Category Archives: Photography

Lockdown. Day 56 (Monday).

20 Wednesday May 2020

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After yesterday’s slight hiccup the two of us faced a new week with renewed determination that the next seven days would be productive! It certainly started well. Dee was up just after 6 to begin her daily exercise regime. I stayed in bed a mite longer but made the most of it by working on the laptop whilst I sipped my coffee and kept the moggie company. He’s decided our bed’s his now and won’t take no for an answer. Trying to remove him’s like trying to throw away a boomerang!

I did join Dawn in time for a morning meditation which put us both in a good frame of mind for having a positive day, whatever life threw up.

Suitably balanced we retreated to our separate workplaces and cracked on. I’d already got a queue of slides ready for scanning and had a pleasant trip down memory lane, meandering back 27 years to the summer of 1993. I’m still amazed at how many of the pictures I remember taking although every so often one foxes me, leavng me thinking “what was I doing there, then”? The fact the individual slides are still unblemished and undamaged after over a quarter of a century is a relief too. There’s the odd one with a bit of surface scratching but I was meticulous about keeping my camera clean after having some travel pictures from India so badly scratched by grit on the film plane back in 1991 that vowed never to make the same mistake again.

Whilst I was busy scanning I did keep one eye on social media and the latest pathetic antics of ‘Extinction Rebellion’ as their tiny band of protesters pretend they can stop HS2. Quite how holding up a some banners outside a couple of worksites long enough to get pictures to post on social media before buggering off again is meant to stop HS2 is a mystery. All it does is fool a few gullible voyeurs sat at home watching into donating their money, but presumably that’s the idea. I notice a lot of the bluster has died down now. XR’s supposed ‘protectors’ have gone from claiming they’ll stop HS2 to saying they’re there just to record ‘wildlife crimes’. Only problem is – despite all their cameras – they’ve failed to capture a single ‘crime’! So we have allegations thrown around like confetti, but not a single arrest, much less a prosecution or conviction.

It is laughable that people who can’t even stop themselves being evicted from any of their tiny camps claim they’re going tostop the biggest construction project in Europe. Talking of evictions, many of the remaining protesters at Harvil Rd (and some of their associates) have been served with writs and are up before the High Court on Thursday this week!

I finally took a break from scanning to take some exercise and stop my legs ossifying. The weather’s the worst it’s been for some time – cold and windy with occasional, desultory rain showers so literally took a walk up the road with the hope that conditions will improve later. My determination that this is going to be a good week extends to getting my daily 5 miles under my belt every day – but it does prove difficult sometimes when juggling so many things. Today was no exception. With the pair of us at full slog throughout the day it was after 18:30 pm that we went out together and did our local circuit through woodland and park before getting home in time for the weekly Platt family ‘Zoom’ call. 

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Zoom is a good stopgap for face to face contact in these troubled times, but will it replace it? You have to be joking!

Afterwards I had a last hour in the office editing today’s scans and getting them onto my Zenfolio website. You can find them in this gallery. 

I added to my health ‘brownie’ points by also having an alcohol free day so I felt very virtuous by the time I climbed into bed that evening. As for all those scanned slides – here’s a sample. 

03390. 86634. 86637. Stratford. 01.07.1993crop

On the 1st July 1993 Class 86s No’s 86634 and 86637 haul a Freightliner train bound for Ipswich through Stratford in East London. Built for the West Coast Mail Line electrification in 1965-66 these locomotives were 23 years old when this picture was taken. Remarkably 86637 remains in service today, 27 years later – although not for much longer! Freightliners remaining Class 86s are about to be replaced by Class 90s displaced from Liverpool St – Norwich services. The 90s have been rendered surplus by the introduction of the new Stadler built Class 745 units. 86634 lasted in service until May 2002. It was scrapped at CF Booth, Rotherham in 2005.

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Lockdown. Day 46 (Friday)

08 Friday May 2020

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Christ, if this is what life’s like when we’re meant to have loads of time on our hands due to lockdown, can I have my old one back, please?

My best intentions of getting up early went out of the window this morning and for the first time in ages I didn’t get out of bed before 08:00 which was a bit of a surprise as I distincly remember being awake at 06:00 and thinking ‘I’ll just have another half an hour’. Damn those snooze buttons! I wouldn’t mind but it’s not even mine as Dawn has control of the alarm clock/radio.

Once the day started it was a busy,- if slightly different one. Dawn’s on her ‘virtual retreat’ for the next few days, so I’m doing everything I can so facilitate and support her doing it but it does mean we’re living rather separate lives for the next few days. Dee printed out her schedule activities and stuck it on the fridge in the kitchen so that I know what she’s up to and when so that I don’t disturb her at a crucial moment, like meditation. This means that the living room is very much ‘her space’ and I’m relegated to using the back door to come in and out, not that it’s a problem.

Yet again we’ve had another beautiful day, weather wise. I shadowed Dawn on her morning walk, which meant that I got a lot of steps in early which makes a change. Recently I’ve taken to getting in an evening stroll to boost my exercise. Whilst it’s technically breaking the guidelines it’s not a problem here as our road is deserted at that time of day. I can walk for half an hour and not bump into another soul or even see a car as everyone’s stuck indoors. Why wouldn’t they be – there’s nowhere else to go!

Back at home I disappeared into the office to spend several hours scanning more old slides, The job’s no less tedious but at least I’m slowly making progress, although it is rather frustrating being stuck inside when the weather’s so good! I’d love to be out and about with the camera, but discipline’s required right now and it means I’m getting something positive out of lockdown.

Once immersed in scanning the day soon flew by. I’ve both laptops on the go at the moment so that whilst I’m scanning with one I can be watching Netflix or the BBCiPlayer with half an eye on the other. Sometimes the distraction’s provided by birds visiting the feeder hung outside the office window as it sees a constant stream of Tits who come to plunder the sunflower seeds I keep it filled with. I avoided the VE celebrations on TV, preferring to remember those who fought and lost their lives in my own way rather then join in what was starting to feel like a jingoistic celebration rather than a reflection on events. No doubt many would disagree with my interpretation, but then there does seem to be a coercive element to these things nowadays, rather like the ritualistic clapping for the NHS on Thursdays. When people are shamed on social media for not taking part, you know that things have gone too far. This pressure is also being used to stifle criticism of the way the Government’s handling the Covid pandemic, with some claiming that it’s somehow unpatriotic to criticise as it’s a national emergency and we should all be ‘pulling together’ (whatever that’s meant to mean in this context). This authoritarianism and herd mentality worries me. It’s too close to the right-wing media and political parties tactics of labelling people ‘traitors’ for opposing Brexit. We seem to be sailing far too close to an Orwellian totalitarianism nowadays, and it’s disturbing how easily some people embrace it.

I knocked off slightly earlier than usual as it is Friday after all. I migrated to the bench in the front garden and sat with a beer, enjoying soaking up the glorious sunshine for a while until 6, when it was time to join the gang from the ‘Big 6’ for our weekly quiz session held on Zoom. Eight of us played this week, many of the gang joining from their respective gardens as they’d got the same idea as me. After weeks of lockdown and barely talking to a soul other than Dawn it’s great to have a semblance of normality restored by joining in the laughter and brain-teasers in the quiz, although I’m looking forward to the day we can restart this where we should be – in the pub!

The rest of the evening passed off quietly at home with the pair of us keeping occupied in different ways. I managed to upload more of my haul of edited pictures to my website, so felt the week ended well. Here’s a couple as an illustration. It’s a tale of two London stations…

3120. 47350. London Kings Cross. 02.02.1993crop

Here’s London Kings Cross on the 2nd February 1993. As it used to look before the recent refurbishment and when Mail trains still ran. It was far dirtier and more cluttered than nowadays, with lots of rubbish deposited on the oil-stained tracks. Railfreight distribution No 47350 stands at the head of a rake of vans carrying mail to the North. Class 47/3s didn’t normally operate these services as the locomotives had no train heating, so I’m assuming the booked engine had failed.

03137. 47853. 43072. Class 47 ex Nottingham. Class 43 is 16.00 to Sheffield. London St Pancras. 09.03.1993crop

Here’s London St Pancras on the 19th March 1993, with a Class 47 which had arrived on a service from Nottingham standing next to an HST set which is waiting to depart as the 16:00 to Sheffield. It’s safe to say that the station doesn’t look like this anymore! This area is now home to Eurostars!

If you want to have a look at any of the other pictures I’ve added to my Zenfolio picture website just follow this link.

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Lockdown. Day 36 (Tuesday).

29 Wednesday Apr 2020

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Today the weather really has changed. The broken cloud we had yesterday morphed into heavy grey, rainbearing skies this morning making the world look very different when I opened the bedroom blinds. It made me just how lucky that we’ve had over a month of near continuous sunshine just when we needed most. Imagine what people’s spirits might have been like going through lockdown when the weather was appalling?

Having kept my head down all Monday to complete my next article for RAIL magazine on the East London Line it was great to be able to put it to bed and get back to scanning my slide archive as that’s had to take a back seat this past week. I’ve several pages of my first set of pictures from 1989-90 to complete and I’m eager to get them finished as it feels like a milestone in what’s been a bloody long process! It’s not the most exciting of tasks, it’s very much a marathon, not a sprint, but after all these years it feels like the finisheing line’s in sight.

Whilst I’ve been doing this I’ve been kept entertained by a pair of Blackbirds who’re nesting in a tree at the back of the house. They keep foraging for food on the shed roofs opposite my office window and I’ve been helping them by keeping an eye out for the local cats who consider the area their territory. I’m making the moggies feel uncomfortable enough that they don’t hang around, giving the Blackbirds a free-fly zone. We have a cat ourselves but Jet is an old boy who’s 18 and a half, so his bird-catching days are long behind him. Oh, he’ll saunter around outside, but he’s unfazed by our feathered friends nowadays are barely gives them a second glance. The fact he’s as deaf as a post probably helps as he only notices them if they intrude on his line of sight. 

I was so engrossed in the process of scanning and editing several batches of slies that the day flew by. before I knew it we were in to evening. Dawn’s got the week off from work so she’s been busy downstairs with DIY, and getting exercise that way, so I headed out for an evening constitutional on my own, in the rain! There was no way I was going to get my daily target of 12,500 steps. Even so, it was lovely to get out and experience the wind and rain on my skin after a long day sat at a desk.

Here’s a couple of the images I’ve been scanning. This is a classic image of a railway that’s gone forever. On the 8th March 1990 a pair of Class 56s pass at Barnetby East junction in Lincolnshire. Nearest the camera is 56088 with a loaded train of HAA coal hoppers on its way from Immingham Docks to Scunthorpe where the coal will power the steelworks furnaces. In the background is 56090 heading back to the docks with the empties. the signalbox and semaphores here lasted until Christmas 2015 when the area was resignalled. The Four wheeled HAA coal wagons are long gone too, having been replaced with much higher capacity bogie hopper wagons which are kinder to the track (amongst other things). 

0616. 56088. 56090. Barnetby. 8.3.1990 copy

Here’s another, taken at Peterborough a few days later on the 12th March 1990 when the Class 91 locomotives were brand-new. Here’s 91011, named ‘Terence Cuneo’ (after the famous railway artist) out on a test train before entering passenger service. Now, 30 years later the Class 91 fleet is slowly being phased out of mainline service with LNER, although several are planned to remain in traffic until 2022. Will this plan survive the downturn in traffic due to Covid-19? Who knows? 

0648. 91011. Peterborough12.3.1990 copy

If you want to have a look through more of these old photos, follow this link to the ‘recent’ section of my Zenfolio website. 

Lockdown. Day 31 (Thursday)

24 Friday Apr 2020

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I won’t even mention what the weather was like when I opened the bedroom blinds at 06:30 as you know the drill by now!

Thursday’s our ‘fun’ day as we escape the confines of the Calder Valley to do some essentials like check on the CRA office in Huddersfield and shop for Dawn’s parents.

But first we had a few chores and a bit of work to do at home in preparation, which meant we didn’t leave the house until 09:30. Driving over to Huddersfield took no time at all although the roads seemed busier than the past few times we’d done the trip. First stop was Sainsburys where the queue was moderate to fair. Everyone know the drill now. The only difference I noticed was that a lot more people are wearing masks compared to a fortnight ago. Both of us went in, me to shop for us two and Dawn for her parents. Most people were doing their best to social-distance but I did notice one thing – masks give people a false sense of security and some wearers get too complacent and too damn close!

What’s left on the shelves is still a bit of a lottery. Whilst the great bog-roll shortage had ended there’s still empty shelves, especially of tinned goods. I’m not sure if this is down to hoarding or problems along the supply chain. Some of the fruit and veg wasn’t top quality either but I think that’s down to whom the different supermarkets buy from. For examlle, the cauliflowers in Sainsbury’s are inferior to the ones in our local Tescos which are double the size and the same price.

Shopping done we headed over to the railway station so Dee could check on CRA’s water tower offices, sort out some paperwork and arrange for an electrician to get access to carry out a few repairs. Whilst she did I took advantage of the weather and a newly cleared vantage point to get a few rail pictures and keep my hand in!

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Every train that passed contained a mere handful of people and the station itself was eerily quiet. The town centre was busier but not by much! Subtract the itinerant drunks and vagrants and there were few people with a purpose other than transit. Why would there be when bugger-all’s open!

By midday we’d done everything we needed to do apart from dropping off John and Norah’s shopping and having a (socially-distanced) chat over the garden gate before driving home cross-country via quiet roads that must be great fun for the cyclists who use bikes for their exercise. What could be more ideal  – sunshine and empty roads!

Having returned to lockdown and deposited the shopping Dawn prepared a lovely tuna salad lunch which we sat and ate together in the garden whilst watching the world go by, soaking up some sun before we both returned to work for a few more hours. Whilst I was in the garden I noticed this water droplet on a Lupin leaf, which seemed like a good excuse to dig the camera out and play around with the micro lens.

droplet

 Seeing as there’s little opportunity for railway shots at the moment and I’m missing the creativity of using my camera I just might start playing around in the garden more. The time of year’s ideal as life is springing eternal all over the place. I’m seeing some unusual butterflies too, so hopefully, once I’ve got the work done that I need to do right now I can spend some time experimenting. 

 

 

 

Lockdown. Day 19 (Saturday).

12 Sunday Apr 2020

Posted by in Coronavirus, Lockdown, Musings, Photography, Railways

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Another day that merges into the ones before…

The weather remains lovely. We had another glorious start to the day that is kind of frustrating as we’d normally be looking at heading out for a long walk locally or thinking of a trip out somewhere. Dawn’s missing the seaside, but there’s little chance of us seeing the coast for quite some time! That said, I really can’t complain about where we’re in lockdown. We have fantastic views across the Calder Valley from our home. A South facing garden that’s a bit of a sun-trap, we’re surrounded by woodland and we’re within walking distance of some really beautiful places.

The pair of us pottered round for most of the day. I caught up with some blogging and scanning yet more old slides before the pair of us got stuck into some domestic chores. The cottage we live in isn’t exactly large which is a double-edged sword. It gets cluttered quickly, but it’s also easy to clean! Both of us are trying to de-clutter at the moment. If the covid pandemic has taught us anything it’s what’s important and what isn’t. I’m trying to be less sentimental and more pragmatic about what I keep and what goes. I’ve stuff sat in boxes that I’ve not opened in the 10 years since I moved from London, which is a pretty good indicator that I probably don’t need it. OK, there’s other stuff of historical value as well as sentimental, but that’s where I’m trying to exercise judgements. Plus, am I really going to re-read books that I’ve had since I was 19, much as I loved them then? The difficult decision is deciding what to give to charity shops (when they reopen) or what might actually be worth a few bob if I sold it.

After indulging in chores we did get some time to just kick back and enjoy sitting in the garden, soaking up the sun and watching the world go by (at a safe distance, of course). Eventually we managed to get out for our daily stroll and completed our well-trodden circuit through the local woods, up to the promenade and around Savile Park and back. A lot of people were doing the same and the overwhelming majority who were doing so were respecting social-distancing. The only ones who weren’t were a group of 6 young Asian lads on the promenade who’d turned up in a mates car. They were soon visited by the police and the local community liaison team who know the area’s a hotspot for such behaviour. They were split up and moved on. Their braggadocio cut no ice with anyone. The sad thing is that these young people come from a group who studies are showing are disproportionately at risk from Covid-19. Statistics are highlighting that a third of patients in critical care are from BAME communities. It’s mad and you wonder how the message is going to be got across to some people.

Having exercised we headed back for another evening in lockdown, although it was actually a social evening. The ‘6 from the 6’ had arranged to try out staying in touch via Zoom. It was all a bit farcical at first as we tried to get used to a system only Dawn had used before, but we got there in the end and for 90 minutes Dawn and I, Aubrey and Fran, Kath and Tony chatted away about everything and nothing. It’s nowhere near as much fun as meeting up in the pub, but it’s a damned sight safer right now! Zoom worked a lot better than trying to do the quiz on Snapchat, so now we’ve test-driven the platform we’ll use it for next Friday’s quiz. Ain’t technology wonderful?

Oh, those old slides I’ve been scanning. Right now they fall into three gallery categories. There’s all the British Rail locomotives and general railway views – which you can find in this gallery but there’s also two others I’ve not really mentioned before. I’ve always been interested in railway signalling and signalboxes, so I created a separate gallery for them and a lot of the old pictures I’ve scanned recently are of boxes that are long-gone. Here’s a link. Also, I used to enjoy hunting out and photographing some of the old vehicles that ended their days in the departmental fleet. Back in the late 80s early 90s there were still quite a few knocking around. You can find pictures of them here. There’s lots more to come over the next few weeks…

Lockdown. Day 18 (Friday).

11 Saturday Apr 2020

Posted by in Coronavirus, Down memory lane, Lockdown, Musings, Photography

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Well, that’s been a unique good Friday. We went nowhere and did nothing. We didn’t even make it out for a walk!

Admittedly, Friday started later than we’d originally planned as there seemed little urgency to the day, it’s a holiday after all – even if there’s nowhere to go. Dee had a lie in with our old moggie (Jet) keeping her company on the bed. The pair of them looked a picture curled up together! Meanwhile I got on with scanning some more old slides in an effort to keep the momentum going. Considering the fact we’re meant to have more time on our hands than normal I’m really not sure where it goes. Shouldn’t time be dragging? The opposite seems to be true for me – I’m struggling to fit everything in. Admittedly, slide scanning is incredibly time consuming, but even so…

As if to taunt us this Lockdown Easter, the weather’s excellent. Normally you can guarantee will have storms, floods or suchlike, with events rained off and shows cancelled. This year? No chance – it’s perfect. So much so that I eventually gave up scanning to head out in the garden for some down-time and chance to catch up on blogging whilst enjoying a cool beer, the sunshine and the birdsong.

Despite the solitary nature of the day we did socialise after a fashion as in the evening a group of us from our local pub all got together via WhatsApp for our weekly quiz session. The event was made all the more funny by the fact Quizmaster Mel’s phone kept losing reception. It was like watching the old comedian Norman Collier performing his faulty microphone sketch. The hilarity was magnified when Ollie switched on some of the trick apps his kids had taught him and we were treated to his ever changing visage and a range of cartoon-like characters! We certainly had fun out of the whole performance, which united us all in laughter, despite the physical separation and the fact it’s going to be quite some time before we’ll all be able to do this in the Big 6 once more.

The rest of our evening passed equally quickly with the pair of us catching up on news and events or with friends via the power of t’internet. I finished editing my scanned slides which you can find in this gallery. Here’s a couple of samples.

0157. 50028. Waterloo. 12.10.1989.+crop

Here’s London Waterloo on the 12th October 1989 as Class 50, 50028 ‘Tiger’ raises the roof as it pulls away with an express heading for Salisbury or beyond. So much of this scene has changed now. Back in 1989 loco-hauled passenger trains were still a common sight in many of London’s termini. The Class 50s were gradually being withdrawn but would hang n for another couple of years before they were replaced by the Class 159 DMU’s built at York by BREL. 50017 survived in service until February 1991 when it was withdrawn. It was cut up at Old Oak Common depot in July 1991. 

In the background you can see several old Waterloo and City line underground cars which have been condemned and are waiting to be taken for scrap. They’ve been lifted up on the lift which was situated to the right of the vehicles, which was the only way of getting access to the ‘drain’ (as the Waterloo and City line is known). This area has disappeared completely. It was demolished to make way for the Eurostar terminal, Waterloo International which opened in 1994.   

Here’s a picture going back to an even earlier age of the railways.

0167. Signalbox. Littlehampton. 15.10.1989.+crop

This is the pretty little signalbox at Littlehampton on the South Coast, seen on the 15th October 1989. The box survives to this day as it’s a grade 2 listed building. It’s an example of the London Brighton & South Coast Railway Type 2 design built of brown brick in Flemish bond with hipped slate roof which was completed in 1886 and replaced an 1863 Saxby and Farmer signal box. The LB&SCR employed Saxby & Farmer designs exclusively for its signal boxes until the 1880s, but from then built an increasing number to its own designs. The LB&SCR Type 2 appeared around 1880 and continued to be built until 1896. The design derived from the Saxby & Farmer Type 5 with hipped roofs and broadly similar proportions. The most noticeable differences were the absence of the characteristic toplights above the windows with plain boarding substituted in its place, a different eaves bracket and on some boxes, elaborate valancing at eaves level of a type found in contemporary LB&SCR stations. The LB&SCR built some Type 2 boxes with valancing and some without.

Littlehampton survives substantially intact with the original operating room windows and eaves valancing. The operating room windows have been bricked up but survive behind the bricks. The operating room retains a 1901 LB&SCR Bosham Pattern Lever Frame and the locking room has a locking frame with bars and locking trays. This is the only LB&SCR Type 2 signal box to survive with valancing, matching that used on their railway stations, a feature only rarely used on signal boxes.

It’s lovely to be able to scan and display all these pictures again, although some like the Waterloo shot have never been seen before as they never made it onto my old Fotopic website, which gives them more of a historic interest as even I’d forgotten what was in some of the albums I’m now scanning. You forget just how much the railway world’s changed in 31 years, yet some things – like the signalbox at Littlehampton – haven’t changed at all! That said, the speed of changes is picking up and I can’t help wondering what the railway network we know in 2020 will look like in 2050. Somehow, I doubt I’ll have chance to find out, but who knows – maybe I will live to be 91! 

 

Lockdown. Day 14 (Monday).

07 Tuesday Apr 2020

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Another start to the working week begins…

It actually began rather well as the weather forecast was excellent and the reality lived up to expectations. We had bright sunny weather almost all day. It would have been ideal for going for a wander with the camera, but for one teeny little problem…

In truth, I can’t think when I last laid off taking pictures for as long as I have. It’s not that I don’t have things I could exercise my lenses on but my focus (sorry, bad pun time) has been on getting all my old slides scanned. This meant that for much of the day I did my best troglodyte impression despite the glorious weather, and spent my time hunched over a lightbox, computer and scanner in a time-consuming process that means it’s easy to lose track of the hours.

With Dawn occupied downstairs the two of us at least try and start the day united by doing a morning meditation together in the living room before putting our noses to our respective grindstones. We both slave away most of the day, bumping into each other in the kitchen occasionally or when Dee needs to use our printer which is located in my office. Otherwise we try not to disturb each other until we can both break off and go for our daily exercise.

Despite the isolation I do try and keep track of the world through various news outlets and social media. I also keep half an eye on the ‘Extinction Rebellion’ antics on the HS2 worksites in Warwickshire. Problem is, they churn out such a volume of social media where someone’s talking utter nonsense over a video of nothing happening it’s easy to lose the will to live/miss something. If only they did an ‘edited highlights’. Most days that wouldn’t take up more than a minute of people’s time!

The big news in the real world was of the Prime Minister going into intensive care with Covid-19. I can’t stand the man but I wish him no ill, merely a long and happy life somewhere where he can do no more damage. How and when this pandemic is going to end is anyone’s guess – and we still have the real consequences of Brexit to look ‘forward’ to by the end of the year. The only good news is that some countries look to have Coronavirus deaths and infections under control, although it’s still early days. However, there is cause for cautious optimism. How things will pan out here is too early to say as the picture’s far less clear because of our lack of testing and because the UK’s death statistics are less than reliable. As for the economic picture – that’s another guess. The financial markets appear to be recovering but they’ve been up and down like a Brides nightie and the news of more receiverships such as Debenhams doesn’t help to reassure. There’s going to be more familiar names falling yet and no-one knows how much spare cash people will have (if any) when we come out of lockdown and businesses resume operations.

Today there was no need to get any shopping so our walk was very much for exercise and nothing else. We’re so lucky that where we live we have plenty of open spaces and woodland to walk to and through. We’ve developed a regular circuit which takes us through Scarr woods reserve with its steep paths leading to the Albert Promenade. They’re always good for getting the heart racing and the blood pumping. A stroll in the sunshine along the prom offers great views across the Calder valley and allows the pulse to return to normal before we hit Savile Park for a circuit along its tree-lined edges before retracing our steps and returning home. To people’s credit, most of those we encounter abide by the social distancing rules. There’s only one or two who clearly struggle to conceptualise what 2 metres looks like in reality, but you can normally spot them a mile off. It’s the bloody joggers who brush past as they overtake you from behind that you want to Tazer!

Oh, I mentioned the slides I’ve been scanning. Looking through the database and my records it looks like I’m well on my way to completing my railway archive, which is an enormous relief. At this rate I’ll have them all done in the next month or two. When you consider that I’m currently scanning pictures from October 1989 that have never been seen since I took them, so that’s something I’m quite chuffed about. If you look at it in years, it’s only taken me half a lifetime! Here’s a couple of samples that are a little different to ones I normally add.

0065. Aughton Rd signalbox. Southport. 31.09.1989.+crop

I’ve always had an interest in railway architecture and signalboxes in particular – although hundreds have disappeared in the past 30 odd years, including this one. This is one of a series of boxes that guarded level crossings in Southport, my old home town. They all disappeared in the early 1990s.

Another interest was BR’s departmental fleet. Old coaches and wagons that had been taken out of revenue use and converted to service vehicles. BR had hundreds of them, some dating back to before the grouping in 1923.

0102. ADB 975705. Bedford. 04.10.1989.+crop

On the 4th October 1989 I photographed ADB975705 at Bedford. It was a former BR Mk1 Brake Second Composite (BSK) which had been converted to an Overhead Line Maintenance Train vehicle by stripping out the interior and fitting a flat roof with a walkway so that engineers could work on the overhead wires. This one went for scrap in 2000 as they’ve now been replaced by road-rail vehicles, which are more flexible, just not as interesting!

Lockdown. Day 10.

03 Friday Apr 2020

Posted by in Coronavirus, History, Lockdown, Musings, Photography, Railways

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Thursday’s are our most exotic day of the week as we escape from the confines of the Calder Valley in order to go over to Huddersfield to do the shopping for Dawn’s parents who’re both in the ‘at risk category due to their age – although neither of them act it!

I managed to get a bit of work done first before we got in the cars – a novel act in itself at the moment. When one considers the fact we’re normally cooped up at home it almost feels rebellious, although we do have a very good reason for doing what we do. This is very much an essential journey and one we make the most of. I still can’t get used to having a clear run up the bypass to Ainley Top under the M62 before entering the outskirts of Huddersfield with nary another car in sight. It really is quite surreal. En-route we called in at the ACoRP office at Huddersfield station so that Dawn could check on the vacant office and make sure everything was OK. Compared to last Thursday Huddersfield town centre seemed even more deserted. You could have dumped a herd of elephants in the square outside the station as the only occupants were a sad circle of traffic cones blocking one entrance to the concourse and one lonely member of station staff who’d nipped out for a fag.

We shopped at Sainsbury’s which was busier than last week. The queue was still well organised but it stretched far enough around the car park that were had to queue for 10 mins – hardly anything to complain about. There was no shortage of stuff to buy – unless you were after bog roll. What on earth are people doing with the stuff? Mummifying their kids with it? Whilst Dawn shopped for her parents I picked up the things we needed. It was all pretty painless, if still a bit surreal, but it’s surprising how quickly the odd becomes the norm.

Driving over to Dawn’s parents we were surprised just how windy the weather had got with gusts touching gale force. Because of it we didn’t hang around as it was unfair to leave Dee parents being buffeted by the wind so after exchanging shopping backs and having a chat at a distance over the garden gate we left and drove home. Our route back is different in that we pass over the M62, where we stopped just long enough for me to grab a shot of the (lack of) traffic. Wagons were still ferrying important goods East and West, but nowhere near in the same volume and car traffic was minimal.

DG341822crop

Battling our way through the winds we headed back to home and our life in lockdown, with the car parked up for another week. It’s no wonder that air quality is improving (especially in the cities) when you consider how many vehicles are off the roads at the moment. I’ll be very interested to see some of the numbers that’ll be crunched by the end of all this.

Hunkering down for a few more hours work Dee was busy at her makeshift workstation in the living room whilst I managed to get more old pictures scanned upstairs and dispose of yet another set. I’ve now finished albums that take the archive up to August 1991. Whilst we were dropping food off to John and Norah I asked John to dig me another one out of their loft where I have much of my archive in safe storage. So now I’m going right back to the beginning to scan the very first slides I took, way back in August 1989. In retrospect I wish I’d transferred to tranny film earlier, but then I only bought my first SLR camera the year before. My next door neighbour in London was selling his old Pentax ME super which I snapped up, and it’s on that these first pictures were taken before I bought my first Nikon a year later.

Back in 1989 I often used to spend weekends with Nancy, an old friend from Southport who lived in Peterborough. I’d travel up from London and we’d spend the weekend exploring the areas pubs and sights. Nancy shared my interest in railways and one weekend in August we drove over to the Rutland Railway Museum where I shot with my first roll of slide film. Here’s the picture which is numbered 0001 in my database!

0001. Coal products No 6. 0-6-0. Rutland Railway Museum. 13.8.1989.+crop

Who knew then that I’d end up making my living as a photographer? Certainly not me when I look at this picture. I had a hell of a lot to learn – but then I was doing this for fun. If I’d known then how much the railways would change I’d have been a little more diligent in what I was recording. Still, isn’t hindsight a wonderful thing? At least I have some fantastic memories captured on film going back over 30 years and this current crisis is giving me the time to finally dig these pictures out of the archive – some for the very first time – like this scene which now really is history…

0023. Signalbox. Addiscombe. 02.09.1989.crop

This is a picture of the signalbox at Addiscombe on the outskirts of South London, taken on the 2nd September 1991. It was the end of a branch line from London Bridge that was opened by the Mid-Kent railway in 1864. The railway gradually declines throughout the years with train services cut back, especially when this signalbox was burnt down by vandals in 1996. The whole line closed in 1997, only to be reborn as part of the Croydon tram network a few years later. Had I any idea what was going to happen when I took this. Did I heck as like. I’m just glad that I passed through there on a whim…

Lockdown. day 4…

27 Friday Mar 2020

Posted by in Coronavirus, Lockdown, Musings, Photography, Railways

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After yesterday’s adventures there’s been very little excitement today as we haven’t moved from home all day. There’s been no need to go to any shops as we’re stocked up with everything we need right now, especially as my delivery from Virgin wines arrived today to go with Tony Allan’s beer gift yesterday!

Dawn’s been slaving away over a hot keyboard (either computer or phone) whilst I’ve been busy trying to get as many old rail slides scanned as possible. I had to admit defeat by mid afternoon as I was getting bog eyed and the weather outside was beginning to warm up. It’s been a beautifully sunny day, but not particularly warm so I was happy to stare at screens initially, then I decided to make the most of the weather and go stuck into some gardening as a mix of therapy and exercise. I’ve been meaning to replant part of our front garden for a couple of years but the time’s never been right. Today, it was. I’ve dug up an old azalea bush which is one of a pair but that was starting to dominate its sector of the garden. It’s been transferred to a pot that I can put out of the back of the house and its spot has been taken with a young Acer bush which will add colour at different times of the year. I’ve also split a huge Hosta which had got too big for its spot. It’s been quartered and 3/4 of it now resides in other flower beds or pots. As I was digging these things up I also sieved the soil and removed enough pebbles and stones to make a small beach!

All this activity has made up for not going for a walk today, so I don’t mind or feel guilty about the fact we didn’t get out for our traditional constitutional. Instead, I had the chance to sit in the late afternoon sun for a little while to pretend I was a lizard and bask, topping up my Vitamin D levels, which is something I’ve really missed with not having our normal January jaunt to warmer, sunnier climes. The way things are at the moment I’ve no idea when that opportunity will come around again.

Whilst I’ve not been out I have tried to keep up with the news. You may imagine my wry smile when I head that both the Prime Minister and the Health Secretary had tested positive for Coronavirus. Wasn’t Johnson boasting the other week that he’s shaken hands with Coronavirus patients? Awkward…

Apropos of this, I had a quick chat over the garden fence (as it were) with some Neighbours earlier. One of them is a hospital Anesthetist. Did he think think this lockdown would be over by the Government’s 3 week review? No. His view was that 12 weeks is more likely. I’m certainly planning for the long-haul – at least by then I won’t have to worry about getting all these slides scanned anymore! Talking of slides, here’s a couple from today’s batch. Both were taken at Liverpool Lime St and show why regional rail liveries aren’t always the best idea – even in BR days.

It’s a Pacer Jim, but not as we know it! When the railbuses were first introduced some of them were branded ‘Skippers’, painted in a faux Great Western Railway livery and sent to Cornwall to work some of the branch lines. They were a bit of a disaster due to excessive tyre wear and the fact they screeched around the sinuous curves, deafening passengers and locals alike. They didn’t last long and were soon transferred North. Here’s 142516 at Liverpool Lime St with a service to Wigan North Western on the 17th June 1991.
Same day, same location. Only this time it’s Network SouthEast liveried 86401 that looks very much out of place. The Class 86 had been repainted and renamed ‘Northampton Town’ to work the ‘Cobbler’ commuter trains between Euston and Northampton. Of course, it never stayed on those diagrams, hence it turning up in that well known outpost of Network SouthEast. Err, Liverpool…

On Fridays a group of us would often meet in our local pub (The Big 6) for an unofficial Quiz night. Our friend Mel would read out the questions from the brain-teasers in the local ‘Pub Paper’ in her finest broad Lancashire accent, which made it doubly challenging. First we had to work out what she was saying, then we had to work out the answer to the question! As that entertainment avenue’s no longer open as the 6 is closed to us a couple of folks had the idea that we should recreate the experience over Snapchat, so we tried it for the first time tonight. It lacks some of the atmosphere, but the humour and daftness was still there and it was great to be able to interact with familiar faces in a way that we’ve been deprived of. This could become a regular Friday feature of lockdown. When needs must…

Tomorrow’s the weekend – the first of the lockdown, but it’s rather lost its meaning as it’s going to be no different than any other day. That’s one of the problems right now, it’s difficult to tell the time. Clearly, we’re not alone in this as I’ve seen several friends comment about the way they’re finding it difficult to keep track of the days. How are you coping, wherever you are?

Interesting times. Part 6.

23 Monday Mar 2020

Posted by in Coronavirus, History, Musings, Photography, Railways

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So there we have it. The Government has announced that the UK is now in ‘lockdown’ due to the Coronavirus – although not in complete lockdown as people are still allowed to be out to do several things. Go to work, go to buy food or – to exercise once a day. The caveats? No gatherings bigger than two people or household groups if everyone lives together. All non-essential shops are to be closed, as are playgrounds and places of worship. Mind you, for some people, clothes shops are places of worship, so for them it’s going to be a double-whammy! All wedding and christenings are off, but funerals are OK – just don’t go to one, unless it’s your own, obviously – although if I had the choice that’s the one I definitely would avoid! You can find the full list of closures and don’ts here in the Governments press release. The police will be given powers to break up any gatherings that don’t conform to the new rules, which will be reviewed after three weeks. I think most of us suspected this was coming. We’ve had the social screws slowly tightened over the past week, but the sights of the weekend, when thousands ignored the calls to self isolate have made it easier for the Government to act as – in general – people agree with the actions they’re taking, despite this being the most draconian cut in people’s civil liberties since WW2 as it will actually save lives.

Tomorrow we’ll see the reaction of the stock markets, although that can’t get much worse as the FTSE100 has already fallen by 3.79% today. The economic damage this pandemic is causing are going to be far-reaching and any resolution is too far in the future to see. The markets have lost 30% of their value in the past month, which is causing a lot of financial pain for many people and companies.

All we can do now is live for the present. That said, most of what I’m doing is living for the past as the present and future’s very much on hold! I finished writing my latest piece on HS2 and the Curzon St archeological excavations for RAIL magazine today so now I’m going to be concentrating on scanning yet more pictures from the 1990s. I always said I needed to find the time to do this, now I’ve had that time thrust upon me – like it or not. I’ve got two albums of rail pictures with me at home, plus another half dozen travel ones containing pictures from around the world. I’m tempted to vary my output. If I’m going to be stuck in these four walls for most of the day it might be a nice distraction to look upon pictures of sun-kissed beaches and exotic locations – or it could drive me batty as I realise what I’m missing out on. Only time will tell!

Here’s a little sample of the latest additions from today.

This scene from 1991 is unrecognisable today. There are the low level platforms at Stratford, East London, which were on the route to North Woolwich, which closed in 2004. The lines now been converted to become part of the Docklands Light railway. The station itself has undergone several reconstructions since. This part of the line is now inside the huge new main station building whilst the area to the left is the terminus of the Jubilee line. Only the inspection saloon and the locomotive (73209) still exist. ‘Caroline’ as the saloon’s been named is based at Derby whilst the loco is operated by GBRf and used on Caledonian Sleeper trains up in Scotland.
Paddington station on the 25th April 1991 was a dingy place. The station roof was dirty and stained – as were many of the locomotives that choked the place with diesel fumes. Network Southeast liveried 47715 was a refugee from Scotland, having been transferred after the end of push-pull services between Edinburgh and Glasgow. 47843 was used on Cross-country services, having arrived from the Midlands. Notice all the parcels trolleys full of mail bags to the right of the train – another sight that’s long gone.

Tomorrow I’ll be ploughing through another batch of pictures from 1991 and also digging out some more modern digital shots for a future RAIL article. I may be confined to barracks, but I’ve no shortage of things to do…