York interlude…

12 Tuesday Sep 2023

Posted by Paul Bigland in Photography, Railways

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Having been tied up at home recently (not literally you understand) and having had an appointment down in Sowerby Bridge this morning I thought ‘bugger it’ and escaped the valley for a few hours – even tho’ the weather was less than clement. I caught a train from Sowerby Bridge to Leeds via Dewsbury which allowed me a window-seat to observe progress on the Trans-Pennine Route Upgrade (TTU) – not that were huge changes. The most obvious sign that something’s afoot is the amount of new cable troughing that’s sat on pallets by the lineside, waiting to be installed. Well, that and the new stations of course. Morley’s coming along. The old platforms are being demolished and the new station’s slowly gaining a new footbridge with lifts. Farther up the line (or should that be Down the line?) ‘White Rose’ station’s taking shape. I’ll venture out next month to get pictures of progress.

Arriving at Leeds I swapped from Northern to a late-running TPE (surprise, surprise) service to York. There’s TPU work happening on this section too but I’m not familiar with the specifics other than the overhead wires having spread West from Colton Junction to end in the middle of nowhere – for now.

When I arrived at York I found it strangely quiet, although the fact it’s a September Tuesday may have had an impact as there’s bugger-all going on. That said, there’s always something of railway interest, as these pictures prove.

Former East Midlands Trains ‘dogbox’ 153311 is now used as a test train. I managed to catch it in the sidings during its brief layover.

Former Calder Valley class 155 set 155345 rattles the station roof as it rumbles its way to Bridlington. Nowadays, this small class of 7 units are all based at Hull’s Botanic Gardens depot.

Mind the gap. Level boarding is a dream on lots of the railway network, as this shot of passengers detraining from a Blackpool North – York service illustrates.

Grand Central have been having an awful time with reliability of their Angel trains class 180 fleet recently. So much so units have been hired in. Here’s former East Midlands Railway 180110 working 1N95, the 1427 London Kings Cross to Sunderland.

I’ll add these and other pictures to my Zenfolio website shortly. Right now I’m back at home and taking the night off. See you soon…

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11th September picture of the day…

11 Monday Sep 2023

Posted by Paul Bigland in Essex, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, West Yorkshire

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Essex, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Travel, West Yorkshire

There’s only a short blog from me today. It’s late and I’ve had a long day glued to the computer editing pictures which have now appeared on my Zenfolio picture website. As usual, they’re spread around various galleries which are dedicated to particular train companies, aspects of the railways – or other interests. There’s still more pictures to edit but the majority have been uploaded. You can find them in these galleries;

Greater Anglia

Govia/Thameslink

Infrastructure and engineering

East Midlands Railway

Social issues

UK travel photography

Odds and sods

Another of today’s chores was to package and parcel the latest eBay sales of old railway slides and memorabilia and get them down to to post office for dispatch to the lucky winners. There’s still plenty of items on offer (I’ve just started another 5 day sale now) so if you want to browse what’s for sale, click on this link.

I’m having break from the office tomorrow so expect a rolling (ish) blog, although I can’t tell you where I’ll be going as I don’t know myself yet! It depends on the weather and what’s happening.

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with a taster from my new travel pictures. This one’s of Saffron Walden in Essex. It’s a delightful little market town that couldn’t be more different in character and design than West Yorkshire…

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10th September picture of the day…

10 Sunday Sep 2023

Posted by Paul Bigland in Calder Valley, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, West Yorkshire

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Calder Valley, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, West Yorkshire

We’ve had a mixed weekend here back at Bigland Towers. Much of the time’s been taken up with catching up on daily chores that have been neglected after a week away. The one item missing from our accommodation was a washing machine, so ours has been working overtime to process a weeks work of dirty clothing. Thankfully, the sunny weather continued over Saturday, which was probably the hottest day we’ve had here in the Calder Valley this year. The pair of us were too busy to venture far but we did manage a wander into Sowerby Bridge to pick up some shopping, stop for a quick drink, then wander back along the canal. I even managed to nip out for a few games of pool and catch-up with friends before returning to evening cooking duty when I experimented with a new Thai recipe.

Today’s been in similar vein with the exception that Dee’s been out most of the day at a relaxation and meditation course whilst I’ve stayed at home to wade through more washing and get stuck into editing the hundreds of pictures I took whilst we were away but which haven’t (yet) made it onto my Zenfolio website. I’m making good progress and many of them will appear by tomorrow.

I still managed to get my daily constitutional in and 12.5k steps but it was a close run thing as the weather really has turned the afternoon. I’d hung around until late in the afternoon before getting out and just managed to dodge a heavy shower. That said, we’ve escaped the storms that seem to have hit to the North and South of us. all we’ve had is a few mild rumbles of thunder, but (disappointingly) no lightning – otherwise I’d have had the camera out as I love a good storm. Today’s picture is an illustration of all the weather offered us, hardly dramatic compared to some pictures I’ve seen.

Now I’m typing this listening to more distant rumbles of thunder as storms are moving through our area this evening but they’re still failing on the pyrotechnic front. Tomorrow’s going to be another day stuck at home as I’ve a load of eBay sales to dispatch, pictures to edit and stuff to sort out for later in the week. It’s the National Rail Awards on Thursday, so it’s time to dust off the Tuxedo…

See you tomorrow!

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Rolling blog. Cambridgeshire departure…

08 Friday Sep 2023

Posted by Paul Bigland in Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, Photography, Rolling blogs, Travel

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Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, Photography, Rolling blogs, Travel

10:45.

Having thoroughly enjoyed our time in Cambridgeshire it’s time to head back to the Pennines. Everyone’s sad to leave as our accomodation has been excellent and really restful. Dawn’s mooted the idea of basing ourselves down here for a week and working from the chalet. Maybe next year as the new section of East-West rail will be passing less than a few hundred meters away!

Colourful Cambs. We passed this field most days. It’s been seeded with a selection of wildflowers to attract insects. Afterwards the plants will be plowed back into the ground to improve the soil.

We’re not rushing back. The plan is to stop en-route with our first port of call being Stamford, Lincolnshire…

22:30.

Yep, I know – another crap ‘rolling’ blog. Sorry about that but we were on busy roads when we weren’t stopped so my primary focus was on being the human interface between the satnav and Dawn driving in order to make things easier for her. Having dropped off John and Norah at their gaffe we’re at home in the Calder valley I can catch up on the day.

We did stop off at Stamford, which was an ideal pitstop. If you’ve never been it’s well worth a visit as it’s a very well preserved town with attractive buildings constructed from the local limestone. John and Norah had never visited before so were suitably impressed, whilst Dawn and I had stayed their in a very swanky hotel as part of a wedding present from an ex-colleague of Dawn’s (thank you Martin Yallop!) who then showed us around the town.

This time we discovered somewhere new and ideal in this warm weather. Having parked near the railways station our wandering took us over the river into the centre of town where I spotted that the Millstone Inn was advertising it’s beer garden. Beer, in a garden of a historic pub? Why not? Then we saw the garden, which we all fell in love with as it’s top notch. Forget a few benches and a couple of plastic tubs of geraniums – this is class!

Just out of shot to the right is a little kiosk selling home-made pizzas.

We finally tore ourselves away and explored further. Friday’s market day and Stamford has one of the most extensive markets I’ve seen for a while, its tendrils spread down several side-streets as well as some of the main pedestrianised area. There’s a decent variety too, it’s not just tat and safety ware. There’s fresh fruit and veg, plants aplenty and some original artworks .

Mind you, Stamford is rather more upmarket than some places (Huddersfield eat your heart out) as many independent shops like this demonstrate.

Then there’s lovely buildings like this. The old Almshouses on Station Rd opposite the George hotel.

We eventually tore ourselves away from Stamford in order to revisit Rutland Water and stop for lunch – having packed supplies before we left. The area’s lovely although the Whitwell leisure park area was a little disappointing compared to our previous stop at Sykes Lane (far nicer). The area was far more commercial which is fine if you want to hire bikes or indulge in some of the other activities on offer – or even take a cruise, but the place had a prevelant smell of poo which we couldn’t work out the source of.

All aboard the ‘Rutland Belle’ for a cruise around the reservoir…

Now we’re home, getting used to being back in the Pennines. Oh, and stairs…

Tomorrow temperatures are still expected to be in the mid-20’s so we’ll see what we get up to. The ‘plan’ is to make the most of the late summer and get out for a walk somewhere. We shall see…

Cambridgeshire day 6…

07 Thursday Sep 2023

Posted by Paul Bigland in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, Photography, Rail Investment, Railways, Travel

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Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, Photography, Railways, Travel

Today’s been the last full day of our break here in Cambridgeshire and it’s co-incided with the hottest day of the year. I’d planned for a day out exploring some of the local rail network to keep up with recent changes and also amass some shots for a client so my day began early and I was so happy it did. Unlike previous mornings where I walked out to a blanket of fog, I was greeted by this sunrise when I walked out onto the verandah at 06:30.

Dawn was up early too in order to give me a lift through to Cambridge North, the nearest railhead to where we’re staying. So, within short order I was out at Ely to capture a series of shots like this.

East Midland Railway’s 170513 is seen with the backdrop of Ely cathedral whilst working 1L04, the 06:42 Sheffield to Norwich.

Having exhausted the photographic possibilities at Ely I headed back to Cambridge and on to Foxton where I’d been hoping to catch one of the spoilt trains moving High Speed 2 tunnel boring waste to the nearby Barrington tip – only the bloody thing was cancelled. I hadn’t visited the station for donkey’s years so it gave me chance to update library shots like this – and get shots of the signalbox.

387107 and 387301 arrive at Foxton whilst working 2C16, the 0927 London Kings Cross to Cambridge.

Fortunately, the signaller was fast at unlocking the wicket gates at the station so I managed to hot-foot it across the tracks to catch this service after taking its picture. Back in Cambdridge well ahead of schedule and with the sun literally cracking the flags I caught a bus out to the site of the new Cambridge South station to get pictures of the work progressing.

Thameslink’s 700029 passes the site of the new Cambridge South station whilst working 9S16, the 0914 Brighton to Cambridge.

Looking the opposite way towards the bridge the previous picture was taken from, here’s how work’s progressing on the new Cambridge South station.

By now it was early afternoon with the temperature hitting the low 30s, so I decided to call it a day, head back into Cambridge and enjoy a cold beer with an old friend from 45 years ago. The Old Waiting Room at the station was an ideal rendezvous before I caught a bus out to St Ives to catch up with the Platt’s and get a lift back to the chalet where relaxing and basking in the sun for an hour was preferable to a hot and sweaty trot around the rail network. Normally, I wouldn’t have let that bother me but as it was our last night we’d booked to go out for a meal at a local pub, so having the chance of a shower and change of clothes beforehand was very much the order of the day. Besides, I’ll be back…

Now the day’s almost over and we’re all chilin’ at the cabin after enjoying a lovely meal at the George and Dragon pub in nearby Elseworth.

Belly pork with sweet potato chips and salad. Delicious, but it doesn’t leave any room for pudding!

Tomorrow we begin the journey back to West Yorkshire, although we’ll be making a couple of stops on the way…

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Cambridgeshire day 5…

06 Wednesday Sep 2023

Posted by Paul Bigland in Architecture, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Photography, Travel

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Architecture, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Photography, Travel

Only a short blog (with several pictures) from me today. We’ had a late start due to recharging yesterdays batteries but also because – despite another day of high temperatures, fog hung around our chalet until quite late this morning.

Once we were on the road we made it over the border into Essex as we visited the old market town of Saffron Walden, South of Cambridge. It’s a lovely little town with some historic buildings, a lovely feel and sights like the fine parish church and the beautifully restored Bridge End garden.

Here’s a few pictures from our trip.

A classic collection of old houses in Castle Street, Saffron Walden.

The walled garden at Bridge End contains varieties of old English apples, identified by these brass tags.

The town’s more than it’s fair share of old timbered buildings like this – although the pub sign has a modern twist on the ‘Cross’ Keys…

We lingered longer than we’d intended but wanted to have a quick look at St Neots (a 45 min drive away) but as it was such a hot say we ended up at this old Mill on the Great Ouse, South of the town

The River Mill, just off the Great North Rd at Eaton Socon, South of St Neots.

I’ll flesh out more details tomorrow if I can. Right now it’s time to call it a day as I’m having a solo adventure tomorrow…

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Cambridgeshire day 4…

05 Tuesday Sep 2023

Posted by Paul Bigland in Aircraft, Cambridgeshire, Duxford, History, Imperial War Museum, Photography

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Aircraft, Cambridgeshire, Duxford, Imperial War Museum, Photography

Today we only had one destination in mind. The Imperial War Museum’s airfield at Duxford. We knew there was so much to see that we gave ourselves an entire day to see it – and we were very glad we did! Even we hadn’t appreciated just how large the aircraft collections are – and it’s not just aircraft either (more about that later).

We’d also decided on an early start as we knew today was going to be a hot-one weatherwise, although you wouldn’t have known that at 07:30 this morning. This was the view from our verandah with early morning mist obscuring the nearby fishing ponds – hardly flying weather – even for Ducks!

Now, unless you have an interest in aircraft and military or social history, Duxford probably isn’t for you. It’s not cheap to get in, and adult ticket (with a donation included) is £29, but when you see what’s preserved there and what goes on in the way of aircraft restoration and maintenance, you realise it’s not an bad price to pay. The museum’s also still an active airfield, so there’s always a series of aircraft taking off and landing with some providing commercial trips. Today this varied from civil light aircraft through to vintage Tiger Moth biplanes and a twin seater Spitfire, PT462. Costs vary considerably, with the Spitfire (understandably) being the most expensive, but if you have a spare few grand in your back pocket…

There was a procession of other aircraft in the air too. Single-seater Spitfires and Hurricanes kept the air full of the sound of Rolls Royce Merlin engines, as did an American P51 ‘Mustang’. The bigger aircraft stayed on the ground today but a PBY ‘Catalina’ flying boat and an American B17 ‘Flying Fortress’ basked in the sun for all to admire. Here’s a few pictures from our visit.

You don’t normally see a German V1 rocket displayed on the original ‘ski ramp’ launcher complete with propellant system. The old hangers and buildings are stuffed with aircraft and other memorabilia from the site’s time as an operational military airfield.

Hurricane Mk1 No V7497 was built in 1940 and is back in the air. You can learn more about the aircraft here.

A Sea Fury under restoration in one of the hangers. They way some of these planes are restored to airworthiness when some are little more than wrecks is truly amazing.

Some of the aircraft aren’t what you’d called tiddlers. Here’s a Handley Page Victor, built as one of the V-bombers that carried the UKs original nuclear deterrent.

In the same hall is one of the two surviving TSR-2 aircraft. The project was cancelled before the planes went into service, sparking lots of debate as to how good they *could* have been to this day.

Fans of the spoof Twitter site ‘RAF Luton’ will know this aircraft well as the English Electric Canberra features all the time. This brought memories for John as he maintained these planes out in Cyprus during his national service.

As well as aircraft there’s a whole building dedicated to land warfare at the far end of the site. This includes tanks and guns from world war 1 onwards, with some of the most recent being the most sobering as they’re fighting in the Ukraine right now. Former Soviet Union BMP1 and BTR80 armoured personnel carriers are used by both sides, whilst 14 of the British Challenger 2 tanks on display with them have been supplied to the Ukrainians (the first one ever to be destroyed in combat was reported today).

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Cambridgeshire day 3…

04 Monday Sep 2023

Posted by Paul Bigland in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, History, Photography, Transport, Travel

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Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, Photography, Travel

The summer we’ve never had arrived with a vengeance today. Here in the middle of nowhere we woke up to clear blue skies and mist over the fishing ponds, which made for quite a sight. Breakfast over we piled into the car to drive to the Madingley Road park and ride site to the West of Cambridge, where we swapped the car for a bus to get us into the centre of town. It’s a great service. Good quality double-decker buses run every 10 minutes and cost £3.50 return. Helping to keep Cambridge traffic and pollution free and be the sort of city I wish more UK towns aspired to, rather being in the thrall of the motoring lobby.

. Once in the centre of town we had a wander to find options for onward travel. I’ve visited Cambridge several times although I’ve not explored the city centre for a while. The Platt’s have never done so. Dawn had hit on a plan of taking her parents on the open-top bus tour, which would allow them to see the sights and save their legs. So, whilst they did that I took the camera for a walk to indulge two of my other loves, architecture and street photography.

I love looking around a place where you come across completely random stuff like this. Ever wonder where the expression ‘Hobson’s Choice’ came from? Wonder no more…

My perambulations took me back to Bridge Street which was familiar territory. I was only when I got there and sat down to watch the world go by that I realised ‘familiar’ was 22 years in the past! The last time I’d been here was when I was living in London and I took my ‘daughter’ here. I should explain. I don’t actually have a daughter but a young lady whom Lynn and I first met in Australia and who came to stay with us in London called us ‘Mum and Dad’ so we reciprocated.

Here’s how Bridge St looked during our visit in 2001. Here’s how it looks today.

I hung around here as I wanted to catch pictures of the way people travel in out and around a city that isn’t choked by cars. Here’s a couple of examples.

Active travel. A carry bike that can be used for numerous things, from children to shopping, business to leisure.

Inactive travel and a form I have issues with. E-scooters. What problem are they actually solving? Even the regulated ones litter the streets. Unregulated ones are even worse as they’re not speed limited (you really don’t want to get hit by either) and from my experience in various countries they’re mostly used by young people for joyriding rather than as an alternative to other transport modes – except walking.

Here’s an inactive mode Cambridge has become synonymous with, but what the hell! It only expends someone’s muscle power and adds a lot of money to the local economy as hiring these punts ain’t cheap!

Tomorrow we’re having a different experience as we’re visiting the Imperial War Museum at Duxford. John (Dawn’s dad) did his National Service in the RAF, so there’s family history as well has national history here.

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Cambridgeshire day 2…

03 Sunday Sep 2023

Posted by Paul Bigland in Cambridgeshire, Musings, Photography, Railways, Travel

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Cambridgeshire, Photography, Railways, Travel

It may be tardy but summer’s finally arrived. We’ve had great weather all day here in Cambridgeshire, although looking at the stressed state of some of the local trees I suspect there’s been a lot less rain here over the summer than we’ve had up in God’s own country.

After a leisurely morning we headed over to Ely, a town I’m very familiar with but one the Platt family had never visited before. On the way in I gave the folks a bit of a run-down on local history, including that of why there’s now a Southern bypass due to the number of HGVs that used to get stuck on the level crossing or jammed under the adjacent low bridge. I’d no idea how useful a lesson it would be until we parked at the station and prepared to walk down to the river. All of a sudden there was a hell of a bang and crunching noise from behind the trees masking the road. I knew what had happened straight away. This…

And the moral of the story is – always know the height of your vehicle…

To add to the drivers distress and embarrassment, there was a weeding party a few meters away who were about to board this vehicle. Needless to say, the wedding guests phone cameras were out capturing pictures of the added entertainment. Nice bus tho’…

Walking into town the Platt’s first stop was Costa coffee, which gave me chance to dash to the tourist office for leaflets, check out a few of the sightseeing opportunities and grab a swift pint before we moved on to the Cathedral. You don’t have to be religious or an architectural buff to appreciate the magnificence of Ely cathedral (although they’d help) as it’s truly a stunning building with a fascinating history.

The family were all impressed and moved by the building and the atmosphere within it. If you ever get chance to visit – do. I doubt you’ll be disappointed.

Having done our spiritual duties we moved onto more temporal concerns by stopping for a drink by the river Great Ouse at the Cutter Inn which has a great selection of food and drink – as well as great views along the river. We managed to bag a table outside which allowed views like this.

Two excellent forms of transport meet at Ely.

Whilst we were relaxing we were rudely interrupted by this critter above us – which we hadn’t even noticed until it started cooing like it was auditioning for a part in a Cuckoo clock!

Good to see those anti pigeon spikes work. Having seen the way this Dove’s defeated static defenses I can only assume it must be Ukrainian…

Now we’re back at home, relaxing and digesting the excellent coq au vin that Dawn had set up in the slow cooker before we left. Tomorrow we head to Cambridge – another first for the Platts…

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Rolling blog. Cambridgeshire day 1…

02 Saturday Sep 2023

Posted by Paul Bigland in Cambridgeshire, Photography, Rolling blogs, Travel

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Cambridgeshire, Photography, Rolling blogs, Travel

09:00.

Good morning from Saxon mound (as this collection of chalets is named). I was up first and had a lovely solo interlude sitting on the balcony overlooking the lakes, sipping coffee whilst watching the Coot, Ducks and Herons on the fishing lakes. Now the house is awake and the rest of the family are indulging in the same sport. Thankfully, I remembered to bring the binoculars this time!

Now it’s time for a leisurely breakfast before heading out to explore. Feel free to pop back and see what we get up to…

19:30. Well that was a crap ‘rolling blog’, wasn’t it? The reality was we were too busy moving around and I was too busy acting as tour guide and Dawn’s navigator to be able to update the blog. So from now on I’ll only do a daily update – bearing in mind I’m in company and meant to be on holiday. I could write volumes about today as we visited some really interesting places, many of which I’ve never seen before. Our first stop was to explore the nearby village where we just had to stop so that I could get a picture of this.

Moving on our first proper stop was at St Ives (no, not the one in Cornwall) which is a lovely little place with shedloads of history, a relaxed feel and some lovely buildings. There’s also a very rare bridge across the river in that it’s only one of four left in the country that contains a chapel as part of its structure.

The bridge across the Ouse at St Ives has a fascinating history. The old chapel in the centre is one of only four left and that’s had an interesting and varied life too…

“You – boy” – the statue of Cromwell in St Ives.

We really enjoyed our visit to St Ives – a place we’ll be popping back to again before we go as it’s only up the road. Our next stop? Maybe not – although Huntingdon was interesting in a different way. The old county town certainly has a lot of history. It was the birthplace of Oliver Cromwell, became a battleground between Royalists and Cavaliers during the English Civil War, and has later political ‘form’ as the constituency of former Conservative Prime Minister John Major. The town centre’s been knocked about a bit since I was last here 30 years ago, but there’s still a lot of old buildings that remain, including a lovely old pub called the Falcon Tavern at the back of the market square. I spotted it so popped in for a pint when I was checking out the sights whilst the rest of the family had gone for their Costa coffee fix. Having seen the Falcon had Hopback ‘Summer Lightning’ on tap and outside seating in the sun I couldn’t resist. As usual, my camera proved a talking point and I soon ended up in conversation with some of the pub regulars who were an interesting and eclectic bunch. Lets put it this way, I don’t think any of them voted for John Major when he was the sitting MP!

Once the combined coffee/beer break was over I took the trio to the Cromwell museum in the square. Its’ only small but a really interesting place as it makes you realise some what you thought you knew about Cromwell (and the Puritans) was Victorian make-believe. The very helpful and informative young lady staffing the single-room museum really added to our visit thanks to her own knowledge and interest in Cromwell. There’s good reasons for the Scots, Welsh and Irish to have an intense dislike of him but the idea that he ‘abolished’ Christmas (that was Parliament, not Cromwell) or that he was intolerant of other faiths and denominations (he wasn’t) are fictions. Oh, the idea the Puritans always wore black is cobblers too. Apparently, black dye was expensive, so they were far more colourful than people think.

Versions of Cromwells death mask on display in the museum.

A single-room museum that fits a lot in. I’d certainly recommend a visit.

Suitably enlightened we headed home to enjoy the rest of the evening rejoicing in the dying rays of the sun before Dawn got her chef’s hat on and cooked the evening meal. Nothing fancy today – we just had fish and chips, but what a great end to the day!

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