Advertisements

Tag Archives: Musings

A relaxing weekend? Sort of…

23 Sunday Sep 2018

Posted by in Germany, I love my job, Musings, Railways, Travel

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

It’s Sunday night and the weekend’s flown by. The good thing is that I’ve had time with my nearest and dearest, the bad thing is – there’s no rest for the wicked! Most of the last couple of days have been spent trying to catch up with picture editing and writing. I’m gradually working my way through editing the hundreds of pictures I took in Germany last week. You can find the Innotrans shots in this gallery whilst the general railway shots are here. Here’s a couple of samples.

DG308400. Rebuilding the lines between Ostbahnhof and Warschauer Strasse stations. Berlin. Germany. 17.9.18cropp

Rebuilding the lines between Ostbahnhof and Warschauer Strasse stations

DG308712. Stadler Flirt for Greater Anglia. Innotrans. Berlin. Germany. 18.9.18crop

One of the new Stadler FLIRT 4-car bi-mode trains for Greater Anglia on display at Innotrans

As well as picture editing I’ve managed to get the first of my three-part trip around the UK rail network for RAIL written and sent off for editing. This next week will see me spending most of my time at home to get part 2 written and also finish editing the hundreds of remaining pictures from Germany sorted out as well as the shots to illustrate RAIL. Time and weather permitting, I might even manage to get out for the day somewhere…

After that it’s off up to Scotland for this years ACoRP awards which are being held in Glasgow. Thanks to Scotrail and Transport Scotland there’s a lot of activities going on around the awards so it promises to be a great time. Watch this space for comments and pictures.

 

Advertisements

Thin gruel…

11 Tuesday Sep 2018

Posted by in Brexit, Musings, Politics

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

There’s not much of a blog tonight folks, just a few observations and musings. I’ve been working from home again, trying to catch up with writing, picture editing and all those household bits and bobs that I need to before I’m back on the road again in a few days time.

I’ve added more than two hundred rail and travel pictures from around the UK to my Zenfolio website – which you can find by following this link to the latest updated galleries. One of my favourites is this moody view of Inchkeith, seen from the footbridge of Kinghorn station, Fife.

DG308136. Inchkeith seen from Kinghorn. Fife. Scotland. 9.9.18

Much as it’s nice having this time at home, I can’t wondering if our cat (Jet) hasn’t taken out a life insurance policy on the pair of us as he’s started to lie here…

JET

Meanwhile, in Alice in Wonderland, the Brexit shambles limps on. The group of fanatical Brexit supporters in Parliament known as the ERG (European Research Group) have launched their report on the ‘benefits’ of Brexit. As expected, it’s batshit crazy and has already been torn apart by real economists and lampooned by others. Here’s my personal favourite – it’s a picture from the launch by Dan Kitwood of Getty Images in a tweet from Otto English.

otto

And on that note – goodnight!

Time to get my breath back – if only for a moment.

10 Monday Sep 2018

Posted by in Musings, Railways, Scotland, Travel

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

Phew! After 8 days continuous travel around the UK by train it felt rather odd to be sleeping in our own bed and not having to head off anywhere this morning. Instead, the furthest I’ve had to travel has been from the bedroom to the kitchen and then my office at the back of the house. I’ve spent the day writing the first of the trilogy from my trip, plus editing the pictures and catching up on all the bits of life I couldn’t whilst out on the rails. It’s also great to be eating home-cooked food again, rather than living off sandwiches and supermarket meals.

I’ll be trying to get back to blogging again ASAP. It’s not that I’ve nothing to talk about or pictures to show – anything but as yesterday was a fascinating trip down the Fife coast after leaving Perth. Here’s a couple of shots to whet your appetites.

DG308087crop

Harvest time in the kingdom of Fife.

DG308090crop

Crossing the River Tay on the railway bridge

DG308125crop

A lovely poem on display at Kirkcaldy railway station

DG308145crop

The original Burntisland railway station. Opened in 1847 it was the site of the worlds first train ferry until it was made redundant by the opening of the Forth Rail bridge in 1890. Derelict for many years, it now houses artist studios and community groups. 

The difficulty (as always) is time. I’ve got the next two days at home, then Dawn and I are off to the National Rail Awards in London as VIP guests. After working there since 2003 as the event photographer, that’s going to feel very different. On Friday we’ll return home for some time with friends back in Halifax, but I’ll be on the road again later on Saturday as I’m off to Innotrans, the massive rail trade show in Germany from Sunday – Friday. Expect a few blogs from there!

In the meantime, I’ll be finishing my RAIL articles, doing my best to add all the recent pictures to my Zenfolio website – and also have some down time – somewhere (somehow).

Casual in Carlisle…

07 Friday Sep 2018

Posted by in Musings, Travel

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

,

Casual because I’m relaxing in my hotel room and away from the mayhem that tends to be a feature of Friday and Saturday nights here. Carlisle is one of those places that relies on everyone from the surrounding villages and towns to descend upon its pubs and bars in search of a good time. It’s not unique, I could list a whole host of such places that I’ve passed through over the years. Chances are every village for miles will be having a night off from its resident idiot as they’ll all be drawn here like moths to a flame.

I know Carlisle of old. I’ve often stayed here for work – such as the round Britain trip I’m doing now for RAIL magazine. In fact I’m back in the same IBIS hotel on Botchergate I’ve stayed in several time before. Botchergate is the main street when you come out of the station and swing Right. It has so many pubs the street’s actually blocked off to traffic at weekend evenings. My hotel room overlooks it.

I’ve travelled up here from Cardiff where I stayed last night. In some ways Cardiff’s not that different to Carlisle, it’s just bigger and the village idiots have a different accent. Oh, and it has an international stadium! Last night Ninian Park hosted a match between Ireland and Wales. To be fair, the supporters (in my experience of them anyway) were pretty good natured – although the town centre was a mess. Here’s a picture of one of the main streets before the match.

Towns like Carlisle have always had their fair share of pubs you wouldn’t want to walk into because of the people who frequent them. If you did it was a bit like walking into a wild-west saloon as everybody turned to look. Now you don’t have to as the smoking ban of 2006 means most of the real miscreants will be stood outside having a fag or vaping so you can gauge a pub without having to set foot over the threshold!

A traditionally British August bank holiday!

27 Monday Aug 2018

Posted by in Bank holidays, Food and drink, Musings, West Yorkshire

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

So (naturally), it’s chucking it down! I feel sorry for anyone who’s organised an outdoor event this weekend. After the fabulous summer we’ve had they must have been thinking – ‘well if this keeps up’…Sadly, it hasn’t – certainly here in the Calder Valley anyway. Today’s our second where the rain has been almost continuous. Not the heavy showers that pass and you can avoid if you’re lucky, it’s that light drizzle that manages to penetrate waterproofs and blow under umbrellas. Here’s the view from our bedroom window right now.

DG305918crop

Dawn, my wife, isn’t too unhappy about the turn of events as her plan for today was to be a domestic Goddess and spend much of it batch cooking to stock up the freezer. The project started yesterday with these two fabulous dishes. The first is Karniyarki -Turkish stuffed aubergine, served with salad and a yoghurt sauce.

aubergine

The second is traditionally English – Bakewell tart!

Bakewell

Of course, there’s another  reason Dawn’s not too upset about the weather. It means I’ve no excuse to duck work on finishing off refurbishing our bathroom, so that’s where I’m heading now…

Saturday slow-down

04 Saturday Aug 2018

Posted by in Huddersfield, Musings

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

,

Today’s been a rail-free day. Well, free from actual trains anyway as the morning was taken up with editing many of the pictures I’d taken in Liverpool yesterday. I managed to get most of them on my Zenfolio website before Dawn and I were due in Huddersfield. As her brother’s up from Surrey with his son we’d arranged to all go to a bowling alley together with John and Norah, their parents, to make three generations of the Platt family (and me). I’ve not bowled for years – and that was a one off! The last time must have been 12-15 years ago at Finsbury Park in North London when I lived nearby.

Today I managed a reasonable score of 93. I still got beaten by Darren (Dawn’s brother) but all six of us had a thoroughly enjoyable hour. The alley was almost empty when we arrived and packed when we left. What I found interesting was how diverse it was. A group of young Sikh lads were playing in the next lane whilst next to them was a large Muslim family. To our left was a big English family. Ten Pin bowling seems to appeal to all regardless of age or community.

Now I’ve time to sun myself in the family garden and catch up on social media whilst Dawn makes (by popular request) one of her excellent cheesecakes. Darren and I are sloping off to meet some of his friends for a curry in Slaithwaite tonight. Despite having lived in Yorkshire these past 8 years it still amuses me the way no-one can agree how to pronounce the village’s name. Is it Slaithwaite or ‘Slawit’? It depends on who you talk to.

Expect some pictures to be added later. I took the camera bowling, just not my laptop…

Rolling blog: Another day on the rails…

18 Friday May 2018

Posted by in London, Musings, Railways, Rolling blogs, Travel

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

09:00

After a night at home I’m heading back to London this morning as I have a job to do early tomorrow that’s not entirely unconnected with a wedding taking place near London. Meanwhile, it’s a bright sunny day and ideal for travelling, so expect a few observations and pictures from my wanderings today. Here’s the first, taken on my walk to the station from a winding cobbled road under the Wainhouse tower. I love this view!

That’s Sowerby Bridge down there. I’m always amazed how green it looks now the trees are in leaf because if you looked at the same view just 50 years ago it would have been denuded of the vast majority of the woodland. This would have been an industrial, not a pastoral view.

10.27

I’m now in Halifax, waiting for the London train after popping into the town’s Borough market to buy breakfast. It’s a lovely Victorian building which has this clock as its centrepiece.

Despite not being as busy as it once was it still has a delightful variety of stalls selling all manner of things.

14.15. I’m now in London after an easy trip down the East Coast with Grand Central. Sadly, it was on one of the class 180s they’ve recently acquired from GWR, not one of their newly refurbished sets which I had the pleasure of travelling in on Wednesday. Here’s how the new Standard Class seats look in 180104;

DG295999

Here’s looking through a refurbished Standard Class saloon.

DG296011

A table bay of four showing off the new seat trim and moquette. I rather like the way the exterior orange stripe has been replicated on the inside.

15:00

After taking a short break to organise a new commission on Monday (which involves another overnight in London or Brighton) i’m on the move again, passing through the perpetually busy Liverpool St station.

Xx

Huddersfield hiatus

09 Wednesday May 2018

Posted by in Huddersfield, Musings, Railways

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

I’m working from my satellite office in Huddersfield (aka the ACoRP watertower) today as we’ve a funeral to attend this afternoon. Sadly, Dawn’s Uncle, Ronnie has passed away. On the bright side, he lived to the ripe old age of 93 so he had a good innings.

Today’s another Northern rail strike day so the station’s far quieter than normal. The place is littered with Pacers going nowhere. I can’t help feeling these strikes are futile, all they’re doing is losing the railway revenue and goodwill. Passengers are caught between a rock and a hard place with the intransigence of the RMT union and the determination of the DfT. One wants change, the other opposes it. But change is inevitable, it will come whether the union likes it or not – as railway history teaches us. Whether it was arguments about ‘secondmen’ in the past, or new fleets like the ‘Bedpan’ Class 317s being ‘blacked’ over DOO.

Talking of change, I’ve spotted these new PIS screens at the station which have only recently been installed.

They’re far more informative and much easier to see than the old ones. I hope they’re more accurate as well as previous ones weren’t ‘real time’ which meant the delay times were always all over the place as trains often seemed to move backwards and forwards at the speed of light.

This time of day you’d normally expect the stabling sidings to be devoid of Northern stock. Here’s what it’s like now.

 

Pennine weather watch (No 435)

25 Wednesday Apr 2018

Posted by in Musings, Weather, West Yorkshire

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

I love living in the Pennines. I love the Pennine weather less. Whilst my former home in the South can be basking in sunshine and enjoying temperatures that would put the South of France to shame we can be wrapped up in waterproofs! It’s fair to say that the Calder Valley has its own microclimate. Whilst it can be raining in the valley next door we can be basking in sunshine, although it sometimes feels it’s more likely to be the other way round! I’ve come to appreciate the wisdom of Wainwright’s old saying, “There’s no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing.” You just have to be prepared for anything up here.

The last few days are a good example of the changing fortunes. Last Saturday Dawn and I were out walking up to nearby Norland Moor in almost perfect weather, glorious sunshine, hardly any breeze and temperatures that made you think it was summer not spring. Footpaths that were a quagmire only a few days before had dried out, making ideal walking conditions…

 

20180421_173059

Dawn on a footpath high above Sowerby Bridge, which can be seen in the valley below.

Even the sunset played ball!

20180419_195625

Sunset seen from underneath the Wainhouse Tower, back on ‘our’ side of the Calder Valley from Norland

It wasn’t to last, the arrival of a new week heralded the return of the rain, which is rather unfortunate as it’s incompatible with doing what I need to – using electrical power tools outside!  So, today I’m playing hide and seek with this little lot, rain showers sweeping in from the South-East along the valley from Ripponden – as seen from our bedroom window.

DG294658

Right, time to get tile cutting…

Bits and pieces

18 Wednesday Apr 2018

Posted by in Brexit, Musings, Politics

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

The title of this blog sums up my day. It’s been a real mixture that’s not always gone to plan. I’d originally intended to spend most of it finishing off work on our bathroom which  is a project that’s dragged on for months – much to the wife’s chagrin! To ensure marital harmony I’d set aside a few days to move the project on but fell foul of the Harold Macmillan doctrine (“events, dear boy, events”) to get interrupted by a work issue. I won’t name the party concerned, but it seems a former client was still using pictures that the licence for expired years ago. To their credit the new member of staff who’d taken over got in touch with me as soon as this was pointed out and we’ve got things sorted out, but I ended up trawling through old electronic databases looking for paperwork dating from 2005. The obvious moral of the story is – be good at filing!

Dusting off the archives meant that the bathroom took a backseat. Thankfully, Dawn understood so a divorce was averted!

The frustrating thing is that spring has (finally) sprung and we’ve had temperatures up in the high teens today so my shutter finger’s getting itchy – especially as the forecast is looking great for the next few days. I may need to renegotiate the T&C’s over the bathroom…

Another frustration’s been listening to news of the UK’s never ending political fcukwittery. I can honestly say I can’t remember a worse time than this since the early 1970s. Not only are both major parties embroiled in their own particular shambles – Teresa May with the Windrush backlash and Corbyn with anti-Semitism, both have right royally screwed us over in the Brexit shambles. My only hope is that a huge number of people register their displeasure in the local elections next month and send a clear message to both Labour and Tories that we’re not prepared to jump off the Brexit cliff with them – or for them. Otherwise, I can see a reverse Windrush happening as people abandon a country in (self-imposed) isolation and decline.