I’ve had another day working from home – which has been fortunate as the weather’s been pretty mixed to – say the least. One of the beauties of homework is that I can nip out for an afternoon constitutional when staring at a screen and a numb bum combine to force me to take time out.
Right now the woodland around where we live is at its autumnal best as the leaves have turned from green to a range of coppers and yellows, depending on the type of tree and its location. All I need now is some spare time and a sunny day to get a few pictures to really do it justice, rather than a couple of shots grabbed on my phone in the woods I’ve just walked through. Still…
Here’s the view from the edge of Halifax, looking across the Calder Valley. See what I mean about the trees?
Right now I’m down in Sowerby Bridge, taking a break from the rain before walking back up the hill to home. The weather’s closed in and the skies have opened. As a photographer, I really don’t mind the rain. OK, it could be a bugger if you were trying to shoot some picturesque calender shots, but the way light reflects off wet surfaces is a delight to play with – as are the colours. I’ll update this blog with a couple of examples later.
17:53.
Here’s what I mean, these pictures just wouldn’t have the same impact if it hadn’t been raining.
It’s the start of a new week and I’m out and about today. I’ve a commission over on Merseyside this afternoon so I’ll be heading over that way shortly. Although the weather’s still mild it’s a foggy day here at home, I can only just make out the other side of the Calder valley through the murk. Expect a mix of pictures and comment throughout the day….
09:59.
As usual, the weather’s completely different on opposite sides of the Pennines! Whilst Yorkshire’s mired in fog Lancashire’s clear. I scrounged a lift to Huddersfield off my wife this morning so I’m heading to Liverpool on a direct TPE service. As usual, it was late and ended up crawling through the Colne valley corridor. We’re pulling into Manchester Victoria now (9 mins down). Still, at least I’ve a table seat and can work on the train.
11:32.
I had time in Liverpool to admire the alterations at Lime St and grab a few shots before indulging in a spot of shopping, during which I came across this film crew shooting a period drama outside the Adelphi Hotel.
Now I’m heading out to Liverpool South Parkway aboard a West Midlands Railway Class 350. I like the comfort of these trains, but the seats are getting a bit threadbare.
– as you can see!
13:59.
Job done, I’m now on my way back into Liverpool. My assignment was to get pictures of Pendolino 390119 which has been repainted at Alstom Widnes and returns to traffic tomorrow. This marks the half way mark in the Pendolino repainting programme. Despite the gloomy weather, it does look rather smart.
18:57.
I’m currently bouncing my way back home across the Pennines from Manchester aboard a 2-car Pacer, which at this time of day’s a bit of a pain. It was absolutely rammed as far as Rochdale but fine afterwards, which begs the question: where do Northern Rail add capacity? Here we are, post-Rochdale.
It’s been an interesting day, despite the weather. The Alstom plant at Widnes is a hive of activity nowadays as their old factory at the Dick Kerr works in Preston has closed. Preston used to overhaul a lot of the kit for Alstom trains in the UK: Pendolinos Adelantes, Junipers and tube trains. Now it’s done at Widnes.
Wandering around Liverpool again I popped into a poundstore where I was fascinated to see racks and racks of disposable batteries. Why on earth do people still buy these wasteful things? I switched to rechargeable over a decade ago and really don’t understand why these wasteful and polluting things are still popular.
I remember the old days when I was backpacking and so much space (and weight) in my rucsac was taken up with film, batteries and books. Nowadays it’s just a Kindle and a battery charger!
Whilst I was at Lime St I came across this mock-up of one of the new Stadler trains that are being built for Merseyrail.
The Merseyrail mock-up on display at Liverpool Lime St.
Car end seats with a representation of the fact these will be wide gangways, allowing you to see throughout the length of the unit.
Seating bay of four. Note the sloping floor.
The sliding doors. To my mind these seem a little narrow compared to other modern trains. Note the sloping floor to the left.
The trains will be fitted with retractable steps. It’s extended on the open door to the left and tucked away on this one in the foreground
I’m having a quiet weekend at home as our busy social schedule’s been brought to an abrupt halt by friends having to cancel at the last moment. I’m going to make the most of the time by having a day with Dawn and a walk in the valley before knuckling down to sorting out a load of pictures and paperwork tomorrow, so expect to see many more shots appearing on my Zenfolio picture website. Here’s a sample of what to expect. When we were in Stamford last weekend we visited Melbourn Bros’ All Saints Brewery which was established in 1825 and owned by Sam Smith’s who’ve brought it back into use to brew their range of organic fruit beers.
When they’re not brewing you can have a tour of the premises conducted by the pub’s Landlord, which is fascinating. Here’s a few shots.
The backplate of the original steam boiler that powered the brewery has been preserved. A modern steam boiler has replaced it.
The original belts and pulleys are still used.
The steam heated copper.
The original fermenting tanks are still in situ but unused.
The beer’s cooled in the top of the brewery tower.
Oh, and the fruit beers are delicious. Try the apricot if you get the chance,
16:43.
Well, our walk turned into more of an amble. By the time we got out the skies resembled something out of a sci-fi film. We were expecting thunder, lightning and spaceships! Discretion being the better part of valour, we drove up to the Moorcock Inn and walked on Norland moor, fully expecting a downpour any minute. You can see why in these pics.
Battling the wind atop Norland moor.
Photobombed!
Safe haven over the edge of the moor, the building down to the bottom left is the wonderful Moorcok Inn…
Camera phone pictures don’t really do the skies justice, but I was leaving my Nikon at home in these conditions.
After a rather blustery stroll we ended up in the Moorcock Inn for a warm in front of their wood fire stove and a couple of drinks. Here’s the beer selection.
Whilst we were there we couldn’t resist trying a dish off the bar menu that we’ve been desperate to try for a while. The breaded giant Puffball mushroom with egg and a yeast sauce. It was gorgeous!
Before we left we bought some of their sourdough focacia bread and cultured butter. It came packaged like this.
It immediately transported me back to my 1960s childhood and memories of going to the local butchers, when everything was wrapped like this (with the price written on it in pencil)…
There’s always synthetic outrage and hypocrisy surrounding Hs2, none so more than around the issue of old graveyards being built on and the dead being exhumed and reburied.
Anyone would this this is somehow unique. In fact it’s very common. Many stations were built on old graveyards – including Euston itself. Between 1887 and 1892 the station was extended Westwards. This meant diverting Cardington St over the burial ground of St James’s, which had closed to 40 years earlier. Each corpse was provided with a new coffin and reinterred at St Pancras cemetery, Finchley, at the expense of the London and North Western Railway. This was done sympathetically due to the furore over an earlier graveyard clearance at nearby St Pancras in 1866 which rather puts today’s building into perspective.
During the first half of 1866 several thousand houses in Agar Town and Somers Town were demolished to make way for St Pancras. some 10,000 people were evicted (without compensation) and crowded into adjoining slum areas, making conditions even worse. Meanwhile, a corner of the graveyard of the old St Pancras Church was cleared. Like most old graveyards, it was packed with bodies to a considerable depth. Working conditions were appalling and the disinterred remains were treated with scant respect. Bones were left lying around and open coffins could be seen on the worksite. A furore arose in the newspapers and influence from high quarters led to more care being taken. The problem was twofold. The sheer amount of bodies buried in poor conditions and the fact the graveyard was making way for a cut and cover tunnel for the link between the Midland and the Metropolitan railway.
Nowadays, this has let to one of the more unusual local tourist attractions; the Hardy tree. The work of removing gravestones was delegated to one Thomas Hardy (yes, *that* one) and he arranged them in a rather interesting art installation. Here’s how it looked a few years ago.
When Broad St station was built in 1864-66 similar problems occurred. Excavations revealed layers of human remains several feet thick. This was thought to be either a plaque pit or the burial ground of the old Bethlehem hospital.
The same problem was encountered when nearby Aldgate station was built in 1875. This was described by Daniel Defoe in his book “A Journal of the Plague Year” As an aside, did you know several London parks are old plague pits – including Green Park?
When the viaducts on the approach to Charing Cross station were being constructed in 1863 well over 7,000 corpses were removed from the College Burial Ground of St Mary, Lambeth and reburied at Brookwood, on of the seven great satellite cemeteries established by an Act of Parliament between 1832-41 because London’s dead were buried in small urban churchyards, which were so overcrowded and so close to where people lived, worked and worshipped that they were causing disease and ground water contamination.
It’s not just something that happened in London either!
Manchester Victoria occupies Walker’s Croft which was once a 19th century church and graveyard linked to a nearby Victorian workhouse. As recently as 2013 remains were found when the station was being rebuilt. They were removed and reburied. A plaque at the station records this.
Of course, nowadays, exhumations and reburials are conducted with far more care and attention than our Victorian forebears did, which rather puts the fake fuss into perspective, also, building Hs2 has archaeologists and historians genuinely excited as 1000s of them will be working on the course of the railway for the next two years. You can learn more here.
If you want to learn more about London’s plaque pits, visit this link.
UPDATE.
Since I wrote this blog, John Bradley (@flypie) has been in touch via Twitter with this interesting link to an 1828 road widening scheme in Liverpool that led to the exhumation and reburying of several thousand bodies.
5th October 2020.
HS2 Ltd has now announced that the bodies from the Euston cemetery are to be reinterred at Brookwood cemetery near Woking.
UPDATE:
Here’s a story that slipped in below the radar but that helps put HS2 in perspective. In 2014 a road scheme in Hull meant that an old graveyard had to be dug up, affecting up to 16,000 bodies. The Yorkshire Post billed it as “one of the country’s biggest ever mass exhumations”. But, as it wasn’t HS2 there was no outcry!
I’ve penned the final part of my trilogy for RAIL magazine today. 12,000 words and lots of pictures will soon be part of their back catalogue (and mine). The first part appeared in print last Wednesday and it will be on sale until next Tuesday. Here’s a taster…
Now, having had a wonderful birthday weekend and got one year closer to collecting my senior citizens railcard I’m into another week (and soon another month), which means things ratchet up a notch.
I mentioned that I wasn’t going to talk about a new contract until the ink was dry, but today that happened. I can now reveal that I’ll be spending at least the next 12 months working for the Rail Delivery Group, updating and replacing their picture archive – much of which I took 10-14 years ago when RDG was ATOC. I’ll also be kept occupied with a slightly different commission for another client, but that one’s under wraps for now.
This means that I won’t be spending as much time at home as recently – although some people would suggest I’m hardly here anyway! A by-product of all this is that there’ll be plenty of time to blog about various themes, including Hs2, travel experiences and also the way the UKs railways continue to develop and expand. As you can imagine, documenting a year in the life of UKs rail network isn’t exactly something you do from your armchair…
In the meantime, I’m going to try and get some of the 1000s of rail and travel slides that I have in the archives – which have never seen the light of day – scanned and added to my Zenfolio website.
So, stay with me and enjoy the ride – and the pictures…
It’s my birthday today, and thanks to the generousity of a friend’s wedding present we’re spending the weekend in Stamford, Lincolnshire.
It’s a historic little town with some beautiful buildings, most of which are constructed out of the local Cotswold stone (Yes, the seam runs this far). If you have an interest in either architecture or history, the town’s well worth a visit. Here’s a couple of examples.
One of the fascinations of old buildings is looking at how they’ve developed and changed over the years. Many have changed uses and there are often clues in the stonework, like this…
Our visit’s been made more entertaing and interesting as our friend, Martin Yallop, has a vast knowledge of architecture and local history, so he’s been showing us around and taking us to places we might otherwise miss, like this grave of a local celebrity.
Sadly, the weather’s not as good as we’ve had recently, the temperatures dropped and the skies have turned grey, but undeterred, I’ve still had a wander with the camera. Here’s the station. Stamford used to have two, but now the old Midland Railway line from Peterborough to Leicster is the only one that survives. The town has an hourly service run by Cross-Country trains.
Here’s the town on a previous visit, when the weather was a little better!
After the past few days working at home I had to head back to London today to have a business meeting with a potential new client. Fortunately, I didn’t have to be on the very early train from Halifax, just Grand Central’s 08:08 which was a bit of a luxury. I had a very productive few hours aboard, writing part 3 of my rail rover for RAIL magazine (part 1 came out yesterday) on the way to the metropolis. On arrival I met up with a new client for a fascinating chat about new technology and a demonstration of the potential of augmented reality for the rail industry which left me both fascinated and enthused.
After the meeting I spent an hour or two wandering around Camden, looking at how much the area’s changing because of HS2. It’s clear from that there’s no visible opposition to the project nowadays. There’s no banners, placards, posters in windows – nothing. What there is instead is a huge amount of people in Hs2 branded hi-vis changing the face of Euston (and beyond) – although some Muppets still try to pretend it’s not happening!
Now I’m heading North aboard Grand Central’s 16:27 to Bradford. It’s packed – even in First Class, but then many of their services are nowadays. To paraphrase the actor Roy Scheider’s famous line in the film ‘Jaws’ – “We’re gonna need a bigger train”…
What a stunning autumn weather for getting out and about! I’ve moved office for a couple of hours to base myself in Grand Central’s excellent 1st Class lounge in the renovated Wakefield Kirkgate station.
I arrived from Huddersfield (where I’d popped into the ACoRP water tower) on one of Northern’s ‘new’ Class 158s that have been transferred from Scotrail.
I’ve had to spend a while on the phone negotiating a new rolling contract with one of the major players in the rail industry and the waiting room was a fine place to use as an office whilst I did it. Once the ink’s dry on the contract I’ll let you know who it is. Now I’ve another couple of emails and phone calls to make before getting out and about for a couple of hours, so watch this space…
15:00.
I’m now in the lovely town of Knaresborough, with it’s equally lovely railway station. The old station building has been converted to mixed uses. There’s arts and crafts and a smashing cafe called ‘the old ticket office’, so no prizes for guessing where that’s located! I’ve popped out this way as the Harrogate loop (as this line is known as) is currently the preserve of the former Scotrail Class 170s that have been cascaded to Northern Rail. Most are still in Scotrail colours, like this one that brought me from Leeds. They’re certainly a step-change in comfort from the Pacers that were a staple on the route.
22:37.
I’m now back at home. The day didn’t quite go to plan as I ended up dealing with a lot more work phone calls, but I’m not complaining as there’s some exciting new opportunities on the horizon. In the meantime, here’s one or two more pictures from my travels.
Here’s the main building at Knaresborough station. It was built in 1865 by the North Eastern Railway, replacing an older structure. It’s grade 2 listed. The end nearest the camera contains a rather fine café.
The café is in the old ticket office. The old ticket window’s still in situ but has been blocked off and replaced with this painting.
On my return I passed through Leeds at rush-hour, with rather nice light, thanks to the fact the sun’s now dropped at this time of year.
It’s going to be a looong couple of days that will take in Wales, England and Scotland, but I’m here in Cardiff ready for the first press conference where Spanish train builder Talgo are ready to announce the shortlisted sites for the factory they intend to build here in the UK. I’ll be blogging throughout the day, so stay tuned.
Here’s the view from the room in the St David’s hotel where we’re holding the event.
The shortlisted site in Wales is at Mostyn, a port on the North Wales coast.
From L-R, Jim o’ Toole, MD of Mostyn port. Jon Veitch, UK MD, Talgo and Carlos de Palacio, President of Talgo
You can read more about what we’re up to in this article on the RAIL website. Here’s Rail’s Richard Clinnick having an exclusive interview with Jon Veitch.
11:34
Phew! We’re all packed up and the 5 of us are off to the second event of the day. We’re travelling on a Cross-country service to Birmingham, where the English part of the shortlist will be announced. These are sites at Chesterfield, St Helens and Leeds
Whilst we’ve been travelling, the news has broken that two sites in Scotland have been shortlisted, these are Longannet and Hunterston.
13:50.
We’re ready to rock and roll in Birmingham now. The stage has been set..
Oh, and the views out of the windows are amazing!
Now we’re waiting for the rest of the guests to arrive. Here’s material produced by two of the potential English sites. St Helens and Chesterfield.
17:10.
The Birmingham event was very well received. Here’s a couple of pictures.
Carlos de Palacio, President of Talgo, speaking in Birmingham
L-R Sir Simon Hughes, Talgo Strategic UK Advisor, Jon Veitch, UK MD, Talgo and Carlos de Palacio, President of Talgo
19:23.
We’re now over the border and heading for Edinburgh aboard a Virgin Pendolino. It’s been a fascinating day but we’re all looking forward to getting to our hotel. Tomorrow the fun and games starts again with a series of radio interviews before the main event.
Because of this – and for the sake of continuity I’m going to roll this blog over into tomorrow. Right now I’m going to enjoy a glass of wine and catch up with the world..
Meanwhile, next to me, Carlos, Simon and Jon are doing the same and chatting about the day.
Day 2
10:00
We’re all set up and ready for the Scottish event which is being held in a hotel with a fabulous view. I took this from the balcony of my room this morning!
Here’s the event set up to go. As well as being the Talgo photographer I’ve been mucking in to do the stage setting. Here’s one I made earlier…
11:57
Phew! Event over!
It’s been a very hectic few days but also hugely enjoyable. I’ve learned a lot about Talgo and I’m looking forward to visiting their Spanish factories in the future. Right now I’m looking forward to a few days at home in order to catch up with some writing and picture editing.
After one night at home I’m on the move again, this time heading for Cardiff via Manchester with a suitcase full of clean shirts and chinos, ready for the next couple of days events and travels.
Due to the vagaries of the Passenger Information Screens i’m not sure if my first train is late or not. One minute it’s shown as 3 minutes late, the next it’s on time! Looking at the Real Time Trains website I can see it left Leeds 5m late.
Let’s see what happens…
12:11.
My train has entered the twilight zone. It’s dropped off the PIS screens so it no longer exists as far as the system’s concerned.
Instead a Pacer speeds past in its path without stopping. Finally, at 12:12, four minutes late, a pair of Pacers arrive.
We finally leave 5 mins late with no announcements, no apologies and no explanations. Still, at least I didn’t have to worry about getting a seat!
We’re now merrily bouncing our way through to Lancashire. Autumn’s in full swing now and the depth and variety of colours in the leaves is joyous – even if the temperature isn’t. I’m looking forward to having a bit of time free to get some lineside shots in the woods that surround my home.
12:49.
We’ve just left Rochdale, running 7 minutes late. I could still make my connection at Manchester Victoria to Piccadilly but – as that’s also running a couple of minutes late it doesn’t give me enough time to collect my tickets before catching the 13:31 to Cardiff. The option now is to get a tram or leg it to Piccadilly. As I’m dragging a suitcase it looks like the tram wins. This is why Network Rail & the TOCs need to seriously get a grip on late running now. It makes connecting journeys a real hassle as you always have to have a plan B.
13:11
By the time we arrived at Victoria we were 11 late. There hadn’t been a single announcement by the guard, never mind an apology or explanation. More time was lost as we arrived at platform 4 so I had to swim against the tide to ascend and descend the footbridge, which meant that I arrived at the tram stop just in time to see a Piccadilly bound tram leave! My next one is in 7 minutes. Hopes of making my train are looking very slim indeed – and the tram’s taking its time…
13:33.
I made the train with a minute to spare. Luckily, there were no queues at the ticket machines and my train was only a short sprint away. Now I’m sat on the first of Alstom’s Class 175s, number 001 which is a busy 2-car. It’s one of the unrefurbished sets, so it has no power sockets – but it does have Wi-Fi. I’ve been lucky enough to bag a table seat (reservations weren’t available on this train) which means I can catch up on some writing between now and Cardiff…
14:03
This journey gets more surreal. As I had so little time at Manchester I couldn’t pick up any cash or buy food for the trip. No worries I thought, there’s a trolley service and I can use my credit card. What could possibly go wrong?
Everything!
When the trolley came round the young lady explained that she couldn’t take cards, but the conductor could and he’d sell me a £5 voucher. I could then use it to buy food and get the difference back in cash. So, what would I like? “What sandwiches do you have”? I asked. “Ah” came the reply. “They’ve been on the trolley for 5 hours and at this temperature I’m only allowed to sell them for 4” Then (bizarrely) “but even if I could they’d have all gone by now anyway”
Righto – I now have a 3 hour journey sponsored by Weight watchers…
15:54.
We’ve just left Hereford, the train’s now full and standing and my laptop’s battery is exhausted after a couple of hours scribbling so I’m a window gazer now! I’m also rather hungry and extremely tempted to break my journey at Newport just so that I can get something to eat! I ventured through the sea of bodies around the vestibule to use the loo and wish I hadn’t bothered…
The more I think of it, the more changing at Newport seems like a good idea – and I never expected to write the word’s Newport and ‘good idea’ in the same sentence!
17:06.
Burp! Hunger pangs have been sated thanks to a WH Smiths chicken butty from the kiosk at Newport. Now I’m Cardiff bound again, this time on one of Arrive Trains Wales refurbished class 158s. They have power sockets, so the laptop’s been plugged in to recharge for a bit, leaving me free to admire the series 1 electrification masts which have sprouted all over the place like mushrooms (just not overnight)!
Paul Bigland 