Category Archives: Railways

23rd October picture(s) of the day…

23 Saturday Oct 2021

Posted by in Abandoned railways, History, London, Musings, Railways

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , ,

The pair of us are having a local but active day here at Bigland Towers. Dawn’s been busy baking, experimenting with some cake and cookie recipies whilst I’ve been occupied in the office. I had a phone call on Friday afternoon that’s completely changed my plans for next week as it involves some commissions and COP26 so trips to Scotland beckon. Meanwhile, I’ve some articles to pen before I do, which means the week ahead’s going to be hectic.

As if that wasn’t enough, I’ve been trying to keep up the momentum on scanning old slides, which leads to today’s little picture story.

The latest batch of slides were taken in 1994 when I was working as a Housing Officer in Bow, East London. Having left my previous housing job in nearby Poplar (where I lived) to spend a year travelling solo in SE Asia I applied for a job with Bow neighbourhood, was accepted and offered a position as Housing Officer on the Lefevre Estate. The name sounded far better than the reality. The Estate consisted of a series of brutalist 1970s deck access maisonettes linked together by walkways. Our office, located on the estate, wasn’t much better. Even so, I really enjoyed working there. When I accepted the job I’d been told that the estate was due to be transferred to a new Government quango called a Housing Action Trust (HAT), one of only 5 in the country. This would manage the complete redevelopment of the estate and 2 others adjacent. I had the option of staying with the council and being transferred to another housing job on another estate or being TUPE’d across to the HAT when it was established. Being adventurous and liking what the embryonic HAT Management team told me about what to expect and the opportunities to broaden my skills that would be on offer, I decided to sign up.

This meant that I stayed on the HAT estates for the rest of my housing career. A decision I never regretted although I’d no idea at that time what my future career looked like. I could write a book about those times, but that’s not the purpose of this blog. Instead, I’m going to talk about something else – one of the railways of that part of the East End and the changing face of London.

Our office on Lefevre Walk backed onto what had been a scrapyard, but before that it had been a railway. The North London Railway. It had been a Southerly branch from what’s still the North London Line (now the Overground) running through Old Ford, Poplar and Bow down to the London docks. I moved to East London in 1986 so never knew this line when it was open as it had closed a couple of years before. In those last days it had been a freight only line although I could still see the remains of some of the old stations like Bow Rd which had all closed in 1944 due to enemy action.

Sadly, I never researched the route by getting any books on the NLR. Nowadays it’s so easy just to look stuff up on the internet, but not in 1994. So, whilst I knew that the old scrapyard outside my office window (known as Yallop’s Yard) had been an old railway goods yard I never knew at the time there’d been an old railway station on part of the site. In some ways that’s not too surprising. The area looked completely different as in the 1970s an urban motorway (the A102M) had cut a swathe through the old factories and homes in the Lea Valley. Here’s some of the pictures I took in 1994, then I’ll link to something that shows you how it used to look even earlier. To say you wouldn’t recognise it now is an understatement. I don’t recognise the 1950s photos. Today, if you visited the area, you wouldn’t recognise it from my 1994 pictures either!

The Lefevre walk estate in April 1994 with my old office in the centre. The old railway yard is behind with the A102M beyond. After that is the canal with the London Borough of Newham beyond. When the estate was built no-one even tried to give the blocks pretty names, they just had letters. So some people lived in H Block. Nice! Sadly, time has dimmed the memory, so I can’t remember which blocks you can see here. Everything you see is gone now – apart from the urban motorway! The area to the right beyond looks very different now – that’s because it became the 2012 Olympic park. Who would have thought back then…
Looking South from the corner of the block you can see in the previous picture. My old office is in the bottom right and the route of the North London Railway and Old Ford goods yard can be seen to the left. The Tower blocks beyond are in Poplar and were built on old NLR railway land. The edifice in the middle is the old Bryant and May match works which was then being converted into apartments. Just behind it is the Great Eastern Main Line with Stratford to your left. The match factory has an important part in social history due to the match girls strike. The goods yard and the route of the NLR are now buried under new homes. The road you see going off into the horizon to the right of the match works is Fairfield Rd. It used to take me 15 minutes to walk to work along it. Happy days!

Here’s a zoom shot showing the course of the North London Railway heading South. The first bridge is where the Great Eastern main line crosses. The second is the link from the GEML at Bow junction to the former London Tilbury and Southend line to Fenchurch St at Gas Factory Junction. The NLR route had been converted into a linear park several years previously (at considerable expense) but was now being taken for housing as London’s population – which had been shrinking since World War 2 was suddenly expanding again. See the red roofed building below the tower blocks? If you look to the right you can just make out the platforms of Bow Rd DLR station.

Here’s a view of the Old Ford Goods yard and station site taken in October 1994 when the contaminated soil had been removed – hence the lakes! The former railway station was situated on the extreme right of the picture with the lines running along the base of the concrete wall. Behind is the wall of maisonettes that made up part of the Lefevre Walk estate. This next shot was taken in September 1994 from the top floor of one of the blocks you see above. A footbridge has replaced the original old Ford Road. The hoarding underneath it is the site of Old Ford Station. The remains of the North London Line trackbed can be seen as the green strip along the edge of the A102M.

Nowadays, with the advent of the internet, it’s easy to research images of what they area used to look like. The excellent ‘Disused stations’ website has the history of the railway and also some old pictures of the station and area. Even I was surprised by how the place used to look! Here’s a link to a look at a long-vanished part of London’s East End.

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 appreciate all the help that we can get to aid us in bouncing back from lockdowns. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Thank you!

HS2rebellion: The fat lady’s singing (day 14)…

23 Saturday Oct 2021

Posted by in Hs2, HS2Rebellion, Mark Keir, Protest, Railways

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

As we’re two weeks into the eviction of the final Hs2Rebellion shit-tip – sorry, ‘protection camp’ I thought I’d give you a brief update of what’s been going on as even the tunnelers supporters have got bored and stopped turning up on a regular basis.

Three days ago the bailiffs gained access to the single tunnel’s down shaft and continue with the preparations to remove the handful of occupants. There’s no rush, because the useless tunnelers aren’t in anyone’s way as the tunnel isn’t anywhere near an active HS2 worksite!

Despite all their bluster and braggadocio it seems pretty clear that the penny’s dropped with the muppets in the tunnel and they’ve twigged that protests against HS2 have been a complete waste of time. Now they try and make out that their protest is more about new Government legislation and well, ‘stuff’. It’s reminiscent of Marlon Brando in the film ‘The Wild One’ where Mildred asks his character (Johnny) “Hey, Johnny, what are you rebelling against?” and Johnny replies “Whaddya got?” These people are serial protesters who have a rag-bag of ’causes’ which they switch between without any intellectual coherence or real understanding of the issues. It’s one of the reasons they’ve always been so ineffective.

Talking of ineffective, our old fantasist friend Mark Keir finally turned up again to record an overlong diatribe (12 minutes of repetition, deviation and hesitation) from outside the camp. Keir’s latest obsession was the fact that piling work was to be carried out adjacent to the Chiltern railway running alongside the site of the squatters old camp. Keir couldn’t see any piling rig, so in a masterpiece of pointless speculation decided that the work must have been called off by HS2 Ltd due to the proximity of the tunnel and its occupants, but how dare they still keep the railway closed as this would inconvenience the locals! As usual, this has left Keir with enough egg all over his face to have fed the tunnelers all weekend!

Hmm, 46 shares. Not exactly setting the world of social media alight, are they?

Why? Because the piling rig was already parked up a few hundred metres away. Work’s begun on schedule and is progressing without any interruption, as one local resident’s pointed out. Poor Keir, he just can’t help himself! The rule of thumb now is that as soon as he asserts something you know the opposite will happen!

Meanwhile, HS2 contractors continue to clear up the mess these ‘eco-warriors’ have created (as highlighted by @bucksmart) although this will take some time as there’s tonnes of the stuff – as I illustrated in my last blog on the subject.

Bereft of anything positive to report and keep their bored followers entertained the protesters Facebook and other social media channels are being filled with as much crap as the Wendover camp was! Part of their problem is the tiny group in the tunnel (estimated at 4 in number) aren’t producing any content as they’re completely cut-off from any outside support so are running low on battery power and any other form of resupply. Instead, pre-recorded, garbled messages of justification are mixed with short snips of new footage of them trapped like rats (see above) or other stuff that has absolutely nothing to do with the HS2 protests at all, just adverts for other causes. At this rate GBNews (‘the gammon channel’) will have more viewers than HS2Rebellion!

So, the farce drags on. The fat lady’s gone for a fag and a wee between acts, but the finale can’t be long coming…

24th October UPDATE.

Bailiffs have been busy and broken into the protesters useless tunnel from a separate shaft, leaving the handful down there hopelessly compromised and with nowhere to go. The fat lady’s reaching for the throat-spray…

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 appreciate all the help that we can get to aid us in bouncing back from lockdowns. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Thank you!

21st October picture of the day…

21 Thursday Oct 2021

Posted by in Hs2, London, Musings, Picture of the day, Railways, Travel

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , ,

After my travels of the past few days I’ve been very much ‘valley bound’ today – despite the temptation to stray as the weather’s been absolutely glorious with wall to wall sunshine! However, I’ve had far too much to do with editing the several hundred pictures that I’ve taken so far this week as well as preparing the ground for the articles I’ll be writing as a follow-on. This has meant I’ve been stuck in the office staring at a screen for hours at a time. I did manage to escape for a couple of hours this afternoon for my daily constitutional and wandered down into Sowerby Bridge to pick up some shopping, then strolled back along the canal before walking back through the woods. It was a complete contrast to the hustle and bustle of London. That said, I did really enjoy being back in my former home of 25 years. Despite my love of the countryside and the Calder Valley, I’m a city boy at heart! It’s why I can feel at home in some of the worlds great conurbations like Bangkok, or Delhi…

Having spent so much time in the company of others one of the first things I did when I got back was take a lateral flow test to ensure I wasn’t bringing home anything unexpected. The new rise of Covid is a concern. I’m praying that we don’t f*ck it up again, but the way many people behave (as if it’s all over – just because restrictions have been relaxed) worries me. I want to get travelling again in the new year but I’m worried that the UK is going to be seen on the world stage as ‘plague Island’ – as if being a laughing stock because of Brexit and our useless government isn’t enough!

Anyway, from a personal perspective it’s not been a bad day. As I’ve been penning these words the last batch of pictures from my travels has been uploading to my Zenfolio website (yep, I’m still working at 21:50) you can find the railway and travel ones by following this link to my ‘recent’ section which will show you what galleries the pictures have been added to. But, if you’re interested in the ones from my visit to the HS2 construction sites at Euston, you can find those here. I’ve several other visits to different HS2 sites lined up over the next few months, so expect a lot more blogs and articles about that. You won’t be reading much about the HS2rebellion protests as they’ve literally run into the ground!

So, on to the picture of the day. What to choose? There’s hundreds of new pictures taken over the past few days and dozens of old slide scans that I’ve not had chance to finish editing just yet. Hmm, OK, how about this? It’s a picture from the HS2 construction site and a perspective that very few people get to see…

Doesn’t look like much, does it? Just a hole in the ground. Except that in several years time this hole will be the site of the 10 HS2 platforms at Euston. A few years ago, this was the site of one of the biggest archeological digs in the UK as this was St James’s Gardens – which was previously a graveyard that contained around 50,000 burials, including Captain Matthew Flinders, the first person to circumnavigate Australia. This works changed the skyline of Camden and also London. See that building sticking up just to the left of the trees? That’s ‘the shard’ which you’d never have seen from here before.

Oh, and this isn’t the end of things. The site is to be excavated at least another 10 metres from the level you see here as there’s service passages and rooms to be built below the actual levels of the HS2 platforms. It’s a massive, massive job on a site that covers 60 acres of central London. I’ll be writing about it in detail for some magazines, so this is all you’re getting for now. Personally, I find it fascinating on so many levels (if you’ll pardon the pun).

Right, that’s enough for now. Enjoy your Friday folks…

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 realy appreciate all the help that we can get to aid us in bouncing back from lockdowns. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Thank you!

London wanderings…

20 Wednesday Oct 2021

Posted by in Hs2, London, Photography, Railways, Travel

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

Tempting as it was I resisted writing a rolling blog today as experience has taught me HS2 site visits give me little time to write ’em as I’m too busy taking pictures and notes. Don’t worry. You’ll get a full run-down of my visit to Euston soon.

The day started in Clapham where I’d spent the night staying with an old friend. The visit didn’t start until 12:15 so I had time for a mooch around parts of the capital’s rail network first. Of course, Clapham Junction’s a very good place to start such an activity. The station’s recovered much of its old hustle and bustle even if some of the changes promised have yet to materialise. By 2019 most of the old BR built fleets operated by Southwestern Railway were meant to have been replaced. They still soldier on whilst their

Bombardier built replacements (the class 701s) have yet to turn a wheel in revenue earning service. I did see one of the new trains (well, most of it. It was missing the front end skirts again) on test and I pictured it at Waterloo. I can’t add the shot right now, but I will tomorrow. Waterloo was another station that had regained the old atmosphere as crowds scurried hither and thither, Waterloo East was somewhat quieter but my next stop (London Bridge) was just as frenetic. I hope to return next week as I have a job to do here. I still can’t get over what a transformation the station has had and seeing surplus to SWR requirement Class 707s here added to the effect. I moved on via Thameslink to St Pancras International before walking down to Euston in time for my appointment with HS2, having avoided crossing London on the tube.

The press trip around the HS2 works at Euston could best be described as intimate, which was brilliant as we had plenty of time for briefings and to ask questions. I’ll be writing about what we saw at length, but for now all you’ll get is a couple of teaser pictures.

Looking down on the site of the old Eston Downside carriage shed. Here’s where HS2 will emerge from the tunnels from Old Oak Common and run into Euston. You won’t see it when it’s built as this area will be built over afterwards
Looking towards Euston station from atop the HS2 construction partners offices on the site of the old Euston downside carriage shed.

We had over three hours to be shown round and briefed, allowing us enough time to absorb the massive scale of the work at Euston and ask pertinent questions – especially on a day when the Governments HS2 Minister, Andrew Stephenson confirmed that the new station would only have 10 (not 11) high speed platforms

Afterwards the day took a social turn as me posting pictures on social media meant some friends knew I was in town so we ended up meeting for a quick pint outside the Euston Tap before I caught the 17:40 Avanti service northwards towards home. Like so many trains I’ve been on recently, this 11 car Pendolino has been really busy – especially when you consider the fact the first stop is Crewe. Yep, this is a service that will be vastly speeded up when it transfers to HS2.

Rolling blog: Coastaway…

19 Tuesday Oct 2021

Posted by in Photography, Railways, Rolling blogs, Travel

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

06:20.

Having slipped out of bed at 04:45 in order to beat the alarm clock and not disturb Dawn I’m currently on Northern’s 06:00 from Halifax to Leeds. My extra early start gave me plenty of time to walk to the station and the rain Gods smiled on me. So now today’s adventure starts. I’m heading for the South coast before a night in London. Stay tuned to see how the trip goes…

The 06:00’s the first train of the day towards Leeds and never the busiest as it’s only working from Hebden Bridge. That said, the 3-car Class 195 that’s working it today has (at a rough guess) loadings of between 20-25%. This time of day the passengers are all solitary folk on their way to work.

Early-birds off the 06:00 from Halifax at Leeds.

07:00.

I’ve transferred to the 07:00 to London Kings Cross. At this time of day Leeds is a hive of activity for LNER as trains from outlying towns and cities converge like Bradford and Skipton converge on the station before taking Yorkshire business folk down to the capital. The 07:00’s one example. Having started from Bradford Forster Square it reverses at Leeds, after which it makes one more stop at Wakefield Westgate before running non-stop to London, making the 185 miles and 70 chains trip from Leeds in 1 hour 59 minutes.

07:17.

We’ve just left Wakefield Westgate where several dozen passengers awaited our arrival. Needless to say, they’re almost exclusively business travellers. The tables in my car are now covered in laptops as people catch up on emails or other work. There’s a sea of red seat reservation lights in my coach, but a quick headcount reveals many seats are unoccupied. On a walk-through the car I count 31 people in a vehicle with 88 seats (27.3%) but as this is coach 9 of a 10 car set I know the cars that were nearer the Leeds gateline will be busier.

07:45.

We’re now flying down the East Cost Main Line, having just passed Retford. The day’s just beginning to dawn and I can see it’s wet. Very wet! Rain’s beating on the opposite side of the train so hard it’s making noise like a sizzling frying pan. I’m happy to be stuck inside this metal tube where it’s warm, dry and I can get on with some work.

08:20.

Fortified with a rather good coffee from the buffet (it’s strong and rich, unlike the dishwater you get on some trains) I’ve been occupied with researching today’s assignment whilst keeping one eye on the weather. The rain’s stopped for now but the low grey clouds look very uninviting. The forecast for the South coast is better, but we’ll have to see. We’re only 40 mins away from London now…

08:40.

Joy! Watery sunlight’s penetrated the murk here at Hitchin! Cloud level doesn’t seem to be changing, but it does appear to be thinning. On another note, I’ve just wandered through the car to the loo and observed that I’m the only person who’s still wearing a mask. Still, they don’t matter anymore now that Covid cases are dropping, do they? Oh, wait…

And the moral of the story is – wear a mask!

09:30.

I decided to take the ‘scenic’ route to the South coast which saved me having to cross London on the tube. I’m now on a Southeastern ‘Javelin’ service from St Pancras International to Ashford. I say ‘scenic’ but as much of it is in tunnels and it passes through Dagenham before it reaches the Rainham marshes that is somewhatof a misnomer! I’ve not been this aay since Covid kicked-off so I was amazed to see the amount of new housing neing built on brownfield sites on the ribbon of land North of the railways to Rainham.

I have to say it’s a pleasure to be able to speed between central London and Ashford in this fashion. As a former Londoner I remember what a schlep this was from our home in Crouch End, having to get the tube across to Charing Cross/London Bridge for the slow service.

10:40.

Having arrived at Ashford just 38 minutes after leaving St Pancras I’m now on the ‘Marshlink’ line on the non-electrified line between here and Ore. I’ve come this was as I’m hoping to kill two birds with one stone and get pictures around the area for another client. Fortunately, the weather’s playing ball. The skies are clearing, the sun’s appearing and the skies are turning blue! My luck might just have turned…

15:00.

Apologies for the gap in updates but I’ve been a busy bee. I took an hour-long break in the lovely town of Rye. Built on a hill and once famous as the nearby home of the comedian and author Spike Milligan (who lived close by in Udimore) it’s still a lovely place to visit as it has some fascinating old buildings. Here’s an example. That said, the place is starting to look a bit tatty. Many building are in need of quite a bit of TLC. Rotten window frames, peeling paintwork and closed shops are common. It’s a crying shame.

I was tempted to tarry but as the train service is hourly and I had a lot more to do I resisted the temptation. That said, I fitted a lot into the hour as the weather worked out for me which allowed me to get some half-decent pictures before moving on to my main destination. Eastbourne.

20:00.

I’m now back in London and winding down for the evening after a packed day. I struck lucky with the light as soon as I arrived in Eastbourne which allowed me to get shots in the bag sooner than I expected. Having done so I was able to have a wander around town, something I’ve never done before. Like many towns (seaside or otherwise) there’s a glut of empty shots as retail faces the forces of rising rents, online retail, Brexit and Covid. I saw a number of buildings that looked like they were once department stores but also a lot of smaller shops that were once eateries. It’s sad, but the world’s changing – as it always has.

Anyway, I’ll end this blog with a few pictures as I’m too knackered to write anymore after a 04:30 start and I’ve a busy day tomorrow.

The windmill at Rye, which is right next to the railway. Sadly, the classic shot of the two is now far too overgrown, but I’m tempted to do a wide-angle, higher level shot next time…
The frontage of Eastbourne station. The building itself is being restored and the local Council have helped by changing the roads outside.

Tomorrow I’m in search of the new rather than the old as I’ll be exploring the High-Speed 2 railway construction sites at Euston in London…

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 appreciate all the help that we can get to aid us in bouncing back from lockdowns. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Thank you!

Rolling blog: Kicking off Community rail week…

18 Monday Oct 2021

Posted by in Community rail, Community Rail Network, Green issues, Photography, Railways, Rolling blogs

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

It’s a reasonably early start for me as I’m off to Manchester to join colleagues from Community Rail network to kick off Community Rail week, a new event with an exciting range of activities taking place across community rail, this year championing the message Go Green by Train, as part of the build-up to COP26. The essential message is quite simple. Ditch the car and go by train. Here’s why;

Our opening event is at Manchester Piccadilly station from 10:00 – 15:00.

Community Rail Lancashire, Mid Cheshire CRP, Calder Valley CRP and Liverpool to Manchester CRP will be promoting the Go Green by Train message, highlighting how visitors can explore a wealth of attractions and activities by train.

I’ll be blogging and posting pictures through the day…

09:10.

I’m en-route to Manchester although my train’s running late. I was in plenty of time at Halifax so caught an earlier Blackpool bound train as far as Hebden Bridge in order to get a few library shots and admire the old pictures of the railway displayed in the waiting room.

The Manchester service was running behind us but was several minutes late. Made up of a pair of Class 195/0s the service lost even more time outside Todmorden as (I’m assuming) it was stuck behind another service). Having crossed over the border into Lancashire we’re now running 16 minutes late.

I finally arrived at Piccadilly ‘on time’ but 22 minutes later than I’d planned. The lateness of our train turned out to be because of signalling issues around Todmorden. ho hum! Still, I managed to get the pictures we needed, including this one for the official launch of Community Rail Week.

Meanwhile, on the concourse, various community rail groups (and Network Rail) had set up a stall filled with leaflets and various goodies to give away…

16:00.

Whist some of the CRN team stayed at Manchester some of us had another appointment back in West Yorkshire. The friends of Mytholmroyd station were unveiling artwork painted in conjunction with a local school, so I headed back across the Pennines with Jools Townsend and other CRN colleagues to cover the event. For once, the weather let us down! Rain had set in as we left Manchester and it followed us home. Even so, we had a station building in which to shelter from the rain and also some delicious food laid on for us to enjoy before the pupils of ‘Spider Class’ at Scout Road academy could join us. Here they are with the artwork they’d contributed to, which is on the theme of ‘Transport through the ages’.

20:30.

I’m now back home in the warm and dry, preparing my kit for the next few days adventures which will be a marked contrast to today. Early tomorrow I head down to London and (hopefully) the South coast for an assignment which will no doubt generate a rolling blog. On Wednesday I’ll be looking at the opposite end of the railway spectrum and checking out work on constructing Hight Speed 2 at Euston. There’s a massive amount of work going on on hundreds of sites along the HS2 route at the moment, and of course Euston is one of the main terminal stations, with the challenge of building complex tunnel approaches without disturbing the existing railway. It should be a very interesting visit…

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 appreciate all the help that we can get to aid us in bouncing back from lockdowns. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Thank you!

HS2rebellion: The fat lady’s singing (day 8)…

17 Sunday Oct 2021

Posted by in Hs2, HS2Rebellion, Protest, Railways

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

, ,

There was always a dull predictability about what was going to happen at the last remaining anti Hs2 squatter camp, laughably named the Wendover ‘active resistance’ camp. How a tiny handful of people retreating into a hole in the ground until they’re dug out by bailiffs can be classed as ‘active resistance’ is a mystery but then everything about the protesters campaign has been about them writing metaphorical cheques they couldn’t possibly cash. They boasted they were going to stop the biggest construction project in Europe, but in reality, they couldn’t even stop themselves being evicted from any of their squalid camps, much less stop HS2!

The eviction of Wendover began eight days ago. Last Sunday in fact. In that time, the three sites that made up their camp have all been secured by bailiffs and the handful of occupants have been evicted, bar the small group who are now holed-up underground, who look to number less than half a dozen people. All their boasts about holding out for ‘months’ are looking increasingly hollow. The tower they’d built over their sole tunnel (the boasts of more than one tunnel were false, as usual) lasted less than a week, despite their claims that it was so reinforced with barbed wire and other obstacles that it would be a real challenge to demolish. The truth is, a few upper middle-class kids playing ‘eco-warriors’ was never going to be a match for a team of bailiffs – many of whom are ex-military. Yesterday, the final occupant who remained above ground was cut free from his ‘lock-on’ and given his marching orders. The young man, whose name is Tristan (why do I get the impression he’s not from a working class background? Ed) was interviewed for a ‘livestream’ on the HS2Rebellion Facebook page by the increasing ridiculous sounding Mark Keir. Tristan (who sounds every bit as posh as his name suggests) was hardly impressive and seemed to be very happy his jolly jape was over so he could collect his car from the nearby car park and drive home!

With the last protesters holed-up in their tunnel the bailiffs and HS2 contractors have been examining the camp to ensure there’s nobody left. I’ve obtained some pictures of the site which show that these ‘environmentalists’ have left the place a shit-tip. It looks more like a junkyard than the eco-nirvana they pretended they’d turned it into. Take a look.

Needless to say, taxpayers (local and national) will end up paying to have this vermin attracting mess removed and disposed of in an environmental way. Not that this is the first time. Every camp these ‘environmentalists’ have been evicted from or abandoned have looked like this to a greater or lessor extent. The damage these people have created compared to their grandiose claims about ‘protecting’ the environment is a joke. I wonder what some of the mugs who’ve been persuaded to fund the protesters through various crowdfunders think about the reality shown in these pictures, rather than the ‘cute, cuddly and eco-friendly’ image the squatters try and project? Of course, one could also ask what damage the useless tunnel they’ve dug has done to the root systems of the trees around it? A number of trees have had to be severely pruned (at Denham) or removed (at Euston) because of the actions of these people.

No doubt the joke will continue for a little while yet, although it’s obvious from the viewing figures for Mark Keir’s livestreams and the hits on the HS2rebellion Facebook page that most people have lost interest. I’m sure that many people who log on to listen to Keir speak are only doing so to see what ridiculous lie he’s going to come out with next! One of the latest bits of craziness is Keir’s claim that HS2 is going to cause the Grand Union canal to dry up!

The numbers of people turning up to ‘support’ the protesters by standing on the side of the A413 has been rather embarrassing too. Most days it’s been around a dozen – and all the usual suspects whose faces are familiar from other pointless protests around the Chilterns. I expect this number to dwindle even further now there’s nothing to see as the tower’s demolished, the protesters are hiding in a tunnels and the fence has been covered over to block the view. Now, the only question is how long this farce will drag out for before the last few in the tunnel give up or are dug out.

How many days of work on HS2 have been lost because of this. A big fat ZERO as the Wendover camp isn’t even on the route of HS2 – as this map shows. The location of the camp is circled in red.

Sandwiched between the A413 and the existing Chiltern railway it’s outside any of the HS2 construction sites. The protesters could stay in their useless tunnel till Doomsday without affecting HS2 in any way!

Away from this circus HS2 construction’s really ramping up. On Wednesday I’ll be visiting the construction sites at Euston to bring you updates on the work there. I doubt I’ll be blogging about Wendover again until the waste of time protest is over. The fat lady’s song will soon be coming to an end. I’ll bring you an update from her curtain call…

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 appreciate all the help that we can get to aid us in bouncing back from lockdowns. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Thank you!

Rolling blog. Go West…

15 Friday Oct 2021

Posted by in Food and drink, Manchester, Railways, Rolling blogs, Travel

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

11:00

It’s a beautifully sunny day here in West Yorkshire, so after being cooped up in the office since Monday I’m venturing out and heading West to give myself and the camera an outing and make the most of the autumn light. I’ve also arranged to meet a friend who’s over from Ireland and pick up some exotic food shopping from Manchester’s Chinatown as I can’t get the ingredients in our neck of the woods. I’m hunting Kecap Manis, the Indonesian/Malaysian sweet soy sauce which is a staple of Asian cousine in that part of the world. Anyone who’s been to Indonesia and eaten locally will immediately know what I’m talking about. The little plastic bottles of sweet chili sauce and Kecap Manis are ever-present on the tables of Rumah Makan’s (food stalls) across the archipelago.

Right now I’m sitting on the 10:44 from Halifax to Manchester which is made up of a pair of CAF built 195/0s. It’s busy, but not overly so. Passenger numbers on the railways have really bounced back, especially leisure travel. Commuter and business numbers are still down but climbing. The bounce-back has confounded the sceptics who predicted a much slower recovery. I’ll be interested to see how busy Manchester’s main stations are later today…

Watch out for regular updates and pictures throughout the day…

20:33

Sorry! I take back (with embarrassment) what I said about regular updates. I’m now on my way home from Manchester after a really good day but one that went anything but to plan. I’d intended to head West to get pictures of the Porterbrook leasing Class 769 bi-mode trains and also get a few shots of the new Stadler Class 777s which are on test runs before being introduced into service on Merseyrail. But today was ‘one of those days’. For once I had company on my quest. I met an Irish friend who’s over in the UK for a break but who’d never explored the routes I was looking at, so it seemed like a natural synergy. Having hooked up at Victoria we headed West on a pair of 156s to Wigan with the intent of catching up with the 769s there. It wasn’t to be. On arrival we checked ‘Real ‘Time Trains’ only to find the bi-modes were few and far between and certainly not on any train we were waiting for. There was only one thing for it. Adjourn to the pub and plan..

The Swan and Railway is a great refurbished multi-room pub that’s kept all its original features. It also has a cracking range of real ales. You can find it opposite North Western railway station or two minutes down the hill from Wallgate station.

Admitting defeat when it came to finding Class 769s we moved on via old rattletraps (aka Class 150s) to Burscough Bridge where we stopped for a pint at the Hop Vine, a brew pub that’s well worth a visit. We’d held out a forlorn hope that we might find a 769 going our way, but it wasn’t to be. However, our cunning plan was that we’d arrive at our next destination (Southport) ahead of a test run of one of Merseyrail’s new Stadler built Class 777s. Like most plans that involve test trains, it soon fell apart as the train path wasn’t activated. So, yet again, there was only one thing to do – adjourn to the pub after a lightening tour of the town.

(to be continued)…

HS2rebellion: The fat lady’s singing (day 2)…

11 Monday Oct 2021

Posted by in Hs2, HS2Rebellion, Protest, Railways

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , ,

Tempting as it is to lapse into a ‘Big Brother’ style spoof (“it’s day two in the Wendover house”) I refrain from succumbing! This is only going to be a short blog anyway as little of interest has happened. The bailiffs and police have the site secured with a literal ring of steel, having it all fenced off. Access was always made difficult by the fact the squatter camp was bounded by the Chiltern railway to the West and the A413 to the East. Sneaking in was never going to be easy and now the remaining occupants are cut off from their tiny bunch of supporters, few of whom turned up today.

This morning less then a dozen of the usual suspects (Keir, Thompson-Smith et al) spent their time in a pointless stunt outside Bucks County Council offices ‘demanding answers’ as to why the CC had leased the land to HS2 to carry out the eviction.

The selection process for the Golgafrincham B Ark – sorry – the HS2Rebellion protesters outside the Bucks CC office this morning. I’ll bet staff were quaking in their boots! As for ‘local’ Mark Keir (one of the 9) lives in West Drayton in the London Borough of Hillingdon. Who knows where some of the others have been drafted in from.

It was the same tired and trite diatribe and bluster about how everyone, HS2, the County Council, the bailiffs, the police, the courts – and Uncle Tom Cobbley and all – were colluding and acting ‘illegally’. In fact, the *only* people who were supposedly acting legally were the protesters! It’s a bit like an unfunny version of ‘Carry on Cleo’ with Keir in the part of Kenneth Williams, shouting “infamy, infamy, they’ve all got it infamy!”

A weary Council Officer was sent out to talk to the protesters and listen to their nonsense. No doubt a reply will be drafted laying out in legal detail the reality of the situation – to which Keir and co will respond in true pantomime fashion with ‘oh no – it isn’t’! – and the curtain will rise on the next farcical act as none of this will change a thing.

A video has appeared on Youtube with Mark Keir, who went full Goebbels on camera to Sky News. His fantastical claims have become more and more unhinged. HS2 will drain the Grand Union Canal and destroy drinking water? He seriously thinks people will fall for this stuff? Keir and Co have got to the stage now where they’ll literally claim anything as they know the game’s up.

Of course, while their pantomime was in Aylesbury there was no-one to bother the bailiffs, who just got on with the job of assessing the site and working out how many protesters might be playing their pointless game of hide and seek. There’s obviously no rush to get them out as they’re not interrupting any construction work in the slightest – which is why this camp (like the Euston one) is utterly pointless. Plus, the longer this drags on the more of the tiny bunch who turn up outside will get bored and drift away. There’s little in the way of boastful livestreams or posts coming from inside the camp either, so the keyboard warrior voyeurs who normally feed off this stuff have little to send ‘love and rage’ about (unless you get off on a 14 sec, close cropped vid of someone eating out of a can). Euston or Denham this ain’t, it’s all going to be a bit boring and tedious. So I won’t be doing daily updates, merely try and keep a tally of how many have been evicted and when it’s all over.

Meanwhile, the fat lady’s in fine voice, even if it’s a comic opera she’s singing in!

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 appreciate all the help that we can get to aid us in bouncing back from lockdowns. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Thank you!

HS2rebellion: The fat lady’s singing…

10 Sunday Oct 2021

Posted by in Hs2, HS2Rebellion, Politics, Protest, Railways

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

, , ,

I woke up to the news this morning that HS2 contractors, police and bailiffs had begun the long-awaited eviction of the last anti HS2 squatters camp remaining on phase 1, the risibly named “active resistance” camp outside of Wendover, Buckinghamshire.

As it’s situated alongside the busy A413 road the operation’s begun on a Sunday in order to lessen the disturbance to locals (most of whom will only be too glad to see the back of the squatters). It’s difficult to say at this stage how few people are still occupying the camp but the numbers are small – as can be judged from the absence of comments and livestreamed videos from inside the camp compared to previous evictions. As news of the eviction has spread on social media a few more people have attended but as they can’t get into the camp they’re doing little other than creating a nuisance to traffic!

Events are unfolding on the HS2 Rebellion Facebook page where some videos are being posted, but they make it clear that the squatters and their few friends watching outside are vastly outnumbered. A large number of the familiar faces who were the ‘hard-core’ of the protesters are noticeably absent. Currently, the bailiffs are repossessing areas of the woods and erecting fencing. There’s very little in the way of confrontations as even the squatters seem to have realised the futility of their actions. The numbers watching the videos are also markedly down from previous events, which suggests many of the keyboard warriors and armchair activists have lost interest as the result is only going to go one way. None of the livestreams have had viewers above double-figures! Mind you, as the one’s on the Rebellion FB page are from fantasist and liar Mark Keir (the Walter Mirtty type who claimed to have watched the Roald Dahl tree being cut down in Jones’ Hill Woods) that’s hardly surprising. His commentary’s so away with the fairies you’re better watching the videos with the sound off!

I’ll keep you informed of how things progress as it could be several days before the farce is finally over.Whenever that is, it can’t change the fact that the ‘rebellion’ against HS2 was always more bluster than fact. It took little more than a year for the protests to collapse in ignominy. Now the fat lady’s singing…

UPDATE: Sunday evening.

It’s only day 1 of the eviction and already some of the handful of squatters have been removed. One left of their own accord as they were feeling ‘unwell’ and another two were removed from a bathtub up a tree! I mean, seriously? a bathtub up a tree? The camp has been established for two years and if that’s the best they can come up with. Needless to say, the bailiffs soon pulled the plug on them!

The farce will continue tomorrow and for a few days hence. However long it takes doesn’t really matter as (like the Euston tunnels) this camp isn’t stopping construction of HS2 in the slightest. Oh, if you are tempted to watch any of the videos on Facebook, I would seriously recommend turning the sound down if the commentator is Mark Keir! He’s made a tedious ass of himself as usual today, at one point claiming ‘victory’ because a cherry-picker was being moved so (according to him) the eviction was over for the day – only for said cherry-picker to then pluck the pair from the bathtub! Keir reminds me of the old adage – “How do you know when he’s lying? His lips move”!

Just how away with the fairies these people are is demonstrated by this earlier tweet from an old face. “Boots” (aka William) – the ‘eco-warrior’ who’s recently flown back to the UK from one of his regular jaunts to Spain.

Apart from the fact you can file this under ‘it never happened’ the idea that these people (who have minimal supplies as the donations have been running out) can hold out for ‘months’ is hilarious! You just know this tweet isn’t going to age well…

So, turn down the sound (you won’t learn anything factual) and pull up the popcorn as the eviction unfolds over the next few days…

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 appreciate all the help that we can get to aid us in bouncing back from lockdowns. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Thank you!