The heat has made a comeback here in the Calder Valley. Today and for the next few days the skies will be blue and the temperature in the very high 20s. Today was a taster – although I spent a lot of it cooped up inside as I had a whole host of things to sort out for work and also (hopefully) pleasure. Plus – eBay!
I’m slowly wading through all the railway memorabilia I’ve amassed over the years and sorted out what’s not longer needed on the voyage. That includes a selection of commemorative notebooks which I’ll never get to use in a month of Sundays. Such as this one which celebrated the opening of Siemens new Three Bridges Depot back in 2015. There’s more on offer, plus there’s hundreds of old rail slides which can be found here.
As well as eBaying and catching up on paperwork I did manage to venture out into Sowerby Bridge to pick up some shopping, but it was the heat of the day and by the time I’d walked back up the hill to home I was a sweaty, soggy mess! Mad dogs and Englishmen and all that!
The heat has also kept me preoccupied with watering the garden. It may not be huge but the fact it’s spread over several levels means you get a work-out that way too! There’s no hosepipe ban around here yet but as I use watering cans anyway it won’t affect me. I’ve started using old dishwater anyway just to get in the habit and ‘do my bit’.
Tomorrow I’m tempted to venture out with the camera but I suspect I may have too much to do unless I have a really early start to spend a couple of hours on paperwork first, but as it’s so hot at night that may be difficult. Just in case, I’m going to call it a day and have an early night, so here’s today’s picture. When the weather had cooled down a bit I went for my evening stroll, but this time with a purpose. The Blackberry season is well underway here in the Calder Valley and despite the fact it’s been a dry summer the crop is bountiful, early – and lush. There’s a fantastic collection in a couple of locations along out road, one of which is the edge of a field which is clear of trees and affords a great view of the valley below. Oh, and cows…
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I’m at Huddersfield en-route to London on the first day of the biggest rail strike the country has seen for 30 years. This normally busy station’s pretty deserted. There’s two Trans-Pennine express trains an hour running. One to Manchester and one to York. The 09:07 all stations Eastbound service had lots of people waiting for at although when the 6 car train arrived it was pretty empty.
Meanwhile, outside, the RMT union’s maintaining a large presence on its picket line.
Members of the RMT backed by other trade unionists including members of UNITE.
10:05.
Whilst Eastbound services were busy, far fewer were using trains in the Manchester direction. I’m currently in the front car of the 09:32 Huddersfield- Manchester Piccadilly. It’s clear most folk have heeded the stay away message.
10:55.
Manchester Piccadilly was a quiet as you’d expect with so few services running. The only new faces were a couple of camera crews who were filming reports on the strike. Arrive Cross-Country services were still running, along with Avanti West Coast. I’m currently aboard their 10:45 departure to London Euston with the first stop being Crewe. There’s plenty of room.
Pick a seat…
I’m in coach U along with four other people. The reduced service isn’t just the number of trains. The Train Manager’s announced there’s no food service in 1st Class and the shop is closed too – good job I decided to pack some sandwiches! I’ll have a walk-through later to see how full the train gets but right now it’s time to set up the mobile office and get some writing done.
11:15.
We’ve crawled our way to Crewe at reduced speed (for whatever reason) where I counted a grand total of eight people waiting for this 11 car Pendolino. Just before we arrived a member of Avanti staff cam through the train dishing out free bottles of water, which was a nice gesture. From what I can see, Crewe station’s deserted – apart from the bay platforms which are full of trains going nowhere.
11:30.
We’re well South of Crewe now and hitting line-speed as the Pendolino gets into its stride. I have to admit, it’s been a trouble-free journey so far. The rail staff who are on duty (and there’s lots of them) are unfailingly cheerful and helpful. The pickets I met at Huddersfield were hardly the frothing mouthed ‘Marxists’ trying to bring down the Government as some sections of the media seem to be trying to make out. They were ordinary rail workers concerned about their pay and conditions during a period when we have a Government that that has neither a plan nor a clue what to do about anything other than keep Johnson in power.
12:55.
Despite stopping at Stafford and Milton Keynes we only picked up a few dozen more people. There’s four young lads in my coach who got on at Stafford, but those are the only extra punters in my car. It feels strange to pass so few trains on the West Coast Main Line but now we’re South of Watford at least we have the London Overground (which is running a near normal service) for company.
13:20.
We arrived into Euston 20 minutes early which was hardly surprising considering the amount of slack in the emergency timetable. I held back to count my fellow passengers as they disembarked. 6 from 1st Class and approximately 80 from Standard. From a train that can hold what? 550?
Euston station wasn’t as quiet as I imagined it might be. TV crews were on station on the mezzanine floor but spart from that everything seemed normal, just subdued.
Once you wander outside you realise another reason the place is so quiet. The London Underground’s also on strike, so many people couldn’t get to/from Euston even if they wanted to!
16:00.
After walking along to St Pancras and Kings Cross to bag a few more pictures – including some colourful RMT flagbearers outside St Pancras – I decided to walk across central London to Waterloo and explore some old haunts on the way. After all, it’s perfect weather for exploring and the city’s quiet. This city was my home for nearly 25 years and I have to admit I miss it – especially on days like this.
18:25.
And relax! I’m now relaxing in Clapham after an interesting day. The journey from Waterloo was painless as the 8-car train I caught had lots of seats available. In fact, the concourse at Waterloo reminded me of how it looked during the pandemic.
My travels are over for today but tomorrow I leave London to head to ‘Rail Live’ and onwards back to Yorkshire. Let’s see how quickly the railways bounce back from the strike…
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The pair of us have had a productive if hardly exciting sort of day – unless you count the opportunity to tour garden centres again! Maybe it’s one of those signs of ageing, a bit like realising how much you enjoy watching the ‘Antiques Roadshow’ on the telly! As someone who’s been a keen gardener for nearly 30 years I make no apologies for such a pastime – even if my present patch of land is a lot smaller than I was used to. Even so, there’s plenty of opportunity to be creative as the massive stone walls that make up the terraces at the back of our cottage do lend themselves to some imaginative opportunities. Sadly, there’s not a great selection in our local garden centres. Maybe I was spoiled with living in London for 25 years, you could find almost anything you wanted within just a few miles and a trip to the Columbia Rd flower market in the East End was a must when you needed annuals. One centre we visited was just getting a delivery from Holland. A large HGV was taking up a chunk of the car park as pallets of plants were unloaded. I hate to think how much extra the Brexitshambles is costing them in both time and money. What was once a seamless operation is now mired in bureaucracy thanks to us throwing up rather than taking down barriers to trade. Despite the deliveries I’ve noticed that it’s really difficult to find the variety of ferns that I used to be able to buy in London. Maybe they’re not as popular up here? The back of the house is sheltered and in perpetual shadow, so it would ideal for displaying ferns – if only I could find the ones I want. Still, first world problems eh? At least I managed to restock our herb garden and replace some plants we lost due to the harsh winter.
Back at home I had a happy couple of hours replacing knackered hanging baskets, repotting and replanting and generally tidying up the garden – even tho’ the weather’s hardly spring-like as the temperature rarely makes it into double figures at the moment. As soon as the sun gets trapped behind clouds the temperature plummets. Frost is still a concern so I’m being careful what I plant out right now. How different to this time last year when we had such balmy days!
All this talk of gardening has chosen the picture of the day for me because it fits the theme. I scanned this one recently, although it was taken on the 12th March 1994 at Columbia Rd flower market.
Lynn and I were still living in London’s East End at the time and a trip to Columbia Rd was a regular occurrence for myself and some of my neighbours in the Housing Co-op where I lived. Decorating the communal balconies of our flats with plants was a great way of adding a splash of colour. Not everyone who joined us was green-fingered, it was just a great morning out as there were plenty of cafes offering coffee and cake and the opportunities for people-watching – hence this image which was a ‘grab-shot’ through the crowds.
Sadly, this sort of street photography has become harder for all sorts of reasons – especially to do with privacy laws. We’re in danger of losing the ability to document everyday life in the way the old masters of documentary photography never had to worry about – but that’s another blog entirely…
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Life’s slowly returning to normal for now as (despite his age) our cat shows a stubborn resistance to the idea of dying. The old bugger’s scared the life out of us this week but we’re so knackered by it all we’ve decided the only thing we can do is give him all the love and attention we can whilst starting to think this was a clever ploy on his part just to become the centre of attraction even more than usual! Poor Dawn’s been kept busy trying to find different foods just to attract his appetite and get him to eat, which could be part of his plan…
Moggie maintenance has taken up most of our week so I’m looking forward to getting back to a less fractured routine and chance for more exercise and less stress – especially as the weather’s slowly warming up and the days are getting longer. With a bit of luck I might even be able to dust down the camera and document the present besides scanning the past…
Talking of the past, here’s the picture of the day. I’ve not sorted and slides this weekend so this is one from the last batch. I’ve been posting pictures from all sorts of exotic locations but this is one that used to be close to home. I took this shot at Columbia Rd flower market in London’s East End on the 12th March 1994 which was when I still lived in the East End. Lynn and I used to cycle over to the market from my flat in Bromley-by-Bow to pick up plants to decorate the communal balcony outside our homes. Columbia Rd was a brilliant place to while away a few hours of a Sunday morning, buying plants from the street stalls or drinking coffee outside a cafe whilst people watching and grabbing pictures like this.
I do miss it. Going to local garden centres here in West Yorkshire just can’t compete!
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To say that this hasn’t been the most exciting day of the month would be an understatement! The weather’s been uniformly crap all day, we’re still in tier 3 so there’s nowhere to go or people to see – so I’ve stayed warm and dry at home, scanning yet more old Indian rail slides. Only now it gets difficult. Many of the latest batch have very visible scratches on them. This is due to the conditions I was taking them in and not being experienced enough to understand how film cameras needed the film backplate kept clean – a lesson learned too late as these aren’t exactly pictures you could just nip out the next week to recreate. Thanks to the wonders of Photoshop these scratches can now be removed, but it takes time. Now I realise why I’d never put them on my website before, but they’re such a historical archive I’m glad I kept them as everything captured has vanished – and we’ll never see the like again.
My engagement with the past hasn’t been restricted to old pictures. During the trip they’re from I kept a daily diary (well, almost daily) which I haven’t read for decades but now it’s a useful resource to date some of the pictures. Re-reading it sure as hell takes me back to a very different time. Young, single and free…That said, looking back on my feelings, experiences and aspirations 30 years later is really interesting. If only I knew then…
But, to be fair, the day’s not been about unbridled nostalgia. It’s Friday so it was time for the ‘Big 6’ online quiz via Zoom which was lovely as there was actual interaction, jokes and banter despite the (social) distance. In some ways the quiz was just an excuse to interact with friends and the amount of times we all digressed was lovely – even if we did finally answer all the questions!
OK, enough of me rambling and trying to get my thoughts in a semblance of order, here’s the picture of the day which is from my latest slide scans. I took this shot in Jaipur steam locomotive depot on the 30th October 1991. It was shift change and a group of workers were washing at a hydrant inside the shed. Hardly private and not exactly the best environment, but that’s how it was in those days – and I consider myself extremely fortunate to have seen it.
I’ve a favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this blog, 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 to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances need all the help that we can get. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
Today was another of those days when, despite your best intentions to crack on with a list of things, you get side-tracked into doing something completely different. Not unproductive – and actually quite satisfying – but definitely not on this weeks list!
As befits the start of the working week we were up and at ’em early. Dawn had set the alarm for 06:00 so that she could do her training before work so I was up at the same time. Sadly, the weather was still cold and cloudy, otherwise I’d have been tempted by an early walk. Instead, I caught up with some of life’s more mundane activities – household chores – before settling down to work. My plan had been to catch up with some writing and research, but I wanted to tidy the office a bit first to give me some more space. That was my downfall! I made the mistake of rifling through some shelves to sort out stacks of slides I’d got in loose folders, so of course – I had to take a look, didn’t I? Within minutes I was being transported back 20 odd years and discovering all sorts of stuff – some of which hadn’t seen the light of day since it was taken! There was also folders full of returns from a couple of pictures libraries – a large chunk of which was no longer relevant or needed, so I ended up sorting through them. Did time fly…
Having learned to be rather ruthless nowadays I ditched hundreds of old slides then started sorting through old plastic wallets – only to discover sheets of unmounted slides that had barely been touched since they were taken in 2004. They were taken on a press trip as a commission for the Sunday Times magazine, who sent me off for a 4 day stint on the Royal Hungarian express luxury train. I’d swapped over from film to digital earlier that year but I still had a stock of unused slide film so I took my Nikon F5 and several rolls as a back-up, some of which I shot. I’d used a couple of images, but the rest lay unused and unseen – until now…
You can find the Royal Hungarian Express gallery on my website by following this link. It was a fabulous few days, being paid to enjoy a luxurious trip with other members of the press and some fare-paying passengers. It also led to a lasting friendship as it was on this trip that I first met the Journalist and Author Michael Williams, who was still Deputy Editor of the Independent on Sunday in those days and we’ve been friends ever since. The trips were run by Great Rail Journeys which in those days was still owned by the man who’d set the company up – Howard Trinder. When Howard found that Michael and I had a wider interest in railways he arranged a private side trip for the three of us to one of the narrow gauge lines that still hung on to life. Great fun and happy days!
I’d promised not to do any more scanning for a while but I couldn’t resist getting these few dozen done as it allowed me to throw more junk away and streamline the archive. I didn’t stay glued to my desk as I still took regular exercise breaks, even if it was just for repeated strolls through the woods and back. It made for pleasant interludes from staring at screens or peering through a loupe at slides. As a taster, here’s one of the pictures that’s newly scanned and added to the Hungary gallery.
Hungarian Railway 4-8-0 No 424 247 on the front of out luxury train at Keszthely on day 1 of our trip. We had a variety of motive power during the days, including a vintage ‘Nohab’ diesel loco. 424 247 is one of only three of the 514 strong 424 Class that is still in working order.
Needless to say, this trip down memory lane kept me busy all day, but what the hell – it was enjoyable looking back at some of the fun I’ve had in this job. There’s other slides that I’ll sort out over the next few days so that collection’s done. There was something else that I found at the beginning of the first roll of Hungarian shots. It was from a very different PR event, and one of them will form todays…
Picture of the Day
On the 20th September 2004 I’d been commissioned by Virgin trains as their official photographer to take pictures of the official launch of their new Pendolino services out of Euston branded the ‘Red Revolution. It was a big PR event that was attended by both Sir Richard Branson and the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair. As you can imagine, security was tight and it was quite nerve-wracking as I’d only turned professional 4 years before. The Virgin Press team were excellent and gave me a full brief on what to expect as there was a surprise planned that involved the TV News Presenter (Nicholas Owen) surprising Virgin Trains MD Chris Green with a spoof ‘This is your life’ whilst The Prime Minister and Richard Branson looked on. Nick and I knew each other through my late wife as he volunteered for one of the charities she worked for, so that made it less stressful. The only thing we both worried about was that Blair didn’t know what was going to happen! Nick joked ‘I just hope I don’t get shot when I do this!” As it was, everything went off without a hitch and Blair (and his security detail) took it in their stride. So, here’s the picture…
L-R Chris Green, Richard Branson, Nick Owen and Tony Blair.
Thinking about it, i’ve shot ever Prime Minister since Tony Blair (sometimes at private events too) bar one – Teresa May, whom I missed. Not a bad record. Oh, some of the stories I could tell…
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Where did the day go? When you were younger Sunday’s seemed to drag for one of several reasons (depending on your age). Either because the shops weren’t open, the pubs were closed, or there was nothing on the TV. Admittedly, none of those are a problem any more. Oh, wait the shops and pubs ARE closed! And, despite the fact we have TV channels coming out of our ears, it’s still sometime difficult to find anything worth watching. But I digress…
My point was going to be that – despite all these things – today seemed to fly. Admittedly, we did have a leisurely morning but started motoring in the afternoon with me doing a few chores and cleaning up the office whilst Dawn had another stint in the kitchen cooking more home-made Lasagne for us and extra for the freezer. This was in addition to the industrial quantities of home-made Thai Green curry Dee prepared yesterday.
Little and Large! Two gorgeous home-made Lasagne made with a sauce of Dawns own recipe plus vegetarian cheese.
All this activity meant that we had a productive day but we were keen to take a break at the end. For a change, rather than treading our well-worn path up to Savile Park we elected to stroll down to Copley and walk into Sowerby Bridge via the canal for the first time since Lockdown began. We’ve been avoiding the canal in that direction to follow the advice on social distancing from the Canal and River Trust. Some parts of the towpath are very narrow, and people constantly parading past boats people are living on can make their life uncomfortable. As it was later in the day we knew the canal would be quieter, so we explored. We both enjoy the serenity of the canal and because of Covid there’s hardly any movement of boats, so it’s even quieter.
We passed a few other walkers en-route and a couple of cyclists on our way into Sowerby Bridge but the town itself was pretty much deserted as by then the supermarkets were closed. Unless you’re picking up a take-away from one of the handful of places still open there’s just no reason to be there. We didn’t hang around and tackled the climb back up the valley side almost immediately. Sadly, the weather wasn’t warm or sunny enough to sit outside when we returned so we were soon cocooned by the cottage and enjoyed a quiet, but early night by retreating to bed to watch TV and a program Dawn had found on the BBC’s iplayer. It’s called ‘The real Marigold hotel’ and it follows a group of pensionable age celebrities who’re experiencing India as a possible place to retire. I’m not normally one for ‘reality TV’ but this is much kinder and gentler than many. No-one’s competing or bitching about each other and it’s a mixed cast that includes the legendary cricket commentator ‘Blowers’, Britt Ekland and musician Barbera Dixon, amongst others. The early parts are set in places familiar to me – Pondicherry, Chennai and Madurai in Tamil Nadu. It was a gentle way to end the weekend. And now, it’s…
Picture of the day.
Today’s picture comes from a place that’s not a million miles away from Tamil Nadu. Sri Lanka. This is sleepy old Galle town on the country’s West coast, and a place I’m sure ‘Blowers’ is familiar with as it’s where international cricket matches are held.
The pictures shows Galle old town, which is a fascinating mixture of buildings, cultures and religions. In the foreground you can see a circular Buddhist stupa whilst in the background is the tower of a Christian church. I first game here on my own, travelling solo in 1992. This picture was taken when Lynn and I visited on the 13th January 2002. We spent several weeks exploring the hill country and beaches. We returned again for Christmas and New Year 2003 as we would normally visit Asia at that time of the festive and holiday period. But, for once, we didn’t go back in 2004 as we’d done a lot of travelling that year and had only just returned from Singapore and Hong Kong in November. So, purely by chance, we missed the devastating Tsunami that struck on Boxing Day 2004. Galle was very badly hit, as were many of the beaches we’d visited the previous two years. There but for the grace of God…
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We’ve had a fun 24 hours here in the Calder Valley due to storm Brendan which has brought with it lashes of rain and high winds as well as dismal skies that have reduced us to half-light. The camera has stayed firmly in its bag and apart from forays on foot to go shopping and get some exercise I’ve been pretty much glued to the office.
This morning I was up at 6am as Dawn had an early start. This gave me the opportunity to try and integrate back into the library some of the old slides I had back from picture agencies a couple of years back. They’ve gone back into the albums they were taken from in an effort to give me some continuity. In order to save space (and time) I’m weeding out duplicate images. The problem with slides was that I used to back up pictures by taking 2-3 shots that were exactly the same. This served a dual purpose. If the original got damaged or lost I had a back-up. I could also send one to a picture library whilst keeping another version for myself. Of course, in the digital age such redundancy is, well, redundant! Now I can duplicate an image with a click of a mouse!
The stuff I’ve had returned covers many different subjects. Apart from all the travel shots and rail images one of the libraries I contributed to was a social issues picture agency based in Brixton called Photofusion. The stuff I placed with them covered a rainbow of subjects, from Housing (which I still worked in at the time) to UK travel, politics, demonstrations like the miners strikes or Iraq War and festivals like Gay Pride. Looking back at the pictures makes me realise that – if nothing else – I’ve certainly had an interesting life and covered an awful lot of things in my time! I’m looking forward to getting most of them scanned, although a few are destined for the bin as the things they covered have little relevance today. It’s a sad waste and another advantage of digital. When I consider how much each of those mounted slides cost me to take and the mountain of plastic waste they’re reduced to I wish I’d switched to digital long before I did.
Here’s a few of today’s scans spanning the years from the early 1990s to the 2000s, just to give you an idea of what I have in the archive. First up is a May day protest in central London back in 2001. These events could get out of control quite quickly so the police always turned up dressed up in full riot gear to make a point. As a photographer it could get quite hairy as you were in the thick of it, with police on one side and demonstrators on the other. This photo shows a stand-off between protestors and riot police outside the John Lewis store in Oxford St. As you can see, the copper to the left wasn’t too pleased to see me!
Here’s an earlier shot taken in 1992 – although it looks like it could have been the early 1980s. This is a miners demonstration in London, protesting about the mass closure of some of the remaining UK pits – strange as that might seem now when climate-change is the most important issue that faces us and the days of ‘King Coal’ are long gone. In the photo is Tony Benn MP, NUM President Arthur Scargill and Dennis Skinner MP. Like the May day demonstration I’ve a large archive of pictures of this event to scan (one day). The miners were very well organised and also media savvy. A group of them worked with photographers to ensure you got the shots you both needed. They’d escort you out in front of the procession leaders and guide you so that you could face backwards getting the shots you wanted before moving you on so the next photographer could get their shots.
Of course I should mention that in the days when these photographs were taken I’d no idea that I was eventually going to change career and become a professional photographer. Then I was a rep for my trade union (NALGO, the local Government Officers Union, or ‘Not A Lot Going On’ as it was sometimes referred to!) and involved in producing the newsletter. I took these pictures because I was interested in photography and social issues, not for a moment thinking that one day this would become my career.
– and now for something completely different, and a lot more camp! Lynn and I would often attend the annual Gay Pride parade in London with friends. When I first met Lynn she worked for the AIDs charity the Terrence Higgins Trust. Needless to say, we made a lot of friends through her work and ‘Pride’ was always a good day out and chance to catch up with people. In 1995 the parade used Victoria Park in East London not far from where we were living, so naturally, we dropped in! This particular couple were spectacular, and this was before Elton John got married in similar style 9 years later…
Time to go back to trains for my final picture which shows how much the railways have changed. Here’s an old Class 508 electric train used by Connex arriving at Maidstone West on the 7th March 2002. Built by British Railways for suburban services out of Waterloo they were transferred to Merseyside. Some surplus units made the trek South once more and ended up working South-Eastern services, first for Connex and later South-Eastern Trains. The SET units remained in service until 2008.
I hope you enjoy this trip down memory lane and through elements of social history. If you want to see the full selection of pictures you can find them on my Zenfolio website. Hopefully it won’t be too long before I get around to scanning the rest but as I’ve 1000s to get through we may all need to be patient. I’ve spent a few hours tonight weeding out duplicates from another travel album which includes shots from New Zealand, the UK, India and Denmark. They might not get scanned for a while, but at least they’re taking up a lot less room…
I’m preparing to venture out on the rails for the first time this year – which is rather a long gap for me, but then 2020’s been a busy year so far. The sun looks like it’s going to play ball even if the trains possibly won’t. I’ve just looked up the real time performance of my two local operators and seen that Northern is currently running 84% of it’s services on time whilst TPE is propping up the bottom of the national league with just 63% on time and a whopping 25% either cancelled or more than 30 mins late. There’s a very useful website which uses Network Rail data to track the different companies performance throughout the day. You can find it here.
Let’s see how I get on today, and where I end up. I’ve a list of shots I need in mind, how many will I manage to get I wonder…
10:40.
The walk into Halifax this morning was gorgeous due to the crisp weather and glorious sunshine. Here’s how the station looked this morning, with one of Northern’s new Class 195s arriving on a service to Blackpool.
The new units were much in evidence today. I’m now on the 10:38 to Leeds which is made up of a pair of 2-car 195s. So far I’ve only seen one old BR unit – a 153 working the Bradford – Huddersfield shuttle.
Of course this step-change in the quality of trains goes unremarked in certain political arenas. If you listened to some of the elected Mayors you’d think the Pacers were still prevelent.
11:05.
I abandoned the CAF trains at Bradford Interchange and strolled across this much-maligned city to Forster Square, admiring the city’s magnificent Victorian buildings on the way. I love the quality of winter sunshine with its richness and warmth. It’s without the harshness or blue tones of summer sun and it was showing off Bradford’s buildings to their best. I paused en-route to grab a couple of pictures and I’ll add one later as an illustration.
Right now I’m sat on one of the venerable Class 321 electric units which will ship me to Shipley. Despite the arrival of the CAF 331s these remain in service.
11:49.
Sadly, by the time I got to Shipley tragedy had struck. A person had been struck by a train in the Skipton area, so many Aire valley Leeds services were being cancelled. The next two for Leeds were, so I’m now on a 322 that was turned back at Keighley.
I’m assuming (but don’t know) this was a suicide as January’s always a bad month for such incidents on the railways. My thoughts go out to the unfortunate train crew and the families involved.
13:00.
Having spent the best part of an hour getting pictures at Leeds I’m on the move again, this time to York aboard a Trans-Pennine Express Class 802. Unlike their trains I’m used to, this one has plenty of spare seats. I’ve even managed to bag a table to myself.
Leeds was interesting because of the sheer variety of traction you can see there. I suspect it has more variety than almost any other UK station, especially now Northern and TPE have diversified their fleets.
15:00.
York was enjoyable as the winter light made for some great photo opportunities, plus there was plenty of traction variety that allowed me to tick off a few library shots. Rather than keep repeating the same images I also nipped down to Church Fenton but didn’t stay as the shadows were lengthening, making the pictures I wanted difficult. Church Fenton’s an odd place as it seems like it’s little more than a dormitory town for York or Leeds. It still boasts a four platform station as it maintains its status as a railway junction. In fact, it’ll grow in importance in that regard as this is where the spur of the new HS2 line from Leeds will join existing tracks to take HS2 service on into York and up to Newcastle. Several years ago there was a small StopHs2 ‘action’ group here but like most such groups they’ve faded away. I’ve not seen anything from them for years now.
17:00.
I’m now heading back to Halifax on Northern’s 16:57 to Bkackpool North which is being worked by a totally inadequate 2-car Class 158/9. It’s absolutely rammed with 15 of us wedged in the leading vestibule gehind the driver’s cab.
I’d be interested to know where it stops but the onboard PIS tells me nothing useful apart from the fact we’re going to Blackpool North. The rest of its time is taken up with pointless stuff about security, reading safety information and telling you not to vape. The Conductor’s not made any announcements either. Thankfully, we stopped at New Pudsey, where the sardine-like conditions eased.
19:00
And relax! I’m back at home, plugging in the camera to the computer ready to download today’s pictures and add a few to the blog shortly. Despite the fun and games it’s been an instructive day. Despite the doom and gloom you hear about trains in the North there’s real signs of improvement. The hated Pacers are rapidly being displaced. I only saw a handful of sets today, a couple at Leeds and the same at York. There’s more and more of the new CAF units about, taking over routes like Blackpool North – York and many Leeds – Manchester services where they run as four cars. The 4-car electric version’s appearing more and more too. Its the same story on Trans-Pennine where the loco hauled 5-car sets are being rolled out, along with the Hitachi built Class 802 bi-modes working more Newcastle-Liverpool Lime St services. All these new trains are providing extra services and more seats, but the downside is the fall in reliability and punctuality. the problems due to staff training and unfamiliarity with new trains will soon pass (as they always do). The big problem is the infrastructure constraints and timetables that can’t be delivered because of that. What our politicians of any political hue won’t admit is that changing the name of the operator on the side of the train won’t fix the problems.
Here’s a selection of pictures I promised.
One of TPE’s loco hauled sets speeds through Church Fenton whilst working a Scarborough – Liverpool Lime St service.
Meanwhile, back at York…
155341 basks in the sun at platform 1 at York.The old order clings on (just) at Leeds. LNER DVT 82215 and Northern Pacer 144001 side by side in the evening rush hour.
08:48.I’m on my way from Halifax to Doncaster for a Rail Safety week presentation at DB Cargo’s offices. My first train if the day is Northern’s 08:44 to Leeds, which is worked by a Class 150/153 combo. I’ve plumped for the better all round visibility of the 153, which is busy but not rammed. The only problem with these units is there’s very little leg-room in the airline-style seats.
Today should be an interesting event as it deals with mental health well-being and my old friend, RAIL writer Richard Clinnick is speaking. I’ve already had a busy day as I was up at 6am to polish an article I’ve written for RAIL about the ‘3 Peaks by Rail challenge’.
09:47.
I’m now ensconced in the quiet coach in LNER’s 09:45 to Kings Cross as far as Doncaster. Leeds station was busy with inbound commuters who moved like a shoal of scared fish through the barriers only to break in different directions due to changes in the concourse layout. The entrance to the concourse has been widened by removing the old ‘Upper Crust’ cafe and a new gateline is being installed further back from the platforms. The whole area’s a building site at the moment as it’s dotted with scaffolding holding up the decking from which the new roof’s being installed.
I’m travelling on a Mk4 set as this service hasn’t yet gone over to ‘Azuma’ operation, although that won’t be for much longer…
11:14.
I’m now at the DB offices at Donny and the first session today is about Defibrillators.
16:30.
Wow! That was an even more interesting day than I expected. I’ll blog more about it later when I can download my camera pictures. Right now I’m heading back to Leeds aboard one of LNERs brand new ‘Azuma’ trains. They’re quite impressive as they’re fast, the ride quality’s far better than the old Mk4 sets and the legroom in the airline seats is very good. Oh, the seat reservation system’s rather good too as it has coloured lights to indicate if seats are free or reserved.
18:00.
My final train’s just pulled out of Bradford Interchange en-route to Halifax on a glorious summer’s evening. What a day to have been cooped up inside an office! That said, I did manage to get a few library shots in the sunlight which I’ll add to my website soon. But not tonight as Dawn and I are out with friends enjoying bar food at the Moorcock Inn at Norland Moor. If I don’t get told off for being anti-social I might add a couple of restaurant pictures later. If not – expect another rolling blog tomorrow as I’ll be back in Doncaster for a press event.
Paul Bigland 