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07:00
Another day dawns back in the septic isle, dear old Brexit Britain feels a world apart after a couple of days in Austria. But ho hum…
My day’s starting at Clapham in South London, as I stayed with an old friend last night. We’d met up at the magnificent St Pancras station, along with some friends and colleagues from Irish railways. We spent a convivial couple of hours remembering old times and old friends before calling it a day.
Now it’s a new one and my plan is to head back to Yorkshire in a roundabout way, via various changing points on the UKs rail network, getting pictures for a client en-route. My starting point’s Clapham Junction station, which I can look down upon from my bedroom window. It’s Britain’s busiest railway station, so there’s plenty to see…
09:06.
I’m on my way to Basingstoke after spending an interesting interlude at Clapham Junction observing SWR staff dispatching trains whilst dealing with the commuter hordes quickly and efficiently, keeping the railway running and getting people to work safely, despite near crush conditions on some of the services into Waterloo.
As I watched I couldn’t help noticing that it seems a happy place to work, despite the pressures. Senior Managers put in an appearance, were recognised and greeted warmly, whilst dispatch staff smiled and joked with each other, clearly enjoying their jobs.
Now I’m on a slightly late running 12 car service to Poole, which – in the finest tradition of the old Southern railway – splits en-route. As we’re swimming against the tide of London-bound commuters it’s a pretty empty train. There’s only about half a dozen of us in the coach.
10:11.
After a brief break at Basingstoke to get a few pictures I’m on the move again, only now I’ve swapped from SouthWestern Railway to GWR and their shuttle service to Reading which is operated by one of the “Thames Turbo” DMU fleet. Whilst the 3-car Class 166 is still in the old First group blue livery it has been fitted with 3pin and USB sockets, which are proving useful in keeping my phone topped up and Fitbit charged.
I’ve not travelled this route for a few years, so it’s nice to be reaquainted with it, especially this time of year when the rapeseed’s flowering and the countryside a patchwork of bright greens and yellow.
11:02
I still can’t get used to how much Reading station’s changed since the days of my youth. A billion pound rebuilding project, electrification and the arrival of new train fleets has left the place almost unrecognisable apart from the clock tower of the Victorian station building sticking its head above all the glass and steel.
12:42
At Reading I doubled back towards London to spend some time getting shots of a much altered Great Western Main Line. Gone are the Turbostars on the Thames valley services, now it’s all four or eight car Electrostars. Crossrail Aventras are very much in evidence too. Here’s a panoramic look at one of them at Maidenhead.
14:31
I’m finally heading West towards home after bagging some Aventra pictures. This time I’m on another GWR 387 after transferring from Class 800. One thing I have been disappointed in is the external cleanliness of the trains. Both my last two have had dirty windows which is a shame.
16:07.
The sunny weather I enjoyed this morning has given way to dull, hazy skies, so I’ve decided to begin my journey Northwards from Oxford after grabbing a last few shots. I’m now on Cross-Country’s 15:39 to Manchester Piccadilly. It’s a five car Voyager with enough empty seats to make it a quiet and pleasant journey – although I suspect that may change when we hit Birmingham! Ideally I’d have liked to have bagged a table so I could have got on with some picture editing, but tables are as rare as hen’s teeth on these trains!
19:58.
I’m on the final leg home now after passing through Birmingham in the rush hour with crush conditions on most trains. I’ll finish off this blog when I get home as I’ve several pictures to add but I don’t want to eat up all my data allowance! I’ve been doing so many rolling blogs recently that I’m getting perilously close to my monthly allowance.
As airport terminals go T2 is one of the better ones, even if it can be a long walk to your gate. I’m flying from B47, which is a long way from the main terminal. To get there you disappear deep underground and cross a large chunk of the airport via travelators.
05:48.Having bumped into another colleague at the gate we’re now on board and waiting for take-off. The musak on the plane is the Viennese waltz used in “2001, a space odyssey” when the Pan-Am space shuttle is docking with the space station. Hopefully, my flight will be less problematic. Next stop, Vienna!
09:32We had a pretty good flight, although much of mainland Europe was covered in cloud. Ironically, this made the numerous power stations we passed even more obvious.
Now we’re stuck in our chauffeured limo which has taken 25 mins to move 200 metres! The queues to get out of the airport car parks are horrendous!10:03.We’re still in the limo. Having finally escaped the airport we’re now enjoying a tour of industrial Vienna (docks, chemical plants etc) en-route to the hotel.10:33.Finally, we’ve arrived at the hotel. Nice!
11:27Journalists from various EU countries have all gathered at the hotel, now we’re being bussed to Siemens HQ for lunch.12:33Chance to eat before the hard work starts. The foods very good and beats the sandwiches that are a staple of so many UK events.
13:00.The presentations are underway. The first one I’m attending is on autonomous trams. Siemens have one test system running in Potsdam, but (like the concept of driverless cars) it would be many years before a successful system could be developed and rolled out – if at all. The concept is far more suitable for closed systems rather than unpredictable streets. Think of Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester!
The second presentation is an interesting one on ‘digital solutions for seamless transportation’. How technology is allowing people to access the information they need to choose integrated transport options.
The mining and analysis of data from peoples travel plans is fascinating! I’ve now learned that the band Depeche Mode has a strong following in the former East Berlin because the band gave a concert there before the wall came down and this fan base can still be seen in data today!15:11.The third and final session of the day is “Seamless digital chain in material supply – the easy spares app”. How a mobile phone app can identify parts of a vehicle, find the spare part number and order it for you – amongst other things!
14:40Two very different views of Manchester! First up is Japanese drummers outside a new branch of Uniqlo, which only opened two days ago. 
12:09.
12:57.
Here’s the token system.
15:10.
This has been our lunch stop and I couldn’t resist ordering a traditional Lancashire delicacy: rag pudding with mushy peas and chips!
We’ve now stepped through a door into a 5th dimension where it feels like we’re in London, or Paris, not Rochdale – and Otto’s found the piano..
18:10.
