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To be honest, I never left it. It was just my energies have been directed at other things than blogging over the long weekend. I’ve got plenty of things to write about, just not the time to do it as I’ve been concentrating on picture editing and also time with my wife. Well, it was a bank holiday!
Anyone who visits my Zenfolio picture website will notice that rather a lot of recent pictures have been uploaded. There’s lots more to come as I’m going to be out and about quite a bit over the next few weeks. I’m back in London tomorrow for a meeting with a client, so expect both a rolling blog and pictures. Meanwhile, I’ve still got a blog about the rebirth of the station building at Mytholmroyd to complete. Expect that shortly. There’s one or two interesting jobs coming up soon too which should add more fun and I’ve not even touched on the continuing political farce that’s the Brexit shambles. No doubt I’ll have the chance to vent my spleen soon! I’d have loved to have done so after the local elections and the way ‘Magic Grandad’ (aka Jeremy Corbyn) managed to spin his party’s appalling showing as an endorsement of him wanting Brexit.
Right, it’s time to go, but I will leave you with one last picture. One of today’s chores was sorting out my picture database and filing all the backups to ensure nothing can get lost and also free up space on my laptop. Yesterday Richard Wellings, a self-styled transport ‘expert’ from the shadowy lobby group the ‘Institute for Economic Affairs’ tried to make hay out of an article claiming 500 Crossrail train drivers are getting paid for doing nothing because the central core has been delayed. Wellings knows sod all about railways, he just spouts whatever line his anonymous paymasters tell him to, so of course, he didn’t realise that Crossrail are already running trains under the TfL Rail banner either side of the core. Funnily enough I’d pictured several a few days before. Here’s one at Paddington on May day. Pop over to Liverpool St and you’ll see plenty more!
Genuine rail expert William Barter put Wellings in his place on Twitter.
Old buildings like this are a pleasure to photograph because of the shadows and light.
Two more (331102 and 331105) are stabled in the nearby sidings.
I’m looking forward to these trains entering service as they’re a real step-change to the ones they’re replacing.16:11.I’m back at Leeds on my way home after getting various shots at Doncaster. It’s a shame the weather was so overcast, but I shouldn’t complain as the forecast was worse. It’s been a good end to the working week as in-between taking pictures I’ve spent a fair bit of time lining up several jobs that will keep me occupied for the next few weeks. I’ll blog about them in good time. In the meantime, here’s a shot of the decluttered concourse at Leeds station which was built by the LMS railway.
There’s some heritage trains in heritage deliveries knocking around too. This is a former Scotrail Class 156 in the old First group livery that reminds me of when they ran the North-western franchise post privatisation
Right, time for home…
As airport terminals go T2 is one of the better ones, even if it can be a long walk to your gate. I’m flying from B47, which is a long way from the main terminal. To get there you disappear deep underground and cross a large chunk of the airport via travelators.
05:48.Having bumped into another colleague at the gate we’re now on board and waiting for take-off. The musak on the plane is the Viennese waltz used in “2001, a space odyssey” when the Pan-Am space shuttle is docking with the space station. Hopefully, my flight will be less problematic. Next stop, Vienna!
09:32We had a pretty good flight, although much of mainland Europe was covered in cloud. Ironically, this made the numerous power stations we passed even more obvious.
Now we’re stuck in our chauffeured limo which has taken 25 mins to move 200 metres! The queues to get out of the airport car parks are horrendous!10:03.We’re still in the limo. Having finally escaped the airport we’re now enjoying a tour of industrial Vienna (docks, chemical plants etc) en-route to the hotel.10:33.Finally, we’ve arrived at the hotel. Nice!
11:27Journalists from various EU countries have all gathered at the hotel, now we’re being bussed to Siemens HQ for lunch.12:33Chance to eat before the hard work starts. The foods very good and beats the sandwiches that are a staple of so many UK events.
13:00.The presentations are underway. The first one I’m attending is on autonomous trams. Siemens have one test system running in Potsdam, but (like the concept of driverless cars) it would be many years before a successful system could be developed and rolled out – if at all. The concept is far more suitable for closed systems rather than unpredictable streets. Think of Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester!
The second presentation is an interesting one on ‘digital solutions for seamless transportation’. How technology is allowing people to access the information they need to choose integrated transport options.
The mining and analysis of data from peoples travel plans is fascinating! I’ve now learned that the band Depeche Mode has a strong following in the former East Berlin because the band gave a concert there before the wall came down and this fan base can still be seen in data today!15:11.The third and final session of the day is “Seamless digital chain in material supply – the easy spares app”. How a mobile phone app can identify parts of a vehicle, find the spare part number and order it for you – amongst other things!
14:40Two very different views of Manchester! First up is Japanese drummers outside a new branch of Uniqlo, which only opened two days ago. 
Paul Bigland 