Tags
Photography, Railways, Rolling blogs, Siemens, Travel, Yorkshire
09:00
Apologies for the lack of a blog yesterday but the time was taken up with a family funeral. My Mother-in-Law’s sister, known to the family as Aunty Dorothy passed away. A church service was held for her in Marsden, West Yorkshire before a private family cremation, after which everyone returned to Marsden to rejoin the other mourners for food and drinks – and chance to reminisce and celebrate her life.
Today, life goes on and I’m about to leave for Goole to meet up with my RAIL colleague Paul Stephen for a visit to the new Siemens factory there. I’ll update the blog throughout the day as and when…
09:55
I’m on the way. In contrast to yesterday the weather in the Calder valley’s very gloomy today with the clouds threatening yet more rain so I accepted Dawn’s offer of a lift to the station. This allowed me to catch an earlier train (the 09:37 instead of the 09:54) which was just as well as the 54 is already running 11 mins late, leaving me little time for my connection at Leeds.
My train was busy but not overcrowded – until it got to Bradford Interchange where families with gaggles of kids were waiting to join. I’d forgotten about the school holidays! The decible level aboard has now increased dramatically!
11:30.
I’ve just left Doncaster. Getting here was painless as a quick dash between platforms allowed me to catch an earlier LNER service to Doncaster. Joining the train at the last minute was fun as I had to wade through confused families trying to work out where their seat reservations were. There’s lot of ‘newbie’ travellers around at the moment as it’s the season for them!
Having banked an extra 30 mins I was disappointed there was nothing of interest to photograph at Doncaster. The yard was virtually empty and the works siding contained nothing more than a couple of rusting Class 47s and a pair of Cross-Country Mk3 coaches – all in unphotogenic locations behind wire mesh fencing.
Now I’m aboard a Northern Class 170 heading for Scarborough via Hull which will get me to Goole…
16:45.
When I titled this blog I had no idea how appropriate it would be…
I arrived in plenty of time to walk to the new Siemens train factory to meet Paul Stephen and be given our guided tour of the new plant. The site’s impressive. It’s not often you see a new railway centre rise from a brownfield site like this. The first trains for Transport for London won’t begin to roll off the production line until March 2024 but there’s work going on at the centre already and employment will begin to increase from September. I won’t go into detail (you’ll be able to read the full story in a future edition of RAIL) but the site’s already about far more than just building trains – a view confirmed with the discussions we had with the new Siemens joint MD – Sambit Banerjee. Here’s a mock-up of what the new TfL deep level tube trains will look like.
Things started to go ‘Pete Tong’ when Paul dropped me off at Goole station where all services were shown on the information screens as delayed or cancelled. Apparently Hull has suffered a major signal failure and all services to from the city are disrupted. So here I am, with no idea when I’ll be able to leave…
17:40.
Escaped!
I’m now on the first train from Goole since lunchtime apparently. Lucky me! It’s a two car unit and its rammed – and sweaty!
19:00.
The homeward leg. Having made it to Doncaster I didn’t hang around but jumped the first available LNER service to Leeds. Today’s problems made it unwise to tarry. The train was busy but not unbearably so as I still found a seat.
Once at Leeds I made a beeline for my train home which was a stark contrast to a 10 car LNER.
Northern had thrown out a 2-car 195 on a York-Blackpool North service. It’s ‘cosy’ to say the least – especially as some folk insist their bags entitled to a seat yet some folk would rather stand than challenge them. Not me, so some young bloke’s been told to sling his bag! I’m sat opposite a rarity nowadays and something I’ve not seen (or heard) for ages. A Grandmother’s reading a book to her Granddaughter. It’s ‘Charlie and the chocolate factory’…
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