Category Archives: Travel

West Yorkshire wanderings…

02 Sunday May 2021

Posted by in Musings, Photography, Travel, West Yorkshire

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The bank holiday weather’s been mixed to say the least but today was meant to be the best of an indifferent bunch so Dawn and I chose it to get out and go walking. We’d originally considered driving over to Derbyshire but then I suggested exploring somewhere more local – the hills above Todmorden. We’ve often hiked around the town but that’s either because the pair of us have walked up to Stoodley Pike (a favorite walk with fantastic if windswept views) or I’ve been up in the hills around Walsden as it’s an excellent location for railway pictures. Today we tried somewhere different. After parking the car on the edge of the town we headed up some steep paths through an area called Hole Bottom (no, really!) towards Todmorden golf club which gave some wonderful views across the town. We also passed some really interesting and curious properties. I love this old mill towns as they contain some fascinating buildings tucked in backstreets or on the edge of town. Many have seen several incarnations in their lifetime so often have original features like doors or windows bricked in. Trying to work out what they might have been is always fun. Here’s a classic example.

Further up the hill on the edge of the golf course we discovered this view. I’ve often tried for this shot from the other side of town without the same degree of success so I’m pleased to have found this place – even if you’d be shooting directly into the light on a sunny day.

Here a train from Blackburn to Southport traverses the viaduct which bisects the town centre before it arrives at the station just to the right of the viaduct. The imposing building behind the train is the neo-classical Town Hall. Designed by architect John Gibson it’s a grade 1 listed building that originally opened in 1875. Beyond the town hall is the Gothic splendor of the Unitarian church (The Unitarian movement originated in Todmorden in the early 19th century). Another grade 1 listed building designed by Gibson it was constructed between 1865-69. Both buildings were paid for by the wealthy Fielden family who were local mill owners, reformists and philanthropists.

By the golf course we joined the Calderdale Way footpath and headed west along the edge of the valley for several miles. This gave us some stunning views – even if we did end up stopping to eat our sandwiches in one of the rain and hailstorms that passed our way! You can see what the weather was like from this wider picture.

What’s very different about this side of the valley are the number of rocky outcrops and strange formations that dot the skyline. Places with names like Whirleaw, Stannalley or Golden stones – or the one we walked to – Orchan Rocks high above Lydgate.

From the rocks we continued on for another mile or so along the valley edge as far as Cross Hill before heading back to the valley floor. The first part was easy as we followed the road but then we cut across country along various footpaths to a place called Shore before descending an incredibly steep and narrow path through the dense woodland along Wittonstall Clough. I’m glad we’d not made the mistake of trying to climb this way as it’s band enough on the way down!

Reaching the main road at Cornholme we decided discretion was the better part of valour and walked back along the main road to Todmorden, although if we’d had time it would have been very tempting to scale the opposite side of the valley. Instead we decided to leave that for another day.

Now we’re back at home and relaxing. Dawn’s making one of our favorite weekend treats – spicy prawns and garlic bread. After that it’s time to settle down in front of the TV to join a large chunk of the country to watch the final episode of ‘Line of Duty’ – what a perfect end to a great day…

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Thank you!

24th April picture of the day…

24 Saturday Apr 2021

Posted by in Architecture, Picture of the day, Railways, Southport, Travel

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I’ve not displayed a picture of the day for while now as I’ve been busy concentrating on contemporary shots and making the most of the slow release of the lockdown rules to visit Merseyside which has been quite an eye-opener after being cooped up for so long. The fact it’s combined with a run of glorious weather has been fortuitous to say the least! This has been great, both for photography and my vitamin D levels! Oh, and people-watching as so many folks are out and about again. Having been (mostly) confined to small towns visiting a city like Liverpool has been a delight for the sheer variety of people and activities. I’m optimistic that this is the start of a return to a normal life – as long as the inoculation programme continues apace and the few covidiots around (such as the demonstrators in London today) don’t screw it up for us.

As well as the railway shots I’ve redeveloped an interest in urban dereliction photography. Well, let’s face it – there’s no shortage of subject matter in Liverpool/Birkenhead but I’ll be blogging about that another time. Tomorrow I head back to West Yorkshire to catch up on lots of other projects for home and work.

Now, what to choose for todays picture? One from the archives or a new shot. I know, let’s have a new image that combines two of my interests – railways and architecture…

This is the new station building at Ainsdale in Southport that opened in 2018, replacing an old and knackered wooden building. Whilst it reflects the seafaring heritage of the area the building is bang up to date, being complete with solar panels, low energy LED lighting with smart controls and rainwater harvesting tanks to serve the toilet facilities.

The design achieved a CEEQUAL (Civil Engineering Environmental Quality Assessment and Award Scheme) rating of ‘Excellent’ in recognition of its green credentials.

This picture’s one of many taken over the last few days which will make it onto my Zenfolio website next week.

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7th April picture of the day…

07 Wednesday Apr 2021

Posted by in Musings, Nepal, Photography, Picture of the day, Travel

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Apologies for the lack of pictures recently, I’ve been sidetracked by various other events like the farcical protests against the HS2 railway which I can’t resist poking fun at! That the protesters have a level of bombast that’s inverse proportions to their ‘achievements’ is too good an opportunity to miss – hence my earlier blog today.

I’ve also been keeping busy trying to catch up on some work after the bank holiday where I took some ‘us’ time in order that Dawn and I could work together on household/garden projects rather than being holed up in separate ‘his and hers’ offices where we only come together to eat. One of the ironies of this working from home malarkey is that we still contact each other via email even though we’re only separated by a floor! I’ve no doubt we’re not the only ones and I suspect some readers of this blog might be breathing a sigh of relief whilst saying to themselves – “thank heavens it’s not just us”!

Whilst the old slide-scanning has had to take a bit of a backseat I’m still managing to get a few ‘banked’ ready for editing although my Zenfolio gallery page is a country behind at present as I’m scanning pictures from Thailand whilst editing and adding ones from Nepal. I doubt I’ll be able to catch up with myself either as I realise the most important thing is to have the pictures scanned as I can only do that at home whilst the editing can be done anywhere. I have dreams of taking a month off in Asia at a gorgeous beach somewhere where my days are split between relaxing and slowly editing pictures as the mood takes me. Mind you, it’s not just the slide scans. Recent events (mostly deaths, sadly) have made me realise that I’ve got a huge digital archive that I’ve never really sorted out and must get around to doing – one day. Maybe that month on the beach needs to be extended to two as I’ve got some wonderful material for a whole host of picture of the day blogs and ‘trips down memory lane’ – a series I’ve sadly neglected recently as there’s been too many other things to concentrate on.

I have to admit blogging has been one of the things that’s helped keep me sane throughout the Covid lockdowns. It’s a catharsis, a way of purging oneself of thoughts, feelings and ideas that need an outlet. The fact so many of you have signed up to read these rambles is as gratifying as it is mystifying but thanks – at least I know I’m not shouting in an empty room!

The mental gymnastics many of us have had to put ourselves through to get through this unique time with its unparalleled challenged is (sort of) reflected in my choice of picture of the day. Only these gymnastics are physical rather than mental – although they’re no less extreme!

I took this picture in Bhaktapur in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal on the 13th March 1992. Myself and a mixed group of fellow travellers whom I’d met up with on the overland trip from India had got the bus from Kathmandu and stopped off on our way up the valley to Nagarkot. Whilst we were wandering around the square and I was busy taking pictures I spotted a crowd, so (naturally) my curiosity was piqued and I strolled over to see what they were gawping at.

It was an elderly Hindu Sadhu (a holy-man) who’d put himself in an extreme yoga position where he stayed for hours whilst raising alms from the admiring crowd. His long dreadlocks and fantastic eyebrows gave an indication of his real age, but his posture belied his years.

I’ve always been full of admiration for the fact so many Asian people of advanced years are far more supple than their Western counterparts – even if this is an extreme example. Still, it does show you the benefits of practising Yoga, something I wished I’d found the time to keep up doing. Maybe I’ll add it to the rota when I’m on that beach…

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If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances need all the help that we can get. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/Thank you!

3rd April picture of the day…

03 Saturday Apr 2021

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The country may be slowly reopening but this Easter our focus has been on the home front. No exotic jaunts or days out just slogging to do work around the house. I suppose you could call it a traditional Easter in some ways as we joined dozens of other people trying to get into a local DIY superstore (B and Queue, as it were)…

For years we’d promised ourselves that we’d do something about the virtually inaccessible narrow strip of land above our terraced garden at the back of our house. It’s not our land, in fact none of our neighbors know who owns it either. It’s been left to turn into a mess of Russian vine, ivy and Sycamore trees which have started to encroach on us and overwhelmed the gorgeous Boston Ivy that we used to have covering the high wall at the back of the terrace. The only way to gain access to the strip is by dropping a ladder over the wall from the road above it, so the for the past few days that what I’ve done. Today, armed with extra cutter C/o B&Q and myself joined by Dawn, we made some serious inroads into the mess, clearing all the parapet above our cottage and making some serious inroads into the neighbors on either side (much to their appreciation). We did it all with hand-tools which was masochistic but damned good exercise – even if I expect to feel sore tomorrow!

The Russian vine (God, how I hate that stuff, there’s a very good reason its other name is ‘mile a minute’) has taken a severe beating and several Sycamores trees are no more – none of which were occupied by any nesting birds, so I’m not expecting a visit from anti HS2 ‘tree protectors’. Taking these things down with a Bow saw certainly gives you a workout! Dawn was convinced that the work would give us a lot more light but I was skeptical. In the event I was proved wrong. It’s made a huge difference. Now we just have one more tree trunk remaining and a load of ivy to clear – as well as cutting up some of the Sycamores that have fallen into the gardens (the rest we’re leaving on the derelict land as a wildlife sanctuary). So, hardly the most exciting bank-holiday weekend but satisfying nonetheless.

Now, in the finest Monty Python tradition, it’s time for something completely different – the picture of the day. I did manage to get a few more old slides scanned yesterday evening and this is one of the results. I took this picture on the 14th March 1992 at the Buddhist temple at Bodnath, just outside Kathmandu in Nepal. A small group of us who’d met on the way from India had stayed in Nagarkot in the Kathmadu valley and then walked back to the city. Bodnath was en-route. The stupa is huge and the site is a fascinating place to visit, even if you’re not of any religious persuasion as it’s a great place to people watch as the devout (many of whom are Tibetan refugees) walk around the base of the stupa singly or in groups, spinning their personal prayer-wheels or using the ones that line the base of the tower whilst prayer-flags (like so much bunting, only with a more meaningful purpose) flutter in the breeze.

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Thank you!

Rolling blog: Stretching my wings…

30 Tuesday Mar 2021

Posted by in Railways, Rolling blogs, Travel, Yorkshire

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08:00.

I’m up, packed and raring to go! My PPE’s been checked along with the camera kit, so I’m all prepared for whatever the day brings. So far, it’s brought brilliant weather! This is predicted to be the hottest day of the year so far with wall to wall sunshine. Dawn’s very kindly dropping me off at the station to save the long hike carrying all my stuff which means I don’t start the day a hot, sweaty mess (always a bonus). So, stay with me and see how the day unfolds. My opening part of the trip involves getting the train from Halifax to Leeds – for the very first time this year…

09:00.

The absence of road traffic despite the easing of lockdown and return of schools meant I was at the station in time to catch an earlier (late running) train to Leeds. I’m now one of only three people in the rear of a pair of Class 195s.

That said, there are significantly more people around compared to my travels last year and the amount of vehicles in the car park tells a tale.

Whilst the crew changed ends during our reversal at Bradford Interchange I had time to grab a couple of shots before swapping sets. I was pleasently surprised to find far more folk travelling in the rear unit. Nothing like pre-pandemic levels but even so it was a good portent for the way numbers should recover as restrictions are eased. We stopped once en-route to Leeds at New Pudsey, which was deserted, hardly surprising as it’s a park and ride/shopping centre station. I can’t see traffic returning whilst retail outlets remain closed.

11:45.

At Leeds I had time to explore and get some pictures before meeting my RAIL colleague Paul Stephen ready to catch the 10:49 to Carlisle. As you can see, life’s slowly returning…

We’re now enjoying the scenery and cloudless skies in the Aire valley as our three car Class 158 trundles North.

11:58.

Uh, Oh…

It’s all gone a bit ‘Pete Tong’. We’d just passed Settle Junction and joined the Settle and Carlisle line when we came to an abrupt halt. The Conductor rushing through the train to the cab wasn’t instilling confidence. We’ve now incurred a 12 minute delay to an ‘incident’ on the line. I’m betting said incident was a sheep!*

*Afterwards, a conversation with the Conductor revealed that a signal had returned to danger just at the moment our train passed it, so the TPWS kicked in and brought us to a stand. So for once, the sheep were innocent.

18:30.

Well, that was an interesting day! Our late train didn’t delay us much and we met the other two members of our party without problem. The weather at Ribblehead was superb and ideal for exploring the structure which we did thanks to Network Rail’s engineering team who escorted us around the piers and explained the work that was almost complete. Normally, the only way you’d get to see it from this angle would be if you’re a drone!

You’ll be able to read about our explorations of the viaduct in a forthcoming print or digital edition of RAIL, so I’m not going to spoil the article by revealing any more here.

Heading back we got a lift back to Settle with one of our party who’d driven, which gave us chance to have a bite to eat and soak up the sun at the station before Mark Rand very kindly gave us a tour of his home – which is in the old railway water tower! I suppose I’m a bit of a fan of water towers (after all – Dawn works in another one!) but this is the first that I’ve seen converted into an exceptional home. You can see the water tower in the background of this picture of Settle station taken earlier. There’s a lot worse places to sit and eat a sandwich…

Taking our leave, Paul Stephen and I caught the 16:35 back to Leeds where we parted company. He returned to Nottingham whilst I hung around long enough to grab a few pictures in the wonderful evening sunlight. There’s no doubt passenger numbers are starting to pick up again but getting back to pre-Covid levels could be a slog. Even so, it’s lovely to be out and about again now that the rules are relaxing. Yes, of course I’m still working from home as often as I can, but no-one is going to bring one of the most famous railway viaducts in the UK to me – are they? Here’s one of my shots showing the lovely light at Leeds.

19:12

I’m currently on the 18:42 Leeds – Manchester Victoria which is about 30-40% full. Looking up at the information screen by the vestibule I’m informed the temperature’s hit 21 degrees C today – glorious! During our reversal at Bradford we lost a lot of commuters but picked up some younger leisure travellers as a replacement, the same happened at Low Moor and again when I left the train at Halifax where my ‘chauffeur’ was waiting to whisk me home.

I’ve had a long day but a thoroughly enjoyable one after so many ‘Groundhog days’. Here’s to many more of them as the world returns to normal – bit by bit…

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If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances need all the help that we can get. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Thank you!

29th March picture of the day…

29 Monday Mar 2021

Posted by in Musings, Nepal, Photography, Picture of the day, Travel

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It’s late, I’ve had a busy day and I’m off on my travels to another job tomorrow so this is a short blog. I’ve currently got a backlog of old slides scanned and ready for editing but some of them require a fair bit of touching up in Photoshop due to their age and the conditions they were taken in. They were also developed in a lab in Kathmandu, Nepal, which did a pretty good job but might have added a few scratches to some of them Even so, it’s a delight to finally get them scanned after nearly 30 years as there’s some amazing memories – especially when I cross-reference them with my old diaries.

Memories aside, I’m looking forward to making new ones and taking plenty of new pictures now that lockdown is slowly easing. So much has changed on the UK railway scene in the past 12 months that I’ve a lot of catching up to do. Tomorrow should give me chance as I’m heading up to Ribblehead on the famous Settle and Carlisle railway to carry out a commission for RAIL magazine. So, for the first time this year you can expect a rolling blog of my travels!

But, for now, here’s the picture of the day.

I took this shot of the Rama temple in Janakpur in Nepal on the 9th March 1992. I was only in Janakpur for a day as it was an overnight stop on a rather epic overland Journey from Darjeeling in West Bengal, India, to Kathmandu. The trip would make a great blog in itself as it involved an ad-hoc group of us Westerners being delayed getting to the India-Nepal border by a protest, then a jeep where the horn broke (a disaster in India!) – we were so late that by the time we got out of India the Nepalese border post was closed and we had to ‘sneak’ in to the country! Getting from the border to Janakpur took another 11 hours sat on the roof of a bus so we were glad of bed and a shower at the end of a long dusty trip. The next day our bus for Kathmandu didn’t leave until 5pm as it was an overnight trip), so hanging around the Rama temple was a great way to see the sights and kill some time.

The temple’s an important Hindi religious site as legend has it that it’s the birthplace of the Hindu goddess Sita as well as being the site where she was married to Lord Rama. The building itself is quite spectacular and well worth a visit, even if it’s hard to get to – and it certainly was back in 1992! Expect many more pictures to come from Nepal. Revisiting them I realise what a sociable time it was as a group of us hooked up together and kept meeting throughout our time in Nepal. Leaving the country was almost as much fun as arriving as the day I flew out to Thailand there was a general strike due to several people having been shot dead in protests in the capital, so there was only one way to get from Kathmandu to the airport – walk!

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If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances need all the help that we can get. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Thank you!

28th March picture of the day…

28 Sunday Mar 2021

Posted by in India, Musings, Picture of the day, Railways, Travel

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Sunday’s allegedly the ‘day of rest’, isn’t it? Fat chance….

I had been hoping for a lie-in today after being up at silly o’ clock yesterday but two clocks conspired against me. One was my own internal body-clock whilst the other was the advent of British Summer Time, which meant the clocks went forward an hour. I was wide awake by 7 AM so thought ‘bugger it’ and got up to start pottering around. As I did so the Pennine weather was throwing a strop with heavy winds and rain which made me realise how lucky we’d been with yesterday’s job in Bradford. The temperatures may have been positively Baltic due to freezing winds that completely took the edge of the sun – but the weather stayed dry.

In contrast, today was warm and wet with no incentive to venture out so I spent the vast part of the day pottering around indoors on various chores whilst trying to catch up on some work. Well, it’s not as if there’s much else to do! Some of the lockdown regulations on meeting up will be relaxed next week, but right now it’s not as if we’re all part of a hectic social whirl with diaries full of restaurant, theatre or holiday bookings! One of the great things about my commission yesterday was that it added variety and a change of scenery – plus the chance to catch up with an old friend – and interact with strangers (even if it was at a social distance). How we used to take these things for granted…

Everything that’s happened has left me in an introspective mood, one which has been compounded by two other events. The latest batch of old slides I’m scanning were taken in Nepal in 1992 and to pin down the dates for some of them I’m having to read through old diaries written at the time. God, talking about taking you back…

Re-reading the diaries and looking at the pictures has made me realise how much the world’s changed in the past 30 years. But then it’s not just the world, it’s my life too. So much has happened in the intervening time. When I finally finish scanning the pictures and have more opportunity I’m determined to write about those times at length. Right now I just can’t do them justice. As if the diaries and scanning weren’t enough, Facebook has thrown me a curved-ball too…

I have a love-hate relationship with social-media, including Facebook, but I do find it incredibly useful for keeping in contact with friends (old and new) who’re scattered around the globe. What threw me today was Facebook reminding me what I was doing today, 10 years ago. So, instead of the usual picture of the day plucked from one of my old slide scans – here’s ‘on this day in history’…

On the 28th March 2011 I was travelling solo around India. I’d been in Asia since the previous December for business/pleasure (long story – for another time) but returned to India to explore places new and old. I was particularly interested in the dwindling metre and narrow gauge railway systems, so I ended up touring the state of Gujarat in the North of India. This day 10 years ago I’d taken a day trip from Vadodara (formerly Baroda) to a place called Miyagam Karjan Junction which was served by one of the extensive network of narrow-gauge railways. It was a brilliant day out that kept my camera busy. On the way home I’d decided not to book a reserved seat on a train but pitch up in 3rd Class and see what happened. After all, it was only three hours (ish) back to Vadodara, which is nothing to what I was used to on Indian railways! So, here’s how it went…

I took this picture from the luggage rack above the seats that was the most spacious place to wedge myself as the train was packed with a mixture of long distance passengers from Mumbai as well as local commuters. This is exactly the same problem Intercity services suffer from in the UK – and one of the reasons we need HS2! But I digress..

Despite the crowding, it was a memorable journey as people really weren’t used to a lone Westerner pitching up on this trip – especially one who seemed at home and wielded a camera. It wasn’t long before we all became friends and had some great chats – as is often the case in India – how I miss these interactions…

If you want to see the full selection of pictures from that 2010-11 trip, you can find them in this gallery on my Zenfolio website.

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If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances need all the help that we can get. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Thank you!

26th March picture of the day…

26 Friday Mar 2021

Posted by in India, Musings, Picture of the day, Trams, Travel

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After the past couple of days being out and about normal service was resumed today as I’ve spent most of it chained to a desk at home. Mind you, the weather made a volte face too as we had heavy rain this morning and intermittent hailstorms this afternoon so I’m not really complaining. Plus, I was able to edit all the new pictures I’ve taken, plus a few more old slides – and pin down details of the next couple of commissions – so not a bad day at all really.

For those with an interest in railways you can find most of yesterdays pictures here – or here.

Tomorrow I’m back on the road as I have a rather unusual job to do. The old British Rail built ‘Pacer’ trains may have been retired, but some of the vehicles are finding new uses. Tomorrow, one of these Porterbrook owned vehicles is being donated to a school in Bradford where it will become a science lab and I’ll be there to cover the event. It means being there at 08:00 so I’m not going to be writing much tonight! However, I will be blogging about the delivery and installation (which has the potential to be rather challenging) so watch this space.

Instead, here’s the picture of the day which is also transport related. It’s from my latest batch of slide scans. I took this picture in Calcutta (now renamed Kolkata), West Bengal, India on the 28th February 1992. This is one of the venerable, but battered Calcutta trams which still ply their trade today, although the routes have diminished hugely in the past 3 years. Only 5 routes survive. This shot was taken at Esplanade terminus in the heart of Calcutta during a layover – hence the Conductor’s foot hanging out of the rear window!

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If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances need all the help that we can get. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Thank you!

Lockdown 1 year on

23 Tuesday Mar 2021

Posted by in Coronavirus, Down memory lane, Lockdown, Musings, Politics, Railways, Travel

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*warning, blog under construction. This is going to take a couple of days to complete and it’ll undergo a couple of incarnations as I revise it to add more thoughts of a tumultuous year. After all, it’s a slice of history…*

When we started this lockdown malarky 12 months ago how many of us would have thought we’d still be at it 12 months later and who would have thought so many people would have died, or that our lives would have changed (possibly permanently) in the many ways they have? No me for a start, but then neither did our incompetent Government. Anyone remember how long it took Johnson to agree to a lockdown in the first place? Many of us could see that it had to happen just by looking at the infection rates and what was going on in the rest of the world. The financial markets had already crashed, which made pretty grim reading for people like me with investments but no salary. The world was starting to turn in on itself. It was an anxious time.

I managed to squeeze a couple of jobs in just before the country shut up shop. These made me realise how unprepared we really were for what was happening. The first job was back in London where hardly anyone but Asian tourists and a few cautious people wore masks whilst folk ate drank and made merry as if nothing much was happening. I travelled on a lot of trains across London that day and outwardly everything looked normal, as this picture of one of the new London Overground trains in Hackney, East London shows.

The next day, on the 12th March I travelled from Halifax to Birmingham for a press visit to the High Speed 2 railway construction site at Curzon St, where HS2 were keen to show us the remains of the London and Birmingham railway steam locomotive roundhouse. I wrote about the day on a rolling blog. The train from Manchester to Birmingham (which was double its normal size) was absolutely heaving with people heading down to the Cheltenham Gold cup horseraces. 10s of 1000s of people from all the UK and elsewhere, converging to mingle during a pandemic when other countries were already in lockdown seemed like madness – which it was. I was actually glad to get home that day.

My final trip out was on the 20th (the day restaurants and pubs were told to close) when I travelled to Leeds and Manchester to get magazine pictures, showing the effect Covid restrictions were already having on the railways as travel began to close down with people staying at home in the face of an announcement to avoid non-essential travel made on the 16th. Three days later, a year ago today, Johnson announced full lockdown and that was that. Despite the fact that as an accredited Journalist I was allowed to travel to cover stories I was more concerned about protecting me and mine, so I heeded to call like everyone else. After all, weren’t we assured that this would only be for a few weeks? Besides, I’d plenty to keep me occupied at home…

That first lockdown felt weird. Planes disappeared from the skies, most cars vanished off the roads and only the trains and buses kept running to get key workers to their jobs. Thankfully we had glorious weather so I could sit outside in the front garden and enjoy the slightly surreal quietness that was only disturbed by cacophonous birdsong as the creatures celebrated the arrival of the nesting season. Once a week we ventured out to Huddersfield to get the shopping for Dawn’s elderly parents which we’d leave on their doorstop before letting them know it was there.

Social activities transferred to the internet and we all learned a new meaning for a old word: Zoom. The Friday quiz that a group of us used to meet up for in our local pub transferred online as it was the only way we got to interact with each other. We’d planned a trip to Berlin in June but that was cancelled along with all the other events. A ‘social calender’ became an anachronism.

But, it wasn’t all bad. Dawn was still working full time (just from home) and wasn’t furloughed. I managed to manage with a bit of help from schemes and whilst the photographic work dried up I had my writing skills to fall bak on, penning several articles for RAIL magazine. I lot of railway memorabilia ended up on eBay, which also helped. Meanwhile, I got stuck into tackling the massive project to scan 30 years of old railway, social issues and travel slides – a mammoth task which is almost coming to an end. We both got into a routine and thanked our lucky stars that we were OK and could come through this.

Stories in the media highlighting the growing death toll made is realise how fortunate we were. Some of the stories were really heartbreaking. Then friends began to contract Covid (and thankfully survive) or die of other causes. That was one of the hardest bits – not being able to meet up and say goodbye to old friends. I did attend one small (socially-distanced) funeral but that was in August when ‘lockdown 1’ rules had begun to be relaxed. When all this come to an end there’s going to be one big wake we get together to toast the memories of and swap stories about the friends who’ve gone…

Over the summer the Covid numbers dropped and the Government relaxed the rules, just as they’d imposed them too late, they relaxed them too early. In the interregnum, I managed to complete a week travelling around the railway network for RAIL magazine. It’s a biannual trip I’ve been writing for them ever since 2004, but 2020 was exceptional because passenger numbers where a shadow of their former selves. Even so, it was a fascinating trip to be able to cover so much of the country at a unique time and see how the rules worked (or in some cases, didn’t work) in England, Scotland and Wales – all of which had their own standards. Sadly, the relaxations weren’t to last. Local lockdowns began to occur again across England, with Liverpool going into the first new lockdown of a city in mid October. It became clear the Government was losing the plot as the ‘plan’ seemed to change depending on which Government minister was being interviewed before Johnson countermanded them.

(to be continued)…

21st March picture of the day…

21 Sunday Mar 2021

Posted by in India, Musings, Picture of the day, Travel

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We’ve had a quiet weekend here in Bigland Towers. Dawn went for her first Covid vaccination on Saturday so we didn’t plan anything just in case she had much of a reaction. As it was, Dee’s side-effects have been limited to feeling tired whilst nursing an arm that feels like it’s been punched. Not that there’s much to plan at the moment anyway. It’s not like we’ve got a place to catch, is it? Instead we’ve taken it easy without any pressures to do much other than mooch around at home and catch up on life’s everyday chores. Now that Spring is officially here I’ve spent time tidying up the gardens so that we can sit outside and enjoy the sunshine when it finally arrives on a consistent basis. We may be slowly edging our way out of lockdown, but the opportunities for travelling away from home look like they’re going to be marginal for some time yet – especially when one casts eyes abroad. I’d love to be be able to set foot outside the ‘museum of Brexit’ for a while and remind myself what a less inward looking country looks like, but with the uncertainties over vaccination rates in other parts of the world this could be problematic.

Until the picture becomes clearer I’ll resign myself to being restricted to this septic isle for a while and keep my head down to make the most of my house-arrest by scanning old slides, work on the cottage and downsizing the mountains of physical baggage I’ve accumulated over the years. There’s still some journalistic work to be done too – I’ve articles to write which will help keep the wolf from the door. At least photographic commissions are in the pipeline once more now that people are planning for a post lockdown world (more on that when it happens).

Right now, my photography is revolving around those old slides – which are providing today’s picture. I took this picture in Jaisalmer, India on the 3rd November 1991. This is the Salim Singh ki Haveli, one of the stunning old buildings that dot the town.

Jaisalmer is a city that’s straight out of the Arabian nights. The town itself is built in the lee of the fort which is built high above it on a promontory. Thus sheltered from Thar desert sandstorms its narrow streets and remarkable buildings make it a fantastic place to wander around. You can find many more pictures of Jaisalmer in this gallery on my Zenfolio website. Oh, you might notice that my blog’s header picture has finally changed! The old one was of Seathwaite in the English Lake district, which is officially the wettest place in England. You can find the original full picture here. The new picture is a crop of a shot taken at sunrise from the top of Adam’s Peak in Sri Lanka. It’s one from my 1991-92 travels and I’ll be adding it (and many others) to this gallery shortly. Now that I have so many more travel pictures scanned I’m intending to change the header picture on a monthly basis, just to keep you all entertained!

I’ve a favour to ask…
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