Category Archives: Railways

Lockdown. Day 28 (Monday)

21 Tuesday Apr 2020

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Another working week began with me praying that Dell computers still sent out engineers to do site visits, It also began with me spending the morning finishing restoring on my old laptop to make sure it could keep me working until they did. To be fair the old machine was still serviceable – just ‘delicate’ and unable to operate without mains power as the battery was fried. It took me a couple of hours to reinstall various software and backups to make sure it was OK, which wasn’t time I was expecting to spend but it kept me busy until the Dell offices opened. I’ve always had service contracts on my machines that mean engineers do home calls rather than my kit having to be sent away. It’s a worthwhile expense and it proved so in this case. I spoke to a very lovely Indian lady who assured me that Dell engineers were still doing home calls and that they’d have someone out with me tomorrow (Tuesday) which was reassuring. Despite trying to power up the new machine and going through all the BIOS checks it looked almost certain the motherboard would need replacing. It’s bit of a bugger in a machine only a few months old, but that’s life. My last Dell developed a similar fault in the first couple of months them performed faultlessly (despite the battering it took) for the next four years until retirement.

With all this going on the day absolutely flew by. It was another beautifully sunny one but the biting wind I’d encountered on Sunday had hung around and even managed to inveigle its way down the side of the valley, so I was quite happy losing track of time in the office.

When I did venture out for the daily diet of park life and woodland walking Dawn and I combined it with a stroll to our local Tescos to pick up some supplies. It’s a far healthier way of going shopping than using the car and it kills two birds with one stone – you even get a bit of weight-bearing exercise thrown in by carrying all the bottles and tins back in rucsacs, making it a winner all round.

With having to rely on a less than reliable computer I knocked writing and picture scanning on the head. Instead I had a decluttering session in an effort to sort out some of those projects there’s never time for. I have three other old laptops cluttering up the place. My old one’s used to be handed on to Dawn for her personal use but work have provided her with some new kit so she no longer needs them. An old HP netbook that I used to travel with as a backup and a 12yr old Sony Vaio are now off for scrap, sans hard-drives which I’ve destroyed. I’ve kept the last machine (another, more recent Vaio) purely because it’s got a DVD player and I’d got piles of old pictures backed up on DVDs that I’d never had time copy and stick on hard-drives. Back in 2004-05 which is when they date from it was easy to use DVDs for storage. Picture files were smaller and portable hard drives were expensive but just a few years later with the price of hard-drives tumbling and reliability improving it made no sense to use DVDs. So whilst I’ve been doing other things this old laptop’s been whirring away on a filing cabinet, copying pictures – some of which I’ve not looked at for 10-15 years. Here’s an example. This was taken by a Spanish friend who was staying with is in North London back in October 2004. It shows me editing pictures at my desk. My, how many memories this brings back!

PA150179. Me at home in Inderwick. 19.10.2004

Despite the fact I’d gone digital 6 months before it’s clear how much clutter around me is due to taking slides. The rows of albums on the top shelf, the one in front of me, the blue boxes of slides above my head, the slide scanner, rows of undeveloped film and the lightbox. Oh, and all those DVD’s I’m just getting rid of now? Look to my right! As for my laptop – I can’t even remember that one now – although it’ll have been the first one I bought to go digital with, as the desktop setup could go nowhere.

Wanting a break from technology old and new I retreated to the garden bench for the sunset, when the view across the valley’s sublime. It’s made even better nowadays by the lack of traffic and the cars that used to use or road as a rat-run to escape the main roads nearby. I don’t miss them and It’ll be lovely if they never come back. Quite what permanent changes we may see to travel patterns (if any) is open to question, but I’d love to see any that mean we rely less on cars.

Our evening was spent with me deciding to do some cooking rather than just dig stuff out of the freezer so I tried a different cumin spiced chicken dish that I’d never cooked before. It was similar to a Korma in that it was creamy, but it had an underlying kick and extra nuttiness due to the cumin and chilis. Whilst I was busy in the kitchen Dawn had set up a ‘Zoom’ meeting with her parents in Huddersfield and her brother and his family down in Farnham so I dipped in and out of this as the cooking permitted. We had a very pleasant, domesticated and family-orientated evening before having an early night .

Tomorrow the Dell engineer arrives and my stress levels should decrease. Here’s hoping…

 

Lockdown. Day 27 (Sunday).

20 Monday Apr 2020

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I’m not going to be able to relate the full day’s antics as technology has begun to conspire against me right now – which in this situation is a bit of a bugger. The day started well enough, the weather has been stunning once more – if a little chillier than recently due to the increase in the wind. The amount of sunshine we’ve had recently has been wonderful. If anything has lifted the spirits it’s been the weather. How much more miserable would the whole lockdown experience have been if we’d had the days of persistent rain that we had at the beginning of the year? The ability to be able to get outdoors and top up the vitamin D levels has made a huge difference.

Despite it being a Sunday, our day started much like any other. I was up early to make the tea/coffee before leaving Dawn to doze in bed whilst I sloped off into my office to finish editing the latest bunch of scanned slides, then post my daily Twitter quiz. During the lockdown I’ve been posting a mystery picture of a station somewhere in the UK as a brain-teaser for people. It’s proved quite popular. Here was today’s. Can you work out where it is?

competition

Some are much harder than others. This isn’t the easiest as it only shows a detail of a station rather then  full building. In fact, it’s the platform canopies at York, on platform 4, outside the main station roof. One of my followers wasn’t fooled and got it right! The breadth of knowledge out there never ceases to amaze me. But maybe that’s because we’re all getting a little stir-crazy right now so many people are looking for an opportunity to exercise ‘the little grey cells’ as Hercule Poirot would have said. I enjoy setting these picture quizzes because I’m lucky enough to have thousands of my own pictures to use. I’ve always had an interest in railway architecture and the decades I’ve spent travelling have allowed me to build up a large collection of pictures to use.

As it was supposedly the day of rest I didn’t scan too many more slides as I needed to concentrate on other things othewise they’d never get done. There were household chores that needed to be done, although we’re still living off the batch-cooking that we’ve done and horded in our American style fridge-freezer. It saves us a lot of time during the week as we don’t have to think about cooking, but I must admit I do miss that experience sometime as I enjoy cooking and find it a pleasant diversion from everything else that’s going on arounds us.

Jobs done I headed out to get my daily steps in. There was not time to venture furthers so it was the bog-standard route though the woods along the prom and through the park. The only difference this time was the biting wind that greeted me when I hit the top of the hill! We live in a sheltered, sunny spot just down from the brow of the hill on the valley side, so we’re often unaware what’s going on above us. It’s only when we summit the hilltops and come into contract with the prevailing winds from the North which pass over us that the thought occurs “I may be a little underdressed for this”…

Back at home I retreated into the office to catch up with a few last bits, which is when the evening really turned to ratshit. Through a Facebook post I found that an old friend had just passed away after a long illness due to contracting Covid19.

John Farrow was the mastermind behind the railtour company UK Railtours. He’d originally set up Hertfordshire railtours which he ran successfully for very many years before selling the organisation. He’d also set up another railtour brand, the ‘Blue Pullman’ back in the mid 2000s. I’d first travelled with John’s tours back in the early 1990s and got to know him in later years through my photography work for magazines and the rail industry and I ended up working for him on several occaisions. We got to know each other and would meet up at various events or on his tours whilst I still lived in London. Of course, many of these social events would involve pubs, or imbibing various beverages. John was a passionate supporter of the railways and a mine of information. He was also a lovely man, and his passing will be mourned by a lot of people. His enthusiast railtours and dining trains brought a lot of pleasure to an awful lot of people. They were happy times and I’ve a lot of fond memories form those days. I’m digging through my archives to find some of the pictures as I realise very few of them made their way onto my new website. But here’s one gallery – a trip on John’s ‘Blue Pullman’ dining train back in 2006. RIP John, we’ll all get together to give you the send off you deserve when all this crap is over.

Whilst trying to delve through the archives to find pictures of John I noticed that my laptop wasn’t charging. It’s not the first time as the charger has been a bit skittish in the past. My new Dell machine charges through USB-C sockets. These are good in that I can swap ports to charge, meaning wires aren’t always in the way as the power lead can be moved from side to side, but they’re not exactly what you’d call ‘robust’. They’re much smaller than the original USB ports in order to allow modern laptops to lose some weight. Forget coming with a DVD player or any of that lardbutt technology from the 1990s – 2000s, these modern machines are as thin and lightweight as a book of Boris Johnson’s kept promises!

Despite my tinkering my laptop was losing the electrical will to live and there was nothing I could do to stop it. Quickly Googling the problem suggested the issue wasn’t unknown and it would probably require my machine having a new Motherboard. Oh, deep, deep joy! Just when the country is in lockdown! It being too late to contact Dell I had to let the machine bleed its last whilst hastily resurrecting my old Dell XPS laptop which was gathering dust on a shelf. Its still works, but it’s carrying far too many battle-scars after a four year life travelling the world. The battery’s shot, the screen’s starting to suffer fading and the body’s battered and fractured after dropping out of my camera bag on to too many hard Asian hotel room floors. I curse the day that Lowpro decided to make a camera bag where the laptop compartment zipped up on side – on the outside. Forget to zip it up properly and your laptop rapidly exited the side in freefall! But, it’ll do for now until I can get the new machine fixed – just don’t expect any old slides to be scanned these next few days as my focus is going to be elsewhere.

 

 

Lockdown. Day 25 (Friday).

18 Saturday Apr 2020

Posted by in Coronavirus, History, Lockdown, Musings, Railways

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The end of another working week, not that the concept means much nowadays! The pair of us kept occupied throughout the day in our respective offices, slaving away over different things, allowing the time to really whizz bye. If my work was different and I had nothing to do I might find the whole lockdown process difficult. As it is – it just allows me to concentrate on things I’ve been meaning to do for years without the distraction of travelling the country. I can’t think of the last time I spent so much time within a 2 mile radius of home! Although I’m here physically my mind’s ranging in both space and time as I’m researching an article on a railway in East London and scanning pictures from around the country taken 30 years ago. There’s plenty to see and do even within the four walls where I spend most of my time.

The fantastic weather we’ve been having seems to be on the turn right now. The temperatures plummeted and the wind’s sprung up. It’s a real contrast to yesterday when I had to break out the suntan lotion. Hopefully it’ll encourage the folk who’ve been tempted to break out of social isolation to retreat back into their homes. I know that it’s impossible to trust the statistics for the number of Coronavirus infections but the numbers for Calderdale are still remarkably low compared to neighbouring authorities. I’ve no idea why, but it does give a small shred of comfort to know that we’re *possibly* in one of the safer areas. It certainly encourages you to stay put anyway…

The news isn’t all bad. Today the FTSE 100 stock market had a bounce upwards by nearly 3% althought the volatilty of the markets could easily see that gain wiped out pretty quickly, especially as the virus news from the USA isn’t good. The projections from the states look like they’re going to rocket and Trump is a big part of the problem. Statesman? He’s a snake oil salesmen and a lot of people are going to lose their lives because of him. To see the religious right and the gun nuts out on the streets because their ‘freedoms’ are being limited is bizarre, but then that’s USA for you. This really is social Darwinism in action. Could it signal the turning point of populist politics? It’s far too early to tell…

Having slogged away all day I did make a converted effort to make up for it by getting my 12.5k steps in after sitting in front of a screen all day – even if it was by sticking to a well-trodden route by now. Spring has most certainly sprung and our local woods are bursting into leaf with the Bluebells following on behind. Hopefully we’ll have a lovely display to this year to help lift the mood. I do love woodlands and we’re very lucky to have so much of it on our doorstep – as well as all the creatures that inhabit it. Funnily enough, the one feathered friend I’ve not heard yet this year has been the Woodpeckers. Last year they were constant. It was like living next to roadworks and pneumatic drills!

Meanwhile, here’s a sample of the pictures I’ve been scanning. This isn’t the best quality as it was a crap day weather-wise but it’s the incidentals that matter.

0458. 31450. Crewe. 11.02.1990crop

This is a Class 31s being backed on to Crewe shed by the depot pilot in February 1990. At the time I’d have cursed the cars in front for not allowing me a clear shot. Now I love them for the fact they didn’t, because it’s the cars that capture the spirit of the age and date the picture! They’d have belonged to rail staff who worked at the depot. What I appreciate as I scan all these old pictures is the ones where its those incidentals that tell the story. It might be paraffin lamps, old parcels trolleys, staff uniforms or even passengers fashions. They all set the scene and make you appreciate what has changed in 30 years. As Joni Mitchell once sang in ‘Big Yellow Taxi’ – you don’t know what you’ve got ’till it’s gone…

 

StopHs2. The fat lady sings…

15 Wednesday Apr 2020

Posted by in Coronavirus, Hs2, Rail Investment, Railways

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This morning the Government announced that it has Given the HS2 rail project ‘Notice to Proceed’ which is the final hurdle the project had to clear before the main civil engineering work begins. It’s been clear this was going to happen since February when the Government announced it was going ahead with HS2 after studying the Oakervee Review but the announcement removes the last vestiges of doubt and allows the joint ventures tasked with building HS2 to get spades in the ground.

It’s also the final nail in the coffin for the anti Hs2 ‘campaign’ (a term I use loosely). They’d run out of steam and ideas years ago but recent events like Brexit and now the economic damage from the Coronavirus only made HS2 more likely. Why? It’s a shovel-ready project that has massive cross party support. The boost it can give the UKs crippled economy is obvious to anyone who puts economics before dogma. Why on earth would the Government not go ahead? To say the debate about HS2 is dead and buried would be an understatement but there’s still a few who want to try and pretend otherwise.  Of course, none of them can answer one simple question. It’s one they’ve ducked for years. How are you going to stop HS2? 

Cue tumbleweeds…

The anti HS2 ‘campaign’ has been on life support for years. It’s been hanging on, wheezing away through press releases and the occasional rent-a-quote interview from Joe Rukin but most of the Nimbys who were their backbone have sold out, moved on and given up. This has been evident in the gradual decline in the number of people agitating on social media, or signing petitions (more of which later). Let’s remember, they’ve not had a national public gathering since 2013 or demonstration since 2014. All their ‘national’ groups have collapsed of faded away, as has their action group network, which has had nothing to do since the Phase 1 bill got such a stonking majority in Parliament in 2014 – 6 years ago. It’s been a downhill trajectory for them ever since, including in every general election – and there’s been a few of them!

So what’s left? 

Well, Rukin’s still hanging around like a bad smell, mainly because he’s failed to find a proper job, despite years of looking. That said, StopHs2 haven’t been heard from since March 25th until today, when Rukin issued the sort of moan that’s been his trademark for several years now. Apparently, according to Uncle Joe, the Government is “shamelessly opportunistic” in deciding to give HS2 notice to proceed as “there is next to no scrutiny taking place” due to the covid-19 lockdown.

No ‘scrutiny’? He’s having a laugh! Apart from the fact every MP on the route is having their ears bent by their local Nimby population, Rukin seems to have forgotten his friends at Extinction Rebellion! These ‘eco-warriors’ have bombarded social media and anyone they can think of with hundreds of hours of tedious videos recorded on their smartphones as they ignore the Covid-19 lockdown restrictions. Hs2 staff can’t even fart without some useless protestor catching it on video and screaming that it’s ‘ecocide’ or a ‘wildlife crime’ or that the workers are breaking the social distancing guidelines!  

Extinction Rebellion are now the frontrunners in the opposition to HS2 – which isn’t really saying much as they’ve been as spectacularly useless on the ground as StopHs2 have been on the political front and the likes of Chris Packham and his Solicitors, ‘Pay Day’ have been in the courts (Don’t you mean Leigh Day? Ed). XR arrived on the scene a while ago and have an impressive 100% failure rate, despite all their exaggerated claims. Having failed to stop any work at Harvil Rd near London or anywhere in the Chilterns they set up camp at Crackley Wood in Warwickshire just before the lockdown. 

Long on bluster and vapid rhetoric but short on numbers (there’s only a couple of dozen of them) they promised their social media voyeurs that they were going to ‘save’ the woods and stop HS2 in its tracks. Needless to say, they’ve done no such thing. Outnumbered and outwitted by the National Eviction Team and HS2 security staff time and time again they’ve become increasingly shrill as their bluster has been exposed (often by their own videos!). They managed to get less than a dozen people into trees in both Crackley and Broadwell woods. They lasted but a few days before NET officers had them down. What was funny was seeing one of the tree protesters boasting on social media about how the woods were ‘theirs’ the day before he was unceremoniously hauled down and arrested! He was arrogant enough to assume that the fact NET were biding their time before evicting them meant they’d won. So, NET:11 – Extinction Rebellion: 0! To add to their woes, those arrested are now having bail conditions set that mean they have to leave Warwickshire and go home. For some of them this is tears at bedtime stuff. It’s like a kid being grounded and screaming ‘it’s not fair!’. Welcome to the adult world, where your imaginary ‘people’s courts’ don’t set the rules, the real authorities do. 

Because of all this the ‘eco-warriors’ have become deflated very quickly. They’ve believed their own bluster and completely underestimated the sheer size of the HS2 project. This isn’t some little local bypass they’re trying to stop. This is the largest infrastructure project in Europe and the logistics behind it are gargantuan. You could see that realisation starting to sink in when contractors moved in to begin clearing a path through the edge of Crackley woods that HS2 will pass through. This wasn’t a few blokes with chainsaws, this was massive modern machinery that could clear a mature tree in a matter of minutes.

Of course, the other problem for the ‘eco-warriors’ is their inflated rhetoric. Many of them are hopelessly  out of touch with the real world. Their heads are full of conspiracy theories and mouths with diatribes about capitalism. Their lack of knowledge of how the real world (rather than the one they’ve invented for themselves) works is bizarre. They bandy the words ‘illegal’ and ‘crime’ around like they’re going out of fashion, without an iota of self-awareness or realisation that, actually – they don’t make the laws and saying that something is ‘illegal’ doesn’t actually make it true. The old expression about ‘barrack-room lawyers’ springs to mind.

At worst, these people can be a nuisance to the early stages of HS2 as clearance work continues. But my prediction is that they’ll soon get bored and wander off to whatever’s the next bee in their bonnet. After all, there’s enough new roads being built, but they seem to ignore them for some mysterious reason. Oh, there’s another thing. XR grossly exaggerate their support. The latest doomed stophs2 petition on the Government website has produced some very interesting results so far. To give you an idea, here’s a map of signatures of their 2017 petition which closed after 6 months with less than 30,000 signatures. Look how you can trace the route of HS2 – both phase 1 and 2 – and look how nothing registers in quantity anywhere else. 2017 petition

Here’s how the latest petition stands at 18:00 on the 16th April. Notice a difference? 

2020 petition for blog

On the first petition it was very evident where HS2 went due to the number of people living on the route signing the petition. Not just on phase 1 either. There was one noticeable spot in Yorkshire on phase 2 (Hemsworth). Now look at the difference. Phase 2 of HS2 doesn’t even feature and only a handful of constituencies on phase 1 turn darker than yellow. Instead (bizarrely) you have constituencies like Stroud, Ceredigion (Mid Wales) and St Ives featuring – all those well known ‘hotbeds’ of anti HS2 activism? So why on earth…?

Because of Extinction Rebellion, that’s why. This is a map that shows where they  obviously have active local groups. Well when I say ‘active’, let’s crunch some numbers. Here’s how many people in these areas have actually signed as of 16th April. 

hippies

Mmm – so, a bunch of old (and young) hippies living miles away from the route are going to stop HS2? I think not… These areas will ring bells with anyone who remembers the ‘glory’ days of the counterculture. Whilst there’s no doubt many of these people have a genuine concern for the environment, they’re also a ragbag of conflicting beliefs, not all of which are savoury, or ‘enlightened’. There’s the usual anti capitalists, more than a few conspiracy theorists (chemtrails being a favourite) and – sad to say – an undercurrent of racism.

Here’s a Facebook post from Terry Sandison who is at the Crackley Wood camp. He regularly bombards social media with videos, but this is the other stuff he doesn’t generally share on the anti HS2 groups – for obvious reasons…

Terry Sandison 

Sadly, this is not an isolated thing. Lizzie Williams, the founder of StopHs2 has gained herself a reputation for xenophobia and anti-Semitism following Tweets like this one from January 2018.

mad lizzy. Jan 2018

“My” country?  Or there’s this one from earlier this year…

lizzy racism

One thing the ‘greens’ have never noticed is just who they’re in bed with when it comes to opposing HS2. They’ve never asked themselves how on earth they can be on the same side as UKIP, the BNP, Britain First, the National Front and For Britain who all oppose HS2. Not to mention the likes of right-wing lobbyists the Institute of Economic Affairs and the Taxpayers Alliance. You’d think alarm bells would be going off all over the place, but no. The sad truth is there’s quite a few eco-fascists out there (Sorry Robin W, I know you hate me pointing that out). 

Oh, there’s another weapons-grade hypocrisy about the Extinction Rebellion people. They keep banging on and on about HS2 site workers, bailiffs and the Police not ‘social distancing’ – without the slightest understanding of what the rules actually are. How in God’s name is any member of the police expected to arrest someone at a distance of 2 metres? Or a security guard prevent someone intent on causing disruption trespassing? To any sane person it’s obvious nonsense but it doesn’t stop them banging on and on whilst claiming they’re goody two-shoes and practising ‘self isolation’. Really? Allow me to introduce you to Ross Monaghan. Ross was at the Crackley Wood camp where he utterly failed to stop HS2 but he did a very good job of posting hours and hours of rambling video to Facebook and elsewhere. As if by magic, he’s now appeared in Jones Hill wood near Gt Missenden, where he’s recorded his latest video.

Monahagn 2 This is 68 miles away from Crackley Woods! Essential travel? Socially isolating? What a bunch of hypocrites! There’s more. This was posted on one of their facebook pages the other week by someone who wanted to break the Covid lockdown to travel from East Anglia to join the Crackley camp. 

pallinder 2

Notice no-one, including Lizzy Williams, tries to discourage him? Exactly the opposite in fact. It’s just another example of the utter hypocrisy from these people when they talk about HS2 workers and Covid-19. These people try to claim the moral high ground but their actions betray that. They only call on the law when it suits them. 

Whichever way you cut it, the ‘campaign’ to stop HS2 has reached the end of the road. The grumbles may rumble on for a while and the ‘eco-warriors’ may make a nuisance of themselves for a bit, but that’s all. Now the main Civil Engineering contractors are mobilising and the project is entering the real construction phase. Now I’m looking forward to being able to focus more on the actual construction of HS2 rather than documenting the long history of failure of the campaign to Stop HS2! I’m sure the ‘eco-warriors’ will still feature occasionally whilst their daft antics continue, but the rest is history. We’ve taken a long time to get to this stage, but it’s finally here. The shovels are ready…

 

Lockdown. Day 19 (Saturday).

12 Sunday Apr 2020

Posted by in Coronavirus, Lockdown, Musings, Photography, Railways

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Another day that merges into the ones before…

The weather remains lovely. We had another glorious start to the day that is kind of frustrating as we’d normally be looking at heading out for a long walk locally or thinking of a trip out somewhere. Dawn’s missing the seaside, but there’s little chance of us seeing the coast for quite some time! That said, I really can’t complain about where we’re in lockdown. We have fantastic views across the Calder Valley from our home. A South facing garden that’s a bit of a sun-trap, we’re surrounded by woodland and we’re within walking distance of some really beautiful places.

The pair of us pottered round for most of the day. I caught up with some blogging and scanning yet more old slides before the pair of us got stuck into some domestic chores. The cottage we live in isn’t exactly large which is a double-edged sword. It gets cluttered quickly, but it’s also easy to clean! Both of us are trying to de-clutter at the moment. If the covid pandemic has taught us anything it’s what’s important and what isn’t. I’m trying to be less sentimental and more pragmatic about what I keep and what goes. I’ve stuff sat in boxes that I’ve not opened in the 10 years since I moved from London, which is a pretty good indicator that I probably don’t need it. OK, there’s other stuff of historical value as well as sentimental, but that’s where I’m trying to exercise judgements. Plus, am I really going to re-read books that I’ve had since I was 19, much as I loved them then? The difficult decision is deciding what to give to charity shops (when they reopen) or what might actually be worth a few bob if I sold it.

After indulging in chores we did get some time to just kick back and enjoy sitting in the garden, soaking up the sun and watching the world go by (at a safe distance, of course). Eventually we managed to get out for our daily stroll and completed our well-trodden circuit through the local woods, up to the promenade and around Savile Park and back. A lot of people were doing the same and the overwhelming majority who were doing so were respecting social-distancing. The only ones who weren’t were a group of 6 young Asian lads on the promenade who’d turned up in a mates car. They were soon visited by the police and the local community liaison team who know the area’s a hotspot for such behaviour. They were split up and moved on. Their braggadocio cut no ice with anyone. The sad thing is that these young people come from a group who studies are showing are disproportionately at risk from Covid-19. Statistics are highlighting that a third of patients in critical care are from BAME communities. It’s mad and you wonder how the message is going to be got across to some people.

Having exercised we headed back for another evening in lockdown, although it was actually a social evening. The ‘6 from the 6’ had arranged to try out staying in touch via Zoom. It was all a bit farcical at first as we tried to get used to a system only Dawn had used before, but we got there in the end and for 90 minutes Dawn and I, Aubrey and Fran, Kath and Tony chatted away about everything and nothing. It’s nowhere near as much fun as meeting up in the pub, but it’s a damned sight safer right now! Zoom worked a lot better than trying to do the quiz on Snapchat, so now we’ve test-driven the platform we’ll use it for next Friday’s quiz. Ain’t technology wonderful?

Oh, those old slides I’ve been scanning. Right now they fall into three gallery categories. There’s all the British Rail locomotives and general railway views – which you can find in this gallery but there’s also two others I’ve not really mentioned before. I’ve always been interested in railway signalling and signalboxes, so I created a separate gallery for them and a lot of the old pictures I’ve scanned recently are of boxes that are long-gone. Here’s a link. Also, I used to enjoy hunting out and photographing some of the old vehicles that ended their days in the departmental fleet. Back in the late 80s early 90s there were still quite a few knocking around. You can find pictures of them here. There’s lots more to come over the next few weeks…

Lockdown. Day 17 (Thursday).

10 Friday Apr 2020

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After the stunning weather of the past few days, today was a real disappointment. It began with mist and haze blanketing the valley and temperatures that were distinctly chilly.

After breakfast we packed the car and drove over to Elland to pick up some of the shopping on Dawn’s folks shopping list. John’s a ceoliac so buying what they need’s a little more complex and convoluted than for most people. It means we can’t just breeze into one supermarket and pick up everything in one go. We were surprised to see just how big the queue of diligently socially-distancing people were when we arrived. Dawn shopped solo so I was free to wander and got this shot as an illustration.

People were queued from the door (at the far right of the building in the background, under the Morrisons name) all the way down the street. We couldn’t work out why at first as this was the first time we’d seen it like this, then the penny dropped. It’s the Easter weekend coming up!

Driving in into Huddersfield on quiet roads we went to Sainsbury’s to pick up the bulk of Dee’s folks shopping and the queues were just as lengthy. It was all well organised and everyone played the game but it did add another 15 minutes to the time it took us. Whilst Dee shopped for her folks I collected some stuff the pair of us needed. We’re both partial to anchovies and the ones Sainsbury’s sell are gorgeous. They’ve a different range of bottled real ales too. Queueing for the checkouts is time consuming as Sainsbury’s have individual queues, unlike Tesco’s who manage it differently so you need to check which line has the least trolleys in it before joining.

We still had one last place to visit – M&S. The town centre store closed last year, leaving the Waterloo branch food hall as sole survivor. It’s a bit of a schlep, but there’s no alternative as no-one else sells what John & Norah need.

The British rediscover the fact that queuing is in their blood…

On the way back we called in at the station so Dawn could check the ACoRP (or as they’re now called, Community Rail Network) office and do some work she couldn’t do at home. I had an hour to kill so took some pictures of the station that RAIL magazine had requested. We might only get out once a week, but we make sure the time’s well spent! The station was deserted. Several TPE services came and went with a bare handful of people using them as people are taking the advice about non-essential travel to heart. To see the Square outside the station so empty on a Thursday afternoon is really quite eerie.

The only person to be found outside Huddersfield station was Harold Wilson’s statue!
The scenes of emptiness were repeated inside the station as the only people to be seen when a TPE service called was station staff. There wasn’t a passenger in sight.

Heading on up to John and Norah’s we left the shopping outside their back door, swapping it for last weeks empty bags then had a short chat at a safe distance before driving back home on equally quiet cross-country backroads before parking the car up at home where it’ll sit unused for another week. I wonder what the NOx levels are like around here at the moment with so few cars being driven? The birdsong around here seems so much more intense right now but I’m beginning to think that’s because in the past it’s been muffled by traffic noise.

Our final outing of the day was for our daily exercise. Oh, we’d got a few steps in, but standing around in Supermarket queues doesn’t really get you many. To get to our total we walked into a deserted Sowerby Bridge where we picked up some non-alcoholic prosecco at the only Tesco we’ve found that sells it, which is rather bizarre. You’re only allowed to buy three bottles at a time which is frustrating as you have to visit more often than you wish.

Hopefully, West Yorkshire police are going to resist displaying the zealotry of some other police forces who’re now suggesting they may decide what constitutes essential and non-essentual shopping. It’s illogical madness and totally impractical. Say I have a shopping bag full of essentials (fresh fruit and veg perhaps) but also a solitary bar of chocolate, or an Easter Egg which I bought on impulse. Does that render everything else void – and where is this enforcable in law? I can see some embrassing climbdown being made here if such actions are challenged in the courts and I feel sorry for front-line coppers who’ve got hard enough jobs to do right now without getting ordered by Senior Officers to enforce this unworkable nonsense. I’m sure that common-sense will eventually prevail so that the police can concentrate on the minority of people who are ignoring all the guidelines and gathering in mixed groups, putting others at risk. From what I’ve seen this mostly (although not exclusively) tends to be the younger generation who think they’re immortal anyway and don’t even think about who they could infect.

Back at home we settled in for the Easter break. We’re going to be going nowhere. We have enough supplies to last us over the holiday so plan to make the most of our time pottering around at home.

Happy (lockdown) Easter folks!

Lockdown. Day 10.

03 Friday Apr 2020

Posted by in Coronavirus, History, Lockdown, Musings, Photography, Railways

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Thursday’s are our most exotic day of the week as we escape from the confines of the Calder Valley in order to go over to Huddersfield to do the shopping for Dawn’s parents who’re both in the ‘at risk category due to their age – although neither of them act it!

I managed to get a bit of work done first before we got in the cars – a novel act in itself at the moment. When one considers the fact we’re normally cooped up at home it almost feels rebellious, although we do have a very good reason for doing what we do. This is very much an essential journey and one we make the most of. I still can’t get used to having a clear run up the bypass to Ainley Top under the M62 before entering the outskirts of Huddersfield with nary another car in sight. It really is quite surreal. En-route we called in at the ACoRP office at Huddersfield station so that Dawn could check on the vacant office and make sure everything was OK. Compared to last Thursday Huddersfield town centre seemed even more deserted. You could have dumped a herd of elephants in the square outside the station as the only occupants were a sad circle of traffic cones blocking one entrance to the concourse and one lonely member of station staff who’d nipped out for a fag.

We shopped at Sainsbury’s which was busier than last week. The queue was still well organised but it stretched far enough around the car park that were had to queue for 10 mins – hardly anything to complain about. There was no shortage of stuff to buy – unless you were after bog roll. What on earth are people doing with the stuff? Mummifying their kids with it? Whilst Dawn shopped for her parents I picked up the things we needed. It was all pretty painless, if still a bit surreal, but it’s surprising how quickly the odd becomes the norm.

Driving over to Dawn’s parents we were surprised just how windy the weather had got with gusts touching gale force. Because of it we didn’t hang around as it was unfair to leave Dee parents being buffeted by the wind so after exchanging shopping backs and having a chat at a distance over the garden gate we left and drove home. Our route back is different in that we pass over the M62, where we stopped just long enough for me to grab a shot of the (lack of) traffic. Wagons were still ferrying important goods East and West, but nowhere near in the same volume and car traffic was minimal.

DG341822crop

Battling our way through the winds we headed back to home and our life in lockdown, with the car parked up for another week. It’s no wonder that air quality is improving (especially in the cities) when you consider how many vehicles are off the roads at the moment. I’ll be very interested to see some of the numbers that’ll be crunched by the end of all this.

Hunkering down for a few more hours work Dee was busy at her makeshift workstation in the living room whilst I managed to get more old pictures scanned upstairs and dispose of yet another set. I’ve now finished albums that take the archive up to August 1991. Whilst we were dropping food off to John and Norah I asked John to dig me another one out of their loft where I have much of my archive in safe storage. So now I’m going right back to the beginning to scan the very first slides I took, way back in August 1989. In retrospect I wish I’d transferred to tranny film earlier, but then I only bought my first SLR camera the year before. My next door neighbour in London was selling his old Pentax ME super which I snapped up, and it’s on that these first pictures were taken before I bought my first Nikon a year later.

Back in 1989 I often used to spend weekends with Nancy, an old friend from Southport who lived in Peterborough. I’d travel up from London and we’d spend the weekend exploring the areas pubs and sights. Nancy shared my interest in railways and one weekend in August we drove over to the Rutland Railway Museum where I shot with my first roll of slide film. Here’s the picture which is numbered 0001 in my database!

0001. Coal products No 6. 0-6-0. Rutland Railway Museum. 13.8.1989.+crop

Who knew then that I’d end up making my living as a photographer? Certainly not me when I look at this picture. I had a hell of a lot to learn – but then I was doing this for fun. If I’d known then how much the railways would change I’d have been a little more diligent in what I was recording. Still, isn’t hindsight a wonderful thing? At least I have some fantastic memories captured on film going back over 30 years and this current crisis is giving me the time to finally dig these pictures out of the archive – some for the very first time – like this scene which now really is history…

0023. Signalbox. Addiscombe. 02.09.1989.crop

This is a picture of the signalbox at Addiscombe on the outskirts of South London, taken on the 2nd September 1991. It was the end of a branch line from London Bridge that was opened by the Mid-Kent railway in 1864. The railway gradually declines throughout the years with train services cut back, especially when this signalbox was burnt down by vandals in 1996. The whole line closed in 1997, only to be reborn as part of the Croydon tram network a few years later. Had I any idea what was going to happen when I took this. Did I heck as like. I’m just glad that I passed through there on a whim…

Chris Packham loses his legal case against HS2.

03 Friday Apr 2020

Posted by in 'Green' madness, Chris Packham, Hs2, Railways

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A bit of good news today. Celebrity ‘Environmentalist’ (and paid tour-guide to the jet-set in exotic locations) Chris Packham has lost his legal case against HS2 today. In a double-blow he not only lost his call for an immediate injunction to stop tree felling in Crackley woods, the two judges hearing his case also refused his application for a Judicial Review on the grounds that “there was no real prospect of success” – which is hardly surprising as Packham had fixated on the Oakervee report and its conclusions, ignoring the fact it was merely a non-statutory review that had no legal standing unlike the Environmental Impact Assessment, or indeed – the Parliamentary process and legality of a Hybrid Bill that has been granted Royal Assent!

Needless to say, this leaves his eco-fascist supporters on the ground up shit creek. Or in their case – up a tree! Bailiffs are continuing with the eviction sanctioned by the High Court and already some of the tiny bunch of people in the trees have been brought down and several arrested.

Meanwhile, the game of bullshit bingo on social media continues with no lie too big to tell. The irony is the protesters are claiming this fiasco as a ‘victory’ as they’ve managed to delay work for all of – ooh – a few days! The levels of delusion and arrogance amongst the protesters is a sight to behold on social media- as is the bluster. They pretend they’re actually the law and will be taking others to court. Really? Remind me, who’s being arrested and who’s doing the arresting? These people need to give their heads a wobble. One day they’re issuing their demands (seriously? Get over yourselves!), the next day the real world loses its patience with them and they realise just who is in charge as they’re taken down from the trees by the law and nicked.

I wish I could have respect for people who claim to be protecting the environment, but honestly, this bunch do nothing but harm to the environmental movement because their sense of self-righteousness and inability to understand how ordinary people see their antics. Their sanctimoniousness is weapons-grade. They completely ignore the costs and logistics of keeping their tiny band from causing trouble. There’s literally hundreds of security staff, bailiffs and police being tied up here, not to mention the miles of fencing and other material needed – and all for what, so that the eco-fascists can ponce around in their pointless videos on the likes of Facebook and Instagram. But what does these videos actually show? Their utter failure to stop anything.

But, do you know the real irony about these people who’re kicking up a fuss about Crackley woods? Have a look at a map.

crackley

HS2 can be seen at the top of the map just clipping the edge of the wood and avoiding the majority of it. It couldn’t do any less damage than it is as this is clearly the optimum alignment. But, hang on – what’s that dismantled railway below it that pierced the very heart of the wood? That’s the former Kenilworth-Berkswell LNWR route (opened in 1884). It’s now part of the Kenilworth Greenway, which will be temporarily diverted between Burton Green and Berkswell during HS2 construction, and then restored alongside HS2 when it is completed, including passing through the new public open space that will be created atop the Burton Green green tunnel . . . reuniting the centre of the village that was cut in half in 1884 by the LNWR line! So, the Victorians clearly had less regard for the environment and ancient woodland than HS2 does!

I’ll look forward to seeing the Judges judgement on Packham’s daft court case on Monday. I suspect it’s not going to be kind. I feel sorry for the poor mugs who he persuaded into putting up the money for this through crowdfunding. Meanwhile, expect the Government granting HS2 ‘Notice to Proceed’ very very soon…

“Extinction Rebellion”. How to make friends and influence people (not).

02 Thursday Apr 2020

Posted by in 'Green' madness, Coronavirus, Environment, Hs2, Railways

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Regular readers will know of my exasperation at the UK’s ‘green’ movement, which seems to spend more time alienating people through its attitudes and behaviours than it does getting them on board. I find it intensely frustrating as we desperately need a credible Green voice in politics and in general. Sadly, we’ve ended up with a bunch of finger-waggers and self-appointed ‘saviours’ of the planet who’re either actively undemocratic or entirely useless. Instead of persuading people to change their behaviours in their own long-term interests and using democratic means to do so, they come across as a mix of eco-fascists and loons.

Here’s an example from the protests against building HS2, Britain’s new high-speed railway. Yes, I know – you’d think Greens would be all for it. But that involves being sensible, pragmatic and seeing the bigger picture. Those are three things noticeably absent from much of the UK’s ‘Green’ movement. Take a look at this.

hs2 rebellion

Seriously? Here’s a bit of background. These clowns are up a tree in Crackley Woods in Warwickshire, in defiance of a High Court Injunction. The only reason they’ve no food is their planning was so piss-poor they never took enough up into the trees with them for more than a couple of days. Instead (stupidly) they expected to be resupplied by friends on the ground. They’re now whining that the High Court Bailiffs and security people won’t let food through to them – and prolong the circus even further, which means everyone is more at risk from Coronovirus.

“Prisoners of war”? They inflicted this upon themselves and they’re free to leave at any time. Instead, they’re playing martyr. Not only that, they’re comparing themselves to people who’ve actually fought for their country to uphold the democratic system. What’s democratic about them? Nothing. They’re eco-fascists. They’re ignoring the fact the HS2 bill was passed by Parliament with a massive majority in both the Commons and the Lords, and they’re ignoring the law of the land as enforced by the High Court. They’re entirely self-appointed and (unlike Parliament) unaccountable. They consider themselves to be above the law. They also spout a load of uninformed rubbish, but that’s another matter…

Their hypocrisy is breathtaking. Their tiny and futile protests are costing a fortune due to the levels of security needed to protect the sites, the delays incurred and the fact they’re tying up literally hundreds of site security people, High Court Bailiffs and police officers when they should and could be at home, safe from exposure to covid-19. Than they have the brass-neck to point the finger at everyone else – and use the NHS in their propaganda.

How is this an advert for the Green movement? These people are preventing us building the rail capacity we need to get modal shift from air/road to rail. It’s madness – but that’s the level of intellectual bankruptcy of the UK’s greens I’m afraid.

The road lobby and oil companies must be laughing their socks off.

UPDATE.

I see the Coventry Telegraph has published a list of these clowns demands! – as if they’re in any position to make any – but then this simply shows how arrogant and out of touch with the real world these people are, and also how undemocratic they are. I’ve reproduced them here.

“We have 5 demands.

Ultimately, we want to stop HS2. It does not serve ordinary people. It does not accommodate for a culture gearing towards a society with ecology on the agenda. HS2 is proclaimed to be carbon neutral in 120 years, yet during a time of biological annihilation and climate emergency, they consider wiping out precious woodland and endangered habitat a sound ecological plan.
The British public have not been informed of the costs or the implications of the project. Considering this is the most expensive railway per mile in the history of the world, at an estimated £307 million per mile, and being paid for by public money, this is completely undemocratic. We therefore seek a democratic solution.
We demand a citizen’s assembly in the nature of the one used in Ireland for the repeal of the eighth amendment on abortion. This will ensure public money is used to meet public needs not private interests … This is our primary demand.
We also have demands that require immediate action.

• Stop HS2 during this pandemic . This is not essential work. HS2 should not be exempt from their current social responsibility. We have witnessed the impossibility of workers being able to keep to their social distancing.
• Stop this eviction, and all others, during this pandemic . We have witnessed the bailiffs be unwilling or unable to comply with the social distancing policy. Any kind of eviction brings high stress, which threatens the immune system. We are also at a height of 20 metres from the woodland floor, exposed to the elements with no free access to food or water. We are being given an ultimatum: either highly risk our personal immune systems, and therefore our close family and community’s health, or hold onto our current home, which is part of the little remaining precious ecosystem we all rely on. This is completely unjust.

• Stop any irreversible work until both Chris Packham’s court case on the legality of the project, and Notice to Proceed go ahead. That includes habitat destruction of any kind, work involving displacing homes, ground and preparatory works, etc.
• Should work cease, we demand that workers receive adequate compensation , the sum of which to be decided by the workers themselves, as only they know the needs for which this compensation need fill. The fallouts of poor decisions made by upper management and politicians should not fall upon those who are forced to implement them.
Signed, The thirsty occupants x”

And you wonder why I have no time for these people?

 

 

Lockdown. day 9

01 Wednesday Apr 2020

Posted by in Coronavirus, Hs2, Lockdown, Musings, Railways

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Wahey! I managed to get the time to write this blog on the actual day! Mainly because I’ve not scanned quite as many old slides today and only added forty to this gallery – although there’s another 20 all set up to scan first thing in the morning.

That’s not to say it’s been an unproductive day, nor one without it’s lighter side. Dawn’s decided that when she mentions these blogs they need to talked about in her best Geordie ‘Big Brother’ voiceover which quite amused me ‘cos the connection hadn’t occurred to me. That said, I know who I’d rather be locked in a house with – and it isn’t a bunch of shallow, preening narcissists hoping to win a load of money. Not that I’ve got anything against earning money. I’m sure many of us would care to remember what that’s like right now!

Once I’d managed my quota of pictures and Dee had waded through the work she needed to do we combined our afternoon constitutional with a shopping trip. The weather’s been pretty good in the Pennines since the lockdown, which is rather ironic when you think about think about it but it did make the stroll through the woods and down into Sowerby Bridge easier. It’s not much fun in a howling gale or when the rain’s coming in across the valley horizontally. Plus, nowadays you can’t exactly nip into a nice warm pub for a ‘swifty’ whilst you wait for the rain to pass.

This time the shops we visited had everything we needed bar one thing. Tea. Dee likes Yorkshire tea and we couldn’t get that for love nor money. Both Tesco’s and Lidl were quiet, which was no bad thing. This was the first time I’d used Lidl since the lockdown and social distancing had really kicked in. They’re more relaxed about rules than Tesco and Sainsbury’s. There’s no-one stood outside limiting entry, but to be honest, they didn’t need to as there were so few people and the ones who were had already got the message. The only real difference was that each cashier had a Perspex screen separating them from the customers – but only face to face as their till packing areas are too small to allow real distancing.

The one group that really seem to be really enjoying the lockdown are Sowerby Bridge’s famous free-range geese! They’re strutting around like the own the place and are making themselves more and more at home now that those pesky humans in their motor cars aren’t around to get in their way!

Strolling home uphill with all the shopping was good exercise if a little tedious as it’s nearly all we get to do nowadays, which is why we’re excited about tomorrow. We have a legitimate reason to break out of the valley as we’ll be going to Huddersfield to do Dawn’s parents shopping for them. Funny how these things take on so much more meaning right now, isn’t it? It almost feels like an adventure.

Back home we’ve both knuckled down to a few more hours work, although I’ve been keeping one eye on Facebook, purely to keep an eye on the tiny anti HS2 protests at Crackley wood in Warwickshire, where a half dozen people are holed-up in tree houses, in breach of a High Court injunction. They’re supported by a rag-bag camp of a couple of dozen people on the ground, but it’s all pretty farcical as they haven’t got a chance of stopping HS2. The whole thing is a farce that’s being livestreamed to social media by the protesters, some of whom are coming under the ‘Extinction Rebellion’ banner. Some of the video is excruciating to watch. It’s like watching paint dry as they jerkily livesteam an hour of nothing really happening, then accompany it with a voiceover of someone rambling away or playing Stop Hs2 ‘bullshit bingo’. You can tick off the spin and trite phrases easy as they’re repeated on an endless loop. “Illegal eviction”? Check. “Ecocide”? Yup. “Hs2’s as wide as a motorway”? Got it. “It’s destroying the environment”? Tick. “It’s costing at least £160bn”?, that one too…

But the absolute, weapons-grade hypocrisy of these people is to try and use Covid19 and social distancing against the project workers. Why? Because if it wasn’t for this tiny bunch of self-appointed ‘eco-warriors’ ignoring the lockdown and flouting a High Court injunction in a futile protest, literally dozens of HS2 security workers, High Court Bailiffs and the National Eviction Team that support them (not to mention the police, who’ve got better things to do) could all be at home – or doing something vital out of harms way, rather than nurse-maiding a few people who want to play at ‘swampy’ whilst indulging in their ego-tripping across social media. Someone sending them love-hearts on Facebook is about a useful as Americans sending ‘thoughts and prayers’ to the survivors or families of the dead from the latest mass shooting. Here’s an example of the hypocrisy. This was posted to Facebook by some of the protesters, commending their ‘brave’ demonstrator whilst roundly condemning the Bailiffs, who’re only there because of this clown!

muppott

No doubt the eviction of the tree-dwellers will happen in the next few days, not that it’s stopping much work. HS2 have voluntarily closed down some other sides where it’s impossible to keep working within the social-distancing protocols. This is mostly on sites on built-up areas like London where staff have to travel to work by public transport.

The sooner the evictions happen the sooner social media will be spared this crap, self-aggrandizing videos and the bandwidth can be given over to something useful – like people who’re social distancing sharing photos of kittens, or something…

The pair of us are now having a few hours off from social media to spend some time together away from computers. See you on the other side!