• About

Paul Bigland

~ Blogging on transport, travel & whatever takes my fancy.

Paul Bigland

Category Archives: Photojournalism

Rolling blog: and so it begins…

14 Tuesday May 2019

Posted by Paul Bigland in Birmingham, Engineering, I love my job, Photojournalism, Railtex, Railways, Rolling blogs, Travel

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Birmingham, I love my job, Railtex, Railways, Rolling blogs, Travel

06:18.

It’s a bright and beautiful morning here at Sowerby Bridge station. The sun’s shining, the birds are singing and I have fresh coffee, thanks to the Jubilee refreshment rooms on the station.

I’m here to catch to 06:23 to Manchester in order to get to Birmingham and the Railtex trade fair.

06:52.

The first chariot of the day was 158849, one of Northern’s refurbished fleet and one that’s been fitted with new seats and USB sockets. It’s only a two car so it’s packed after leaving Rochdale. It’s also remarkably quiet as most people (including me) are staring at their portable devices! This is a great example of how you can have a large group of people who are together in the flesh but are miles apart mentally!

07:38.

I’m now on TfW’s (Transport for Wales) 07:30 to Milford Haven as far as Crewe.

I walked between Victoria and Piccadilly which is always a depressing experience this time of morning as it’s painfully obvious how many people are sleeping rough. Forget the stories about “professional beggars” who return to their council flats each evening, these are real people curled up in doorways or huddled on pavements. A decade of austerity and a government that doesn’t really give a shit has made the problem worse than when I worked in housing back in the 1990s. It’s not going to get any better either. The UK’s flirting with fascism in the form of Nigel Farage and his Brexit party. People who blatently lie through their teeth and have no manifesto or policies other than crashing us out of the EU and who say they won’t tell us what they stand for until AFTER we’ve voted for them! How the hell has the country got itself in this state? I’ve never been more pessimistic about the future of the country as I don’t see much sign of people waking up to what’s going on and the road we’re heading down.

07:50.

We’ve called at Wilmslow, where a sizeable chunk of the folk on this two-car train decanted. Clearly, this time of day this train is a commuter service masquerading as a long-distance train. Next stop is Crewe, so I’ll be interested to see how many get on.

08:18.

I’m now on London Northwestern’s 08:18 to Birmingham New St, which is a 4-car Class 350, which is pretty much full and standing. There’s a few spare seats, but they’re the middle ones in sets of three, which most folk avoid. I’m sharing a vestibule with a bunch of LNW drivers who’re clutching notices about splitting and joining trains at New St. I’m assuming this has to do with the May timetable change. In age old fashion they’re grumbling about the new diagrams and rosters!

09:42.

Almost there! I was delayed changing trains at New St because some of the toilets are closed for refurbishment. New St being New St it was a trek to the alternatives which had folk queuing out of the door! Now I’m on a slightly delayed TfW service to Birmingham International.

14:54.

Phew! It’s been a full on day so far and started as soon as I walked through the Railtex door at 10:00. I’ve finally found time to sit down for a few minutes and get some pictures edited. Here’s a glimpse of the show so far.

DG322474cop

As usual, Siemens have a big presence at Railtex. This is one half of their stand!

DG322509crop

The Talgo stand. The company are bidding for the HS2 train contract (amongst others).

DG322554crop

It’s a Breeze! This is a model of the Class 321 train that Alstom are converting from electricity to Hydrogen.

DG322573crop

The Tratos stand always serves a good lunch for anyone leaving their business card.

19:54.

Right, where were we? Oh, yes – Railtex. I left the show an hour ago and I’m currently on virgin Trains Pendino snaking it’s way to London. Today feels like a bit of a blur as it’s been so manic. Trying to get round the show to take it all in is bad enough. Then there’s the need to be in certain places at set times, constantly bumping into friends and colleagues and trying to blog/upload pictures. By the time the day winds down you’re knackered. That said, the end of the event was fun. Alstom had a really interesting drinks reception to chat about their ‘Breeze’ hydrogen train, so a lot of us hacks met at that, afterwards we moved over to the main networking event which was a great opportunity to catch up with folk and shoot a few more pictures like this one of the band who did a great job of keeping us all entertained.

22:45.

The final update. It’s been a brilliant day. After tearing myself away from a very convivial couple of hours with friends at the end of the show I emerged, blinking, into the light and realised just what a stonking day it must have been weather wise. Now, having caught a train down to London I’m ensconced in the basement of a hotel in Kings Cross that makes me think of scenes from the bunker in ‘Downfall’ – only with better bathrooms. When you realise that to get to your room you have to press -2 you do start to get suspicious…

Hopefully I might actually see a bit of sunshine as I tour the London stations taking part in tomorrow’s event. Watch this space…

Rolling blog: London return…

29 Friday Mar 2019

Posted by Paul Bigland in London, Photojournalism, Railways, Rolling blogs, Transport, Travel

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

London, Photojournalism, Railways, Rolling blogs, Transport

09:58.It’s a gorgeous spring day today, so I’ve abandoned the office to head to London with the camera and hunt down some of the new trains coming into service at the moment. I’m on LNER’s 10:15 train heading South after arriving on a Northern service from Sowerby Bridge which was worked by one of the increasing number of refurbished units, this time a 150/2.

My LNER service is very busy. I’m assuming this is because it’s the first post peak train, although to be fair, most of these trains seem to be well loaded. Today the trains worked by one of the three Class 90 locomotives hired in from DB, 90036 named after the train driver who was badly injured in the ‘great train robbery’, Jack Mills.11:12.I changed trains at Doncaster in order to grab a shot of one of LNER’S new ‘Azuma’ trains that was sat in the station, ready to head to York, then caught a following service, so I’m on the move again..12:23.I made another stop at Newark Northgate where I was in time to catch another Azuma working North. This one stopped in the station, allowing the crew and platform staff to practise dispatching the train, which looked very smart in the sun. Here it is, pulling away from the station. For the number crunchers, it’s 800113, the last of the LNER 9-car Azuma’s

DG320573CROP

Afterwards I caught 1B86, the 12:56 service to London, which is on of the Newark terminators. Out of curiosity I walked through the train to see what the loadings were like. It seemed to be 25% full but I noticed a lot of seat reservations from Grantham, suggesting it would fill up later. 1B86 is also due to call at Peterborough and Stevenage, so I expect it’ll be busy getting into London. Unlike the other weekend when trains were kept busy moving hundreds of thousand of people to the anti Brexit march in London I’ve only seen two men who looked and sounded like they were going to today’s UKIP/Far- right and ‘March to Leave’ bunfight in Parliament Square. They were easy to spot by the gammon colour, beer guts and a loud voices complaining of ‘left wing’ newspapers!14:19I’m now basking in the sunshine at Welwyn Garden City, where the new Siemens Class 717s have entered service. Well, a pair of them anyways. Here’s one of them.

19:05

Well, that was an interesting day! After having a spin on one of the new class 717s for the first time in the UK I narrowly missed meeting up with two friends who were in London on business. Instead I took a detour to Parliament Sq to have a look at the pro Brexit demonstrations. Yes, there was more than one due to the factionalism in the Leave camp. Two stages faced each other. One was the Leave campaign’s, the other UKIPs. It was like a gammon Glastonbury, only no matter which stage you went to, the acts were shit! In truth, the whole atmosphere felt weird. As I arrived, so did the “football lads alliance”, who marched in under a West Ham banner, singing “God save the Queen” whilst escorted by police. Looking around the crowd I could see that they were exactly who I suspected they would be: overwhelmingly white and old. This was the Daily Mail and Express letters page brought to life. The placards didn’t exactly fill you with joy either. It was hate, not humour that filled them. MPs were ‘traitors’, apparently and the EU was some sort of dictatorship that was determined to abolish the UK. It was all a bit bonkers to be honest. The stage on Whitehall was the UKIP one and that had the most poisonous atmosphere as it had attracted to football hooligan and far-right element. There’s no doubt that UKIPs new leader, Batten, has turned them into a far-right party. You only had to look at their audience to see that. Here’s a few shots from the event to give you a flavour of it.

DG320655crop

The ‘Democratic Football Lads Alliance marched into the square under this banner and with a police escort. ‘Lads’? They’re all old men!

DG320656crop

This was a depressing and common theme on many placards. Teresa may should hang her head in shame after her address to the nation the other week pitted the country against its elected MPs and encouraged this sort of intimidation.

DG320665crop

– the narrative again. This has also been fostered by certain newspapers…

DG320674crop

Having spent much of their time between Sunderland and London being bussed around and without Farage in attendance, the ‘March to Leave’ walkers approach the stage. Note the fact the only non-white faces to be seen are those of the staff hired to steward the event. Their expressions say it all.

DG320683crop

The ‘March to Leave’ walkers waiting to go on stage. They were introduced as the ‘core group’. It was a small stage. They all fitted on it.

DG320690crop

1940 was 79 years ago, but for many leave supporters time has never moved on. They’re stuck in the past and perpetually fighting a war.

DG320712crop

One of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon’s supporters. Quite what the EU has to do with their Islamophobia is a mystery to anyone with half a brain, but there you are.

DG320659crop

Paranoia was another common theme.

DG320713crop

By Downong St on Whitehall was a small (100 plus) counter demonstration. This had been moved here due to the demonstration being attacked and abused earlier. It was guarded by dozens of police. At one point an angry older man was remonstrating with officers as he wanted to ‘give them a piece of his mind’. I suspect he hadn’t got much to spare. I was only allowed through the police cordon to join the demonstrators after producing my NUJ Press card.

20:20

I’m now back in Yorkshire after catching the 17:33 from London to Harrogate as far as Leeds, where it arrived 20mins late. The set was an HST and it had a poorly power car which meant our acceleration was pedestrian to say the least! Fortunately, this time of night trains to Halifax are frequent, so I only had a few minutes to wait before catching this, the 20:18 to Manchester Victoria.

Not much blogging today!

13 Wednesday Feb 2019

Posted by Paul Bigland in Journalism, Musings, Photojournalism, Railways

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Journalism, Musings, Railways

I’ve had a busy day trying to catch up with picture editing and paperwork so there’s been no time for blogging today. That said, yesterday’s blog critiquing Monday’s poor attempt of a hatchet-job on Hs2 has received some very favourable comments on Twitter. It’s always nice to get feedback, especially when it’s from well respected magazine editors and fellow professional journalists such as the Railway Magazine’s Editor, Chris Milner and also RAIL’s Managing Editor Nigel Harris.

milner

nigel

You can read the Dispatches blog here.

All the railway and travel pictures I’ve taken since the weekend are now on my Zenfolio website. If you follow this link, it’ll take you to the ‘recent’ section, which shows you which galleries the pictures have been added to.

Tomorrow I’m off to visit a local rail depot, so expect a rolling blog documenting the days travels.

Rolling blog: tales of the unexpected…

13 Tuesday Nov 2018

Posted by Paul Bigland in I love my job, Photojournalism, Rolling blogs, Travel

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

I love my job, Photojournalism, Rolling blogs, Travel

There was me, having a quiet day at home, catching up on some chores, paperwork and blogging, when the phone rang. Next thing I knew I had a commission in London tomorrow morning for something that will remain “hush hush” at this stage (all will be revealed on Wednesday).

I’d nipped out to get some autumnal pictures around Todmorden as the leaves are looking stunning at the moment. As is often the case, the the weather didn’t play ball but hopefully I’ll show you the fruits later. Right now I’ve got to head home as things have stepped up and I need to get to London this evening.

Sadly, (as often happens now) Northern services are running late so my schedules slipped already…

17:30.

Home, packed and off again. Now to get to London…

19:56.

Despite more late running by Northern I made it from Halifax to Leeds to catch my LNER service to London. Northern provided 2-car 150270 to work the 17:43 so it was full and standing as far as Bradford. I had 15 mins to make my connection which gave me just enough time to grab a sandwich before boarding. This time of evening the trains fairly quiet. I’d estimate it’s about 25-30% capacity after leaving Doncaster.

20:21.

We’ve now left Peterborough to run non-stop to London. We’ve exchanged a fair few passengers too, leaving our numbers slightly down but not much. I use to make this trip regularly back in the late 80s-early 90s and it was always a trade off between cost and time. You paid a premium for the Intercity train taking 50 mins or saved yourself few quid and caught the slower stopping service – although the clientele could be less condusive to enjoying the journey…

I’m enjoying the LNER Mk4 rake I’m travelling on because of the new information screens which are at the end of each coach. They tell you about journey times, stops and connections, so they’re really useful. Real-time information makes such a difference to being able to plan onward connections.

21:39

I’ve swapped the national network for the delights of the Piccadilly line.

22:10.

Phew! Arrived at the hotel in Hounslow ready for a busy day tomorrow. My colleagues are already abed as it’s an early start with breakfast at 07:00. Tomorrow’s rolling blog should be interesting…

Another mad week begins!

11 Monday Jun 2018

Posted by Paul Bigland in Calder Valley, Germany, Hs2, I love my job, Never a dull life, Northern Rail, Photography, Photojournalism, Rail Investment, Travel

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Germany, Hs2, I love my job, Travel

The old expression “feast or famine” springs to mind this week as I find myself with one of those weeks where there’s just too much happening at the same time, leaving me with an interesting exercise in logistics and juggling.

Right now I’m off to Manchester to check on rail improvement work and the effects of the timetable ‘difficulties’. I’ll report back on what I find. At least my train from Sowerby Bridge to Manchester’s only a minute late. It’s 158905, which is one of the DMUs West Yorkshire PTE funded ‘back in the day’. It’s still providing sterling service, even if it’s carrying a lighter load than usual today.

Funnily enough, I’ve just passed one of its sister units at Hebden Bridge which is still carrying Scotrail livery (158871). It’s the delayed cascade of units like 871 that’s contributed to Northern’s present difficulties

Tomorrow, the fun starts in earnest. I’m attending the High Speed Rail Industry Leaders conference in Leeds then heading straight down to London in readiness for an early morning flight to Germany. I’m part of a Siemens press trip which will preview some of their new products ahead of the massive Innotrans trade fair in Berlin in September. It’s going to be a busy couple of days in Germany but as soon as I land I have to dash again – this time to Crewe as I’ve volunteered to take the pictures on the Railway Children charities annual ‘3 peaks by rail’ fundraiser. This is only being made possible by my long-suffereing wife, Dawn – who will be meeting me (fleetingly) in London for a rapid kit change! Hopefully (Heathrow customs permitting) I’ll make it to Crewe in time to catch the train. If not, I’ll be catching up with them in Bangor at some God-awful hour!

The ‘3 Peaks by rail’ event lasts from Thursday evening until Saturday evening, when I should land back in Preston in time to get home. Last year that didn’t happen. One of the pair of Class 37s had to be changed at Carlisle so we were late and I had to stay over in Manchester. I’m hoping for better luck this time. Dawn’s on standby with the car, just in case…

As you can see, there’s going to be plenty to shoot and write about, so watch this space…

15.37.

Right now I’m returning from a look at electrification of and expansion to Bolton station. The delays to this project are another reason for Northern’s problems…

London bound…

15 Tuesday May 2018

Posted by Paul Bigland in London, Photojournalism, Railways, Travel

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

London, Photojournalism, Railways, Travel

I’m on my way back to London for a couple of days as I’m covering tomorrow’s annual “Community rail in the city” event. ACoRP staff and community rail partnership workers and volunteers will have a variety of stalls on many of London’s main stations from 7am until 7pm. You can find details here.

It’s a glorious day for travelling. The sun’s shining and the East Coast Main Line’s behaving itself. As a consequence I expect to have a busy afternoon when I arrive – this weather’s a photographic Godsend! First stop will be Euston to get some shots of Hs2 work around the station, so watch out for some pictures shortly…

15:14

As promised, here’s the first pictures. This is one of the new blocks that have been built to rehome people having to move out of nearby homes to make way for Hs2. They’re quite impressive as they look to allow far more natural light in than the blocks they’re replacing. They also have private balconies

Right now, I’m having a late lunch in nearby Drummond St. Understandably, the restaurants here have been concerned that trade will suffer during Hs2 construction due to direct routes to the station being blocked. I’m optimistic that won’t happen and that the influx of hundreds of extra workers to the area may have the opposite effect. Either way they’ll continue to get my business. I wonder how many of those opposing Hs2 have ever done that? Here’s Ravi Shankar’s Tuesday special – a delicious veg Biriyani

Ok, it’s the end of the day – and the blog. It’s been lovely to catch up with an old friend – and old haunts. Now I’m staying in a part of  the world that’s still familiar, but only because I’ve been around long enough to see it change!

DG295634

Happy Easter folks!

31 Saturday Mar 2018

Posted by Paul Bigland in Photojournalism, Surrey, Travel

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Photography, Surrey, Travel

Greetings from soggy Surrey! Yesterday was a bit of a washout as the rain meant my camera stayed in its bag all day. Instead I had a relaxed day with my wife’s family doing nothing much at all – although I did manage to re-edit a few archive pictures, just to keep my hand in. I still have several hundred old pictures that used to be on my former Photopic site that I’ve not had chance to add to my new Zenfolio website. That said, I’m lucky, 99% of my pictures were backed-up on hard-drives so when Fotopic suddenly pulled the plug I didn’t lose out – unlike many people who hadn’t kept their pictures safe elsewhere. I still curse the people who destroyed the vast Photopic website. It was a rich social and historical archive with a worldwide base that’s been lost because they had no idea of its historical value. Here’s one of the pictures I was editing. Class 42 number 42-2718 (Luxembourg number 5519) at Eisenach, Germany in the early hours of a February morning in 2007.

FDG05167. 5519. Eisenach. Germany. 11.2.07

Today we’ve been up early, preparing the evening meal before we join a group of friends for an amble around Tilford which (inevitably) will end up in a pub somewhere. I’ve been helping Dawn prepare this leg of lamb which will be slow roasted whilst we’re out..

20180331_085338

I hope you and yours have an enjoyable Easter. I should be back later with a few more pictures…

SUNDAY UPDATE.

Despite the gloomy weather yesterday’s walk had a good turnout, especially amongst the younger members of the Tilford troop who had a wonderful day rushing headlong through all the massive puddles we encountered en-route. The fun they had in such innocent pleasures took me back to my own childhood. The rain stayed away right until we stopped for a break at a local pub (The Duke of Cambridge) then the drizzle arrived briefly, but cleared before we moved on to the final leg which took us back into the village. Here’s a few pictures from the walk.

DG294158

Strolling along the banks of a very full River Wey

DG294263

The depth of some of the puddles meant a snorkel would’ve been more useful than wellies…

DG294224

A game for all the family…

Enjoying a post walk drink at the Barley Mow, Tilford.

Whilst we’d been out walking, the lamb had been cooking slowly for several hours. When we got home and checked the oven, this is what we found…

20180331_161357

Cooked to perfection…

Dawn had prepared a two different desserts to finish off the evening. The Lemon Meringue pie proved especially popular and didn’t last long!

20180331_203906_015

 

 

Going back to my roots…

28 Sunday Jan 2018

Posted by Paul Bigland in I love my job, London, Photojournalism

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Housing, I love my job, London, Photojournalism

I’m working in London for the next few days and for a change – it’s nothing to do with railways. Instead, I’m going back to old haunts and shades of a former career.

Back in the 1980s-90s before I became a photographer I used to work and live in social housing. In fact, it was the focus of my life. I was a Housing Officer for the London Borough of Tower Hamlets as well as being very much involved in running the tenant management Housing Co-op in which I lived – which went by the name of ‘Wilfrid’ (after one of Beano comic strip Bash St kids). It’s over 20 years ago now as I moved out of the co-op in 1996 and left housing in 1997 but I always maintained an interest in the sector – helped by the fact my ex-wife worked for various charities at the time, including Homeless Network and the Big Issue. I look back on those days with fondness and treasure a lot of the memories. The stories that I could tell…

For the next three days I’m looking forward to combining my love of photography and interest in housing as I have a commission to take pictures in a trio of private homes for the elderly in North London. I suspect I’m going to meet some fascinating people and hear some interesting stories in the process.

I’m still here!

04 Friday Aug 2017

Posted by Paul Bigland in ACoRP, Photojournalism, Travel

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

ACoRP, Photojournalism, Travel

Finally, I’ve found a few minutes to blog. I’m sitting on a train from Leeds to Derby to meet up with a fellow ACoRP judge (Paul Cook of the Royal Horticultural Society) before we go looking at stations that are entered in the ‘It’s Your Station’ section of the community rail awards.

It’s been a hectic month, which is why I’ve not had any time to blog. The only writing I’ve been doing has been for a living. There’s one article on the 3 peaks by rail event in this weeks RAIL magazine and another on a Welsh railway line is in preparation. I’ve also been busy getting pictures from around the country for ACoRP’s ‘Scenic rail Britain’ website (which you can find here). All this has meant most of my time has been taken up by travelling, picture editing or writing – not that I’m complaining! I’ve had a wonderful time visiting some great places. Here’s a sample, the beautiful Borders railway in Scotland.

DG275804. 158869. Stow. 3.7.17

The next couple of weeks will be taken up by the awards judging. We’ve stations all over the England to visit, so it’s quite time-consuming. After that I should be able to spend more time at home – but then, I’ve said that before. In this job, you never know what’s going to come up next!

Apologies for absence…

10 Thursday Mar 2016

Posted by Paul Bigland in Photojournalism, Uncategorized, Work

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Photojournalism, Work

I’m sorry about the lack of any blogs recently. This has been due to two things,  beginning the mammoth task of scanning my old slide collection – and the virtual collapse of the anti Hs2 campaign.

I converted to digital photography in March 2004 but between then and October 1989 all my pictures were taken on a variety of slide films (remember names like Kodachrome, Velvia & Provia?). I started off using a Pentax ME Super that I bought second-hand off a friend before switching to Nikon in the early 1990s. I gradually upgraded models before finally standardising on an F5 and F90x loaded with 50 asa Fuji Velvia and a ‘fast’ 400 asa Provia.

My collection grew to something like 25,000 images which took up two long shelves in my home in North London. I’d bought a Nikon Coolscan slide scanner & I’d scan a few every now and then but my commercial work meant there was never enough time to do them all. After moving to Yorkshire they went into storage and the scanner fell into disuse as the software became outdated & incompatible with modern versions of Windows.

Now I’ve decided it’s finally time to get my arse into gear & get them scanned. I’ve bought new scanner software, dug out my lightbox, a few albums and begun the process – which is going to take me a couple of years at least! To ensure the quality of each image and that each slide is ready to scan takes time (dust was always the bane of a film photographers life). On a good day I can do around 40 – but this has to fit around my commissioned work.

The end result should be worth it as an amazing collection of rail and travel pictures will be added to my website. I spent a lot of those years travelling the world, including two long trips between 1991-92 and 1997-99*. On the railway front there’s pictures that encompass the latter days of British Rail and the early days of privatisation. I’ve started off with two albums I had handy which are pictures from Tanzania, the UK and Greece (follow the links to see the pictures).

I’ll still be blogging, but right now I’m trying to work out a new work/life balance, so please forgive me if blogs are a little sparse!

 

*It was after that 18 month trip that I packed up my previous career working in local government managing social housing to become a freelance professional photographer – but that’s another story…

← Older posts
Newer posts →

Recent Posts

  • Asian adventure day 25. Kanchanaburi day 2.
  • Asian adventure day 24. Kanchanaburi day 1.
  • Asian adventure day 23. Bangkok day 6.
  • Asian adventure day 22. Bangkok day 5.
  • Asian adventure day 21. Bangkok day 4.

Recent Comments

Helen on Asian adventure day 24. Kancha…
Paul Bigland on Whatever happened to the anti…
James K on Whatever happened to the anti…
Paul Bigland on Whatever happened to the anti…
James K on Whatever happened to the anti…

Archives

  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • June 2013

Categories

  • 'Green' madness
  • 'Think Tanks'
  • 144e
  • 2005 London bombing
  • 2017 General election
  • 3 peaks by rail
  • 3 Peaks by ral
  • 51M
  • 7/7
  • Abandoned railways
  • Abu Dhabi
  • ACoRP
  • Adam Smith Institute
  • Adrian Quine
  • Advertising
  • Air Travel
  • Aircraft
  • Airports
  • Airshows
  • Allan Cook
  • Amsterdam
  • Andrea Leadsom MP
  • Andrew Gilligan
  • Andrew Haylen
  • Andy Burnham MP
  • Anti Hs2 mob
  • AONBs
  • Arambol
  • Architecture
  • Art
  • Australia
  • Bali
  • Bangkok
  • Bank holidays
  • Barrow Hill
  • Belgium
  • Bereavement
  • Berlin
  • Bigotry
  • Birmingham
  • Blists Hill
  • Blue passports
  • Boris Johnson MP
  • Brexit
  • Brighouse
  • Brighton
  • British Railways
  • British Railways (BR)
  • Byline media
  • Calder Valley
  • Canals
  • Carillion
  • Carolyne Culver
  • Censorship
  • Charities
  • Cheryl Gillan MP
  • Cheshire
  • China
  • Chris Packham
  • Claire Perry MP
  • Class 155
  • Class 313
  • Class 314s
  • Class 317
  • Class 320
  • Class 321
  • Class 365
  • Class 455
  • Class 456
  • Class 507
  • Class 508
  • Class 60s
  • Class 91
  • Climate Change
  • Communications
  • Community
  • Community rail
  • Community Rail Network
  • COP26
  • Corbynwatch
  • Coronavirus
  • Covid 19
  • CP5
  • Crap journalism
  • Crazy anti Hs2 campaigner of the week
  • Crazy kippers
  • Crewe Hub
  • Crossrail
  • Cuba
  • Cumbria
  • Customs
  • Cyberattacks
  • Cycle India
  • Cycling
  • Dawn
  • Democracy
  • Denmark
  • Derbyshire
  • Desiro City
  • Diary
  • Dispatches
  • Doha
  • Donald Trump
  • Doomed
  • Down memory lane
  • East Midlands Railway franchise
  • East Midlands Trains
  • Easter fairy stories
  • ECML
  • Economic illiteracy
  • Economics
  • election2015
  • Engineering
  • Environment
  • Essex
  • Eurostar
  • Euston
  • Extinction Rebellion
  • Fake News
  • Festivals
  • Film and TV
  • Flooding
  • Flora and Fauna
  • Food
  • Food and drink
  • Foot in mouth
  • Gardening
  • GBRf
  • General election
  • General election 2019
  • Georgetown
  • Germany
  • Glasgow
  • Glossop
  • GNGE
  • GNRP
  • Goa
  • Grand Central trains
  • Grant Shapps MP
  • Great Western Railway
  • Greater Anglia franchise
  • Greece
  • Green issues
  • Green madness
  • Green Party
  • Gt Missenden
  • GTR
  • Guido Fawkes
  • GWML
  • GWR franchise
  • Gwyll Jones
  • Halifax
  • Harvil Rd Hs2 protest
  • Harz railway
  • Heathrow 3rd runway
  • High Speed 1
  • High Speed UK
  • History
  • Hitachi
  • Hong Kong
  • House of Lords
  • HS North
  • Hs2
  • Hs2 Bow Group
  • Hs2 petitions
  • Hs2 Phase 2B
  • Hs2 to Crewe
  • Hs2aa
  • HS2Rebellion
  • HSUK
  • Huddersfield
  • Humberside
  • Humour
  • Hurricane Ophelia
  • Hypocrisy
  • I love my job
  • Imperial College London
  • India
  • Indonesia
  • Infrarail
  • Innotrans
  • Internet
  • Iolo Williams
  • Ireland
  • Islamophobia
  • Jacob Rees Mogg
  • Jeremy Corbyn
  • Jeremy Corbyn MP
  • Jo Johnson MP
  • Joe Rukin
  • John McDonnell MP
  • John Poyntz
  • Johnathan Bartley
  • Journalism
  • Kanchanaburi
  • Kent
  • Kuala Lumpur
  • Labour election
  • Lancashire
  • Laos
  • Law and order
  • Lazy journalism
  • Leicestershire
  • Liam Halligan
  • libel
  • Lilian Greenwood MP
  • Liverpool
  • LNER
  • Local elections
  • Local elections 2018
  • Lockdown
  • London
  • Lord Berkeley
  • LRT
  • M62 motorway
  • Major Projects Authority
  • Malaysia
  • Manchester
  • Manchester Airport
  • Manchester Victoria
  • MAPA
  • Mark Keir
  • Marketing
  • Martin Tett
  • Melton Mowbray
  • Memory Lane
  • Merseyside
  • Michael Dugher MP
  • Michael Fabricant MP
  • Mid Cheshire against Hs2
  • Miscellany
  • Modern Railways
  • Monorails
  • Music
  • Musings
  • Mytholmroyd
  • Natalie Bennett
  • National Rail Awards
  • National Trust
  • Nepal
  • Network Rail
  • Never a dull life
  • New Economics Foundation
  • New trains
  • New Year
  • New York
  • New Zealand
  • NHS
  • Nigel Farage
  • Norfolk
  • Norland scarecrow festival
  • Northern Powerhouse
  • Northern Rail
  • Nostalgia
  • Nottingham
  • Obituaries
  • Old Oak Common
  • ORR
  • Ossett
  • Our cat, Jet
  • Oxfordshire
  • Pacers
  • Paris terror attack
  • Parliament
  • Pasenger Growth
  • Patrick McLouglin MP
  • Penny Gaines
  • Peter Jones
  • Peterborough
  • Photography
  • Photojournalism
  • Picture of the day
  • Poetry
  • Politics
  • Porterbrook
  • PR nightmares
  • Protest
  • Public Accounts Ctte
  • Pubs
  • rail ale
  • Rail electrification
  • Rail fares
  • Rail Investment
  • Rail Live 2021
  • Rail Live 2022
  • RAIL magazine
  • Rail Moderinsation
  • Rail PR
  • Railfreight
  • Railstaff awards
  • Railtex
  • Railway Benefit Fund (RBF)
  • Railways
  • Rant
  • Religion
  • RFEM
  • Richard Wellings
  • Ride India
  • Road accidents
  • Rolling blogs
  • ROSCOs
  • Royal Mail
  • Royal Wedding 2018
  • RSPB
  • Rugby Observer
  • Rushbearing
  • SAIP
  • Scores on the doors
  • Scotland
  • Scotrail
  • Sheffield
  • Shrewsbury
  • Shropshire
  • Siemens
  • Signalling
  • Silly season
  • Simon Heffer
  • Simon Jenkins
  • Singapore
  • Sleeper trains
  • Snail mail
  • Social media
  • South West Trains
  • Southport
  • Sowerby Bridge
  • Spectator magazine
  • Sri Lanka
  • St Pancras station
  • Stafford
  • Stamford
  • Station buffets
  • StopHs2
  • Surrey
  • Talgo
  • Teresa May
  • Terrorism
  • Tesla
  • Thailand
  • Thameslink
  • The 'Beast from the East'
  • The BBC
  • The Big 6
  • The Daily Express
  • The end of the line
  • The fog
  • The Grauniad
  • The Great Central railway
  • The Green Party
  • The Independent
  • The Moorcock Inn
  • The Piece Hall
  • The Railway Children
  • The Rodelblitz
  • The USA
  • The Woodland Trust
  • Tilford
  • Tony Allen
  • Torquay
  • Tourism
  • TPE
  • Traffic congestion
  • Trams
  • Trans-Pennine electrification
  • Transport
  • Transport for Wales (TfW)
  • Travel
  • Twilight years
  • Twitter
  • Twitter (and how not to use it)
  • UK
  • UK steel industry
  • UKIP
  • Uncategorized
  • Vandalism
  • Victoria Prentis MP
  • Virgin Trains
  • Virgin West Coast
  • Vivarail
  • Wales
  • Walking
  • Warwickshire
  • WCML
  • Weather
  • West Yorkshire
  • Wigan
  • Wildlife Trusts
  • Worcester
  • Work
  • World War 1
  • World War Two
  • Yorkshire
  • YorkshireStopHs2

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • Paul Bigland
    • Join 400 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Paul Bigland
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...