Category Archives: Railways

The last blog of 2022. (revised and completed on Jan 1st).

31 Saturday Dec 2022

Posted by in Musings, Photography, Politics, Railways

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I’m sitting here at the keyboard trying to work out how to make sense of such a tumultuous year without disappearing into repetitious rambling so I’m going to use a few headings to help – although there’s bound to be a few crossovers in the subjects. Let’s face it, it’s been one hell of a year, both in the UK and wider world, so it’s no surprise the the Collins dictionary word of the year 2022 is “permacrisis” – it sums up the situation perfectly. Having seen the back of Donald Trump and with Covid looking like it was burning itself out with no more nasty mutations the year started with some hope, but that was soon dashed.

Politics

On 24th February Russia invaded the Ukraine. ‘Special military operation’ (as the Russians called it) my arse, this was a full scale attempt to annex to country. It’s led to the largest refugee situation in Europe since world war two (both Ukrainian, and Russians who’ve fled their own country), along with the most destructive and devastating war since 1939. It’s also looking likely to lead to the collapse of Russia as it’s clear the war was a disastrous miscalculation of the part of Vladimir Putin. The pressures on the Russian economy due to sanctions plus the increasing lawlessness within the country as conscripts return from the war, disillusioned (and often with smuggled weapons) and the increasing isolation of the country are threads that are unwinding the fabric of the nation. It’s hardly surprising. Ordinary Russians are being kept tin the dark by their Government, but the scale of the Russian losses in men and equipment estimated by the Ukrainians (and others like the Oryx website) are staggering.

The knock-on effects across Europe and the UK have been huge. The British economy, already reeling from Covid, Brexit and 12 years of increasingly chaotic mismanagement by the Tories was then hit by massive increases in energy costs. In short. It’s a shit-storm and sadly, there’s no sign of it getting better in 2023. The Tories have run out of ideas (other than feathering their own nests) but they seem to have an endless supply of hopeless and hapless Prime Ministers. You may have thought serial liar Boris Johnson and his ‘oven ready’ Brexit deal was bad but after a painfully long election process Liz Truss said ‘hold my beer’ and managed to crash the UK economy and make the UK an international laughing-stock in just 49 days – the shortest tenure any British Prime Minister. Then there was the death of the Queen, which paralyzed the UK at the same time. Cards on the table (to quote right-wing Twitter trolls) – I’m not a monarchist, although having met many (including the late Queen and her husband) of them I have no problem with the people, just the institution. Most Brits have no idea how that institution has an impact on their daily lives as all they see is the pomp and circumstance – or read about the bitching that goes on in the UK press about them as a useful diversion from the real world. The Romans had ‘bread and circuses’, we have the spectator sport of Harry and Meghan vs the Palace as part of the extension of the right-wingers ‘war on woke’. It fills the news media to keep you distracted and stops you looking at the bigger picture.

Unabashed after their ousting of Boris Johnson – then Liz Truss, the Tory party then turned to an also ran – Rishi Sunak, a multi-millionaire who’s so out of touch his PR stunt serving food to homeless people went so spectacularly wrong a team of comedy writers would have dismissed it as too far-fetched. ‘Do you work in business’? Oh, FFS! With this bunch unashamedly clinging onto power for as long as they possibly can (2024) the new year looks to hold little cheer. It’s clear Rishi Sunak is a weak leader, but then his party is ungovernable. It’s riven by factions and dominated by swivel-eyed loons inside and outside the cabinet. Privately (and not so privately) many of them realise that they next election is lost, the question now is how much damage they’ll do before they’re turfed out when the votes are cast. There’s a lot of nest-feathering going on at the expense of ordinary people and I doubt the extent of the corruption will be revealed until (and unless) the next government hold some enquiries. The current situation goes to prove the old adage that oppositions don’t win elections, Governments lose them. Labour under Keir Starmer have vanquished the ghost of Jeremy Corbyn, the man who gifted the Tories such a huge majority in 2019 (cue howls of outrage, bluster and selective statistics from Corbynistas) but that’s all they’ve done. People will vote for them out purely for the fact they’re the only way to oust the Tories – not because they feel inspired by them. Starmer’s strategy to pretend he can make Brexit work may be seen as clever politicking, but it doesn’t make him look honest – and we desperately need a return to honest politics after so many years of lies and deceit. In the meantime, Brexit will continue to unravel. It’s painfully obvious that it’s a turd that can’t be polished but Brexit is like a religion to some, it’s an article of faith and they’ll cling onto it. But faith can’t make fiction fact and the economic harm its doing to the UK will continue to manifest itself no matter how deep its adherent stick their heads in the sand. Now people can travel again it’s not hard to see the disparity when you cross the channel. The EU hasn’t collapsed as predicted, supermarket shelves are full and despite the energy crisis caused by the war, living standards (and wages) are higher. Not only that but other countries are still clamouring to join the EU. In fact on January 1st Croatia adopted the Euro as its currency and also joined Schengen (the free travel area). It’s easy to see just how isolationist and out of step the UK is. Europe’s going forward and we’re going backwards.

Railways

It’s been another torrid time on the UK rail network. Just as the system seemed to be recovering from Covid and passenger numbers growing far quicker than many pessimists predicted we’ve had a series of debilitating strikes with central government and the unions at loggerheads. Whilst regional governments in Scotland and Wales are willing to compromise and find a way forward through pay agreements, central government ain’t. They see it as a trial of strength and a way of shoring up their collapsing vote (have you seen the opinion polls recently?) by playing hardball to pander to their hardcore. We’ve had the worst Transport Minister for decades (Grant Shapps) followed by a revolving door. In the meantime, the Treasury (as always) are dictating terms via the DfT and there’s no sign of any political coherence – much less a strategic plan that will last longer than the next Ministerial appointment. It’s a depressing time when there’s so many real issues needing serious answers – and a long term plan (hello ‘climate change’ anybody? That you despair. On the bright side, Crossrail – sorry the Elizabeth line – opened on the 24th May and proved to be a massive success, as many of us knew it would be. The expression ‘build it and they will come’ is appropriate for so many UK rail projects – and sod the useless and BCR (Benefit Cost Ratio) calculations which so often prove to be that conservative they’re useless. A fag-packet would be embarrassed to have them scrawled on its back.

London’s East End never used to look like this! This is the new Crossrail interchange station at Whitechapel. Once the territory of ‘Jack the Ripper’. Murder it ain’t!

The dumb thing? The future of the railways should be a no-brainer due to the need to get modal shift from road/air to rail to tackle climate change. But then you have the problem of competing political ideologies and the fact the Tories are underpinned by so many crazies from the libertarian far-right who’re doing their best to pretend it’s not real. Thankfully, they’ve not managed to stop the majority of building High-Speed 2. Forget the Nimbys and protesters, they never had nay political clout, it was people close to Boris ‘two-faced’ Johnson who’ve done the most damage to the project by paring away at it without any credible replacement, timetable or plan. The bright side? The next Labour government (because that’s what we’ll have) have committed to building HS2 in full. What will drag on is the interminable and utterly pointless political arguments over privatisation vs nationalisation which is a distraction from actually making the railways work for everyone. ‘Great British Railways’ is now dead. The reorganisation’s stalled, but we have no idea what will replace it. Instead we have the classic British ‘buggers muddle’ with the railways caught between a rock (the Treasury) and a hard place (The Dept of Transport), made worse by a Government that has no idea what it’s doing, other than trying to cling on to power. Here in West Yorkshire we do have some things to look forward to as at least the Trans-Pennine route upgrade is going ahead, although that’s still a mixed picture. We know what it will look like East of Huddersfield as far as Dewsbury where work’s already started, but we’ve no real idea how it will look Westwards, or how this supposed new line from Liverpool that’s (somehow) going to end in the village of Marsden will happen – if it ever does as there’ll be another election before work even starts!

Travel

I’ve been fortunate to have several breaks from the Septic Isle in 2022, Most of which have involved working (and meeting friends) in Germany which gives a completely different perspective from this bizarre up it’s own arse island nation many people choose to be marooned on. Then the pair of us had a a fortnight in Greece, which showed us another side. Funny how Rhodes – despite it being an island – didn’t suffer the supermarket shortages and empty shelves that have become a matter of routine in the UK – and that includes from imported goods. Once could almost imagine being in a customs union and single-market had advantages! Now, in the new year I’m preparing to take a break from Britain for a couple of months and catch up with old friends and happenings in South-East Asia. No doubt the contrasts to the UK will be very interesting, expecially as I’ll be starting in Singapore, the island state that some Tories touted as their aspiration for the Brexit Britain, with London becoming Singapore on Thames. It was all bollocks of course.

2023. Things to look forward to…

I’d love to be able to say ‘a general election’ but that’s extremely unlikely! Instead I’m looking forward to a Russian defeat and Ukrainian victory this year. I’m hopeful that there might be some economic cheer too but with this lot in charge I’d suggest that will be more down to luck and the actions of others than the Government. I’m also looking forward to seeing High Speed 2 construction proceeding apace. The project passed some impressive milestones in 2022, the anti HS2 rebellion collapsed as their camps were swept away and the few remaining occupants scattered to the four winds. I’ll be visiting as many locations as I can in 2023 to report on progress.

In the meantime, let me wish you all a peaceful and optimistic New Year and all the best for 2023.

Thanks for popping by and reading some of the 264 blogs I published in 2022. This site had 72,006 views from 115 nations last year plus several donations towards helping me cover the (not inconsiderable) costs of running my blog. Thank you one and all! And finally, a big thank you (and love) to Dawn, my wife, for putting up with me disappearing many an evening to pen one of these blogs. Thanks Babe!

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

Thank you!

12th December picture of the day…

12 Monday Dec 2022

Posted by in Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Politics, Railways, Travel, West Yorkshire

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We’ve had a wintery start to the week here at Bigland Towers. Snow arrived in the Calder Valley at the weekend and, whilst it’s hardly deep and crisp and even the dusting we’ve had is certainly sticking around. To make matters worse the temperature plummeted today with the mercury never getting above -2 but hitting -5 this morning whilst the valley itself disappeared behind a mask of freezing fog. So, I’ve spent the entire day indoors, not even making it out for my daily stroll. Instead, I’ve beavered away in the office sorting out pictures and filing in order to create some space in the calendar for the future (more about that later).

I doubt I’ll be venturing far for the rest of the week. Whilst the temperature’s due to creep above zero towards the end of the week there’s another problem. Tomorrow sees the start of the next round of rail strikes, only our local operator (Northern) has essentially thrown in the towel. They’re not bothering to run any service at all through Halifax and the Calder Valley until Sunday! That’s’ 5 days without any services across most of their network, which covers the whole of the North, taking in Cumbria, Yorkshire, the North-West and Cheshire, including major cities like Manchester. and Leeds (which sees a skeleton service based on the Aire valley electric trains, see below).

Sadly, there’s no sign of this dispute coming to an end. It looks like it will drag on well into next year. There’s conflicting reports coming out about who’s to blame for the breakdown in negotiations, as my RAIL magazine colleague, Phil Haigh, pointed out on Twitter earlier.

Whilst I can appreciate both sides of this dispute the people I feel for are those caught in the crossfire. I don’t just mean passengers, although having no trains here for the rest of the week when we have snow and ice on the ground is hardly desirable. I feel for the many small businesses who rely on the railways for their trade. The shop and cafe owners who’ve been suffering and struggling for years as Northern and the unions have been in regular disputes for years. The toll this has taken on many businesses goes unrecognised. Just as they were getting back on their feet Covid struck. Then, as they were slowly recovering from that we had the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent energy crises. Oh, and that’s without mentioning the impact Brexit has had, making goods ever more expensive. It’s been a perfect storm for rail-based businesses so I’m not in the least surprised to have seen how many had closed down when I was doing my recent round Britain trip for RAIL. Station cafes and shops the length and breadth of the network have gone forever, and my fear is that more will follow in the new year because there’s no sign of a light at the end of the tunnel. They’re the ‘collateral damage’ from these strikes.

Another casualty of these strikes is my annual visit to the Railway Carol service in London, which is being held in Euston on Thursday. There’s no way I can get there in time, and even getting back would be risky. Instead, I’ll be spending another day at home, planning another adventure that’s been deferred by Covid.

On Saturday I had confirmation of my flight to Singapore in January. I’ll be spending two months away from the Septic Isle, exploring old haunts in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia – and also taking in some new sights too (hopefully). So, the enforced ‘downtime’ I have this week will allow me to start planning the trip. I’d originally hoped to have left the UK before Christmas, but the cost of flights was ridiculous. This many have been a blessing in disguise as the Christmas period is looking like a lousy time to travel due to the rail dispute and disruption at airports due to the Border Force taking strike action. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the date I’ve chosen to fly out (January 10th) is in that ‘sweet spot’ between strikes. Time will tell.

So, don’t expect much in the way of new rail pictures from me this week, which is very frustrating as I have a market for railway snow scenes but no way of capturing them! Instead, here’s an archive shot taken in the Calder Valley several years ago.

On the 21st January 2013 ‘Pacer’ 144009 approaches Sowerby Bridge from the East with a service for Manchester Victoria.

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

Thank you!

New train fun-day…

02 Friday Dec 2022

Posted by in Photography, Railways, Transport for Wales (TfW), Travel, Wales

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I’m on my way home after a very busy day testing new trains for RAIL magazine along with an old friend and colleague – Pip Dunn. I can’t go into any detail about what we experienced (obviously) as you’ll be able to read about our findings in future editions of the magazine. We’ve checked out two different versions of the same type of train today. Firstly, the CAF built Class 196s for West Midlands Trains (hence us staying in Shrewsbury last night). We tried out their 4-car trains that have been introduced on the route from Shrewsbury to Birmingham New St. We tried two different class 196s between Shrewsbury and Wolverhampton. That job done we moved location. Pip had come by car as travelling to our next destination would have been time-consuming by rail. Instead, we drove through foggy Shropshire to join the A5 to head to Wales. Amazingly, the weather changed en-route. Once we were West of Llangollen the fog cleared, and we were treated to clear blue skies and sunshine all the way to Llandudno. There we swapped the car for a trip on a Transport for Wales 2 -car Class 197 to Bleanau Ffestiniog and back. Despite sharing the same bodyshell, traction package and underfloor equipment the two units were very different internally – as you’ll find out if you read the articles. What I will show you now is a couple of external shots.

The four-car commuter version for West Midlands Railway, seen at Shrewsbury after a run from Birmingham.
The two-car, longer-distance version for Transport for Wales, seen at Llandudno. The interior is very different to the unit pictured above. These units are wasted on the Ffestiniog branch as they’re configured for mainline running.

On our return from Ffestiniog I bade adieu to Pip at Llandudno Junction as I was heading home by rail whilst Pip had another little job to do for his other passion – HGVs. I ended up on a packed 2-car TfW (Transport for Wales) Class 158 all the way to Chester. The North Wales Coast line’s very scenic as it hugs the coast. Except when it’s a winter’s evening like today when you can’t see a bloody thing!

At Chester I had time for a swift pint in the pub across the road from the station – which was packed as it’s a Friday evening – before catching my train home. I’m now sat in the lead car of yet another CAF built unit, this time a Northern Class 195/0. Only this one seems to have square wheels! There’s a noticeable wheel flat on the front bogie (which I’m sat over) which is painful at slow speed but bearable at line speed.

Despite the wheel flat I’ve had a productive journey as far as Manchester as I had a table to myself, so managed to get loads of pictures edited. Tat changed at Manchester Victoria where the commuter and Christmas shopper hordes were waiting for my train to take ’em home. Now we’re rammed, so it’s time to sign off for now, but I will leave you with one last shot of rather older traction. The ‘leafbuster’ trains are still very much in evidence due to a late autumn and I caught this over-powered example at Chester yesterday.

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

Thank you!

Rolling blog. Another Shropshire sojourn..

01 Thursday Dec 2022

Posted by in Photography, Railways, Rolling blogs, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, Travel

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11:10.

I’m working in Shropshire and North Wales tomorrow but it’s going to be a long day with an early start, so I’m making my way from West Yorkshire to Shrewsbury as I’ll be staying this evening in readiness for the first trip of the day. I’ll be meeting up with an old friend and colleague as it’s a two-person job. Right now I’m on my way to Chester aboard the direct train from Sowerby Bridge. Northern introduced hourly direct Leeds – Chester via Halifax trains in October 2019. It’s a very useful service as it provides a direct connection with the West Coast Main Line (WCML) at Warrington Bank Quay, as well as making it easier to get to North Wales. My service is worked by a pair of 2-car CAF built Class 195s, which are staple traction on the route. Modern trains like this add to its attraction. I’ve a table so set up the mobile office. Sadly, this particular unit isn’t in the best of health. There’s no working power sockets and the passenger information system’s lost! It’s half a dozen stations behind where it really is, so it’s announcing we’re about to arrive in Sowerby Bridge whilst our next stop’s actually Manchester Victoria! I’m travelling in the front car of the leading unit. Loadings are good, between 65-70% from what I can see, although I expect that figure to drop after Manchester.

The weather’s still grey and gloomy this side of the Pennines. Hardly ideal for photography as skies will be completely washed-out in pictures. Even so, I’ll be stopping off a couple of times en-route on my roundabout way to Shrewsbury in order to get some pictures, so expect a few shots to appear later.

11:30.

We’ve just left Newton-le-Willows and my train’s busy again thanks to a goodly number of people joining us at this rebuilt station. The facilities have really improved since the new building and lifts replaced the long staircases that used to be the only way to reach the platforms, but it’s sad to see the original building boarded up and unused.

12:00.

During our stop at Warrington Bank Quay I grabbed the chance to move tables and found working power sockets. Hurrah! The Only downside is I’m now sat over the leading bogie. The 195s are known for rough-riding and this unit (007) is no different. I’ve already had a couple of spine-jarring thumps as we’ve passed over rough track joints. Passing the freight yards at Warrington was rather a sad sight as they’re nowhere near as busy as they once were as the coal traffic that provided a lot of their business has disappeared – as have the rakes of hopper wagons that moved the stuff. Now many of the sidings are disused, the deep patina of rust on the railhead giving away the fact they’ve not been used for a long time.

14:00.

Well, that’s been a busy couple of hours. I’m still at Chester and will write more about my experiences later when I’m on the move again. In the meantime, here’s a few photos showing the variety I’ve observed. Right now I’m having a few minutes in the warm as it’s bleedin’ Baltic out on the station!

A pair of Transport for Wales Class 153s, aka ‘Dogboxes’ sit in one of the bays underneaththe truncated station roof before working a service to Liverpool Lime St.
An old friend. This class 150 used to work Silverlink services on my local line in London before moving on. First to GWR, and now Northern. In the background is a Merseyrail electric class 507.
The venerable Class 507s were introduced by British Rail back in 1978 but like many old BR fleets they’re living on borrowed time. Covid delayed their demise, but you won’t see sights like this for much longer.
New CAF built 3-car 197101 in between test runs, having worked in from Llandudno Junction.
Freight along the North Wales coast has been a rarity for many years now, so seeing stone trains from Penmaenmawr return is a welcome sight. Here’s Colas 60076 working a loaded train to Tuebrook in Liverpool.
The obligatory ‘but no-one’s travelling by train, they’re all working from home’ shot. A TfW Class 158 swops hordes of passengers en-route to Holyhead.

15:30.

I left Chester aboard another train which is reaching the end of its current career. In fact, unless DfT start making some sensible decisions it may even be the end of its career. Here’s Avanti West Coast ‘Voyager’ 221107 at Crewe, where it carried me to from Chester. These trains are only 20 years old but they’re soon to be rendered surplus by new-build bi-mode trains from Hitachi.

Ivwasn’t in Crewe long, less than 20 mins as I caught TfWs 15:09 to Milford Haven which will take me to Shrewsbury. Sadly, the weather remains grim. The sun did threaten to break through at Chester, but not here. This service is a 3-car Class 175, yet another fleet soon to be displaced. It’s packed, so yet again i’m exiled to a vestibule. What I found interesting was my fellow travellers. I’m sharing the vestibule with a young lady who’s just flown in from Malaysia. Meanwhile, the saloon luggage racks are rammed with suitcases carried by an extended family who’ve also just arrived via Heathrow. Why they’ve chosen this train’s a mystery…

16:00.

Journey’s end for me for the moment. Now it’s time to check into my hotel. Relax for a while and meet up with Pip…

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

Thank you!

28th November picture of the day…

28 Monday Nov 2022

Posted by in Flora and Fauna, London, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Railways, Travel, West Yorkshire

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It’s been a frustrating day here in Bigland Towers as I’ve been chained to a desk and hot computer all day. I’ve got lots of work done – including having edited all the pictures from the past few days but I’d been hoping to get out for my usual stroll to keep the exercise levels up. Dawn had to take the day off to go and help a friend. That wouldn’t have been a problem apart from the fact two parcels were due to be delivered, so I agreed to wait in until they arrived. Only neither of them did. One company claimed to have called but no-one was in (‘oh yes – I bloody well was’!) and the other never showed up or even left a message, so what little exercise I got consisted of pacing back and forth from the office to the front window, watching out for delivery vans. Ho hum, maybe tomorrow…

As a consequence, it’s a short blog from me today. Still, here’s a few links to the various galleries containing the lates batches of photographs.

The GWR franchise

TfL/Elizabeth line

The GTR franchise

Infrastructure and engineering

Railway stations

Railway people

And last, but not least, a new gallery dedicated to Saturday’s Class 315 commemorative event.

There’s plenty to look at and not all is about trains themselves but also the people, infrastructure and stations that make up our rail network.

I’ll be working from home again tomorrow planning some other sorties, both UK and abroad, but I’m determined to get out at some point, even if it is just a stroll around the valley. In the meantime, here’s today’s picture, which illustrates the sometimes-uneasy relationship we have with our feathered friends, especially in cities.

These tree pigeons are roosting on the handrail of the main staircase in the ‘Lawn’ at Paddington station where they’re surrounded by cafes and restaurants. There’s a constant stream of people passing by but they’ve come to a wary truce with them, even if the truce isn’t reciprocated due to the mass they make with their droppings. But as far as the pigeons are concerned, it’s warm and sheltered with plenty of scraps on offer…

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

Thank you!

Home again…

27 Sunday Nov 2022

Posted by in London, Photography, Railways, Travel

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I’ve had an ‘interesting’ journey back from Reading today, mainly because the railways were so busy! It’s bizarre that we still run a Sunday timetable (less frequent and often shorter trains) in this day and age as Sunday is anything but quiet. After leaving my hotel I went for a wander around Reading in order to buy some breakfast and also explore. We’d had heavy rain overnight so the streets were a mass of puddles. Even so, it was remarkably mild. The detritus of Saturday night’s bacchanalia could be found in shop doorways and at bus-stops. As you can see here!

I’m not surprised she ditched ’em. The heels must have been nearly 6 inches!

There’s some lovely old buildings in Reading, but despite the fact that it’s ostensibly a wealthy town, there’s a lot of dereliction and decrepitude. Having filled my stomach thanks to Greggs I headed for the station to catch a GWR service to London. The station was quiet, but the train wasn’t. I was surprised when a 5 car IET arrived from Oxford as the thing was absolutely rammed! I ended up jammed in a vestibule, standing all the way to London which wouldn’t have been too bad but engineering work had closed the Fast lines East of Slough which added another 10 minutes to the journey. Hardly a good start to my trip. I was in no rush so I hung around at Paddington for an hour in order to get some pictures and update the archives before heading for the Elizabeth line. It’s now possible to get from Paddington to Kings Cross without once using the tube by catching a ‘Lizzy line’ train to Farringdon, then picking up a Thameslink service to St Pancras, which is what I did.

At the Cross I headed for the 14:00 to Leeds. At least this was a 9-car ‘Azuma’ – and it needed to be! Sadly, the reservation system was kaput so I hedged my bets by securing space in the lead vestibule behind the drivers cab. It was a wise move. By the time all were aboard there wasn’t a spare seat to be had anywhere, but at least I had the vestibule to myself! I rather enjoyed the trip, despite being relegated to the floor because engineering work had closed the main line North of Peterborough, so we were routed through the Werrington ‘dive under’ (a new route for me) then along the GN/GE joint line via Lincoln to reach Doncaster the long way round.

It’s cosy in coach A…

Finally, on reaching Leeds there was on last surprise in store for me. The 17:19 Leeds – Manchester Victoria was another packed train but I was amazed to find it was a 5-car, which is unheard of! We were treated to a pair of CAF Class 195s in 3 and 2 car formations which meant I managed to secure a seat in the front car as most people hadn’t realised we’d got the extra set attached. Even I had to double-check with the Dispatcher!

So, now I’m home and looking forward to a few days away from the rails, catching up with editing all the pictures from the past few days. Expect to see them appear on my website over the next day or two. In the meantime, here’s a taster from Paddington.

800023 and 800013 arrive at Paddington with a service from the West Country earlier today.

I’ve a small favour to ask…
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Rolling blog. The Class 315 farewell…

26 Saturday Nov 2022

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06:30.

I’m up showered and in dire need of coffee (no such luxuries in an ‘Easyhotel’ room) here in Reading, ready to head off to London to take part in the farewell tour of the Class 315 trains which have plied their trade in and out of London Liverpool St station since 1981. It makes me feel old. I moved to London in 1986 when these trains were just 5 years old. I used to watch them pass from the balcony outside our flat. Now they’re nearly all gone. Just last few sets remain and two of those will be working the tour to Shenfield today.

Right, time to go…

07:55.

I’m on my way! It’s another rail strike day so Reading station was deathly quiet this morning. On the bright side, Costa coffee was open so I’ve been able to get my caffeine fix.

The Elizabeth line isn’t affected by the strikes, so they’re running a normal service. Here’s my train.

What’s also running normally is revenue protection! Two officers are on my train and immediatelycaught two arrogant young men who thought buying tickets was for other people. An expensive mistake!

08:10.

My trip along the Great Western main line’s been an interesting one. So much has changed since I left London. And it’s still changing. I’ve just passed Old Oak Common and the site of the new HS2 station. I was here on a press trip the other day but it looks completely different when you pass it on a train as you get to see the start of work on the new main line station.

10:30.

Despite the strike a lot of people have turned up for today’s commemorative trips. Here’s the train before the first run.

21:45.

I’d intended to blog about the trip today but in the end I was just too busy taking pictures, so I’ll do a separate report on what turned out to be a very good day out. I don’t often do railtours nowadays, but I found this one really interesting because of the demographic it appealed to. Oh, and full credit to all those involved in making it happen. MTR, the Branch Line Society and Network Rail especially – not to mention many others. For now, I’ll leave you with a picture of the team at the end of the trips. My special thanks go to an old friend (Jon Bradley, bottom right) who was instrumental in making the event happen.

Right now I’m relaxing in my hotel in Reading after an ‘interesting’ journey on the ‘Lizzie Line’ thanks to an earlier incident outside Paddington on a day when (because of the strikes) plan B’s were hard to come by. Tomorrow I head back up North, so expect a more relaxed rolling blog as I’m under no pressure.

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

Thank you!

Rolling blog. Reading reprise…

25 Friday Nov 2022

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08:50.

I’m off to Reading on a fine and sunny autumn morning, which is a welcome change from all the wet weather we’ve been having recently. It certainly made walking to Halifax station far more pleasant! Despite being awake since the early hours (I often am when setting off on a trip) I left slightly later than planned so as not to disturb ‘the missus’ who’s not been sleeping too well recently.

The view across the Clader Valley as I slogged up the hill to Halifax this morning.

So, I’m now on a heroically late 07:52 Blackpool – York service. A signal fault en-route meant this 3-car Class 195 didn’t depart until 08:35, 42 minutes late! Still, it’s warm and not too crowded, so I’ve bagged a table to set up the mobile office and begin blogging. Let’s see how the rest of the journey goes…

‘Delay repay’ anyone?

09:30.

And relax! I’m now on an LNER ‘Azuma’ service to Kings Cross. This 10-car train originated in Bradford and it’s certainly busy. Most of the remaining empty seats are reserved for later in the journey so I expect it to be packed by the time it arrives in London. Still, I’ve blagged a table as far as Grantham so I can have a breakfast roll (or ‘teacake’ if you’re from Yorkshire, ‘barmcake’ if from Lancashire) and enjoy watching the world flash by the window whilst I do.

09:50.

We’re pulling out of Doncaster where dozens of people crammed into my coach, so I guess my guess this train will be full by London’s come true earlier than expected. Three bays are reserved from Grantham, which will come as a surprise to the people who’ve occupied the seats and not noticed! If the large group who’ve made the reservations turn up this could be fun! I’ll be gone by then as I’m moving to the other unit as soon as we arrive!

10:30.

My Grantham set-swop proved to be a wise choice. There was a big party of elderly people waiting to join us when we pulled in. Whilst it’s not unusual for individual reservations to be unused, such a big grouping is normally taken up. I can only imagine the chaos in the car when they descended on their reserved seats! I was long gone, having skipped into the rear set as soon as we arrived. There were far less reservations here and I managed to secure a table seat opposite a young lady busily bashing keys on her laptop. I’s say the rear set’s about 70% full, which makes for decent loadings when the front set’s jammed. And we haven’t stopped at Stevenage yet – where I’m going to bail out again, this time to catch a Thameslink service down to Farringdon. The cross-platform interchange here saves mucking around walking through two mainline stations and sets of ticket barriers at Kings Cross and St Pancras.

I’ve not traversed the ECML in daylight for a while, so I was surprised to see how many fields are flooded – a testament to all the heavy rain we’ve had in the North. Combined with the blue skies we’ve got today it would have made ideal conditions for lineside photography and reflection shots. Ho hum!

15:00.

Sorry for the gap but I’ve been busy. I’m now in the leafy Thames Valley (yep, even this time of year the trees are hanging on to their fiage). Getting here was fun. My Thameslink connection worked well so I was at Farringdon in no time. Then it was a fast walk down steps and escalators to get to the “Lizzie line” and a train Westwards to Paddington. Considering Crossrail has only been open a few months the passenger loadings are excellent.

Whilst I could’ve got a train straight through idecided to stop off at Paddington for a while – just for old times sake as I rarely visit nowadays. When I lived in London it was an old haunt as it was the gateway to the Thames valley, where we often went cycling, or further trips to the SouthWest.

Thames valley service have changed out of all recognition now. Not only is the route electrified but the GWR services are interspersed with Elizabeth line services that (as the old name implied) cross London, bypassing Paddington.

21:45.

What a fascinating but rather surreal day. Most of it was spent exploring Thames valley rail services which made me appreciate just how much has changed. Nearly all of it’s been for the better, although I mourn the old overall roof at Maidenhead that used to cover the branch line to Marlow. So few of these Great Western features have survived. I ventured West of Reading to catch an electric train to Newbury, which was a first for me. It’s an instructive lesson in how previous Government Ministers and the Dept of Transport have made penny-pinching decisions that make absolutely no sense in the long-term. But long-term isn’t a concept in many politician’s minds. On arrival at Newbury I hung around as the next train back to Reading was 30 mins away. In the meantime passengers from London to Bedwyn (the limit of GWR regional services) had to change to a DMU for the rest of the journey, which takes all of 19 minutes. Madness.

A waste of resources, much?

Now I’m relaxing in my hotel in Reading, editing pictures from today and (half) watching some memory lane TV. Flicking through the channels I discovered the Kenny Everrett video show – a programme I loved which has taken me straight back to my youth which has helped make this trip very much the old football analogy of ‘ a game of two halves’.

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

Thank you!

More HS2 progress at Old Oak Common.

22 Tuesday Nov 2022

Posted by in Hs2, London, Old Oak Common, Photography, Railways

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It’s a short blog from me tonight as it’s been a long old day and it’s time for bed! This morning I was at the HS2 construction site at Old Oak Common in London to see the Rail and HS2 Minister, Huw Merriman MP, start the new conveyor belt that will carry the London clay being excavated from the HS2 station box across to the former Willesden Eurotunel sidings where the spoil will be removed by rail. Eventually, the 1.7 mile long conveyor system will link three HS2 construction sites to Willesden.

Here’s Huw pressing the button to start the conveyor.

There a whole series of pictures showing construction progress in my dedicated HS2 gallery on my Zenfolio website. You can find them by following this link.

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

Thank you!

Rolling blog. It’s going to be a long 24 hours…

21 Monday Nov 2022

Posted by in Photography, Railways, Rolling blogs, Travel

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22:30

Normally, my rolling blogs would be winding down at this time of day, but this one’s just begun. The reason for that is that my diary has too many back-to-back events in it this week, not helped by timings changing. This evening I had an appointment near Huddersfield which I didn’t want to miss. That was a bit of a bugger as I need to be in London early tomorrow morning for a press event I can’t disclose right now. I’d originally arranged to stay with an old friend in the metropolis, but the times of the press event were moved forward. This meant I wouldn’t have arrived at his gaffe until after midnight, only to leave before 6am! So, having perused various railway timetables, looked at the weather (wet) and considered various options I’m now taking the opportunity to get a few night shots as I make my way South via York.

My first train was a TPE service from Huddersfield, worked by a Class 802. It wasn’t busy. Passengers consisted of students, a few late-finish workers and the odd shoppers who’d been hitting Manchester for a spot of Xmas retail therapy. Our trip to Leeds was easy. I had time to set up the laptop at a spare table and catch up on some work before we arrived. That’s when it got interesting. Our Geordie Conductor came on the PA to announce we’d be taking longer than usual to get to York as we’d be taking ‘the long way’ round via Castleton and Milford Junction – a very unusual route for TPE services and one I’ve not traversed for years. What a shame it was in the dark!

802205 during its layover at Leeds. The fact what should be the front is displaying tail-lights suggests all is not normal.

23:55.

Here I am at York, taking time to relax, charge up my various devices in one of the super-duper waiting shelters whilst watching the trains go by and plan a few photos. I’ve been coming to York station since I was a boy – which feels like a bloody long time ago right now! With the town hosting the National Railway Museum I’ve been here lots of time for various work events too – something I’d never have dreamt of as a kid. Funny how life turns out, isn’t it?

Whilst I’ve been observing the place I noticed these new switch panels laying in the space where the old through tracks used to pass. On closer inspection I noticed something that’s very unusual for the UK but typical in Europe. Can you spot what it is?

08:00.

Sorry for the gap. I fell asleep on the train to London. Here’s my steed at York before we departed. – 91105.

We arrived in London at 07:00. After a brisk walk on a cold morning with clear skies I swapped lines to catch this.