Some people never learn. In this case it’s the dwindling bunch of Nimbys who still oppose HS2 and think that their sense of entitlement somehow trumps the transport infrastructure needs of the UK, especially in this time of climate change, where we really do need the rail capacity to get folks out of planes and cars and onto carbon-neutral trains.
Despite everything that’s happened in the past few months, what with the Conservatives gaining a solid Parliamentary majority and half the MPs who previously opposed HS2 losing their seats since 2014 – the tiny band who fly the flag of ‘StopHs2’ haven’t learned a thing in a decade.
Short of any real plan, far less a cunning one, they’ve fallen back on the same failed tactics that have never stood them in good stead – even when there was lots more of them!
They’ve started another petition…
Because petitions have worked so well for them in the past, obviously!
Here’s a link to the latest one, which has got off to a less than stratospheric start (as I scribble this it has 867 signatures after 3 days). It’s been started by one Elizabeth Williams, whom I’m assuming is the same ‘Lizzie’ Williams who started StopHs2 until she had to hand over the reins of the groups as her behaviour was in danger of imploding it.
Why they still bother with these petitions is a total mystery as all they ever do is three things – get less and less signatures each time, prove the fact that the vast majority of folk signing them live in the 63 constituencies Hs2 passes through – and that the majority of those signing live on Phase 1! Here’s the petition map from today which (as ever) shows that – by total co-incidence – the most signatures are from constituencies on Phase 1. You can imagine my surprise….
This petition will do exactly the same as all the others. It’s doomed to failure from the start. It also shows that – despite have run several of these pointless exercises in the past – they’ve never actually twigged their limitations. Just say for the sake of argument they get 100,oo signatures (hell will freeze over first). What happens then? How will that stop HS2? It won’t. Here’s what it says on the front page of each petition.
“Considered for debate”. Debate, not vote. There is no vote. The petition is toothless. Mind you, even if there was a vote HS2 would win it hands down with a huge majority as the project has cross-party support! It’s an utterly pointless exercise.
Still, it does do one thing. It gives me a few numbers to crunch and empirical evidence of the weakness of the StopHs2 campaign. So, it will be interesting to compare it with the results of 2019, 2018 or even some of their earlier efforts.
Meanwhile, in the real world, construction of HS2 ramps up…
Don’t expect many updates on the progress (or rather lack of) of this petition. I may pop in once a month just to see how badly it’s doing, but it’s really not worth wasting more time on than that.
It’s the 2nd day of the ACoRP conference and It’s a more relaxed one for me as I blitzed the event from a photographic perspective yesterday, so today I get chance to listen to the speakers and blog about some of the event.
The first speaker this morning was Neil Priest, Station Enhancements Portfolio Manager, Network Rail.
He’s given a very interesting talk about the perils and success of making stations more accessible and the fun and game of installing lifts on our Victorian network. He also exploded the myth that lifts can’t be installed at unmanned stations. As he explained. “When a lift breaks down, a bloke doesn’t come out of the ticket office with a bag of spanners, we call in a lift engineer” Nowadays lifts are monitored by CCTV and remotely, so it’s not an issue. Many of these schemes take years to complete and Neil explained why that happens, which can be anything from finding there’s disused mineshafts below the station to the fact someone else comes along and builds a new ticket office where you were going to site a bridge!
Afterwards, ACoRP’s Chief Executive, Jools Townsend gave a rundown of the organisations activities and coming programmes – as well as talking about the rebranding of ACoRP as Community Rail Network (CRN) later this year.
12:10.
A lot of the conference this morning has been taken up with three workshop sessions on very different topics. Youth engagement: Talking about ways to involve young people on a range of issues around the railways (including safety) and passing on life skills to teenagers are younger children. The second workshop was on involvement with the wider community, including the disadvantaged to encourage them to be involved through their local community rail groups – and also encourage them to use the railways. The session I’m sat in on at the moment is about tackling loneliness. Apparently, the UK is the loneliest country in Europe (and no, that’s not a political metaphor!) so the session is talking about causes of loneliness in the present day and how loneliness can be identified and counteracted. The presentation wasn’t just about facts, figures and methodology, it also included the experiences of a station group, the Friends of Beeston station, presented by the Secretary of the group, Sarah Hampton. Sarah gave some great examples of how the group has combated loneliness in their own community.
14:15.
We’re back after lunch in the hotel for the first session of the afternoon which is a look at a new reporting system that ACoRP are launching. The Impact Assessment tool, and how it can help organisations and the people involved in them to track their achievements and use the data in a number of ways, such as reports, data assessment and even fundraising.
During lunch I nipped out with ACoRP’s Martin Yallop, who knows my interest in architecture. He wanted to show me a couple of features nearby, including this…
During WW2 this length of tram track bexame a missle thanks to a German bomb. It was blown clean over a row of Georgian town houses and embedded itself in the nearby churchyard
17:10.
Conference finished mid-afternoon but by then my bit was done so I headed over to Temple Meads station early in order to make the most of the sunshine and soend an hour getting pictures before we caught our train North.
It was an interesting interlude as services have changed a lot since I last spent any time here. Now GWR green rather than FGW blue is the dominant colour. With many of the old DMUs having been displaced by former ‘Thames Turbo’ class 165 – 166 units and the HST’s with Class 800 series units from Hitachi although the venerable Class 43s haven’t vanished altogether as ‘Castle’ Class short HST sets (2×4) are used on Bristol – Cardiff services.
The lengthening of trains has also gone hand in hand with the four-tracking of the line North towards Bristol Parkway, enabling more services to run and allowing parallel arrivals or departures, which makes for some interesting photo opportunities like this, which isn’t the sort of sight you’d seen a couple of years ago…
166205 and 165119 arrive in parallel at Bristol Temple Meads.
17:45
Right now a group of us are speeding North towards Birmingham on yet another packed 4-car Cross-Country Voyager, all space has been taken and the vestibules are packed with bodies old and young.
18:50.
We’re now North of Derby on our way to our next stop at Chesterfield and I’ve lost count of the different passengers that have passed through this coach (D) on our trip from Bristol. I was glad to see the back of one at Birmingham, a young man who talked endlessly into his mobile phone and who reeked of BO…
20:27.
The numbers of folks on our Voyager thinned the further North we got. It was reasonably pleasent after leaving Sheffield but I wasn’t sorry to bail out at Leeds. We had 6 minutes to make our connection and hopped aboard the 20:12 to Manchester Victoria with a couple of minutes to spare. Only it’s now 20:26 and we’re still here! Lots of trains are on the move, just not us…
20:36.
Our Conductor has told us that our trains stuck because of a track-circuit failure, so we’ve all abandoned our nice warm, shiny Class 195 for a traditional Calder Valley classic in the shape of a Class 155 in the adjacent platform. We’re still not going anywhere mind…
20:42.
*Puts on best Victor Meldrew impression*…
I don’t believe it! We’d just settled in on our replacement train when it’s Conductor announced that – in fact – our original train was leaving first. Not only that but it had got the road and was leaving any minute now! There was a mad scramble as we all rushed back onto the 195, the only thing missing was the Benny Hill theme tune playing over the tannoy! We’ve even regained our original seats!
22:18.
That about wraps it up for today. We finally made it home around 21:30, considerably later than we expected due to the fun and games at Leeds. Now it’s time to relax and put the feet up ready for another busy day tomorrow. I’ll be working from home as I’ve a considerable amount of pictures from the conference to edit, as well as a new selection of rail shots. Then there’s paperwork to catch up on. At least there’ll be no track circuits to worry about! There might even be a bit of time for blogging on the latest funs and games with the anti Hs2 protests, which are generating a lot of hot air, but little else…
Ugh! The alarm went off at 05:30 this morning as we’re off to Bristol. Right now the house is buzzing with activity as we get ready to head off to the station ready to get the first train. According to the internet the trains are running to time this morning, so let’s see how things pan out. We’ll be meeting up with various other ACoRP shipmates on the train from Leeds…
07:20.
So far, everything’s going to plan on this fine, frosty morning. We took a taxi to the station (a luxury for me as I normally walk) and the 07:07 to Leeds turned up on time. Worked by a 3-car CAF Class 195 it had started at Hebden Bridge and had a healthy load of passengers by the time it arrived at Halifax. Now, leaving Bradford Interchange, there’s hardly a spare seat to be had.
As we climbed out of Bradford the skies were fascinating. A complex mass of grey clouds of different hues was turned orange by the rising sun as they appeared to be dropping a curtain of rain (or snow) across a quarter of the city. It was gorgeous.
08:55.
Changing trains at Leeds went without a hitch. We’d given ourselves plenty of time just in case, but the first day working day of Northern under new management didn’t present any problems. Thankfully we weren’t travelling down the West Coast Main Line as a landslip at Dutton viaduct has caused lots of grief as the saturated ground has started shifting, taking the line with it!
Back with Northern, I see that the Dft are already making changes. Former TPE Managing Director Andy Donovan has been announced at the new Northern MD, which sounds like a good move. He had a good reputation at TPE and eh knows the Northern patch. It will be interesting to if the change at the helm improves Northern’s reputation and the visibility of senior management.
Right now we’re on the 08:11 Cross-Country service from Leeds to Plymouth. It’s classic Cross-Country. This 4-car train was rammed into Leeds carrying commuters from York into work. Then it was busy taking other commuters from Leeds to Wakefield. We’ve just called at Sheffield and it’s only now that it’s starting to fulfil its long-distance role. Now there’s a few spare seats and I’ll be interested to see how the composition of our carriage changes along the route.
10:02.
We’re approaching Birmingham at a crawl after we were diverted via Water Orton due to a points failure. The Train Manager, a jovial Geordie, has been very good in keeping us all informed. It’s not a huge delay (4 minutes) but I’ll be interested to see if it has a knock-on effect in Birmingham.
Our two table companions (who’ve changed composition twice since Leeds) are preparing to leave. There’s only a handful of the original passengers left now and I expect more of an exodus at New St. Having been on this Voyager for 2 hours now and spent much of that time inadvertently playing footsie with the person sat on the opposite side of the table I’m starting to feel the cramp. These trains simply aren’t up to the job nowadays but we’re going to be stuck with them for who knows long now that the Dept for Transport has cancelled letting the franchise.
10:16.
We’ve just left Birmingham with only around 20% of the original passengers on board. I remember many years ago the average length of a journey on Cross-Country was around 50 miles. I wonder if that’s changed? I can’t help wondering if there’s not an argument for splitting the Cross-County network nowadays in order to improve resilience. How many passengers will travel all the way from (say) Aberdeen to Plymouth or Leeds to Penzance?
10:30.
Our late arrival in Birmingham didn’t cause us any problems as we still left on time. A crew change has meant the Geordie lilt of or previous Train Manager has now been replaced by a West Country burr of the new incumbent! More of the ACoRP team joined us too. There’s now 5 of us in the carriage.
11:20.
We’re currently heading for Bristol Parkway and the sunny weather we’ve had nearly all the way from Leeds is getting increasingly obscured by cloud. Like the rest of the country, the fields around the railways are muddy and waterlogged. I suspect we’re going to need a considerable spell of dry and sunny weather before they drain. Despite the fact it’s full again, passengers in our coach are remarkably quiet, mainly because most of them are plugged in and staring at one of a variety of electronic devices! Diagonally opposite me there’s on traditionalists old chap who’s actually reading a newspaper but he’s very much in a minority.
12:15.
We’re now ensconced in the Doubletree Hilton in Bristol, preparing for a busy afternoon with some interesting sessions to look forward to…
14:00.
ACoRP’s Chief Executive, Jools Townsend kicks off today’ Community Rail Conference.
There’s a good turnout for the conference too…
There was far too much going on at the conference to blog and take pictures, so picture taking came first. Hopefully, tomorrow will be more relaxed. AT the end of the day a few of us were given a tour of some sights of architectural merit. One of them was a CAMRA national inventory pub – the Kings Head!
Yep, today’s the start of a new month, not that there’s been much of a change, as we’ve had yet another storm warning! The only discernible difference is that the days are starting to get longer. I’ve spent much of the weekend scanning yet more old railway slides from 1990, which you can find in this gallery on my Zenfolio website. The latest batch of 60 are from Bristol and also the Tinsley loco depot open day, held on a dismal Saturday in September. Here’s a sample, featuring Bath Rd depot in Bristol – another place that’s long-gone.
BR Class 47 locomotives dominate this view of Bristol Bath Rd depot as the shed provided motive power for cross-country services from the South-West up to Birmingham and beyond, as well as passenger locomotives for the main line to London Paddington as well as servicing freight engines and local diesel multiple units.
As I mentioned in my last blog. I’m back in Bristol tomorrow for an ACoRP (Association of Community Rail Partnerships) conference. The programme shows that it’s going to be a busy event spread over two days but no doubt I’ll have some time to blog/tweet about what’s going on, as well as catch up with some old friends from the world of community railways.
To get to Bristol in time means the pair of us are up at sparrow-fart in the morning, so this isn’t going to be a long blog. I’d hoped to have time to compose one about the collapse of the StopHs2 campaign, but that can wait for another day! It’s not as if there’s anything going on with them anyway. They’ve been very quiet on social media since the Government announced the fact HS2’s been given the green light. Mind you, they’ve also been inactive in the real world too. Their ‘direct action’ campaign at Harvil Rd and Cubbington wood has been completely ineffective at stopping HS2. The penny finally seems to be dropping that they’ll never have the numbers of people on the ground they need. There’s only a couple of dozen regulars and a few ‘weekend warriors’ – who’re especially useless and HS2 Ltd don’t normally work at weekends so there’s nothing to stop! The fact that having a bunch of voyeurs’ watching you make fools of yourself on Facebook isn’t going to stop Hs2 seems to be slowly sinking in too – hence this rather revealing post of one of their Facebook pages.
I’ll blog about this in detail when I have the time. Right now it’s time to pack a suitcase…
Well, not just the rain, but it has been another wet and frustrating day. My cunning plan was to head over to the Wigan – Southport railway to get some shots of the new bi-mode Class 769 trains that are on test there to fill a gap in the library and also for a client.
I dutifully headed off in that direction this morning. The weather here in Yorkshire was less than ideal but I don’t have much time to spare at the moment as the diary for March is looking rather full.
The trip across the Pennines from Sowerby Bridge was uneventful. I was on a direct service from Leeds to Wigan Wallgate which was worked by one of Northern’s cascaded Class 158s. Once the staple of more express services, they’ve been displaced onto secondary duties that would once have been worked by Pacers. It was comfortable and not particularly busy until it called at Rochdale so I used my time wisely and got some work done. The lack of wifi and power sockets wasn’t an issue now I have my new ‘super duper’ Dell laptop so I managed to plough through and edit quite a backlog of pictures whilst keeping a wary eye on the weather which was worsening the further West I got.
Sod’s law being what it is, by the time I got to Wigan and checked the Class 769 workings on Real Time Trains it was obvious today’s runs had been cancelled. It’s always the luck of the draw with these things and the fact it was raining cats and dogs in Wigan (or ‘Wiggin’ as the local pronounce it) meant I wasn’t too disappointed. Instead, I admitted defeat to head back East and attempted to salvage the day by getting a couple of shots around Manchester Victoria, like this one which rather shows how much the railways around the city have changed in the past few years.
A pair of Hitachi Class 802s operated by Trans Pennine Express pass at Manchester Victoria. On the left 802215 works 9S12, the 1224 Liverpool Lime Street to Edinburgh. Yes, Manchester now has direct services to the Scottish capital – and from Victoria too! On the right 802209 was working the unfortunate 1P22, the 1047 Newcastle to Manchester Airport which was terminated at Victoria due to signal failure. It’s great to see the way Victoria has regained the intercity services that it lost decades ago – and with brand new state of the art trains providing them too!
Heading on East I managed to get home without getting drenched thanks to my trusty Siemens supplied umbrella and a new pair of walking boots that kept my feet above the many puddles I encountered on the way. This evening has been spent on different activities. Both Dawn and I love to cook and tonight the muse was upon me. Whilst Dee slaved away working from home I tried an Indian recipe I’ve never cooked before, Chettinad Chicken curry. It’s fiery due to the Kashmiri chilli powder and ground black peppercorns and aromatic due to the cumin, cinnamon and coriander seeds. Served with rice and a few pickles and chutneys it certainly brought some colour into an otherwise dreary day.
The weekend weather isn’t looking much better. In fact, it appears we’ve yet another storm on the way, so I doubt I’ll be getting out with the camera over the next few days although I might get a few more old slides from 1990 scanned – just to keep the momentum going. As chance would have it, the next ones to be done are from Bristol – a city that I’ll be back in on Monday as I’m at an ACoRP seminar on Monday – Tuesday. Hopefully I’ll have chance to get a couple of up to date shots as a comparison…
I’ve been moving around too much today to write a coherent rolling blog, so here’s a look back over the day.
After attending the Bradshaw address last night I stayed with an old friend who lives in Clapham. His flat overlooks the station and offers some excellent views of the changing city skyline beyond. It was great to catch up with him as it’s not easy nowadays because we all lead such busy lives.
When I left, rather than go into central London I caught the London overground via Wandsworth and Canada Water through to Shoreditch, which was an old stomping ground from the 1980s-90s. I’m always amazed how much that neck of the woods has changed in the past 35 years. When I lived in the East End London was still a city in decline, with a shrinking population. The Housing Co-op I lived in was set up by the local council (Tower Hamlets) because the block was on an estate where properties were considered ‘hard to let’. Can you imagine that now? So much of what was once considered ‘rough’ areas of London no-one wanted to live in are now chokka with new high-rise housing developments – and new transport links to serve them, like the Docklands Light Railway, or indeed – the London Overground! I still love coming back to London even if the memories are sometimes bitter-sweet.
One thing I realised on my tour was how many photographic locations have been lost because of all the new housing developments, especially on the part of the LO that runs on the reinstated line from Shoreditch through to Dalston. Later, when I can, I’ll post a couple of pictures as contrasts to show you what I mean.
Leaving London from Liverpool St I passed through more of East London. Areas I lived and worked in for nearly 15 years that still hold powerful and happy memories for me. Leaving the orbit of the capital I ended up in Essex, where the railways are changing fast. Trains that have plied these routes before I moved to London are being phased out completely. The Anglia franchise has gone for total fleet replacement, although that’s not entirely gone to plan as the new fleets are late! Hardly a unique story on UK railways…
My first port of call was Colchester, where the station approaches are rather photogenic, especially with a long lens. I didn’t linger long as the weather was less than inviting and I was dressed for a lecture, not the great outdoors! The station’s quite exposed and the wind was perishing! Even so, I managed a couple of useful shots of trains that will soon be a memory in that neck of the woods.
Moving on I headed for Ipswich, where I started to encounter the new Stadler built bi-mode trains that Anglia have bought in great numbers. To say these units are a leap in quality is rather like comparing a Boeing 737 with a DC3! When the full fleet’s in service (along with the Bombardier built Class 720s) there’ll be a rail revolution in Anglia, a regions that’s always made do with cast-offs for decades.
Three car unit 755329 stabled at Ipswich. Unlike any other new train, these Stadler sets are articulated and have a power pack containing the engines as a separate compartment which has a gangway through it. As you can see from the picture, it’s also slightly wider than the passenger vehicles.
My first trip on one of the Stadler units was from Ipswich to Bury St Edmonds and I had to say I was impressed. The build quality’s very good, the seats are very comfortable and there’s a good mix of bay seating with tables and airline type rows. Plus sockets are fitted at every seat although it took me a few minutes fiddling with one to realise they’ve been fitted upside down (which is no bad thing). Acceleration on electric power’s excellent and they’re no slouch on diesel power either. The PA system makes a human voice audible for once and the PIS screens – whilst not as good or as informative as the ones in the new Siemens Class 700 family – give you details of stops en-route. Ride quality felt superior to the new CAF units i’m used to on Northern, whilst noise inside the saloon was minimal. I’d certainly rate them as one of the best new trains we’ve got. I’m looking forward to trying out one of the intercity variants to see the difference, as well as doing a full train test on them with Pip Dunn for a future edition of RAIL magazine.
The saloon of the front car in set 755409.
At Bury St Edmonds I couldn’t get the pictures I wanted so I backtracked to the pretty little station of Thurston, which is a rarity nowadays in that passengers gain access to the Up platform by walking over a foot crossing at track level that’s only protected by lights and sirens.
755416 is about to pass over the foot crossing at Thurston whilst working the 14.57 to Cambridge. The pretty grade 2 listed, three-story station building is intact but disused. It was built in the Jacobean style by Frederick Barnes for the Ipswich and Bury Railway in 1846.
Moving on to Cambridge I stayed long enough to photograph the variety of trains (old and new) that operate a far more intensive service than I remember from a few years ago. Afterwards I headed North to Ely to connect with trains to Peterborough which were worked by EMR Class 158s and GA 755s. I was in time to get another of the GA 755s which made for a very pleasant trip across the flooded flatlands of the fens whilst watching the hailstorms from my cosy perch.
At Peterborough I didn’t have long to wait for a pair of 5-car LNER Azuma’s to arrive on a Leeds service and whisk me back to Yorkshire. A quick change to a Hull to Halifax service meant I was home by 20:30, which has given me time to scribble this – although I’ve more detail and pictures to add in the morning. Right now, it’s time to call it a day…
The snow returned overnight but thankfully only on the high ground above us, although we’re still seeing the occasional flurry. Here’s the view across the Calder Valley to Sowerby this morning.
I’m back in the saddle and preparing to head down to London for the next couple of days. From what I can see there’s no disruption on the railways that’ll affect me getting to the capital, so let’s see how things go…
12:00.
I left home later than expected due to having to sort out a few things, including recovering my Netflix account as some barsteward had hacked the account and changed the email address! The joys of cyber-security (or not)…
Right now I’m on the slightly late running 11:44 from Halifax to Manchester Victoria which is worked by the first of the 2-car CAF class 195s, number 001.
There seem to be a few teething problems still, it’s not exactly baking hot in here, in fact I’ve had to put my coat back on. The wifi isn’t working and the reservation screens are showing the code ‘DILAX’ (whatever that means). On the plus side, this is a reasonably fast journey now that several stops have been cut. We only call at Hebden Bridge, Todmorden and Rochdale. Of course it could be faster if some of the generous ‘pathing allowances’ were removed, which mean we amble through Lancashire! We even have a five minute layover at Rochdale, which the conductor announces.
As is often the case, the Pennines form a border between weather fronts. It’s actually been a sunny morning for much of the time in Yorkshire, despite the odd snow flurry. My walk to the station was really pleasant. Here in Lancashire the clouds are far more built up and threatening more than a flurry!
13:46.
I’ve now set up office on a nice warm Pendolino, which is such a contrast to the chilly CAF unit from earlier. This time of day/week the train’s reasonably quiet so I’ve got a table of four all to myself. My fellow passengers in coach U seems to be business travellers, mostly. A pair of them are holding a meeting on another table nearby. A quick look around the coach confirms my suspicions, 90% of folk in this coach are staring at a screen of one form or another, whether it’s a laptop, ipad or smartphone. Just two women (who look like leisure travellers) are actually sat chatting!
Outside my hermetically sealed and tilting bubble the world’s flashing by. Rural Cheshire doesn’t seem as badly flooded as many of the places I’ve visited recently although there’s still plenty of standing water on flat roofs, pavements and fields. Right, it’s time to knuckle down to work and clear some emails…
15:10.
I’m now within the orbit of the M25 and my email inbox has been considerably slimmed-down, although it’ll be a while yet before it’s a single page! Disappointingly, the sunshine the forecast predicted has failed to materialise. In truth, it’s far duller ‘dahn Sarf’ than it was up North, which is a bit of a bummer. Still, I’m sure I can find something to occupy myself with for the next few hours…
The pair of us have had a relaxing day after last night’s partying but as the weather picked up we took the opportunity to explore. Thanks to Dawn I got to go to places old and new. Places that (as someone who doesn’t drive) I’d never normally get to.
We started off on territory that was very familiar to me because of family connections and childhood memories: Beaumaris. It’s a tiny but tidy little place that’s blessed with a rather impressive Georgian apartment block fronting the Menai Straits that rather sets the scene. Mind you, the old castle which dates from 1295 but was never completed also sets the place apart as a small town that punches well above its weight when it comes to buildings and architecture.
This property is a grade 1 listed building and a property here can set you back around £600,000! That said, for that price you will get 6 bedrooms and a Butler’s pantry!
We discovered something a little more to our tastes and price bracket in the narrow streets behind where we found the Little Chilli shop. It’s an Aladdin’s cave for those who love chilli’s and the myriad culinary uses they can be put to. It’s well worth a visit and we came away with a variety of chutney’s and jams.
After popping in to say hello to the party crew from last night we headed off to Red Wharf Bay which has a stunning beach that’s well worth visiting. Whilst we were there I encountered this avian critter which was a bird I’d never seen before. After posting the picture on Twitter I found out why. Apparently, it’s a Snow Bunting. You don’t get ’em in my neck of the woods as they’re coastal birds that nest way up North and the UK population isn’t exactly massive.
The bay’s a huge expanse of beach that’s very popular as it’s ideal for a long stroll, beach-combing, bird-watching, walking the dogs or simply enjoying the sea air and the great outdoors.
Moving on we decided to explore the coast further North and drove as far as Amlwch, a place I’d never visited before. The landscape here features the remains of an industry I’d never even knew had existed on the island – copper mining. Amlwch was an old industrial centre that boasted a small harbour and a freight only railway line that carried freight to/from the Associated Octel works until 1993 when the traffic transferred to road. Despite being unused since, the line remains mostly intact. There’s been talk of it reopening as a tourist line for many years but nothing’s ever come of it. Here’s some pictures of what’s left.
Here’s where the railway crosses the A5025 in central Amlwch. There’s several flat crossings in the town. ‘Eliseg’ an old 40hp Fowler built Diesel shunter from 1939 and an LMS Brake van sit rusting at Llanerchymedd, where the old railway station’s been converted into a community café. The locomotive was acquired from the Llangollen Railway in 2008 but it was in an unserviceable condition due to frost damage to its engine. Moss covers the rusting rails at the old station in Llangefni which has been converted into a private dwelling. All the stations on the line were single platforms like this.
We’ve had a hugely enjoyable time here on Anglesey but tomorrow it’s time to leave and head home, so I’ll end this blog for now and update it with some more information as soon as I can and links to the rest of the pictures I’ve taken during our visit. Weather permitting, we’ll take our time getting home tomorrow, so there should be more pictures to add…
The pair of us have had a busy morning at home getting ready for our weekend wanderings to Wales as we’ve both needed to finish up some stuff before we left. I’ve been slaving away over a hot computer, invoicing, setting up commissions and adding yet more vintage pictures to my Zenfolio website. Here’s another sample that shows just how much has changed in 30 years.
This is Bristol Bath Rd locomotive depot which was right next door to Temple Meads railway station. In fact, this shot’s taken from the platform end. The depot was home to a varied collection of freight and passenger locomotives plus diesel multiple units and shunting engines. There was a constant stream of movements on and off shed. Sadly, the depot closed in 1995 and the site was razed. The advent of privatisation and the separation of railfreight and passenger services has rendered such depots redundant.
You can find the rest of the series of pictures in this gallery.
Now it’s time to turn to finishing the packing and head off West. The weather looks like its going to be ‘interesting’ to say the least, so let’s see how the day goes…
13:26.
Oh, the joys of the M62 ln a Friday afternoon when you’re queuing to get past a broken down vehicle…
Not how you want to see any motorway – especially when you’re on it…
17:45. Anglesey
There wasn’t much time for blogging on that journey as both of us were too busy concentrating on the road as the journey over here from West Yorkshire was pretty challenging. It got off to a bad start when (unusually) we joined the M62 at Ainley Top by Huddersfield rather than our usual route via Ripponden. We ran slap bang into a queue of traffic which had built up to due to a broken down lorry in the slow lane. Imagine our chagrin when we passed it, just before the Ripponden junction! The snarl-up added nearly an hour to our journey and the weather conditions we encountered didn’t make it any less stressful. A combination of high whind and heavy rain kept the pair of us on alert.
Swinging off the M62 onto the M6 wasn’t any better, apart from the fact the queues were going in the opposite direction. When we joined the M56 traffic eased, although the clouds of spray thrown UP by HGVs wasn’t much fun. It was only when we crossed the border into Wales that the weather began to pick up somewhat. Speed restrictions on the A55 for imaginary roadworks added more time to our trip but we briefly saw some sunshine around Conwy. It didn’t last. The weather got progressively worse the further West we headed. Looking across the Menai Strait to get our first glimpse of Anglesey we had to struggle to make the island out through the murk! At first, Puffin Island was the only discernable feature, then as the channel narrowed the outline of the island became visible. Dawn didn’t have much time to look, all her concentration had to go in keeping the car steering in a straight line due to the fierce wind that was gusting along that part of the A55.
Once we crossed the iconic original Menai Bridge we took a break and picked up supplies at the nearby Waitrose. Yes folks, they’ve got posh in Anglesey and Waitrose have been canny enough to build their supermarket right next to the old bridge in order to attract as many tourists arriving on the island as possible. It was only 16:00 when we got there but the skies were so heavy and dark it felt like dusk. It wasn’t what we were hoping for but if there’s one thing no-one has any say over it’s the weather.
In the best ‘Blue Peter’ tradition, here’s on I prepared earlier! This is a shot of Thomas Telford’s Menai Bridge that I took back in 2000 that was used in the original Lonely Planet guidebook to Wales. In the background you can see Snowdonia. As is often the case, it’s generating it’s own microclimate where you can have T-shirt weather by the coast but need your thermals on just a few miles down the road.
The rest of the drive along the narrow Beaumaris Rd (which hasn’t changed since I was a kid back in the 1960s) wasn’t too bad as we were in the lee of the wind dues to the roads steep sides, but once through the town and out into the countryside we caught its force again. We’re now tucked up in our lovely Airbnb which has a fabulous (if exposed) location. I’m sure the views will we wonderful once the weather permits. Right now, we’re just glad to be off the roads and in a warm, dry cosy cottage, listening to the wind and rain attacking the place from outside!
We have the ground floor of this custom built property, Tanrallt Bach 1, outside Llangoed near Beaumaris.And relax! The cosy kitchen/living room area. A great space to rise out the storm outside. Our thoughtful hosts have even left a bottle of red wine on the kitchen table for us…
Tomorrow, whatever the weather throws at us we’re going to get out and explore before heading off to a friends 50th birthday party in evening. I’m not promising a rolling blog, but I’m sure something will appear.
The past couple of days have seen me busy working from home which has been no bad thing as the weather’s been miserable and hardly conducive to wandering the world with the camera. OK, maybe the world would have been fun – but this corner of West Yorkshire hasn’t been!
Instead, I’ve been tucked up in the warm, editing the pictures I took around Manchester on Monday whilst mixing them with yet another batch of old slide scans from 1990. This little spree has added over 130 new pictures to my Zenfolio website. The contrast are quite fascinating as the UK’s railways have changed massively in the past 30 years and that rate of change is accelerating. Here’s a couple of examples to illustrate what I mean. This is how Sheffield and Cross-Country services looked like in 1990.
Here’s 47849 calling at Sheffield whilst working a Cross-Country service to Poole which is made up of 8 coaches, a far cry from the 4 or 5 coach Voyager DMUs that would replace such trains 13 years later. But then Virgin (who ran Cross-Country) ran far more frequent services than BR ever did.
Meanwhile, in 2020…
Here’s one of Trans-Pennine Express’ new Hitachi built Class 802 units at Manchester Victoria on a service from Newcastle to Liverpool Lime St. These bi-mode units have only entered service over the past few months, adding much needed capacity.
The new selection of 1990s pictures includes shots from London, Ely, Newcastle, Scotland and Tonbridge. You can find them here. So far this year I’ve added nearly 1000 new or historical pictures, which means there’s plenty to look at or buy!
Tomorrow I’ll be more focussed on family matters rather than photography. After that Dawn and I are off to North Wales for a few days as it’s a friends 50th birthday. We’re going to be staying on Anglesey but I’m sure there’ll be time for a bit of blogging in between all the partying and photography. Let’s just hope that the weather picks up as Anglesey is a very photogenic part of the world and where we’ve booked to stay for a few days is an ideal location from which to explore.
Paul Bigland 