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!
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/
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
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/
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/
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/
There’s lots of ways of spending one’s Saturday night. Well, OK, not as many as there used to be pre-Covid, but tonight is a little different.
I’m in Huddersfield, waiting for the latest old Pacer train to be delivered to its new owners, the platform 1 charity based at Huddersfield station.
Unlike the first delivery which was to a school in Bradford this one is much, much more complex. It involves two large cranes (one’s a 500 tonner) half a dozen articulated HGVs plus loads of support vehicles. To make it even more interesting it also requires a possession (complete line closure) of the railway, which isn’t scheduled until 01:00.
Here’s how things look right now.
This is the smaller of the two cranes with the Pacer behind it to the left. It’ll be craned into position over a wall behind where it sits now. Thankfully, although the evening’s wet it’s not windy as that would kibosh the lift.
Right now, all we have to do is wait fot the possession – a feeling familiar to anyone involved in rail engineering! I’ll update this blog as events unfold…
00:00.
Don’t you just love it when a plan doesn’t come together? The job’s been cancelled at the 11th hour. I won’t go into detail other than to say it involves cranes – and mats…
Right now everyone’s busy deconstructing the site and packing everything away ready for another day.
Me? I’m off home to a warm bed. Sorry about that folks!
Meanwhile, in the best quiz show tradition – here’s what you could have won. 55801 from set 144001 repainted especially for platform 1.
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/
For a whole host of reasons I’ve escaped from home today. I’ve not ventured far but I have made it Westwards to Todmorden. The weather’s gloriously sunny and the temperature’s made it into double-figures so with everything else going on I thought “bugger it”. Now that lockdown has eased there’s lots more people about as shops and some pubs have reopened. Seeing groups of people out together enjoying themselves takes a little getting used to but it’s a positive sign for the future. We’re all tired of the social isolation so it’s hardly surprising.
I walked down into Sowerby Bridge with the intention of getting a few shots at the station but as the weather’s so good and I’m currently writing an article on the Calder Valley line for a magazine I thought “here’s a good excuse for some new pictures” so I caught a train to Todmorden which is where I am now. Of all the locations on the line this offers the best photographic locations. That saying, I came out with the D5 and only the 50mm lens, so my options are limited!
Still, here’s the very first of the BR built Class 150s that’s called here as I’m typing this…
After decades of service around the West Midlands these units have pitched up here to help replace the Pacers.
Since the 24th October through till the 1st November the railway through the Calder valley has been severed in both directions to allow for some very important work to take place at Todmorden. A £3.7m Great North Rail Project investment is seeing the 1840-built Grade II listed structure grit blasted to its bare metal to allow structural repairs to take place.
180-year-old bridge designed by railway pioneer George Stephenson is a skew bridge over the Rochdale canal. The single 31 m (102 ft) cast iron span, consists of a pair of bowed ribs with vertical hangars projected above the ribs in an ornamental Gothic arcade. The abutments are semi-octagonal castellated turrets. The whole structure looks very grand and must have been incredibly impressive in its day, projecting the power of the new railways.
Meanwhile, Taylors bridge, which carries the railway over Rose Bank Road just to the West of Todmorden station has been completely reconstructed with two disused sections permanently removed as part of the same investment.
Sadly, due to other commitments and the lousy weather we’ve been having, I didn’t have chance to visit and record the work until Friday 3oth, by which time Taylors bridge had been replaced, with all the old spans removed and the new ones dropped into place by a huge crane (which had already left the site. Network Rail and its contractors were busy replacing the track, ready for services to restart. Here’s a selection of images from my visit.
Trains from Leeds were terminated at Hebden Bridge where there’s a crossover that allows them to reverse and work back ‘right line’. Here’s 195128 which was preparing to do exactly that after depositing me. From Manchester, services were terminating at Rochdale, whilst a rail replacement bus service worked between the two points. My rail replacement bus was this ex-Transport for London vehicle which I many well have used when it worked on the capital’s route 25!With Todmorden station in the background, ‘team orange’ are replacing track over the new Taylors bridge. Concrete sleepers had been put into place earlier and the engineers are busy clipping new rails into place over them.The days of moving rails using teams of men have largely disappeared. Nowadays the work has been mechanised. Here, a road rail vehicle (RRV) has been fitted with a special extendable arm to move lengths of rail. A few hours later the rails have all been installed and the RRV has changed tools. Now, fitted with a bucket, it’s being used to spread ballast over the new sleepers before a tamping machine arrives to consolidate the stones and adjust the line and level of the new track to ensure its fit for passenger service on Monday morning.Meanwhile, here’s George Stephenson’s 1840 bridge over the Rochdale canal at Gauxholme. Most of the bridge has been cocooned in sheeting to protect the workers from the elements but also to cut down on noise and dust from the grit-blasting. As you can see, people are living very close to the work. A closer look at the Todmorden end of the bridge. Track has been removed to allow inspections to take place whilst the parts of the bridge facing the track have already been grit-blasted and treated whilst the line’s been closed as it would be impossible to carry out this work with trains still running.
Despite the awful weather we’ve been having whilst the work’s been going on (including this weekend, there high winds and heavy rain as I’m writing this on Sunday evening!) it’s expected that the railway will be open to traffic on Monday morning.
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/
The operative word that seems to define this Government is shambles – be it Brexit or Covid. I could write paragraphs and paragraphs on this – most of which would be cathartic and splenetic – but ultimately futile, because we have a dysfunctional Government led by a complete chancer who’s never had any interest in anything other than his own ego.
So, now, with a Government that’s completely lost the plot (because it never had it in the first place) we are where we are. Welcome to phase 2 of the shit-show – only now we’re on the cusp of winter so forget sitting outside in the way we could in shit-show phase 1. Do you feel these people have a grasp of all this? No. Me neither.
How all this will pan out now is anyone’s guess as I suspect many people have lost any faith in the Government to manage this. Personally? Dawn and I will do what’s expected of us. Not because we trust these jokers, but because we care about other people. I need some new glasses, but I’ll be buggered if you’ll find me taking a trip to Barnard Castle…
I’ll spare you more spleen venting as enough is enough (for now), here’s the picture of the day instead. I was walking through a paddy field in Bali, Indonesia on the 2nd January 2012 when I spotted this critter. I’ve carried a Nikon Micro lens in my camera bag for years (I bought it brand new for a bargain price in Kathmandu, Nepal, back in 1998, but that’s another story) so I whipped it out to get this shot and for once the little beauty played ball and stayed still.
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/
Paul Bigland 