We’ve had another mixed day here at Bigland Towers. This morning Dawn was off to Manchester for a meeting with various Community Rail friends and colleagues regarding the history of the movement and an ambition to establish an archive relating to it. I’d had half a mind to pop over to Manchester too, but a glance at the weather forecast told me I’d be wasting my time. So, whilst Dawn was off on her travels I played the homebird! Talk about role-reversal…
My day flew by. After spending much of the morning researching stuff for my next RAIL article I closed down the computer to change roles and indulge in some DIY. I’ve been boarding out the cottage’s loft to add some (much-needed) storage space, but it’s a dirty, cramped job due to the condition of the loft and lack of space and the ‘interesting’ items you find. Dawn bought the cottage off a policeman many years ago, her view of the guardians of law and order has been ‘colourful’ ever since. In essence, said boy in blue had bodged just about everything in the property before putting it on the market. The place is a bloody minefield! Over the years I’ve managed to sort out many of his short-cuts and fakery but the loft space was always ‘out of sight, so out of mind’. Not any more. I’ve almost finished it, I just require a few more boards to cover the last couple of meters but the amount of crap, soot, rubble and other detritus I’ve removed that was hidden under rockwool has been amazing.
Having acquitted myself honorably on the DIY front I grabbed a shower then headed off for a walk and a pint, calling in at our local, the Big 6 for a ‘swifty’. I hardly recognised the place. A film company are taking over for the day tomorrow to shoot a new Alan Bennett screenplay called ‘The Choral’. It’s set in 1916, so the ‘Six’ was deemed ideal, well, once anything that didn’t fit the period was removed! That’s included everything off the walls and picture rail – and almost everything behind the bar – including optics, spirits and glasses! Meanwhile, the nearby road has been coned off for all the crew trailers and technical kit to arrive and the front and back of the pubs been swathed in scaffolding to install the blackout curtains which will turn day into night. And all this for one day’s filming! Here’s a few pictures as an illustration.
The stripped down bar sans optics, spirit bottles and modern beer classes. In their place is a few pewter tankards and fake beer bottles along with period beer glasses. The last vestiges of the 21st century will be stripped out after closing time. It’s a bit bare! Oh, and the gas fire has been hidden behind a screen.
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Another day of mixed fortunes here at Bigland Towers. The pair of us have been busy in our respective home offices, only meeting up in the kitchen to swap news and gossip. Still, from my perspective it’s been a productive day. I’ve finished penning my next article for RAIL magazine and even begun the next with some forward research and commitments from various players within Northern trains that will make it possible. I won’t say what it’s about just yet but it will give a ‘behind the scenes’ insight into an important operational area.
If only the weather had been so good. Frankly, if you were spending much time outside you’d have no idea that we’re on the cusp of June and only a few weeks away from the official start of summer. It’s neither warm, dry nor sunny here in the Pennines. Instead, we have the sort of weather that makes you hanker for foreign holidays and sunnier climes.
As Dee’s off to a meeting in Manchester tomorrow I’d had half a mind to follow her but the forecast tells me it would be a wasted day. Instead, I’m going to stay at home, scribble some more and work on the cottage whilst I have the chance as I don’t want to waste some sunny days – if and when they arrive. Plus, I’ve a rather full diary over the next couple of months.
Talking of sunny days, we have plans for later in the year which will involve just that. Today’s picture’s a clue about our intended destination. This was one of the first pictures I ever had published – in a spread in the Sunday Telegraph way back in 1996. But can you guess where it was taken?
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Apologies for the lack of blogging recently but I’ve been rather busy both personally and professionally, so something had to give. Plus, I’d have been tempted to indulge in some spleen-venting o ver the utter shit-show that’s the Tories election campaign, but more on that later!
The bank holiday weekend was rather sociable, partly because it was Dawn’s birthday on Saturday and we’d arranged to have a day out with her parents before going for a meal. We visited somewhere they knew well but I’d never been to before, Wentworth Garden Centre near Barnsley. It’s not just a garden centre (although that’s huge, and the cafe equally massive) but also an ornamental garden. I was impressed with both – especially the garden centre as it possessed a far greater variety of plants than any near us – and the prices were very reasonable too, which caused both Norah and I to come away with various green goodies. In my case a couple of colourful and unusual ornamental plants as well as herbs to replace some I’d lost last winter. Come the evening we adjourned to a favorite food haunt, Punch Tapas in Honley, near Holmfirth. The food’s always good, the atmosphere never too frenetic and the staff ever friendly and attentive.
The rest of the bank holiday weekend was spent at home doing not very much at all due to the weather, which has resorted to being atrocious. We’ve had huge amounts of rain dropping from end of the world coloured skies – as well as regular claps of thunder. To be honest, Dee was glad of the rest as she’s been working at 110% recently. I was quite happy to be housebound too as it gave me the opportunity to clear the decks of all the pictures I’d taken over the past week and get them out to clients – and get paid! Now we’re in a new week and the end of yet another month. The weather’s showing no sign of improving – exactly the opposite. We’ve more yellow warnings of thunder and heavy rain so I’m thankful that I’ve another day at home, writing for a living.
Of course, I’ve been keeping one eye on the election, and I have to say I’ve never known such an utter shit-show. It’s hard to believe the Tories once had a reputation as a fearsome electoral machine because all we’ve seen since Sunak dropped the news he was calling it has been one disaster after another. Over the weekend he came up with another ‘brainwave’ no-one in his party had been consulted on – bringing back national service. In fact, the whole idea had only been dismissed by his Government in Parliament the week before! But that’s ‘Head Boy’ Sunak for you. He only listens to a tiny bunch of ‘think-tanks’ he’s surrounded himself with. To say the idea was greeted by almost universal derision and condemnation would be an understatement. Of course, the right-wing press and client journalists tried to cheerlead for the idea, but it’s shot full of so many holes it’s had the opposite effect to the one he was mad enough to expect. As usual, the devil’s in the detail (not that there’s much of that) but the interesting admission was that the hopelessly underestimated cost (£2.5bn) would be paid for by scrapping grants to the regions that were meant to make up for losing EU regional funding after Brexit! Yep, the regions get shafted again!
This madcap idea was meant to appeal to the ‘hang ’em and flog ’em brigade, which is mostly the old. But not too old, as you’d have to be at least 84 to have done National Service (my FiL did, he’s 90 this year). To reinforce this appeal to an older generation, Sunak came up with a second ‘brainwave’, which is the ‘triple lock plus’. What’s that you ask? It’s a ruse to stop pensioners having to pay tax on their pensions as the Tories have frozen personal tax allowances until 2028. That ‘fiscal drag’ is why more people are now paying tax, but pensioners will become exempt. It’s just another mad ‘back of a fag-packet’ idea.
To say this appeal to the elderly is misjudged is becoming more obvious by the day. It’s widely accepted that the old make up the majority of the Tory membership and that it’s the over 65s who’re most likely to vote Tory, but the very latest polling research from Redfield and Wilton has put the cat amongst the pigeons. Here’s their breakdown of voting intention by age.
Labour are ahead in every age demographic – even the over 65s! In fact, only 26% of over 65s intend to vote Tory! The bribes aren’t working…
Polling across the board shows that the Tories are toast. If the polls are moving, the majority show Labour’s lead’s increasing. Nothing Sunak is doing is moving the dial in his favour. Mind you, you have to wonder what the next batshit idea his friends in the right-wing ‘think tanks’ will come up with. Bring back hanging? Send kids too young for national service up chimneys? Ban something – maybe Gay pride, or the Notting Hill carnival? I wouldn’t put anything past these people. God help us – we’ve 5 more weeks of this crap to go. Meanwhile, Labour are looking more and more like the adults in the room, just waiting to take over the reins of power.
There is one massive omission in all of this. Any talk of the biggest elephant in the room. Brexit. You can see why Labour are staying schtum. As the Napoleon quote goes – ‘never interrupt you enemy when he’s making a mistake’. What’s amazing is that the Tories aren’t talking about Brexit either. After all, they fought the 2019 election under the slogan ‘get Brexit done’. They did (supposedly) so why are they not crowing about the ‘success’ of Brexit, and how they’ve delivered on all it’s promises. Y’know – the ‘sunny uplands’ and all that, where we’re now richer and more important in the world, having ‘taken back control’? Anyone who’s not a fanatical Brexiter knows the answer to that one, but for some reason, the mainstream media give the Tories a free pass on that question…
OK, that’s enough politics for one night. Now I’ll leave you with today’s picture, which is from Friday’s visit to Newton Heath Traincare centre in Manchester, not a place many people get to visit.
A trio of the oldest diesel train fleet operating on the national network – all of which are now operated by Northern (bar 3 they’ve sent to work the Bedford to Bletchley line). As an aside, did you know one of the world’s most famous football clubs started out as the depot’s own team? Nowadays they’re better known as…Manchester United, which was formed in 1878 as Newton Heath LYR Football Club by the railway’s Carriage and Wagon department!
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I swore I wasn’t going to mention politics and campaigning today as I couldn’t imagine things could only get worse for Sunak. However, his campaign and PR team said ‘hold my sinking ship’. Not content with the parody of a piss-up in a brewery, they decided to go the full monty and add a Titanic metaphor with an utter debacle of a visit to Northern Ireland and the very shipyard where said sunken liner was built. Not only that – his campaign team managed to alienate the local media – as you can read here.
That aside, my day’s been good. I’ve been involved in one of the final events of community rail week which involved taking a group of teenage school students to visit Northern’s traincare depot at Newton Heath in Manchester. It was a busy but rewarding day that I’ll blog about at greater length another time. For now – here’s a couple of pictures..
Inside the original shed at Newton Heath. The depot dates from 1876. Whilst it’s slowly being modernised there’s no mistaking its steam-era heritage.Students being shown around the modern train shed built to service Northern’s CAF built Class 195 fleet.
OK, more from me tomorrow…
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The team are preparing for today’s event in London. I can’t say anything about it until afterwards but we had a great planning session with some of the local station friends yesterday evening, so we’re looking forward to what’s going to happen. Why not pop back later to see what it is we’ve been up to?
13:05.
Phew, sorry for the gap but it’s been a busy morning. I can now reveal that we’ve been kept busy at Alexandra Palace station with an event that included a long visit by Shadow Rail Minister Stephen Morgan MP, who spent time with local MP Catherine West, Community Rail Networks Chief Exec Jools Townsend and many of the local station friends and visitors from as far afield as Gipsy Hill. Here’s a few pictures.
The whole group get the message across…
I’ll add more details later. Right now my main task is to get the pictures edited – and begin my journey back North…
13:45.
Having got the pictures out to where they need to go I’m footloose and fancy free again, soI’m beginning my journey back North. I’ve really enjoyed being back in my old stamping ground – even if the weather’s been iffy (at least it didn’t rain in any meaningful way) but now it’s time to hunt for some sun and the chance to get a few more libray shots in the can. Right now, the next stop’s Stevenage…
16:50.
Stevenage proved to be quite literally a washout, thanks to the weather so I boarded the next available train to Peterborough – and old haunt from the 1990s. I did manage a few more library shots but whilst the weather stayed dry the skies were dull in the extreme. Now I’m on my way to Doncaster, although I don’t know if I’ll stop off as despite my moving North sunshine’s proving to be elusive.
17:00.
Doncaster was a bust, although clouds are lifting and every so often there’s a tantalizing glimpse of blue sky. Unfortunately, the works yard is empty and the station’s just as quiet, so I’ll stay on board until York where there just *might* be a couple of worthwhile shots to be had under the station’s magnificent roof. Plus, I can get a direct train to Halifax from there, which makes life easier.
19:30.
Like most plans, mine didn’t survive long. Whilst the weather had picked up many services were running from platforms oufside the trainshed, so less photogenic. Then my direct train to Halifax was cancelled, so I had to get a TPE to Leeds and pick up a late running Halifax service
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Community rail week has begun, and I’m off on my travels again as part of it. Right now, I’m on Northern’s 10:23 from Sowerby Bridge to Manchester in order to pop in on an event being held at Piccadilly station before making my way down to London this evening. After yesterday’s wall to wall sunshine the weather’s a bit of a disappointment as the Calder valley’s full of low cloud but I’m hoping things will improve as I drift South stopping off on the way. Feel free to pop back later to see what I get up to…
No 1 on day 1 to carry me to Manchester…
11:05.
Before I get to Manchester I’ve stopped off at Rochdale where the Calder Valley CRP are having an event in the station garden. There’s music – and cupcakes, so if you’re in the area feel free to pop in…
12:30.
My tour continues. On reaching Manchester I hot-foot it over to Piccadilly station where several CRPs (Community Rail Partnerships) and their friends have stalls today. There’s a lot of interest in the line and walking guides, along with the other goodies on offer. Both the Bentham and Glossop lines had sent delegations..
Now I’m on the move again, slowly heading South. Today I have a treat as far as Crewe in the shape of one of Transport for Wales locomotive hauled (or in this case, pushed) Mk 4 sets.
13:55.
I’m currently taking the scenic route as plans went slightly awry on arrival at Crewe. There was plenty of variety of traction on view – from old TfW single-car ‘Scuds’ working the Shrewsbury shuttle to brand new Hitachi built Class 805s on test before taking over from Avanti Voyagers later this year. Oh, and the nostalgia-fest that is LSL’s loco depot, which is a real 1980s throwback. Unfortunately a number of services were late or delayed, so I’m now heading for Stoke on a sideways shuffle aboard one of LNWs Class 350s. This one’s a former Trans-Pennine Express unit that used to work between Manchester Airport – Glasgow/Edinburgh before being displaced by more modern (and longer) trains.
14:50.
And relax! On arrival at Stoke I had 10 minutes to wait for a Pendolino to arrive which would whisk me to Euston via one stop at Nuneaton. There’s no more community rail events within my reach now so the rest of the day is purely a positional move. As I head South the weather’s improving. There’s clear blue skies and fluffy cumulous clouds instead of the grey I’d been used to, so now all I have to do is decide where I’m going to visit to get some library shots after hitting London.
15:33
Bugger! Just when I thought I was back on track! We’re currently running 26 minutes late (and being diverted via Northampton) due to – as the onboard screens inform us – a ‘safety inspection of the track’. Ho hum. Now I won’t reach Euston until 16:07 – and counting. We’re not the only service affected either. I’ve just had a quick look at ‘real time trains’ to check out Euston departures/arrivals. It’s not good. I expect it’ll be carnage on the concourse when I arrive.
16:40.
Carnage has been averted at Euston due to many departures leaving on time, which will keep passengers happy and the concourse uncrowded. But it’ll come at a price. Many trains will have been ‘stepped up’ (turned around quickly and reallocated to different services). Train crews bear the brunt when this happens as their dockets aren’t worth the paper they’re written on so hours get extended. Juggling the trains has issues too as some will have been heading to certain depots for maintenence to take place. They’ll end the day somewhere very different unless train controllers can get them back to where they need to be.
Euston. It could be a lot worse…
17:45.
Wandering down the Euston Rd from Euston to Kings Cross I bumped into Ndy Savage, an old friend and fellow Community Rail Awards judge. It’s what I love about London. You’re never far away from someone you know. Now I’m back in old haunts in Harringay, heading to tonight’s hotel…
23:30.
Time to bring this blog to a close. I’m kicking back at my hotel in Wood Green after meeting up with the rest of the CRN team ready for tomorrow’s big event. I’ll leave you with a few more pictures from today, with many more to follow tomorrow.
Manchester Piccadilly earlier, with people interested in details of some of the walking guides on offer. Stoke station dominated by LNW Class 350s, including the former TPE unit I arrived on. It could have been an awful lot worse. Despite the WCML disruption Euston station passenger flow remained in tolerable levels. Buddleia’s not part of the station friends plan, but like many locations it’s encroaching on the lineside here at Alexandra Palace in North London.
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Today’s been a very domestic sort of day here at Bigland Towers but it’s also one that’s allowed me (if not Dawn) to enjoy the stunning weather. Finally, it feels like summer is on the way. We’ve had wall to wall sunshine and temperatures in the low 20s – which is a bloody miracle around here so far this year! Whilst Dee was cooking up a storm with a production line of batch cooking for us and her parents I was busy on the cottage roof, giving it an annual clean and sorting out some minor repairs after the battering it’s received over the winter. My job was complicated by our new lodgers. Several years ago I put up a number of nesting boxes under the sheltered eaves at the back of the cottage. Until now they’ve always remained vacant, despite the fact the adjacent bird-feeders resemble Piccadilly Circus. This year a pair of Blue Tits have taken up residence in one of them. Only it’s the one where I normally put up the ladder to allow me to clamber onto the roof. Bugger! Their residence has meant I’ve had to access the roof from our neighbour’s backyard, which is rather more challenging. That’ll teach me! Mind you, once I scrambled up I thoroughly enjoyed myself. The views are stunning!
Having removed bags of crap from over and between the stone flags I felt I deserved a beer and adjourned to our local pub for a while. The Big 6 beer garden was doing a roaring trade and having chance to wash the dust from my mouth whilst soaking up yet more sun was much appreciated.
I did feel slightly guilty as Dawn was still busy in the kitchen. I made amends on my return by disposing of the mound of washing up Dee had generated with her Lasagne production line. Some were for us whilst a different (gluten-free) line were for her parents. That’s the freezer restocked then!
Now it’s time to relax before another busy few days. Community Rail Week begins tomorrow, which means I’m going to be out and about a lot. I’ll be heading down to London on Monday morning ready for a special event at on Tuesday at one of my old local stations in North London.
I’ll be blogging about all my travels and the various events I’ll be attending which means there’ll be plenty to see and read about this next week. In the meantime here’s a couple of pictures from our activities today.
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We’ve another dull day in the Calder Valley but my Friday’s being brightened up by the opportunity to mix business with pleasure. I’m currently aboard a Northern service from Halifax to Hull which I’m using to get to Leeds before making my way (via a few changes en-route) to Chersterfield, then on to Barrow Hill roundhouse to attend the annual ‘Rail Ale’ beer festival for a few hours. Railways and beer? What’s not to like?
Here we go…
I’ll be blogging throughout the day, so feel free to pop back and see how things unfold….
11:15.
After a short sojourn in Leeds I’m now aboard a Cross-Country service heading for Plymouth. Well, the train is, I’m only going as far as Sheffield! Made up of two 4-car Voyagers it’s a busy train although I’ve managed to find a free airline seat in the front car of the leading seat. There’s an elderly couple who got on with me at Leeds who’re travelling all the way as they’re heading to Cornwall. They’ll be on here for the next five and a half hours! They hadn’t reserved seats and were going to sit separately but one kind business chap offered to move and also helped them store their luggage.
13:15.
I changed trains at Sheffield, which led to one of those silly, petty ‘elf and safety’ events which – whilst rare, do seem to be coming more common again.
I was leaning on the fence at the North end of platform 5-6 waiting to take a shot when I heard urgent whistling going on behind me, turning around I noticed two platform dispatch staff bearing down on me from ine and the adjacent platform. Odd, as I was well within the public area of the station. One of the women shouted at me to ‘get behind the sign’ on a lampost set well back from the fence. The sign didn’t say ‘do not pass this point’, merely no unauthorised access – meaning don’t wander off the platform – hard to do now there’s a fence and cattle grid stopping you! I asked the second woman what I’d done wrong. I’d wandered up to the fence (surely, what it’s there for?). I pointed out the arbitary silliness of this, only to be told other had walked past the grid to go into the tunnels – something I was clearly not doing! I couldn’t be bothered to argue as I was due to catch a train. But the upshot was two dispatch staff had their time wasted enforcing an arbitary non-rule rather than using common-sense, and I was left feeling that some rail staff really have lost the plot. Later I heard the same dispatcher hanguing passengers for not standing back from a train in the platform despite the fact it was minutes from departure, giving the feeling passengers are treated like nuisance sheep at Sheffield – not farepaying customers.
17:30.
Apologies for the gap in blogging but I’ve had a busy time at Barrow Hill meeting up with old friends, sampling beers and taking lots of picture (you’ll see some later). Sadly, due to other commitments I’ve had to leave this excellent event early. Right now I’m heading back to Chesterfield on an open top bus!
19:00.
I’m currently sat on another Cross-Country Voyager, this time heading from Sheffield to Leeds. You can tell it’s Friday as many younger passengers are travelling from town to cities en-route to a night out. Let’s face it, most can’t afford a mortgage anymore, so there’s little point saving so they’re the people disposing of their income in a fashion that’s keeping many bars and clubs alive.
21:30.
Home again. Despite it being a Friday and train services being extremely busy my journey back was rather pleasant. Now I’m busy editing pictures from Barrow Hill. Here’s a selection.
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Apologies for the lack of blogging but I’ve been kept busy at home playing nurse as well as wading through hundreds of pictures from my recent travels that require editing and captioning. Thankfully, Dawn, my patient – is on the mend, so I can put away the nurses uniform again. Besides, it clashed with the chef’s hat I’ve been wearing, which has been another of my duties. It’s not been too onerous as Dee’s been a good patient but I’ll be glad to see her up and about again. On the bright side, the jumper she’s been knitting has really come on!
Today I managed to finish the majority of the editing and get the pictures onto my Zenfolio website. There’s several hundred, which you can find in the following galleries.
Tomorrow, with Dawn on the mend and picture editing almost finished I can concentrate on other things which includes organising my next tranche of travels as well as some scribbling for a living. Sadly, the weather’s reverted to type here. We had a couple of days of sunshine but now the rain’s returned. We’ve had some very heavy showers today with more predicted, so I can’t see me getting out with the camera just yet. Never mind, some of the travel I have to arrange involves places with plenty of sun!
In the meantime I’ll leave you with a picture from Germany taken last week which shows it’s not just the UK that’s been wet! This was the view from the 17th floor of our hotel as a rainstorm crossed Dusseldorf.
I’ve a small favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
My time away has come to an end. Today I head home for a while until the next adventure. But first I’ve got to get there. Thankfully, the main rail strikes are in abeyance today, but last minutes changes are still possible. Let’s see hoe things go. First off it to get across London to begin the journey North. Today I’m taking that trip via the Midland Main Line…
08:15.
The pair of us are now speeding up the Midland Main Line on a very empty (and very dirty) Meridian, the first of the class in fact. Talk about tired – the train that is – not me! This one has the new seat mocquette but the quality of the fitting leaves a lot to be desired. The carpets are still threadbare and the paintwork inside and out is in a terrible state.
Not exactly London’s busiest rail service…
11:45
I said goodbye to Hassard at Derby. He went off to his meeting whilst I stayed to make the most of the good weather to get some library shots before catching an onward service to Sheffield. Here’s a couple of camera pictures.
The Meridian I’m on now (set 13) is lucky for me as at least you can see out of the windows in this train. We weren’t so lucky in the last one…
Still, it’s swings and roundabouts. The wifi doesn’t work on this set – unlike the last one!
13:15.
Well, that was fun. I joined a 4-car Cross-Country Voyager bound for Edinburgh for the leg between Sheffield and Leeds. It was rammed! I was ‘lucky’ enough to find a space to stand opposite the disabled toilet in the rear car. It was taking a hammering due to the amount of drunks sat in the same vehicle (and others elsewhere). I have to give full credit to the Train Manager, despite the obstacle course he needed to navigate he still managed to make a full ticket check!
I’ve a small favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312
Paul Bigland 