Today I escaped from Southport – albeit briefly, through an excursion to Preston care of my eldest brother, John. He was driving over to do some shopping and checking out parking for a future excursion with his kids, so I joined him for the ride. We don’t see much of each other nowadays as our lives have diverged, but John was a huge support for me and for Lynn towards the end of her life.
Before John picked me up I’d time to check out what was going on with the railway line to Wigan. The line’s closed until Saturday due to engineering work at Parbold, but Network Rail have take the opportunity to chop back a lot of trees and bushes along the line in Southport between the site of the old St Lukes station and Meols Cop. The work certainly needs doing. This is why. Here’s how it looked in 2003.
Here’s the same area today, with an RRV trimming back the extensive tree growth that’s hidden the nearby houses completely.
The trip out to Preston was rather fun. I’ve never really explored the city that much, despite visiting on a regular basis over recent years. This time I got to see different sides of the town, including the ‘old’ (or rather rebuilt) market, which had a great Indian food stall as well as some excellent butchers and fruit and veg stalls.
Great curries, both veg and non-veg, and the Samosas are exellent.Quality fruit and veg in Preston market.
As we were only a stone’s throw away it would have been rude not to visit a fantastic CAMRA national inventory pub – the grade 2 listed Black Horse for a ‘swifty’. The interior is stunning. Here’s some of the detail around the bar.
Now I’m back in Southport, drying off after getting a soaking. I’d made the mistake of walking into town, thinking the rain that had been forecast was never going to arrive. Bad move! It waited for me to begin walking back! Still, I’m not complaining, at least we’re getting rain – unlike a lot of the country.
Tomorrow I’ll be taking another trip out of Southport. This time to Parbold to (hopefully) have a look at the railway engineering work. Depending on other events I may make it a round trip via Wigan and Liverpool. We’ll see…
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Having been cooped up recently and with the weather improving I’ve headed out with the camera for a few hours. It’s a good time to be on the rails as today is world sustainable transport day – and trains have a huge part to play.
I was undecided where to head for as that very much depended on the weather and what I wanted to see. My final decision was made when I got to Halifax station, where I looked at what was running and plumped for a Northern service to Blackpool North via Preston, which is where I’m typing this from. As the season’s over the train’s pretty empty, with the buckets and spades having been put away for the winter. There’s a few people who’re obviously having a day out, but you’d be brave (or foolhardy) to be heading to the beach today! There’s not a sign of snow anywhere as we pass through the old cotton towns of Burnley Blackburn and Accrington, although more is on the way, apparently – but not today. Railhead conditions don’t seem too bad either, as this 3-car Class 195 seems sure-footed and the driver’s managing to keep pretty much to time.
I’ll be posting a few pictures from Preston later, then working out what circuitous route I take back this evening. Feel free to pop back to see where and what I get up to!
15:30.
I’m back at Preston after a little diversion (more of which later). I’d hoped to find some of the Northern Class 323 EMUs in the area as there’s several diagrams between Wigan, Preston and Blackpool in order to allow crews from the area to be able to learn the trains, which will be taking over some services in the future. This is because a number of the trains have been cascaded to Northern after being replaced on services around Birmingham, where West Midlands trains have dispensed with the services of their entire class 323 fleet. A real EMU shuffle has gone on in recent years. First Northern acquired hand-me-down class 319s, then brand new class 331s, now they’re back in the second-hand market with the 323s.
Sadly, none of the diagrams were working today. However, not all was lost as there’s a number of diagrams along the WCML to allow Avanti West Coast to run in and train staff on the Hitachi built Class 805 ‘Evero’ fleet. A couple of examples passed through.
805004 sits at Preston before returning South as 3A83, the 1332 Preston to London Euston.805002 also put in an appearance. It’s seen here on a break whilst working as 3N84, the 1543 Lancaster to Northampton.
16:45.
Having failed to get the shots I wanted I’ve headed home via Wigan, catching a Euston-bound Pendolino as far as North Western. I couldn’t resist a quick pit-stop in a pub that’s been a West Coast railway landmark for years but that’s enjoying a new lease of life since it being taken over and reopened 5 years sgo – the Swan and Railway. You can’t help seeing it as you travel North as it’s right next to the station.
The Swan has a wide range of drinks, including seven hand pumps for real ale. They also accept CAMRA vouchers, making beer very reasonably priced.
21:30.
Home again after an ‘interesting’ trip home. All went well until I got to Manchester. I had a pleasant trip from Wigan aboard one of Northern’s old Metro-Cammell built Class 156s. The train was less than 20% and the atmosphere relaxed. Things changed at Victoria. A passenger had been taken ill over on platform 4 which brought two of the stations through platforms to a standstill. Sadly, judging by the number of paramedics BTP officers and station staff in attendance, it wasn’t a minor problem. Despite the delays and disruption this caused I have to compliment all those who were involved for the way they handled the incident. The overwhelming majority of passengers here understanding too, even when our train was further delayed due to our relief driver being stuck on another train outside the station. Still, I made it home OK, I can only hope that the poor soul who needed medical intervention did too.
Here’s a few more pictures from my travels to end the day.
A busy scene at Preston. On the left, 397001 has arrived on 1M87, the 1212 Edinburgh to Manchester Airport. In the middle, 397011 is ready to leave with 1M75, the 1204 Glasgow Central to Liverpool Lime Street, whilst 195129 waits on 1C57, the 1329 Manchester Airport to Barrow-in-Furness.A Windhoff MPV sits at Wigan North Western before reversing whilst working 3S58, the 1653 Wigan L.I.P. to Wigan L.I.P which will visit many locations across Lancashire during its patrol as a Railhead Treatment Train. (RHTT). When you see crowds like this on the platforms at Manchester Victoria, you know something’s gone awry.
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/
Paul Bigland 