engine to run round the train, which has arrived from the South coast. It will form the 15.45 to Liverpool Lime St. The coaches are long-gone, having been replaced Class 220-221 ‘Voyagers’ back in the early 2000s. 47829 lasted longer. It was scrapped in 2013. Reading station underwent a multi million pound rebuild several years ago, leaving it unrecognisable – and electrified.

Here’s Tonbridge Yard on the 24th February 1991 with a trio of engineers trains ready for weekend work. The Class 33s were classic old Southern engines, having been built specifically for the region.

I won’t be adding any more old slides for a few days. As well as being in London tomorrow I’m in Birmingham on Thursday as I’ll be visiting the archeological work and discoveries on the HS2 site at Curzon St, where the old railway roundhouse has been uncovered. I’ll be writing this up for an article in RAIL magazine, but here’s an idea of what there is to see.

Back in the day…

07 Saturday Mar 2020

Posted by in Down memory lane, Musings, Photography, Railways

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As some of you may have noticed, I’ve been spending a lot of time scanning old pictures recently as I try to (finally) get my collection of rail, travel and social issues pictures taken over the past 30 plus years onto my Zenfolio website.

In the past, when I did this for my old Fotopic website (remember them?) my approach was more scattergun. Nowadays I’m much more methodical, scanning whole albums rather than selective shots. Recently I’ve been covering the years 1990 and now 1991, which was when there was an interesting transition.

I was very much an amateur photographer in those days. I never dreamt that one day it would become my profession. I was happy being a Housing Officer in East London – a job I really enjoyed. The money was good, I had no commitments and so I had a large disposable income and could afford to buy decent cameras. Nothing too flash mind, I wasn’t getting into medium format (too bulky) or expensive kit like Leica, just good mid-range auto-focus Nikons like the F801s which came out that year. Yep, back in those days auto-focus was a new thing. It was still a bit clunky compared to what we use today but it was a great advance on manual focus as it was one less thing to worry about and concentrate on.

What also came out then and really changed the game was a new slide film. Fuji Velvia.

Having taken the old advice I’d been using Kodachrome the standard slide film of the day since 1989 when I ditched print film. The problem was that Kodachrome was slow speed, grainy and difficult to get processed. It didn’t like dull days either.

Then Fuji Velvia arrived. I’d read about it in camera magazines but didn’t try it until a few months later, in February 1991. I’m now scanning the first roll I used. Wow, what a difference! Rated at ISO 50 it wasn’t much of a change in speed but the lack of grain and vividness of colour compared to Kodak was brilliant. Here’s a sample.

On the 17th February 1991. 4-EPB unit 5467 stands at Dartford before working the 13.30 to Charing Cross via Sidcup.

As I scan more slides I can see the transition I made from Kodak to the ‘upstart’ Fuji. Velvia became my standard film, even though it wasn’t ideal for everything as it was a high-contrast film with vivid colours (not great for indoor shots of people for example). But then Fuji soon introduced Provia and Reala.

I realise that to many modern photographers brought up in the digital age when all you do is flick a few dials and go through a few menus all this is gibberish. But in the early 1990s the world was very different. As I scan my old pictures I’m reliving those times. Would I go back? No. Do I regret not having gone digital before I did in 2004? Yes. But isn’t hindsight a wonderful thing?

Here’s another sample that also shows just how much the railways have changed since 1991. This is Gillingham (Kent) on a quiet Sunday when spare locos used to be stabled just outside the station. All these are ex-Southern classes which have now (mostly) disappeared, although the later versions of the Class 73 electo-diesels still put in sterling work on the Southern for freight company GBRf.

The year marches on…

01 Sunday Mar 2020

Posted by in ACoRP, Down memory lane, Hs2, Musings, Photography, Railways, StopHs2

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Yep, today’s the start of a new month, not that there’s been much of a change, as we’ve had yet another storm warning! The only discernible difference is that the days are starting to get longer. I’ve spent much of the weekend scanning yet more old railway slides from 1990, which you can find in this gallery on my Zenfolio website. The latest batch of 60 are from Bristol and also the Tinsley loco depot open day, held on a dismal Saturday in September. Here’s a sample, featuring Bath Rd depot in Bristol – another place that’s long-gone.

BR Class 47 locomotives dominate this view of Bristol Bath Rd depot as the shed provided motive power for cross-country services from the South-West up to Birmingham and beyond, as well as passenger locomotives for the main line to London Paddington as well as servicing freight engines and local diesel multiple units.

As I mentioned in my last blog. I’m back in Bristol tomorrow for an ACoRP (Association of Community Rail Partnerships) conference. The programme shows that it’s going to be a busy event spread over two days but no doubt I’ll have some time to blog/tweet about what’s going on, as well as catch up with some old friends from the world of community railways.

To get to Bristol in time means the pair of us are up at sparrow-fart in the morning, so this isn’t going to be a long blog. I’d hoped to have time to compose one about the collapse of the StopHs2 campaign, but that can wait for another day! It’s not as if there’s anything going on with them anyway. They’ve been very quiet on social media since the Government announced the fact HS2’s been given the green light. Mind you, they’ve also been inactive in the real world too. Their ‘direct action’ campaign at Harvil Rd and Cubbington wood has been completely ineffective at stopping HS2. The penny finally seems to be dropping that they’ll never have the numbers of people on the ground they need. There’s only a couple of dozen regulars and a few ‘weekend warriors’ – who’re especially useless and HS2 Ltd don’t normally work at weekends so there’s nothing to stop! The fact that having a bunch of voyeurs’ watching you make fools of yourself on Facebook isn’t going to stop Hs2 seems to be slowly sinking in too – hence this rather revealing post of one of their Facebook pages.

I’ll blog about this in detail when I have the time. Right now it’s time to pack a suitcase…

Rain stopped play…

28 Friday Feb 2020

Posted by in Calder Valley, Food and drink, Musings, Railways, Travel

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Well, not just the rain, but it has been another wet and frustrating day. My cunning plan was to head over to the Wigan – Southport railway to get some shots of the new bi-mode Class 769 trains that are on test there to fill a gap in the library and also for a client.

I dutifully headed off in that direction this morning. The weather here in Yorkshire was less than ideal but I don’t have much time to spare at the moment as the diary for March is looking rather full.

The trip across the Pennines from Sowerby Bridge was uneventful. I was on a direct service from Leeds to Wigan Wallgate which was worked by one of Northern’s cascaded Class 158s. Once the staple of more express services, they’ve been displaced onto secondary duties that would once have been worked by Pacers. It was comfortable and not particularly busy until it called at Rochdale so I used my time wisely and got some work done. The lack of wifi and power sockets wasn’t an issue now I have my new ‘super duper’ Dell laptop so I managed to plough through and edit quite a backlog of pictures whilst keeping a wary eye on the weather which was worsening the further West I got.

Sod’s law being what it is, by the time I got to Wigan and checked the Class 769 workings on Real Time Trains it was obvious today’s runs had been cancelled. It’s always the luck of the draw with these things and the fact it was raining cats and dogs in Wigan (or ‘Wiggin’ as the local pronounce it) meant I wasn’t too disappointed. Instead, I admitted defeat to head back East and attempted to salvage the day by getting a couple of shots around Manchester Victoria, like this one which rather shows how much the railways around the city have changed in the past few years.

A pair of Hitachi Class 802s operated by Trans Pennine Express pass at Manchester Victoria. On the left 802215 works 9S12, the 1224 Liverpool Lime Street to Edinburgh. Yes, Manchester now has direct services to the Scottish capital – and from Victoria too! On the right 802209 was working the unfortunate 1P22, the 1047 Newcastle to Manchester Airport which was terminated at Victoria due to signal failure. It’s great to see the way Victoria has regained the intercity services that it lost decades ago – and with brand new state of the art trains providing them too!

Heading on East I managed to get home without getting drenched thanks to my trusty Siemens supplied umbrella and a new pair of walking boots that kept my feet above the many puddles I encountered on the way. This evening has been spent on different activities. Both Dawn and I love to cook and tonight the muse was upon me. Whilst Dee slaved away working from home I tried an Indian recipe I’ve never cooked before, Chettinad Chicken curry. It’s fiery due to the Kashmiri chilli powder and ground black peppercorns and aromatic due to the cumin, cinnamon and coriander seeds. Served with rice and a few pickles and chutneys it certainly brought some colour into an otherwise dreary day.

The weekend weather isn’t looking much better. In fact, it appears we’ve yet another storm on the way, so I doubt I’ll be getting out with the camera over the next few days although I might get a few more old slides from 1990 scanned – just to keep the momentum going. As chance would have it, the next ones to be done are from Bristol – a city that I’ll be back in on Monday as I’m at an ACoRP seminar on Monday – Tuesday. Hopefully I’ll have chance to get a couple of up to date shots as a comparison…

Exploring old haunts.

26 Wednesday Feb 2020

Posted by in Greater Anglia franchise, Musings, New trains, Railways, Travel

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I’ve been moving around too much today to write a coherent rolling blog, so here’s a look back over the day.

After attending the Bradshaw address last night I stayed with an old friend who lives in Clapham. His flat overlooks the station and offers some excellent views of the changing city skyline beyond. It was great to catch up with him as it’s not easy nowadays because we all lead such busy lives.

When I left, rather than go into central London I caught the London overground via Wandsworth and Canada Water through to Shoreditch, which was an old stomping ground from the 1980s-90s. I’m always amazed how much that neck of the woods has changed in the past 35 years. When I lived in the East End London was still a city in decline, with a shrinking population. The Housing Co-op I lived in was set up by the local council (Tower Hamlets) because the block was on an estate where properties were considered ‘hard to let’. Can you imagine that now? So much of what was once considered ‘rough’ areas of London no-one wanted to live in are now chokka with new high-rise housing developments – and new transport links to serve them, like the Docklands Light Railway, or indeed – the London Overground! I still love coming back to London even if the memories are sometimes bitter-sweet.

One thing I realised on my tour was how many photographic locations have been lost because of all the new housing developments, especially on the part of the LO that runs on the reinstated line from Shoreditch through to Dalston. Later, when I can, I’ll post a couple of pictures as contrasts to show you what I mean.

Leaving London from Liverpool St I passed through more of East London. Areas I lived and worked in for nearly 15 years that still hold powerful and happy memories for me. Leaving the orbit of the capital I ended up in Essex, where the railways are changing fast. Trains that have plied these routes before I moved to London are being phased out completely. The Anglia franchise has gone for total fleet replacement, although that’s not entirely gone to plan as the new fleets are late! Hardly a unique story on UK railways…

My first port of call was Colchester, where the station approaches are rather photogenic, especially with a long lens. I didn’t linger long as the weather was less than inviting and I was dressed for a lecture, not the great outdoors! The station’s quite exposed and the wind was perishing! Even so, I managed a couple of useful shots of trains that will soon be a memory in that neck of the woods.

Moving on I headed for Ipswich, where I started to encounter the new Stadler built bi-mode trains that Anglia have bought in great numbers. To say these units are a leap in quality is rather like comparing a Boeing 737 with a DC3! When the full fleet’s in service (along with the Bombardier built Class 720s) there’ll be a rail revolution in Anglia, a regions that’s always made do with cast-offs for decades.

Three car unit 755329 stabled at Ipswich. Unlike any other new train, these Stadler sets are articulated and have a power pack containing the engines as a separate compartment which has a gangway through it. As you can see from the picture, it’s also slightly wider than the passenger vehicles.

My first trip on one of the Stadler units was from Ipswich to Bury St Edmonds and I had to say I was impressed. The build quality’s very good, the seats are very comfortable and there’s a good mix of bay seating with tables and airline type rows. Plus sockets are fitted at every seat although it took me a few minutes fiddling with one to realise they’ve been fitted upside down (which is no bad thing). Acceleration on electric power’s excellent and they’re no slouch on diesel power either. The PA system makes a human voice audible for once and the PIS screens – whilst not as good or as informative as the ones in the new Siemens Class 700 family – give you details of stops en-route. Ride quality felt superior to the new CAF units i’m used to on Northern, whilst noise inside the saloon was minimal. I’d certainly rate them as one of the best new trains we’ve got. I’m looking forward to trying out one of the intercity variants to see the difference, as well as doing a full train test on them with Pip Dunn for a future edition of RAIL magazine.

The saloon of the front car in set 755409.

At Bury St Edmonds I couldn’t get the pictures I wanted so I backtracked to the pretty little station of Thurston, which is a rarity nowadays in that passengers gain access to the Up platform by walking over a foot crossing at track level that’s only protected by lights and sirens.

755416 is about to pass over the foot crossing at Thurston whilst working the 14.57 to Cambridge. The pretty grade 2 listed, three-story station building is intact but disused. It was built in the Jacobean style by Frederick Barnes for the Ipswich and Bury Railway in 1846.

Moving on to Cambridge I stayed long enough to photograph the variety of trains (old and new) that operate a far more intensive service than I remember from a few years ago. Afterwards I headed North to Ely to connect with trains to Peterborough which were worked by EMR Class 158s and GA 755s. I was in time to get another of the GA 755s which made for a very pleasant trip across the flooded flatlands of the fens whilst watching the hailstorms from my cosy perch.

At Peterborough I didn’t have long to wait for a pair of 5-car LNER Azuma’s to arrive on a Leeds service and whisk me back to Yorkshire. A quick change to a Hull to Halifax service meant I was home by 20:30, which has given me time to scribble this – although I’ve more detail and pictures to add in the morning. Right now, it’s time to call it a day…

It’s grim up North…

20 Thursday Feb 2020

Posted by in Musings, Weather, West Yorkshire

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Although, judging by the weather maps, it’s grim over much of the country at the moment!

This morning we woke to the sound of yet more high winds hitting the house, followed by more rain pouring from slate-grey skies. At one point, as Dawn and I drove into Huddersfield there was a sublime monent when the sun broke through and picked out pockets of town and country which contrasted beautifully with the ominous skies. Typically, I was in no position to stop and capture it with the camera!After helping Dawn to pack up her desk (long story – ACoRP has the decorators in) I trudged through the rain into the town to do some banking and chores. For the first time since I don’t know when I had to pay a cheque in to a bank. Apparently, my bank is introducing a phone ‘app’ that’ll let you do this online, which will save a fair bit of a faff. Paying in cheques is probably the only reason I visit a local branch nowadays, other then perhaps to use a drinks voucher dispenser (aka an ATM). Gone are the days of queuing to pay bills or pay in a sheaf of cheques. It’s the same with Post Offices and posting off DVDs or memory sticks full of pictures to clients. The ‘post and stationary’ column in my annual accounts used to come to a not inconsiderable sum. Nowadays it’s tiny. I can’t even remember the last time I had to post an invoice. It’s not difficult to see why so many local banks and post offices have disappeared. The rise of the internet and ‘smart’ devices has changed the world forever.

Whilst Dawn went off to spend the afternoon her family I made my (roundabout) way back to the Calder Valley and home as I needed to catch up on some work. We’re all meeting up later as it’s Dawn’s mum Norah’s 79th birthday and we’re taking her and John to the Engine in Sowerby Bridge. At least the fine fayre and good company will make up for the atrocious weather which stayed grim until I finally shut the front door on a turbulent day. Typically, the sun then decided to put in an appearance – just to taunt me!

Our visit to the Engine was as enjoyable as ever. As there were six of us we tried some different dishes as well as the staples like this one, their delicious cauliflower.

Having enjoyed a great meal and good company we went our separate ways. There’s no going out and painting the town red for us as we’re up early to head off to Wales. Instead it’s the ‘rock and roll’ lifestyle of emptying the washer and matching up socks ready for another adventure! Admittedly, after checking the weather forecast for the next few days I’m not sure that it’s socks I should be concerned about. A snorkel and flippers might be far more useful…

Swapping between worlds…

19 Wednesday Feb 2020

Posted by in Down memory lane, Musings, Photography, Railways

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The past couple of days have seen me busy working from home which has been no bad thing as the weather’s been miserable and hardly conducive to wandering the world with the camera. OK, maybe the world would have been fun – but this corner of West Yorkshire hasn’t been!

Instead, I’ve been tucked up in the warm, editing the pictures I took around Manchester on Monday whilst mixing them with yet another batch of old slide scans from 1990. This little spree has added over 130 new pictures to my Zenfolio website. The contrast are quite fascinating as the UK’s railways have changed massively in the past 30 years and that rate of change is accelerating. Here’s a couple of examples to illustrate what I mean. This is how Sheffield and Cross-Country services looked like in 1990.

Here’s 47849 calling at Sheffield whilst working a Cross-Country service to Poole which is made up of 8 coaches, a far cry from the 4 or 5 coach Voyager DMUs that would replace such trains 13 years later. But then Virgin (who ran Cross-Country) ran far more frequent services than BR ever did.

Meanwhile, in 2020…

Here’s one of Trans-Pennine Express’ new Hitachi built Class 802 units at Manchester Victoria on a service from Newcastle to Liverpool Lime St. These bi-mode units have only entered service over the past few months, adding much needed capacity.

The new selection of 1990s pictures includes shots from London, Ely, Newcastle, Scotland and Tonbridge. You can find them here. So far this year I’ve added nearly 1000 new or historical pictures, which means there’s plenty to look at or buy!

Tomorrow I’ll be more focussed on family matters rather than photography. After that Dawn and I are off to North Wales for a few days as it’s a friends 50th birthday. We’re going to be staying on Anglesey but I’m sure there’ll be time for a bit of blogging in between all the partying and photography. Let’s just hope that the weather picks up as Anglesey is a very photogenic part of the world and where we’ve booked to stay for a few days is an ideal location from which to explore.