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/
Today’s been another less than vintage summer day with a mix of sunshine, showers, high winds and temperatures that are more like October than July. The one consolation is that the Calder Valley always looks beautiful in the constantly changing light and the rain’s left the fields looking radiant with a painter’s palette full of shades of green. Sadly, I’ve not had time to get out with the camera as I’ve various deadlines to meet at the moment so I’ve spent most of the day working from home. Hopefully I’ll be able to tear myself away for a day and hope to make my first rail trip since March.
In the meantime, here’s the picture of the day, which was taken on an island few ventured to in those days. Komodo, island of the dragons…
I took this picture on the 2nd September 1992. I was on my long solo trip and had reached the beautiful Indonesian Island of Flores, where I based myself at the port of Labuanbajo for a few days in order to take a trip to Komodo with a local guide.
In those days small groups would take day trips to the island, sign in with the PHPA wardens, then your group (plus a goat, which was on a one-way trip) would trek out into the bush near the camp where there was a small viewing platform around a shallow depression which had several Komodo dragons of varying sizes hanging around waiting to be fed. The poor goat would have its throat slit and be thrown into the arena, which galvanized the dragons into action – as you can see here. It’s not a sight for the squeamish – and some of these dragons are big buggers!
When I returned with Lynn in 1998 the practice had been stopped at it was realised that it was making the dragons lazy! So, the chance to get photo’s like this anymore is long gone. Not that the goats mind…
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 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 locked-down freelances need all the help that we can get…
I’ve not had time to blog for the past few days as I’ve been busy wading through entries in the ‘It’s your station’ category for the annual Community Rail Awards. I have to say, there’s some excellent entries and the standards are high. It’s also great to see that groups haven’t let the fact they’ve not been allowed near stations to dent their spirit or work with the wider community.
I’ve also been busy with something new. My first listings on ebay have borne fruit so I’ve been learning the ins and outs of online selling and posting out dozens of old slides and railway memorabilia to the winning bidders. Here’s a sample of what’s still available. I’ve hundreds more old slides to list as well as all sorts of ephemera from the post-privatisation era.
With the way the weather’s been it’s been a good time to be stuck at home, as this shot from one of my daily perambulations shows.
I do love the Pennine skies. You never quite know what to expect and they’re constantly changing. Talking of changing, it seems the Government has finally twigged that their ‘stay off public transport’ message has been crippling the railways. Passenger levels are around 16% of normal, whilst car use is almost back to normal and road freight has surpassed norms.
This means that I’ll soon be returning to the rails. Although many events in my diary have been cancelled I have a backlog of jobs to do. 2020 is also the year for my bi-annual trips around the network for RAIL magazine. We’re currently working out when that’s going to be scheduled and where I’m going to go. The trip will certainly be different this year!
In the meantime I’ve a trio of articles to write in the next week as well as finishing the first sift of station judging. It’s going to be a busy time! Hopefully I’ll be able to catch up with some blogging too!
OK, enough of words, lets move on to the picture of the day, which was taken at the Orang-Utan sanctuary at Bukit Lawang, Sumatra in 1998.
I was lucky enough to catch this shot of female and her baby out in the jungle. Nowadays, in the digital era, such a shot would be easy as you’d just ramp up the ISO. This was taken on 100asa slide film which was a hell of a challenge!
After the horrible weather we’d had to end the working week, Saturday turned out to be better than expected – not that we were up at Sparrowfart to see the sunrise as we allowed ourselves a gentler start to the day with coffee in bed at a sensible, but not outrageous, time.
We had a slightly different day planned and places to visit we’d not been to since lockdown began. It’s not that they were terribly exciting, but with the way the days tend to roll into each other because of the lack of options nowadays, a trip over to Holmfirth to visit their Lidl and Aldi stores seemed like a treat! Funny, isn’t it how lockdown has made the mundane seem exciting?
The drive over to Holmfirth wasn’t bad, the roads are getting more and more busy nowadays as people slowly return to work but maybe because it was a Saturday they didn’t feel that bad at all. We normally shoot over to Holmfirth every 6 weeks or so as we can pick up stuff there we struggle to get locally, also, it’s a nicer shopping environment. Neither store was crowded although the car parks were – and neither store had a queue outside – although I wouldn’t have minded if they had as the weather had really picked up by the time we arrived. T-shirt weather had returned at last! We breezed around both supermarkets as they weren’t crowded at all and the shelves were well stocked in comparison to the early days of lockdown. Stockpiling is obviously a thing of the past – thankfully….
Moving on we headed back towards home but called in at Dawn’s parents to drop of some shopping we’d picked up for them. The contrast to Thursday’s couldn’t have been greater. Then we were freezing our butts off due to the wind, today we were soaking up the sun! The trip back to Halifax was really pleasant, it was just a shame there was nowhere to stop off for a drink and to admire the view, instead we came straight back and relaxed at home instead. I indulged in some garden therapy whilst Dawn relaxed and pottered around before joining me for a drink outside. It was easy to forget what was going on in the outside world and lose ourselves in the sounds of the trees and the local wildlife. Lockdown as had its plusses as well as minuses and not having to rush around and instead be able to enjoy a slower life has been one.
Having picked up supplies earlier we had one of our favorite dishes for supper, which we save for a weekend treat: Spanish-style spicy prawns accompanied by garlic bread to soak up the delicious gravy which is far too good to waste. Bliss! Ok, it’s time to move on to…
Picture of the day.
Back in May 2003 I spent a weekend with friends walking around Church Stretton in Shropshire, a county I’ve long regarded as one of England’s hidden gems. It always seems to get overlooked, but that could be part of its charm as it means its not a packed with tourists as some other counties. Church Stretton’s small market town that’s an ideal base from which to explore the Long Mynd and the hills like the one this picture was taken from, the 459m tall Caer Caradoc. The Shropshire hills are an AONB and when you get there it’s not difficult to see why.
Once life returns to something resembling normal I’d love to take a break here once more as views like this should be appreciated and enjoyed.
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 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 locked-down freelances need all the help that we can get… Thank you!
I’m really not sure that ‘lockdown’ actually describes the situation in England anymore as the Governments contradictory advice and actions have pretty much demolished that idea. We never had the severity of isolation the many other countries had anway, but now it’s feeling like the whole idea’s been thrown away in a sort of “well, do what you like now” free-for-all where the Government has washed its hands of any pretence of controlling the situation. That said, that pretence slipped when Johnson backed Cummings a week ago and it’s been a slippery slope ever since.
Now we see many of the Governments expert advisors backing away from them and breaking ranks to put their side of the story and social-distance themselves from what’s looking like a disasterous mistake. Having locked down the country too late the error’s being compounded by by releasing lockdown too soon. Who can blame the experts for not wanting to be left carrying the can for this one?
Still, it’s not all bad news eh? Matt Hancock has announced horseracing can resume soon, so everyone can take their mind off things by having a flutter with whatever money they have left by betting on the gee-gees. Hang on, isn’t Health Secretary Hancock the MP for Newmarket? You bet…
With all this in mind the pair of us resolved to continue with life as the new normal. The weather’s still amazing, with the sun cracking the flags, so it’s not much of a chore to stay at home when you’re blessed with the amenities and countryside that we have.
Even so, the day passed quickly, although as usual, our plans were fluid. Dawn needed to get a few hours work done so whilst she was banging away at her keyboard I was occupied in the same fashion whilst trying to catch up with a backlog of blogging. There’s so much that I could write – and want to write, but finding the time is surprisingly difficult. It wasn’t ideal, but I sat in the garden and soaked up the sun whilst blogging via my Samsung Galaxy phone rather than being stuck in the office and bashing away at the computer. The smaller screen, glare and tiny keyboard make typo’s inevitable and the ‘spullchucker’ constantly rewrites things for me so every so often I’d disappear inside to correct them on the laptop and check on the cat, who’s still not at his best.
Later in the day, when work was finished we did manage to walk up to the supermarket to pick up some essential shopping. The place which was blissfully quiet. There were no queues and the isles were empty. Most people seemed to be out enjoying the weather. Later on we decided to do the same. Rather than walking from home we drove up to Norland Moor on the opposite side of the valley. As it was late in the day the moor was equally quiet. We only saw a handful of other people and it was glorious!
Looking down from Norland Moor over Sowerby Bridge. You feel on top of the world up here.
Dawn enjoying the exercise – and the view.
This pond atop the moor is normally a magnet for every dog being taken for a walk on the moor. You’ll normally find several having a doggy paddle whilst there owners relax and wait for them to get bored. This time of day it was deserted.
The walk wasn’t a long one, but it was lovely to get out and enjoy such a fabulous evening. The one thing that’s made up for being locked-down has been this run of glorious weather. Back at home we had another relaxed evening. Whilst I watered the garden Dawn was busy in the kitchen rustling up our evening meal. Hake on a bed of salad with fresh Tarragon, Chives and Parsley taken from our garden. Ideal summer food!
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 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 locked-down freelances need all the help that we can get…
Paul Bigland 