Category Archives: Travel

Rolling blog: A day on the rails…

28 Thursday Nov 2019

Posted by in LNER, Northern Rail, Railways, Rolling blogs, Travel

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Well, that’s the plan, but it’s not started well!

09:00.

Having walked to Halifax station after a later than usual start due to the dank and dismal weather I was greeted by news of an equally dismal rail service! Here’s the PIS screen..

Oh, joy…

So here I am waiting for a train to Leeds, wondering which late-running one will turn up first. So far we’ve had services delayed or cancelled due to no traincrew, a late-running freight train, the train being late off the depot and a train with an onboard fault! What next, pestilence or the pox, or a plague of frogs?

It’s not difficult to see why long-suffering Northern travellers have such a poor opinion of Northern services. There’s not a day that goes by without delays or cancellations. Mind you, I should be thankful I can travel today. Yesterday both East and West Coast main lines were blocked by different incidents. The truth is that our railways simply aren’t resilient enough in the face of disruption and running ever more services on a crowded network isn’t helping.

09:16.

I’m finally on the move as a Huddersfield – Leeds train has turned up. To add insult to Northern sensibilities, it’s a 2-car Pacer! These should have been reduced to just a handful of trains with only a month left in service. Instead, they’ll still be running in 2020. Here’s the scene as I boarded.

09:40.

Our Pacer’s now struggling manfully up the bank out of Bradford Interchange full and standing. It was busy on the way in from Halifax but this is a different order of magnitude!

At least I’ve got a seat and the heating’s keeping me toasty, so I’m not complaining. I’m just glad I’m not stood at New Pudsey, hoping to catch this train!

10:09.

We bounced and rocked our way to Leeds, managing to squeeze just a handful more passengers on from the dozens waiting at our next stops. Our apologetic Conductor telling those left behind that there was another train just behind us.

As we pulled into Leeds I noticed that a large gaggle of yellow painted MEWPs were being assembled in the land between the triangle of tracks. These road/rail Mobile Elevated Work Platforms (hence MEWP) are used for maintaining and renewing overhead lines and their presence suggests Leeds will have a heavy ‘orange army’ presence this weekend.

I didn’t have much time in Leeds as shortly after I arrived the stock for LNER’s 10:15 to Kings Cross arrived from London formed of one of the remaining Mk4 coach sets worked by 91109, named “Bobby Robson” after the famous football manager. This being an off-peak service and because of yesterday’s problems the train’s rammed. I’ve managed to find an airline seat in the quiet coach, but my plan to get a load of work done has suffered a blow as the adjacent power socket’s kaput.! I’ll see how things are after wwe leave Doncaster…

11:34.

I’m now on an LNER ‘Azuma’, havng abandoned the mark 4 set at Doncaster in favour of 1E09, the Glasgow – Kings Cross that was running 10 mins behind. It’s a busy 9 car but I was lucky and found a free table in coach K right up against the 1st Class portion of the vehicle. The socket works, so I’m up and running!

Even the weather’s decided to play ball and brighten up. I’ve just glimpsed something I’ve not seen for days – a patch of blue sky! OK, admittedly it was a fleeting glimpse, and there’s plenty of tough looking stormclouds keeping it company but even so…

12:31.

We’re in North London now and the weather’s like it was back in the Calder Valley, just a little more mixed, with thinner cloud. Good job the only backgrounds I’m expected to get in today’s photos are office blocks!

13:31.

On arrival in London I made a quick detour to Euston to drop something off with an old friend, have a quick chat and get this shot to show progress on demolishing the former Railtrack HQ to make way for HS2.

14:27.

Job No 1 done I’m taking a few minutes to enjoy old haunts and admire the changes…

15:43.

Now I can admit what the second part of the job was! The Green Party and StopHs2 had arranged a ‘big’ protest outside the Department of Transport between 3-4pm today, so I thought I’d pop along and show you what the media (with their close cropped shots of the main speakers) don’t show you! The event was a miserable flop with less than 2 dozen people – including the media – turning up. Needless to say, none of the stophs2 keyboard warriors were there, it was just the same few faces. Green ‘Co-leader’ Bartley turned up, as did Harvil Rd protester Sarah Green. The Green’s candidate in Uxbridge, Mark Keir, was also there. He gave a barely coherent interview to the couple of cameras who’d bothered to attend. Remember, this is the man who stood in Uxbridge in 2017 and reduced the Green party’s share of the vote! The only thing of interest (but not to his advantage) that he did say was by constantly appealing for people to turn up to their ‘direct action’ protests such as Harvil Road. What’s painfully obvious when you see the tedious phone videos they post to their Facebook page is just how few of them there are. They’re completely outnumbered by HS2 staff, security and (when needed) the police.

StopHs2’s Joe Rukin was also there, getting his money’s worth out of his ridiculous tree costume. After that there were half a dozen people holding up banners and, err, that was it. It was excruciatingly embarassing when you think of all the bluster we hear about the country being up in arms about HS2! It also shows just how badly the Green party have misjudged this issue. Fracking or roadbuilding it ain’t and their desperate attempts to spin just how much environmental damage HS2 is meant to be causing are backfiring. Here’s a couple of pictures of the debacle. These are phone shots. I’ll add better ones later.

Including the media and passers-by!
Not exactly the anti – Brexit demonstrations, is it?

Here’s a little video too…

17.34.

I’m now heading North on yet another Azuma. Just in case folk think it’s only travel in the north that stuffs up, let me relate a couple of today’s experiences in the capital. On arrival, my first trip was via Thameslink, a network that suffers delays and cancellations on a regular basis and yes, my first train was cancelled, leaving me hanging around for an extra 10 minutes for the next Southbound service across central London. Afterwards I abandoned public transport and opted to walk from Blackfriars to the DfT as I was in no rush and a walk along the South bank of the Thames brings back lots of lovely memories of my days as a Londoner. On the way back I chose to get the Victoria line from Victoria to Kings Cross. Joining the crowds on the platform we waited and waited. Normally you can expect Vicky line trains to be one after the other but due to a ‘passenger incident’ at Vauxhall we were left waiting for a good 10-15 mins. Not a huge amount of time in the scheme of things, but an absolute age on the London Underground!

19:23.

The penultimate leg! I swapped from the 17:16 ‘Azuma’ Kings Cross – Hull onto the 17:31 Kings Cross – Leeds at Doncaster. Both are 9-car trains and with their loadings on leaving London you can see why! I must admit, these trains are growing on me and the onky thing I’ll miss compared to the Mk3 and Mk4 coaches they’ll replace is the ambience you could get in the buffet cars, especially on a Thursday/Friday. The cramped offering on all the Hitachi sets is far too functional, but I can understand why (from a comnercial perspective) that is.

20:10.

Last train of of the day folks – and it’s another Pacer. This time one of the Andrew Barclay bodied Class 144s, so a little more up-market! In these days of electronic communications and real-time information it’s frustrating when you see your train described as ‘arrived’ when you’re stood on a nice warm concourse only to find on the platform PIS it’s announced as running late when you’ve made the trip early…

Rolling blog: Travel blues…

09 Saturday Nov 2019

Posted by in London, Railways, Rolling blogs, Travel

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It’s another of those ‘fun’ days on the railways. We were meant to be travelling from Halifax to London on Grand Central’s 10:36 service, but it was cancelled due to a shortage of drivers. Not the greatest of starts as the railways are under pressure this weekend because of the floods and engineering work which meant East Coast services were being diverted via the GN/GE joint line via Lincoln. Instead, the four of us (we’re travelling with our friends Fran and Aubrey) caught a Northern service to Manchester which was bound for Chester. It was one of the few that hadn’t been cancelled, so we knew that it would be busy. I’d hoped we’d have got a 3-car Class 195. Instead, Northern threw out an unrefurbished 2- car Class 158! It was already rammed by the time we left Halifax. We managed to find some space in a vestibule which became more and more crowded as we stopped en-route. It got especially ‘cosy’ when a chap with a bike got on at Todmorden! There were some grumbles, but when he explained that he really needed to catch that train as he was on his way to work (with disabled kids) in Manchester, folk made room for him. Quite why Northern could only spare a 2-car to work this service is a mystery. It certainly didn’t enhance their reputation with many of the passengers.

On arrival in a freezing cold Manchester we opted to get a tram across town to Piccadilly where Fran and Aubrey had booked seats on the 12:15 Virgin Pendolino to Euston, which is where I’m typing this now. Piccadilly was packed with travellers and late-running services. A check on Real Time Trains showed me that many Virgin services were running late. The inbound working for our service was 25 mins down. Quick work by Virgin staff turned the train around rapidly, meaning the Southbound working was only 5 minutes late departing.

We’re now enjoying a few drinks on the train, glad we’re not driving as the road conditions down South are pretty miserable!

16:17.

Having negotiated our way from Euston via the tube and the Docklands Light Railway we’re now relaxing at our Docklands hotel before heading out to meet up with the rest of the gang before going for a meal at the superb Café Spice Namaste. Once thing we didn’t expect to find was this. It seems the AA are now interplanetary!

Rolling blog: Belgium day 3. Battlefield tour.

26 Saturday Oct 2019

Posted by in Belgium, History, Travel, World War 1

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Today the six of us are off on our own private trip (hosted by Quasimodo tours) to some of the major First World War battlefield sites around Ypres. Despite four years of bloody fighting and all the lives lost, the front line around the town moved back and forth littke more than 4 miles between 1914-18. Here’s the map we’ve been given as a guide.

10:30.

Our first stop. The German war cemetery at Langemark. 44,000 Germans (and two British) soldiers are buried here. 1000s of the Germans are 18 year old volunteers who had less than a months drill training before being sent to the front

19:33.

To be honest, today has been too much to absorb and try and blog about at the same time. We’ve visited a vast array of sights on what was a fantastic and informative tour, but that was also deeply moving. The sheer scale of the slaughter and destruction is hard to take in. I’ll blog about this in detail in the future. Right now I’ll just leave you with a few pictures from the day.

Just some of the names of the German soldiers at Langemark.
The Canadian war memorial.
Row upon row of memorials at the main British cemetery at Tyne Cot.
The excellent and informative museum at Hoodge Crater which is packed with memorabilia from the war.
Just some of the recovered artefacts at Hoodge Crater, which is actually built atop the remains of the crater itself.
Hill 60 has lain untouched since the end of the war and gradually been reclaimed by nature. It still bears all the scars and shell craters left behind.
Hill 60 sums up the futility of the fighting. 10s of 1000s died fighting over the land which swapped hands several sides.

Bruges day 2.

25 Friday Oct 2019

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There’s not much of a blog from me today as we’ve been far too busy exploring Bruge. We went out at 08:00 this morning and didn’t get back to the hotel before 6. After a short break and chance to freshen up we were out again to enjoy a lovely, relaxed Greek meal at the Olive Tree restaurant. I’ll write about our experiences at greater length in the next couple of days, but tonight it’s time for an early night as we’re off on a tour of some of the places with links to World War 1. I’ve never visited places like Ypres, or any of the battlefield sights, but all of our group want to and for me it’s more than a passing interest, as my maternal Grandfather fought in that war as a soldier in the Scottish regiment known as the ‘Black Watch’. I’ll try (if I can) to post a few bits from the day, but if not. It can wait until another time. In the meantime, here’s a couple of pictures from today.

Inside the popular Half-Moon brewery.

Rolling blog: Belgium or bust…

24 Thursday Oct 2019

Posted by in Belgium, Eurostar, Railways, Rolling blogs, Travel

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07:40.

We’re both up, scrubbed, fed, packed and waiting for the taxi to take us to Halifax station to meet up with our friends for the first leg of our trip to Bruges in Belgium….

08:30.

Leg one. Having met up with the others we’re now on Grand Central’s 08:09 from Halifax to Kings Cross, a direct train service from Bradford that started running in 2010. Nowadays their 4 five- car trains are packed, even in First Class. Don’t let this picture fool you, just look at how many seats are reserved which will be occupied in the next few stops…

The six of us are spread throughout the train as tickets were booked separately. It’ll be the same on Eurostar, so the only time we’ll meet up is between trains or in the buffet on the Eurostar!

12:55.

We had a mad scramble in London as some people had breakfast (which was late coming) then confusion at Eurostar check-in as they were overwhelmed by the weight of numbers. With the amount of baggage folk carry nowadays the number of staff and machines available were overwhelmed, leading to stress all round. Passport control was just as swamped. Despite checking in the required 45 mins before we still had to be ‘fast-tracked’ to get to our train on time. This led to confusion as the group got split up. Despite this, we made it and we’re just pulling out now.

Our train is one of the original Alstom built TMST sets, albeit a refurbished one. Our coach (16) only has a handful of empty seats

16:00. (Belgium time).

About to arrive in Brussels. It’s been an interesting trip I’ll blog more about shortly once we change yrains, but suffice to say these old trains are tired, despite the refurbishment.

17:00.

So much for updating the blog on a nice, quiet Belgian train. This is us on a double-deck train from Brussels Midi to Brugges. It’s rammed!

18:12.

– and relax! We’ve arrived at our hotel in Brugges, checked in and freshened up. Now it’s time to explore. First stop is a liytle var kbown to Tony (Allan) that I’ve just heard some very good things about. According to anither friend it’s like walking into “The Leaky Cauldron” from the Harry Potter films. Expect pictures shortly!

All change…

23 Wednesday Oct 2019

Posted by in Calder Valley, Northern Rail, Rail Investment, Railways, Travel, West Yorkshire

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Today’s really been a mixture! My plan was to spend most of it at home catching up on picture editing and paperwork but the weather was so good this morning that I kiboshed that idea after a few hours. Admittedly, I was in the office at 6am, so I didn’t feel too guilty as I’d got a lot done already.

I stayed locally as there’s enough of interest at the moment because of the new trains we’ve got in the area, plus the abundance of woodland which makes for a fantastic backdrop this time of year. In fact I was in two minds about which locations to choose, but a changing forecast made my mind up for me.

My first port of call was half an hour’s walk away, which was a really pleasant stroll as the weather was so balmy. I headed down to an overbridge near Dryclough Junction which is where the line from Halifax splits into two routes. One heads West through the Calder Valley, the other heads to Brighouse and Huddersfield. Here’s how it looked today.

A splash of autumn colour as 195107 passes Dryclough Junction whilst working 1D77, the 1238 Leeds to Chester. Timekeeping’s improved today, this was only seven minutes late! The lower lines in the background lead to Greetland Junction and the route to Brighouse. Halifax town is behind the train.

This time of year the sun doesn’t hang around. I only had a 30-40 minute window at Dryclough before heavy shadows crept in, so I moved on to a very different location and a completely different kind of shot in the hills above Halifax, helped by the fact the weather completely clouded up in the afternoon, otherwise I’d have been shooting straight into a low winter sun. I do like the views around Halifax and beacon Hill as they can really reflect the era when the Industrial revolution (and a colonialist empire) transformed the landscape in both Lancashire and Yorkshire.

The first of the class, CAF’s 195001 leaves Halifax, past the famous confectionary factory in the background that produces such well known items as ‘Quality Street’ before the unit disappears off the Beacon Hill viaduct into the 1105 yard long tunnel of the same name. Back in the 1980s this picture would have been impossible as all you’d have been looking at was a huge multi-storey mill that was blocking the view. It’s long gone and the site’s now occupied by a low height ‘Matalan’ shop.
Here’s a slightly different view as 195104 arrives into Halifax station whilst working 1D79, the 1438 Leeds to Chester which was (almost) on time! To the right of the picture you can see the old Halifax signal box which was decommissioned last October. The stone wall in front of the white van was once the start of the series of viaducts that carried the old Great Northern Railway line to Bradford via Queensbury. It closed to passengers in 1955 but remained open for goods traffic until 1963.

Tomorrow we shift tempo – and country – as Dawn and I are off to Belgium by train from Halifax with a small group of friends from our local pub, the ‘Big 6‘. Six from the 6 are off to Bruges for three nights of fun and frolics, food beer and culture – as well as some history, so expect a rolling blog tomorrow as we make our way to London by train before catching the Eurostar to Brussels, then an internal service to Bruges. It’s going to be wonderful to be back on the European mainland in a civilised country and away from the continual and utter shambles that’s Brexit – which I promise not to mention, (well, not much, anyway) Stay tuned!

Rolling blog: new trains enter service in the Calder Valley

21 Monday Oct 2019

Posted by in Calder Valley, New trains, Northern Rail, Photography, Rail Investment, Railways, Rolling blogs, Sowerby Bridge, Transport, Travel, West Yorkshire

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Northern’s new CAF built Class 195s have entered passenger service through the Calder Valley today on the routes from Leeds – Chester and Leeds – Manchester Victoria. Needless to say, I’m out with the camera to capture pictures of this important milestone. It’s the culmination of improvements to the line that have seen the route resignalled, linespeeds increased and platforms lengthened.

I’ll be adding pictures throughout the day. Here’s the first as 195123 picks up passengers at Sowerby Bridge whilst working the 10:22 from Chester to Leeds.


10.35.

I’ve caught a late-running Chester service which is worked by 195110. These trains are certainly a step-change to the old BR built units we’ve been used to since the 1980s! They’ve far superior acceleration and braking, not to mention all the facilities that passengers have come to expect nowadays, such as power sockets and free wifi. They’ve also got far more seating bays with tables.

22:36.

Sorry folks, It didn’t turn out to be much of a rolling blog as I was too busy taking pictures! Since I got home earlier this evening I’ve been busy editing them, so here’s a small selection. You can find the full gallery here on my Zenfolio website.

1J06, the 0957 Wigan Wallgate to
Leeds worked by 150275 and 158901 passes 195002 just outside Todmorden. The 195 was working 2M10, the 1018 Leeds to
Manchester Victoria. 1J06 should have run from Southport but was cancelled due to late running. Sadly, that’s something the new trains are having no impact on!
A few hours later 195002 passes Gauxholme whilst working 2E13, the 1158 Manchester Victoria to Leeds
3-car 195123 arrives at Walsden with 2M12, the 1118 Leeds to
Manchester Victoria.
Another late runner was 195103 on 1E60, the 1124 Chester to
Leeds which was 21 mins late by the time it reached Todmorden at 13.06.
Meanwhile, at Halifax, here’s a couple of shots of 2M20, the 1518 Leeds to
Manchester Victoria, worked by 195110.

For the number crunchers, the list of units seen in passenger service is as follows. Two car 195002 and 195007. Three car 195103. 195110. 195111. 195119. 195121 and 195123.

Rolling blog: Pennine travels…

08 Tuesday Oct 2019

Posted by in Railways, Rolling blogs, Travel, West Yorkshire

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10:06.

I’m out and about with the camera today, hoping to make the most of a spell of sunny weather to get a selection of client and library shots. Dawn gave me a lift into Huddersfield which was basking in beautiful sunshine but right now I’m ln a Trans-Pennine service heading West into Lancashire where I seem to have hit a weather front. The entrance to the Standedge tunnel appeared to be in fog, so my plans may have to be fluid. Let’s see how the day goes…

13:00.

Perhaps I was a little too optimistic with the weather, but for once, the rain Gods have smiled on me. After leaving Huddersfield I headed for Mossley, a station on Trans-Pennine line in Greater Manchester. There’s some great photo locations around the village, so I headed for a couple of familiar locations where footbridges cross the line with rather scenic backdrops for the pictures. I ended up playing hide and seek with the sun, but for once it played ball just as the train I was after appeared. Here’s the shots.

One of Northern’s new CAF built Class 195s passing Mossley whilst on an empty stock movement, 5Z07, the 0915 Allerton Depot to Huddersfield Sidings.
The one I was waiting for. One of TPE’s new Nova 3 sets which was working 1F60, the 0941 Scarborough to Liverpool Lime Street. It was signal checked right in front of me, allowing me to get several shots. Just as it arrived, the cloud cover broke and the sun arrived!
The signal check allowed me to ‘leg it’ to another nearby bridge an get a different shot. Here’s 68030 bringing up the rear.

Within a few minutes of getting these shots the sky turned dark and threatening, so I decided to beat a hasty retreat back into Mossley. It was a wise choice. I was within 200 yards of the station when the clouds burst and we were treated to yet another torrential downpour!

Right now the skies are clearing again and I’m deciding on the next move – possibly back towards Huddersfield. Let’s see…

15:31.

After a brief foray to Manchester to check out the light I’m now back in Mossley where I’ve grabbed a couple of useful shots of trains passing along the back of the homes and shops on the main road. The fact the railway is literally knocking on people’s back door causes such space constraints that you get scenes like this!

Whilst waiting for photo opportunities I made the mistake of checking the news too see the latest on the Brexitshambles. It is not good. The British (or more correctly, the English) have humiliated themselves in the face of European unity and the unwillingness of the EU 27 to cave in to Johnson’s unworkable ‘plan’ – and I use that word in the loosest sense. So now the blame game is in full swing, as it was always planned to be. Now we have the pathetic sight of the Leave campaign resorting to crude nationalism and German bashing. It’s sickening, but entirely predictable. Most Leavers don’t have the nous to see this is Schrodingers Brexit, where we can simultaneously have “taken back control” and be ‘bullied’ by the EU (and especially by Germany). It’s the ultimate in fcukwittery, but nothing surprises me about this country anymore.

18:15.

After crossing the bider back into Yorkshure I tried for a few shots around Marsden, then Slaithwaite, onky to find locations I used just a few years sgo are now obscured by tree growth. It’s one of those things that makes me laugh about the Woodland Trust’s scaremongering campaigns. I’ve been living in Yorkshire for less than a decade, but in that time I’ve seen tree growth rise and spread. Look back at old photos of West Yorkshire from the 1950s and the growth of woodland is even more apparent. I was left with just one option, go higher up the valley side. I’ll add pictures later. Of course, by the time I’d climbed a sodding great cloud appeared, but at keast kniw I know where I need to be in the future!

Right now I’m heading back to Manchester to get a few blurry night shots to add to the library. There has to be some advantages to the nights drawing in…

Rolling blog: on the Telford trail…

02 Wednesday Oct 2019

Posted by in ACoRP, Railways, Travel

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07:24.

It’s time to say adieu to the Calder Valley for a few days as we’re off to the ACoRP awards in Telford, Shropshire. First port of call is the ACoRP office in Huddersfield to meet up with other members of staff, then begin our rail journey to Telford via Manchester and Shrewsbury. The rain’s abated, the skies are clear and the sun is rising. What could possibly go wrong? Nothing, hopefully, so stick with me and see how the day goes…

08:50.

Oh, the joys of driving in the rush-hour! Dawn’s usual route from home to Huddersfield is via the infamous Ainley Top roundabout by the M62. On a good day, without traffic or a motorway snarl-up it can be done dorr to door in 15 mins. Today, 35m after leaving home we’re still queueing at the Ainley Top traffic lights!

09:24.

Finally, after 50 mins in the car, we arrived at Huddersfield, having missed the train we were aiming for. All’s not lost as we’re now on TPE’s local service to Piccadilly, where we’ll catch up the others before getting the Transport for Wales service to Shrewsbury. This time of day our train’s quiet. After years of travelling ln jam-packed 185s, I can’t get used to seeing them like this…

Despite our train starting in Huddersfield it still had a 3 minute late departure, but at keast we’re on our way and Dawn can let others worry abkut the driving…

What a beautiful day for crossing the Pennines. The sunshine’s highlighting the seasons change in the leaf colour of the trees en-route. It’s a perfect day for lineside photography, but I’m stuck on a train! We may have been empty at the start but after stopping several times on the way we’re now about half-full. To TPE’s credit, the conductor on this train’s excellent, keeping oeople informed of delays and connections in an informative but relaxed way.

10:40.

Time for a change of TOC. The gang’s all here on Transport for Wales 09:31 to Shrewsbury. At least we’ve all got seats at tables, even if there’s no power sockets.

11:31.

Not a great day on the trains today. Our TfW service is now 9 mins late, having dropped time ever since leaving Manchester Piccadilly. This means we’ll miss our connection at Shrewsbury and have to get the later train. No big deal, but frustrating nonetheless.

12:15.

The enforced delay allowed a mad dash for sustenance as the group tried to find food tgat suited all tastes. Mission successful, we’re now on West West Midlands Railway’s 12:13 to Telford. The weather’s not as cloudless here, but it’s still a great imorovement to the past few days – and it’s dry!

15:00.

On arrjval in Telford we went straight to the venue and got stuck into the various jobs that needed sorting, such as last minute table changes, cancellations and checks. We even found the time to set up a production line and stuff the 450 goody bags we need…

17:09.

Preparatory work done, a group of us are off for a littke jolly to Wolverhampton thanks to WM Trains. You’ll see where they’re taking us shortly….

20:20.

– well that was the plan anyway! We were taken on a trip to a museum I’ve never visited before, but the snapshot we had of the Black Country Museum was so enjoyable I’ll definitely be coming back to explore more of what it has to offer.

We’ve been treated to a private night at the museum, complete with rides on a trolleybus, drinks in the rebuilt Mechanics Institute building, tours of selected old shops and fish and chips from their vintage chippy. I’ve too many pictures to add now, but I will do in the morning (along with links to the museum). Right now we’re being taken back to Telford by road, ready for the big day tomorrow.

Sunday blues…

29 Sunday Sep 2019

Posted by in Belgium, Hs2, Musings, Politics, Railways, Travel

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I’ve had little time for blogging today as (for once) we actually had a lie-in. After a week of getting up at 06:00-07:00 it was lovely not to have the alarm set. Mind you, we also had a fairly late night as a small group of us went to a friends for a meal last night. Forget the Tories Brugges group, this was a chance for a select six of us to get together and have a lovely meal at Tony Allan’s and chat about our own visit to that fair city.

We had a lovely evening and didn’t miss much by getting up late as the morning was (literally) a washout due to the weather. It’s yet another day where it’s chucked it down, so much so that I didn’t get out for my constitutional stroll until this evening when the wet weather abated. Instead, the pair of us have spent most of the day getting on with chores, not exactly the rock and roll lifestyle, but when needs must…

What I have had chance to do is catch up on the news and seen that the much hyped anti HS2 demonstration led by Chris Packham at Euston yesterday failed to set the world on fire. Sure, it got media attention because of Packham but only a few dozen people turned up. Most of the media photos are tightly cropped to show Packham and a couple of demonstrators with him. The ones that zoom out show just how few folk actually bothered coming along. Of course, all this is a sideshow, the main event is up the West Coast Main Line in Manchester where the Tory party conference is happening. What’s not happening is any StopHs2 presence. Several years ago they would have had a stall inside all the party conferences. Now their campaign’s on its uppers they can’t even be bothered to turn up and leaflet outside.

This evening, whilst Dawn’s been cooking some fabulous Indian curry I’ve been busy delving through the picture archives thanks to a friend who jogged my memory . Earlier today Anthony Roberts posted a picture from Belgium showing one of their Cass 62 diesel locos. This set me thinking, and searching my Zenfoilio site. I realised that I’d never added old pictures from some Belgian tours I did back in 2006. I used to have them on my old Fotopic website, but when that went tits-up I lost a lot of caption details as I’d never added it to the original files (which I still have). So this evening has been spent hunting down info to try and rebuld the collection on my Zenfolio site. You can find the resurrected gallery here. Thank God for websites like six bells junction, which has allowed me to check the details of the tour. I’ve more pictures to add but that’s going to have to wait until later in the week. It’s taken me 8 years, another few days won’t make any difference! Here’s a couple of samples. I must admit these pictures have triggered a real bout of nostalgia for what were some wonderful times with a great bunch of people. I used to go over on these tours with a group of friends from the Gloucester area under the banner of Pathfinder railtours. You’ll see some of them in the pictures.

The view from the cab of Class 62 no 6250 as we travel across Holland
A line-up of Railion Class 204 locos at Terneuzen. Holland. 4.11.06.