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Paul Bigland

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Paul Bigland

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Rolling blog. Awayday…

30 Thursday Jun 2022

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09:45.

I’ve escaped the Calder Valley today as it’s time for one of my regular perambulations to Milnesbridge in the nearby Colne valley. The weather forecast suggested today was going to be a wet one but the day dawned with a mixture of sunshine and cloud so I’m taking the risk and heading out early in order to explore on the way.

The first leg, strolling downhill to Sowerby Bridge was rather pleasant as the slight breeze stopped me overheating as I’m carrying the (slightly slimmed-down) camera bag today.

Whilst I was waiting for the train I had time to read some of the local history boards that line the platforms thanks to the efforts of the station friends and funding from Community Rail Network. This one in particular caught my eye. It’s the story of a local man who invented a product many of us are familiar with that was (and is) sold around the world. Meet Frederick Walton…

I love these history boards as they’re informative, educational and add to people’s understanding of an area.

Right now I’m on a 3-car Class 158, the 09:24 from Sowerby Bridge which is heading for Leeds via Brighouse. It’s a relatively quiet train that’s slowly filling up on the way.

10:25.

As usual, I swapped trains at Dewsbury to retrace some of my steps to Huddersfield. Whilst I was there I remembered the station commemorates two local men who were important in the modern digital revolution and computer age.

Right now I’m sipping a coffee having scoffed a bacon roll from the excellent station cafe. This will fortify me for my next leg. As I’ve so much time in the bank I’m going to eschew my normal route (walking along the canal from Slaithwaite to Milnsbride) and walk directly from Huddersfield, shadowing the railway to visit a couple of photographic locations en-route.

12:05.

I’m now high above Milnesbridge having walked from Huddersfield through a district called Paddock. I’ve not been that way since the pandemic and it’s rather depressing. So many shops and pubs closed their doors for the final time – although they didn’t know it at the time. The deadly combination of Covid and Brexit has proved fatal to so many businesses.

Right now I’m at a local landmark which offers stunning views.

12:45.

That last picture was taken atop the Longwood Tower. I’ve now descended, passed under the viaduct you see in the picture and climbed above it on the other side. Now it’s time for a break, rest and go off the grid for a while. Catch you later…

15:30.

My final visit to Milnesbridge (for now) over and done with I caught the bus back into Huddersfield before transferring to the train for a trip to Leeds. My Hull bound TPE service was the quietest I’ve been on for a while but then it was a 6-car! The earlier train I caught from Dewsbury was absolutely rammed Wwith people and suitcases, many of whom appeared to be heading for the train’s final destination – Manchester Airport.

15:50.

My trip to Leeds was interesting as some Network Rail compounds have sprung up as part of the forthcoming TRU (Transpennine Route Upgrade) including a large one at Batley which I need to visit. Leeds station was in the interregnum between rush-hours yet still contained plenty of people. I only hung around long enough to catch the first train out to the Aire valley and Bingley that I could. I’ve decided to pop in and join a group that (despite regular invitations) I’ve only managed to catch up with once before. ‘Wind Up North’ is a weekly meeting of present and former rail staff (and friends) that moves between different pubs in different towns. Today the rendezvous is the new pub/restaurant in the old stationmaster’s house at Bingley.

16:52.

Here we are…

The station building is just out of shot to the right and the railway in a cutting behind.

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, 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 me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

Thank you!

28th May picture of the day…

28 Saturday May 2022

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There’s a short blog from me today. After all my travels over the past week I’m glad to have some time at home and chance to catch up with myself before another hectic couple of weeks. Right now my focus is on editing and collating all the pictures that I’ve taken in order to get them out to clients. OK, I *did* take a couple of hours break this afternoon to indulge another passion – gardening. We visited our local B&Q to pick up a selection of DIY materials, but some of their plants were too good to resist. The upstairs terrace in now looking a lot brighter because of my purchases.

Right now I’m having a less than rock and roll Saturday as I’m stuck in the office editing, but – hey ho – it pays the bills. My efforts are leaving you with the picture of the day which was taken on my trip to Kent on Thursday as part of Community Rail week. Students from Ashford college took part in an event that included experiencing a return train trip to Maidstone, where SouthEastern rail staff taught them how various aspects of the railways work – including making announcements. This particular young lady couldn’t resist having a go – and did very well indeed.

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, 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 me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

Thank you!

Rolling blog. Berlin bound…

06 Friday May 2022

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Having spent the morning pottering around, writing, posting off eBay buyers purchases and prepping the garden to survive our absence Dawn and I are waiting for friends to arrive to take us all to Manchester Airport for our flight to Berlin. I can’t quite believe that after 2 years and one aborted attempt (thanks Covid) the five of us are finally on our way. Sadly sans the 6th Musketeer – Tony Allen – who passed away last year. Still, we’ll sink a few in his memory…

I’ll blog about our journey as and when I can…

15:15.

We’re on our way…

15:42.

Oh, the joys of the ‘cobbled motorway’ (aka the M62)…

16:29.

We’re using a car drop-off place on the Styal Rd, just South of the airport railway delta junction. It’s a great use of acres of disused greenhouses as all the vehicles are kept undercover. Now we’re on the bus to take us to the terminal.

Or second form of transport today…

17:30.

Oh, the fun of Manchester Airport and Ryanair check in. The self bag drop is farcical. Half the label printing machines are broken. When you do get your bag labelled you join another queue to drop off your bag. But there’s only one person doing it. Then the belt’s broken! So we’ve been standing here for nearly an hour! My friends have found a way of passing the time..

1950.

We’re late, fed up of queuing and haven’t had a drink, but at least we’re on the plane…

Saturday morning update…

Our plane was an hour late into the Brandenburg airport but I can’t fault the flight crew, who were a mix of Spanish and Italian. They were lovely. Getting through the airport was a breeze as (unlike Manchester) everything works. Even the immigration staff were friendly although I’ll never get used to our loss of freedom and our new 3rd country status (thanks for nothing Brexiters). As we were arriving so late we’d arranged for a taxi pickup for the half-hour trip to our hotel near Alexanderplatz. We checked in with just 20 nins left before the bar closed at 1AM so headed straight to it before going to our rooms. Once again the staff were lovely and also flexible so we managed to squeeze two rounds in before they shut up shop and we retired to bed at 02:00.

Tomorrow’s a new day…

10th April picture of the day…

10 Sunday Apr 2022

Posted by Paul Bigland in Food and drink, Musings, Picture of the day, Uncategorized, West Yorkshire

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Food and drink, Musings, Picture of the day, West Yorkshire

Right, I’m bored now. I first tested positive for Covid last Thursday. I felt shit for several days, then bounced back, but I’m still testing positive – including this morning! Unlike many people Dawn and I are taking this seriously and not putting anyone else at risk so I’ve had no close contact with anyone since I first tested positive. Well, apart from my wife – obviously! Oh, I’m tempted, there’s a few people who I’d quite happily give the Rona to but as they’re nowhere near me the chances of that happening are minute! I’m frustrated as I’ve no idea when I’ll start testing negative again. In the meantime it’s really cramping my style and the things that I can do.

The pair of us are feeling frustrated as there’s so many things we’ve had to put on hold – including family gatherings. So, to lighten the mood the pair of us had a long amble around the streets of Halifax today, exploring side-streets and areas we’ve never visited before. I find the town fascinating to wander around as the architecture is so diverse. It ranges from huge mansions to back-to backs and with a timespan that covers centuries. Many building have changed form and purpose over the years which leads to the opportunity for some detective work, trying to guess what the places were used for originally. There’s also some impossible building footprints too as properties have been squeezed on to odd plots of land, leading to some very oddly shaped structures which must be almost impossible to furnish well.

Back at Bigland Towers we’ve enjoyed another quiet night in. Dawn decided to take over the cooking tonight as I prepared last night’s meal, which leads to the picture of the day. I really enjoy cooking but it’s once in a blue moon we cook red meat at home. Maybe it’s the result of the ‘Rona’ but yesterday I fancied trying something different and found an Asian recipe for a beef Red Curry which sounded delicious so I gave it a go. When I cook I like to have everything prepared beforehand and laid out in a selection of bowls we’ve brought back from our travels in Thailand and Vietnam. So, here’s last night’s meal broken down into its constituent parts. Vegans, look away now…

I’m hoping that tomorrow I’ll finally test negative and can start to come out of my shell as (potentially) we’ve both got a lot on in the next week or so. Time will tell…

I’ve a favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, 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 me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

Thank You!

Rolling blog. Motorway ping-pong…

10 Monday Jan 2022

Posted by Paul Bigland in Uncategorized

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10:00.

We’re just packing up here in Surrey before heading back North once more in a game of motorway ping-pong that we’ve been playing quite a bit recently. The kids have gone to school, Dawn’s brother’s waiting for his flight back from Spain, I’ve stuffed the car with our luggage, so all that’s left is to take ‘Tilly’, the family’s Cairn Terrier for a walk then we can head off.

The weather’s dry but dull so the journey shouldn’t be too onerous and we’re in no rush. The plan is to have a minor diversion in Northamptonshire to have a look at some of the High-Speed 2 construction sites, so expect some pictures later…

11:25.

We’re on the way! Driving through the centre of Farnham was interesting. The town was dead and the roads quiet. You could see from the numbers of cars parked up in people’s driveways at many folks are back working from home. Mind you, in an affluent area like this they have both the space and the type of jobs that allow that to happen.

12:00.

We’re currently bowling along the M4 which is busier than we thought it might be but nothing like normal.

15:30.

We’re now making steady progress up the M1 in Nottinghamshire after a stop at Brackley to have a look at the HS2 work. I’ll add more details and pictures later but our visit confirmed that work on this section is in its early stages compared to other parts of the route. This gave me chance to get some shots which will be an interesting contrast to what it will look like in six months time when earthmoving is in earnest. Here’s where the bridge is being built to allow HS2 to pass under a realigned A43.

We covered a loop from Brackley which took us past the old Great Central station where the street level booking office has been converted to a chip shop and poodle parlour!

Making a break for the border…

07 Sunday Nov 2021

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Sunday began in a lazy fashion. After all, it’s the weekend – what’s the rush? But the pace picked up after brunch as I decided to make the most of the mild weather and dry day to scratch off a few chores before heading North once more. The flower beds were in need of cutting back and tidying up, a job I was happy to do in preparation for the winter. That said, I was surprised how much was still flowering. I still have some yellow poppies flowering in the front garden and a couple of stray flowers have appeared on an Azalea bush out the back. The seasons seem to be as confused as me sometimes! Another little job was to top up the bird feeders so that Dawn has some colourful company whilst I’m away.

Good deeds done the pair of us managed to get out for a walk through Scarr woods and up to Savile Park and back just to blow the cobwebs away. Both of us were surprised just how many leaves are left on the trees on both sides of the valley, despite the fact you’re ankle deep in them walking through the woods. Is autumn longer and later this year? We can’t quite work it out…

As dusk began to set it was time for me to bid adieu to both Dawn and the Calder valley once more. As I’ve (literally) got a suitcase in tow this time Dee gave me a lift to Halifax station where I caught the 17:29 Northern service bound for Preston. Normally, these Blackpool services are worked by 3-car Class 195s but today we were treated to a 2-car which I expected would get ‘cosy’ en-route but in actual fact it was fine as far as Preston. The whole journey was completed in darkness which was a shame but – hey – it’s November! I contented myself with getting some writing done instead of window gazing.

On arrival at Preston I didn’t have long to wait before my next train arrived. This was another CAF product in the shape of a Trans-Pennine Express Class 397 on a Liverpool Lime St – Glasgow Central service. Seats were at a premium but I managed to find a pair of free airline seats by a luggage rack at the end of car 2. Sitting over the bogie’s always a good place to be able to judge the quality of the ride and (as usual with CAF products) it was hard. I rather like the interior of these units and the pull-out extension to the seatback tables is great for being able to use a laptop, but it’s easy to miss keystrokes when the trains bouncing around so much. Despite the niggles, the performance of these trains is impressive. They’re 125mph trains and they can certainly shift – even without tilt.

397007 having arrived at Carlisle.

I’m now in Carlisle where I’m staying for the night before heading up to Glasgow in time for the start of the three day ‘Low-carbon logistics’ event at Mossend yard just outside Motherwell. This is a strategic stop just South of the border that gets me in range for getting to the start of the event (which would be impossible from home). Compared to how it can be on a Friday-Saturday night (when every village idiot for miles around descends on the place) Sunday in Carlisle seems quite civilised. Not that I’m venturing far – my hotel is literally across the road from the station.

An early night beckons as there’s little of interest to photograph at Carlisle station on a Sunday night. Instead, a quiet night tucked up with the laptop preparing some more articles seems like a good move. However, expect a rolling blog with plenty of pictures tomorrow…

I’ve a favour to ask…
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 appreciate all the help that we can get to aid us in bouncing back from lockdowns. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Thank you!

Rolling blog. Cumbrian cruise part 2…

12 Thursday Aug 2021

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09:30.

I know yesterday’s blog fizzled out. That was mainly due to being out in the wind and rain on the Cumbrian coast with an old friend which left me no time to finish it. But I will wind it up later today when I have more time.

Right now I’m on my way from Carlisle to Hexham after spending a pleasant night in the city with Hassard. The two of us having chance to catch up with a beer and a meal. I’m heading for Hexham in order to find a quiet space for an hour or two to take part in a dreaded ‘Zoom call’. This one’s part of the judging process for the 2021 Community Rail Awards, so I suppose it’s rather appropriate that I join in from a station that’s won awards in the past! Once that’s done – and if the weather plays ball – I’ll be visiting some lovely photographic locations along the Tyne Valley line. Pop back later to see what I get up to…

13:30.

Judging done! I must admit, a waiting room on a railway station’s the most unusual place I’ve joined the from team so far. Technical difficulties meant I had to use my phone, not the laptop but as I had all my notes with me it wasn’t an issue. It was the constant PA interruptions by ‘Digital Doris’ making station announcements that was the worst bit. Still, the team of myself, CRN’s Hazel Bonner and Nik Schofield plus ex-Today’s Railways UK magazine Paul Abell whittled down an excellent selection of pictures showing the past year in the life of community rail volunteers down to just 10. These will be displayed on CRN’s website next week to sllow a vote on the winner.

Job done, I couldn’t resist the station bar on platform 2 to celebrate. The bar hadn’t been opened the last time I was here back in 2018 but it’s a welcome addition. Serving teas coffees, sandwiches and cakes, it also sells 3 very local draught real ales.

21:00.

Really? Is that the time? I’m on the final leg home from Preston to Halifax now. I’d hoped to blog from the Tyne valley but I kept finding myself in reception blackspots which I found surprising as I’m on the O2 network which is normally very good.

Needless to say, I’ve had a busy day. I’ve managed to visit stations I’d never been to before as well as a few familiar locations. I didn’t get all the pictures I wanted but that’s hardly surprising as the route is rich in photo opportunities. I’m not complaining as the weather was far better than predicted. I’ll edit the pictures tomorrow and add a few to the blog. I was hoping to do that earlier but I succumbed to window gazing as I don’t get chance to appreciate this neck of the woods as often as I should. The line (and its train service) is very much in two parts. The nexus is Hexham. The service East from the town along the Tyne valley’s more intensive with a mix of hourly stoppers and semi-fasts. West of Hexham its hourly with a reduced stopping pattern leaving some locations of trains every two hours. Hardly ideal, but how much traffic do they generate outside the peaks? We’ll never know unless the service improves…

That aside, the line West of Hexham’s much more rugged. It doesn’t stick to the river so it wends and winds its way across the country – and Hadrian’s wall. I’ve not been to the Wall since I was on a school trip when I’d just turned into a teenager. I keep promising to come back. Last year Dawn and I had booked accomodation in Hexham that woukd have allowed exactly that but the lockdown 2 put the mockers on that

Rolling blog. Colne valley reprise….

03 Tuesday Aug 2021

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11:30.

We have another lovely day here in West Yorkshire so I’m repeating my photographic travels in the next-door Colne Valley, hopefully hunting down some of the diverted freight services that are gracing their rails for the next 10 days, plus adding some library shots of a line that will be changing dramatically over the next few years as part of the multi-billion pound TRU (Trans-Pennine Route Upgrade).

Right now I’m making my way from Sowerby Bridge to Huddersfield via Dewsbury aboard one of Northern’s refurbished Class 158s. I much prefer them to the old as there’s actually some leg-room at the table seats, plus they’re fitted with USB charging points. The 11:23’s a quiet train with just a handful aboard. I’ll be curious to see what others look like later. Stay with me to find out…

12:45.

Beat laid plans and all that, eh? I stopped off at Mirfield to get photographs of the extended garden looked after by the station friends. They’ve done an excellent job (as you’ll see later). Whilst there I checked to see how the freight services I was hunting were running only to find they’d been cancelled! Now I have to come up with a plan B. There’s no point sticking the the Colne valley so I’m going to venture West across the Pennines to (hopefully) look at some of the TRU work around Manchester. Watch this space…

Right now I’m on a stopper heading for Stalybridge form Huddersfield which is busy with folks on days out. I’m please to report the vast majority are still wearing masks.

After calling at Greenfield and Mossley we got even busier with folks heading into the city.

16:00.

Sorry for the break but I’ve been busy travelling. I abandoned my TPE chariot at Stalybridge in order to sample what are one of the most hated phrases in the English language. The ‘rail replacement’ bus service! Trains to Manchester Victoria via Ashton-under-Lyme are being substituted by buses to Ashton, thence Guide Bridge where you can rejoin the railway. I gave it a go and I have to say it worked without a hitch. Double-deck buses run every half hour. They’re clean -and empty as most people have already found alternative routes. I actually qute enjoyed it as it took me places in East Manchester I’d never been before although it was a mixed bag of derelict mills and churches leavened with a lot of closed shops with the occaisional hint of what a prosperous area it must once have been. That said, as someone who enjoys architecture, I loved some of the buildings. The lovely red Accrington brick dominates here.

18:45.

An intresting and varied day. On arrival at Guide Bridge I caught a train to Manchester Piccadilly. The weather was excellent and the city centre full of life so I decided to visit the top floor of a car park I knew near Oxford Rd that provides a great vantage point over the rail connection known as the Castlefield corridor – although bottleneck is more apt. This two-track section of line is horribly overcrowded with both passenger and freight services.

Having had my fill of rail photographs I nipped into bearby Chinatown to pick up some culinary supplies as we’ve run out of fish sauce and the evil red birdseye chillies. I found fish sauce without a problem but – despite trying several Chinese supermarkets – I couldn’t get the chillies for love nor money. I believe they’re imported from Thailand. As that country’s struggling to get its population Covid vaccinated this nay have something to do with it.

I was tempted to risk coming back via the rail replacement service via Rochdale but decided I’d had enough ‘bus fun’ for the day so returned via train to Huddersfield instead.

The trip was quite sad because I sahed the front portion of the train with an elderly, wheelchair-bound woman and her middke-aged son who was acting as her carer. The dynamic was awful. The pair of them obviously had ‘issues’ which made me feel so incredibly grateful for my life and circumstances. Never forget – there but for the grace of God (even if you don’t believe in Gods)..

Public transport has a myriad of functions. One of which is to showcase how the other half lives – and I’ll always be appreciative of those lessons.

22:30.

I’m pausing this blog now as I’ve more thoughts and pictures to add – but that’s not going to happen until tomorrow as I’m back at home and it’s time to relax. I’m working from home all day tomorrow which will give me time to finalise this blog, edit the past two days pictures – and finish filleting Simon Jenkins Guardian nonsense – which has turned into an epic as there’s so much rubbish to refute with evidence. Until then – goodnight!

I’ve a favour to ask…
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!

27th June picture of the day…

27 Sunday Jun 2021

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There’s a short blog from me today as the pair of us have had a very convivial afternoon with friends in another friends garden. It’s been a lovely chance to catch up with people whom we haven’t seen in three dimensions for a long time! Lots of alcohol was drunk and many stories swapped. The opportunity to catch up with people in the flesh after all this time is something to be savoured, as is the spontinaity it provokes when it comes to telling tales and swapping stories. I won’t embarass anyone with photographs from our carousing. Instead, my picture of the day is one from my slide archive.

I took this shot in Hunstanton, Norfolk on the 24th August 2003. Bikes within bikes…

I’ve a week at home now as I try and catch up with my travels and scribble a couple of stories on the back of it for some magazines whilst suppling tranches of pictures to other clients – so expect plenty of blogging, but of the static kind!

I’ve a favour to ask…
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!

Rolling blog: exploring HS2…

23 Wednesday Jun 2021

Posted by Paul Bigland in Hs2, Photography, Railways, Rolling blogs, Transport, Travel, Uncategorized

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Tags

Hs2, Rolling blog, Transport, Travel

Well, that is if I ever get there!

My morning has started with an example of just how crap public transport can be in the UK.

I’m heading for Calvert which has no working rail links, and being environmentally conscious I use public transport whenever I can. There’s a bus route from Aylesbury that goes through the village. The No 16 is run by a company called ‘Red Rose’ and goes from this God-awful bus station buried under a multi-story car park.

I arrived in plenty of time and found the right bay by checking every one as the tiny information screens in the dingy waiting area are too small to list anything more than 30 mins later.

Some bright spark has timetabled 2 buses from the same bay at the same time, the 10 and 16. The 10 turned up and sat there for ages whilst the driver went to the toilet. The 16 never appeared. I ring ‘Traveline’ (and paid 12p a minute for the privilidge) but they’re useless as they only have timetables, not real-time info. There’s a ‘press for info’ button at the stop. I press. It says “no bus is due”. Great.

10 mins after booked departure time another Red Rose driver spotted me and asked what bus I was waiting for. When I told him he said “well, it should be running” another driver wandered over, then said “the 16? It’s gone – it pulled in over there” (pointing to an anonymous bit of tarmac at the end of the bays). There were no announcements, no information as the bus drops off the screens which aren’t real-time information anyway. Nothing. So. I now have another hour to wait. I ring the bus company after finding their number on Google. No-one answers…

Is it any wonder so many buses drive around like this? Yep, i’m the only passenger, having paid £4.40 for the honour!

13:10.

My own personal taxi – sorry – the bus passed through some places I’d never visited before which included Waddesden which has some lovely old buildings. I really enjoyed the trip, even if it it did meander. I got off at journey’s end, the village of Steeple Claydon, then set off to explore.

Getting shots of the work reactivating the old East-West railway line led me to the line where it passes Poors Piece, a tiny bit of woodland that became a stophs2 protest camp. The irony being it’s nowhere near HS2! I popped in to get a few pictures only to find the camp deserted. The few remaining occupants appear to have buggered off to Stonehenge. The only occupants of the untidy mess were a couple of chickens!

It’s a good example of how the protest campaign against HS2 never stood a chance. A handful of people in camps like this were never going to achieve anything. Now, despite the bluster you see on social media from the likes of Hs2Rebellion it’s obvious all but a handful of the protesters have given up and moved on. How any of them thought sitting in a treehouse off the route was going to stop the largest construction project in Europe is a mystery, but there you go. They didn’t – and now the project’s in full swing.

14:55.

On site and being briefed on the work.

19:15.

Well, that was a busy day! After our site briefing and presentation on what HS2 contractors are doing in the area (lots) we went out on site to see the work up close. The sheer size of the site is the first thing that impresses, but then it includes a sizeable chunk of E-W rail, HS2s Infrastructure Maintenance Depot (IMD), passive provision for a link between E-W rail and the line to Aylesbury as well as road diversions – and that’s without HS2 itself. Plus, the site contains its own railhead which receives three trains a day of aggregates. Nearly half a million tons have already been delivered and by the end of the programme that will reach 787,000 tons. Not bad for a plan that was originally conceived to deliver 100,000 tons in total!

The third train of the day arrived when we were on site so we went out to watch the slick unloading operation. Operated by DB Cargo, the loco in charge has been converted to run on HVO (vegetable oil) not diesel. This is yet another example of HS2’s commitment to reducing its carbon emissions.

22.15.

I’m now back in my hotel room in Aylesbury after a long day of wandering around the Calvert/Steeple Claydon area on what was a very warm day. With the combination of that and lugging around a full camera bag for nearly 14 miles I’m treating myself to a glass of wine and an early night. I’ll blog about my HS2 site visit in full in the next few days. There’s some great stories – including what’s probably the most expensive Jackdaw nest ever! For now, here’s a shot of where E-W rail crosses over the route of HS2. The piles for the bridge have already been sunk. Above the little digger in the far background you can see the rest of the E-W route heading East.

I’ll leave you with one last picture, which is of myself and fellow journalist and railwayman Phil Marsh. See what I mean about the camera bag?

Tomorrow I’ll be making my way back North, so I’ll be rolling blogging once more. Only this time there are no buses involved…

I’ve a favour to ask…
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!

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