12:00.

Having pretty much been staring at four walls all week (OK, and looking at lots of colourful pictures, but that’s not the point) I’ve made an escape from the office to try and get some contemporary library shots. Unfortunately the weather’s nowhere near as nice as last Friday, exactly the opposite in fact. We’ve low, grey clouds and drizzle, so I’m leaving the confines of the Calder valley to head West for a change of scenery and (hopefully) weather.

After strolling down to Sowerby Bridge station I was just in time to join some of the local rail enthusiasts who were waiting for a pair of DRS Class 20s which were heading to York in readiness for a railtour, which nade a nice change. As I was heading for Preston and the Blackpool North services have stopped calling at Sowerby Bridge I caught a late running Chester service to Hebden Bridge to make the connection. Fortunately, the Chester wasn’t so late that the Blackpool was put out ahead or I’d have been kicking my heels for another hour.

I’m now on a rather careworn and unrefurbished 2-car Class 158, having drawn the short-straw rather than having a new Class 195 on the route.

12:17.

We’re now at Accrington, an archetypal former mill town with its rows of terraces climbing up the hillsides the the railway gives a fantastic view of as it bisects the town on a viaduct. I keep meaning to take a day out here to explore as there must be several different shots to be had of the juxtaposition of town and railway. Now the new trains are more common this is the year to make the idea a reality.

14:21.

I’m now on my way from Wigan North Western after leaving Preston to continue my way West. Preston was interesting as the forms of traction really have changed in just a few months. Last year it was a nexus for driver training on Northern’s new trains. Those runs till appear, but now many of the new trains are in service, having taken over from the old BR units that were a staple of the Northern fleet. I’d hooed I might have found some of the new TPE sets in service but it wasn’t to be. Nir did I bag any Pendolinos in Avanti livery but hey ho…

Instead, I’m heading to Liverpool in search of photo-opportunities there as the weather seems to be picking up. I’m currently on one of Northern’s new 3-car Class 331s which have taken over services on this route. They’re a far cry from the pedestrian diesel units that worked the line untol it was electrified. These are old haunts for me as I grew up not far away in Southport and spent many a weekend travelling these routes back in the early 1970s. How things have changed!

16:56.

Liverpool Lime St was interesting. The station’s changed so much since I first got to know it in the early 1970s. Now it’s busier than ever with new trains, new platforms and new services, like the Transport for Wales route to Chester via the long-abandoned Halton curve. It’s cleaner too as many of the services tgat used diesel units are now electrically operated. That said, there’s a bit of an odd throwback in the shape of the Trans Pennine service I caught to head back East. 5 coaches hauled (or pushed) by a Class 68 diesel locomotive! I’m not going to be too critical as the extended sets mean that I can get a seat unlike on the 3-car 185s. They’re comfortable vehicles too.

Sadly I had to bail out at Manchester Victoria where I transferred to a Northern service to get me back to Sowerby Bridge. The 3-car Class 158 I’m on now is rammed. They always are as far as Rochdale but with this being a Friday we’ve also got a complement of hen parties and other folk heading for nights out along the route.

After such stunning Christmas Day weather Boxing Day’s been a real disappointment here in Surrey. The morning’s been dominated by continuous rain and heavy winds. Foolishly, I hadn’t brought my full set of waterproofs and didn’t fancy getting a soaking, so I reluctantly flagged the traditional Tilford Boxing day walk. Dawn and her parents decided to have the day out in the car whilst I stayed at ‘home’ in the chalet and crack on catching up on some work (the beauty and the curse of being freelance, there’s always something to do, no matter what the season).

The silver lining was the fact our chalet is within a stones throw of the Duke of Cambridge pub which was one of the pit-stops for the walkers so I had chance to join them for a quick drink. Despite the weather, the mixed group of adults, kids and dogs were in good spirits – especially after drying off in a pub for a while!

After an hour or so they left to complete their walk and I headed back to the chalet to finish the work I’d lined-up. Whilst I was at ‘home’ I turned on the TV in the vain hope of finding a mild diversion that I could half-watch/listen to whilst concentrating on other things. That’s when I realised once again that you can have dozens of TV channels in a TV package but 95% of them are utter shite unless you’re a child or someone with the attention-span of a Goldfish. Looking through the schedule I’ve found one ancient Hollywood film that was pure propaganda for the US during the Vietnam War (The ‘Green Berets’, directed by and starring John Wayne) plus loads of channels that are all about flogging you stuff. I ended up turning it off and listened to music instead.

The gang’s had a brilliant couple of days in Belgium but now it’s time to make our way home. After a leisurely breakfast at our hotel our merry band piled into a taxi to the railway station and we’re now on the train back to Brussels. Despite the fact it’s a Sunday morning the double-deck push-pull set that’s working our train’s busy, mostly with people dozing! That said, we’ve managed to find some seats up on the top deck today, which is giving us all chance to catch up on news from home and the world via a plethora of portable devices.

We’re not heading back the the UK straightaway. Instead, we’re having a few hours break in Brussels. Today’s my 60th birthday, so we’re going to have a few drinks in the city to celebrate first before catching our Eurostar.

16:00.

As often seems to be the case at the moment, the old axiom that plans never survive the first attack holds fast. I was intending to go back to Manchester today but ended up working in the office far longer than intended as a client (who shall remain nameless) had had been let down by a former member of staff and couldn’t locate a set of pictures I’d taken for them. To be honest, it took me a bit of digging to find them and send them duplicates. By the time all that was done and other bits and bobs sorted out thete wasn’t much point in heading West, so I nipped out to tick off another job on the list instead. Northern were running a special train through the Calder Valley for stakeholders in order to showcase the new Class 195s which will begin working Leeds-Chester services from next Monday, so I hung around to get shots of it in the valley before heading over to Leeds via Bradford and the cross-station interchange to give me a bit of exercise. After grabbing a few shots en-route I boarded a rammed Cross-country service up to York, my final destination. The plan was to get a few shots for a client that would feature the stations magnificent roof, and all went well. I’ll add a few pictures later.

16:58.

I’m now on the homeward leg after catching a busy Cross-Country service from York to Leeds that was made up of a modified HST set fitted with automatic doors. Only one door set had failed, which caued a bit of a scrum as two coachloads tried to exit the remaining working door! It being Friday, the trains were even busier than normal, which added to the chaos.

Leeds was equally as busy, although the new gateline seems to be coping well under pressure. The space it’s created on the platform side is certainly welcome on a day like this.

17:12.

The York – Blackpool service I’m on has been rammed all the way from Leeds. This is what it’s like on the final leg (for me at least) from Bradford. And yes, I’m sat on the luggage shelf!

19:17.

And relax! In our local pub with friends and Mel reading out the Pub Paper quiz in her broadest Lancashire accent!

Yet another early start saw me in the office before 07:30, sorting out a queue of pictures from past and present. First up was finishing scanning and editing another batch of old slides from 2000 which are now on my Zenfolio site. I’ve almost completed the whole album, much to my relief! I’ve no idea what year’s next in the queue, it could be contemporary or something from the 1990s. I’ll find out soon. That done, the lightbox was consigned to the cupboard and the desk cleared to allow me to collate the latest picture choices from a client, get them captioned and added to their website. After that the day descended into the mundane as I dealt with paperwork and emails. Conscious of the fact it was glorious subshine outside I made a bid for freedom early in the afternoon and headed into Sowerby Bridge to head West. I’m currently speeding across Chat Moss aboard an ex-Thameslink Class 319 en-route to Liverpool where I plan to get creative with the camera, even tho’ the sun seems to have deserted me. Let’s see how it goes…

16:09.

Oh, the joys of the all-stations stopper! I made a tactical error by catching this as we were held at Earlestown to let a late running TPE service overtake us. The problem? That TPE was one of the Hitachi Class 802 sets I was hoping to get shots of in Liverpool! Ho hum!

Bugger (pt 432).

My train was held yet again at Roby to ket two more expresses to pass, meaning that, as we approached Wavertree the train I wanted to get shots of went sailing past in the opposite direction! To add insult to injury, the heavens opened as we finally pulled into Lime St over 10 mins late.

This is where patience has to kick in. The light is awful, but there’s great potential, all I can do is wait for dusk to fall and colour return to the sky. I’d break out my old Northern Rail flask full of pea and mint soup, but then I really would look like a trainspotter!

19:15.

It’s almost the end to a frustrating afternoon. I’m heading back to Manchester on TPE’s 18:57 to Scarborough. I’ve managed to get a handful of useful shots but a combination of circumstances reatricted my options. A lot of late running meant that at times the station was almost devoid of trains, which wasn’t what I needed. Once the rush-hour was over I was surprised just how quite the place was. Still, the arch roof and modern (white) lighting made for good surroundings. I’ll add them later. Now I need to think of some new locations for the kind of shots I have in mind…

19:49.

I made a very rapid change of trains at Manchester Victoria, one of those that National Rail Enquiries wouldn’t even suggest. My TPE service came in at platform 3 and my Northern service to Leeds was leaving 3 minutes later from platform 6 which just gave me time to dash across the footbridge and see it coming in. This time of night you don’t hace tk fight your way past slow-moving pensioners, women with buggies or lost looking souls with suitcases the size of a small caravan, so it’s easier! I’m now relaxing on a care-worn but comfortable Class 156 where the heating’s working full belt, so it’s as warm as toast.

As the old Chinese curse goes, “May you live in interesting times” – and we certainly do. So far today the Scottish Court of Session has ruled that Johnson’s proroguing of Parliament was unlawful, Meanwhile, the government is refusing to publish details of communications between No 10 aides about Parliament’s suspension, despite MPs voting for their release.

Now remind me, what was the Brexiters slogan? Oh yes – “take back control”. I wonder how many of the mugs who fell for that now feel that they’re remotely in control, never mind Her Majesty’s Government! In the space of a few short weeks we’ve go gone from a Brexitshambles to an complete clusterfuck. Johnson’s proved how utterly incompetent he is and the whole edifice of Parliamentary democracy has crumbled and fallen. And all for what?

In other news I’ve been working from home today but I managed to brave the gales in order to nip out and get some shopping whilst traversing the scenic woodland route to the supermarket to get my exercise steps in. What I didn’t do (for once) was get any pictures, so this blog is presented to you in glorious black and white text. Sorry about that folks!

I’m hoping to renew normal service over the next few days as there’s lots of exciting trips and events lined up right now. Right now I’m busy juggling the work/life balance, so this is all you’ll hear from me tonight. Cheers folks!