Tag Archives: Musings

16th May picture of the day…

16 Sunday May 2021

Posted by in Indonesia, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Travel

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There’s no long blog from me today. It’s Sunday and I’ve been busy having quality time with Dawn. The ‘orrible weather we’ve been having these past few days finally broke so the pair of us decided to ditch the plans we’d had for working at home and went out for a long walk along the Rochdale Canal towards Luddenden instead. We had a lovely stroll watching life returning to the trees as well as the canal. There’s an explosion of greenery right now as the woodland wakes up for summer. That said – it’s not all green – the woods along the canal and by our home are carpeted in bluebells! The wildlife is making the most of it too with ducklings busy making frantic zig-zagging convoys on the canal, accompanied by their (sometimes indifferent) parents. Boaters have also returned. We passed several narrowboats making their way to Sowerby Bridge although the town itself was surprisingly quiet as several pubs with outdoor seating remained closed – on a Sunday, normally one of the busiest days of the week. Maybe they’re busy getting ready for the relaxation of the rules on Monday? Who knows…

All in all, it was a lovely interlude. Now we’re back at home. Dawn’s busy cooking a curry for tonight and the smells coming from the kitchen are wonderful. I’ve been occupied mounting a load more slides to be scanned later in the week and getting ready for another foray to the South tomorrow. The new national rail timetable started today but tomorrow is the first weekday. Many trains that were knocked out of the timetable due to Covid have been reinstated as passenger numbers are growing again. Plus, there’s some new services too. East Midlands Railway have started their new electric train service from London – Corby today, so I’m going to sample it tomorrow. This means another early start as I have other things to check out as well. I’m expecting a long and busy day. I’ll be running a rolling blog as I see how services are faring and what day brings.

In the meantime, here’s todays picture. During my travels over the decades I’ve come across many strange sights and incongruous stuff that makes you do a double-take, think ‘what the f**k?’ – or just burst out laughing. Here’s one such sight. My last picture was from the amazing Mentawai islands and their incredible inhabitants who lived a life so removed from modern society and the present day. On our return to the modern world we were travelling downriver in canoes to get to the sea, ready to catch a ship back to Sumatra when I spotted this – a TV aerial atop a palm tree in the jungle! God knows how they were generating the power to run a television back in 1992 – or how they managed to get the thing up there! Mind you, I also wonder what the picture must be like when the tree sways in a high wind!

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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/

Thank you!

15th May picture of the day…

15 Saturday May 2021

Posted by in Indonesia, Musings, Picture of the day, West Yorkshire

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Is this really May because you could have fooled me. The weather’s been bloody awful. On Thursday I was freezing my tits off in London whilst dodging the rain. Since I’ve been back in West Yorkshire we’ve seen nothing but rain, OK, the mercury has risen a smidgeon, but seriously? The pair of us would have loved to have gone for a long walk today but with visibility down to a few hundred metres and the rain being constant you feel severely disinclined to venture out and concentrate on other things instead – which is what we’ve done after enjoying a lazy morning. There’s one bright spot. Last Saturday I spent an abortive night waiting for a Pacer train to be unloaded by crane in Huddersfield. There’d been a possibility it would be re-arranged for tonight but that’s not happening, so I’m not in for another soaking and long walk home as the jobs been postponed until June. Instead I’ll be able to have a lovely evening with Dawn and a sensible start tomorrow in order to crack on with some projects at home ready for a new week ahead.

My recent flurry of slide scanning has resulted in over 120 new pictures appearing in my 1991-92 travel gallery. The series has now moved on from Sumatra to Bali which is a little frustrating because it makes me realise what I’m missing – which is about a month’s worth of pictures. Let me explain…

When I returned to London from my trip at the end of 1992 I had 1000s of slides which were unmounted. I’d had many films developed as I’d travelled and posted the pictures back to the UK. Partly because it wasn’t worth the risk of carrying them with me and the possibility of them being stolen but also because of the amount of space they’d have taken in my rucsac. Sadly, some of them got damaged in transit and I’d kept them between sheets of paper in my flat in London which seemed like a great idea at the time – until (inadvertently) I threw the paper away, not realising what it contained. The frustrating thing now – 30 years later – is that I’m starting to remember some of those pictures, and there were some beautiful and unique shots amongst them. But, c’est la vie and all that…

I may have lost some images, but some of the ones I didn’t are still special. The memories they evoke will always stay with me, like the one that I’ve chosen as picture of the day…

I took this shot of a Indian tribal healer ready to go hunting on the island of Siberut in the Mentawai Islands on the 18th June 1992.

How I ended up here and what happened whilst I was is a long, long story that deserves a full blog of its own to do the trip justice. Whilst I’d been in Sumatra I’d heard from some of the more adventurous travellers about the chance to go jungle trekking on Siberut, one of the Mentawai islands off the West coast of Sumatra. I’d also heard about the importance of getting the right guide (one who spoke the local language) as you would end up relying on the hospitality of people like this as it would be their homes you’d be staying in. It really was the most amazing experience but I was lucky. Not only did we have an excellent guide (Joni) and team of helpers, the group I went with jelled very well. We were a mix of Brits, Aussies and Scandinavians from a range of ages but that was no problem. OK, in a longer blog I’ll explain why someone was nicknamed ‘Rambo’ and another the ‘Wingeing Pom’ (not me I hasten to add!). Groups dynamics can make or break experiences like this and they’re often the luck of the draw as you never know who you’ll be trekking with and as a solo traveller that’s really important. I once went camel trekking in India with a small (but mixed) group and had a fantastic experience. When I got back I met a lovely young German girl who’d gone on a similar trip where she found herself alone with five Israeli’s. You can perhaps guess how that went. Anyway, for now I’ll leave you with this image. There’s plenty more in the gallery I mentioned earlier. Please feel free to take a look.

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Thank you!

11th May picture of the day…

11 Tuesday May 2021

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

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Today’s been another day of mixed fortunes working from home. I can’t really complain as it’s been rather productive. I’ve no commercial writing to do this week so I can concentrate on pictures and rebooting scanning my old slides. A few weeks ago I managed to buy 4 packs of ‘Gepe’ glass slide mounts on eBay. I’ve been using the same 40 old mounts for nearly 15 years now and they’re showing their age. The plastic starts to split after hundreds of times of being remounted, so many of them are ‘cream crackered’ (Cockney rhyming slang for knackered = broken). Now with another 80 in the arsenal I can mount 60-80 slides at a time which speeds up the scanning process. OK, it’s still a tedious thing to have to do but there’s certainly light at the end of the tunnel now as I can see the physical pile of albums dwindle. Hallelujah!

Aside from scanning and answering emails Dawn and I did manage to get out for an afternoon constitutional – and avoid getting soaked. For the past couple of days we’ve experienced thunderstorms and some very moody skies. They’ve been wonderful to watch but you really don’t want to get caught outside when the heavens open. Thankfully, because we live high up on the valley side there’s normally plenty of warning as you can see the rain approaching which can make for some very dramatic sights. One of those sights is today’s picture of the day – just to give you all a break from exotic travel images (oh, and have I got some great ones in store)…

Here’s the view from our bedroom window earlier today as the latest in a line of thunderstorms darkened our door – and the valley…

One of the wonderful things about living here in the Pennines is the skies. They’re constantly changing to provide amazing backdrops to the green hills of the Calder Valley. I’ll never get bored of trying to capture their variety and moods…

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Thank you!

9th May picture of the day…

09 Sunday May 2021

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After last nights failure to deliver a Pacer I got home around 3am this morning which meant today was initially a slow one whilst I caught up on some sleep. The plan was was to potter around at home anyway, so the indifferent weather forecast didn’t make any difference. It’s not as if I had to go out and get any exercise as I’d walked the 7.5 miles back from Huddersfield so I was quids in on that front!

Instead the days been taken up with a mixture of gardening and household chores to try and catch up with stuff that I’ve been promising to do for ages. The rain held off long enough for me to get several hours in the garden without getting drenched which allowed me to dispose of a lot of the remains of a Russian Vine that had been invading us from a patch of no-man’s land above the house. God, I hate that stuff! We haven’t been able to kill at its source (yet) but we’ve hacked it back so much that it’s not going to bother us again for a while. By the time the rain arrived I’d moved indoors to catch up on some internal DIY and cleaning, so the day’s not been a complete waste of time. Now, in the evening I’m trying to catch up on some work and old slide scanning as I’ve exhausted the backlog of pictures awaiting editing so I need to get some more in the bank. I added over 100 old travel images from my solo trip through Asia in 1992 to this gallery on Saturday. There’s a large selection of stuff from Sumatra to enjoy and one of them is the picture of the day….

I took this shot in the market at Bukittinggi in West Sumatra on the 3rd June 1992. I love Asian markets as they’re fascinating places to explore and to indulge in people watching. There’s always something to new to discover, whether that’s a variety of fruit or veg I’ve never soon before, bizarre kitchen utensils, or ornamental ironwork for homes and gardens. The market here had the lot! In this case what caught my eye was some of the market porters who made their living moving goods round the market for a few rupiah a barrow-load.

Apart from the battered leather jacket and traditional hat, notice the man’s barefoot? If you look through the other shots in this series you’ll see him pushing his barrow through floodwater at the market after a heavy storm. This is no easy gig. In the background are ‘Dokars’ – horse-drawn taxis who’re waiting for trade, hoping to take shoppers and their purchases home. I made a couple of visits to the market whilst I was staying in the town before heading off to lake Maninjau. It remains one of my favourite towns ion the island but then I rather fell in love with West Sumatra. It has some of the most fantastic scenery, the people are a delight and the local food is superb. ‘Padang food’ as it’s known is famous throughout Indonesia, just look for ‘Masakan Padang’….

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Thank you!

3rd May picture of the day…

03 Monday May 2021

Posted by in Indonesia, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Travel

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I’m so happy we took note of the weather forecast and went out walking yesterday as today we’ve had traditional bank holiday weather – absolute crap! When I first gazed out of the bedroom window this morning I thought “well, it’s not brilliant, but at least there’s no rain”. Little did I know what was in store for the afternoon…

As we’d nothing exciting planned and Dee was feeling the effect of so much walking uphill we decided to have a lazy start to the day. Well, it was a bank holiday after all and we’d certainly put effort into yesterday! Several cups of coffee later we both decided that – actually – a day at home wasn’t really a bad thing. Then the rain arrived…

One of the beauties of where we live is that we have a commanding view across the Calder Valley and the direction that most of the weather arrives from, so we can literally see it coming. Today was a case in point as the skies got darker and more ominous, making it clear what we were about to experience. Depending on the speed of the wind we can normally expect to see the rain sweeping in about 10 minutes before it hits us and today was no exception so it was a case of batten down the hatches, make another coffee and get on with other things. In my case this was sifting and editing pictures for my next article in RAIL magazine then spending time Photoshopping another load of old slides from my 1991-92 travels that have been added to this gallery. So, not entirely a wasted day and listening to the rain beat against the windows was actually rather therapeutic.

Having felt virtuous because I’d achieved so much I decided to venture out for some shopping and get some exercise despite the weather. OK, I’d have to don full walking waterproofs, but what the hell, I was only going to the supermarket, not the North Pole. It seemed like a great idea at the time until I started walking back and the high winds arrived which turned the rain almost horizontal! It was at that point I realised that perhaps my waterproofs need a little TLC as they were were more water than proof! Despite my rainwater revelation I rather enjoyed being out in the eye of the storm. I don’t quite know what it is but there’s something about being out in the elements when you feel the full force of nature. Perhaps it’s the fact it puts you into perspective – puny humans with their momentary lifespan against the elements that are timeless and ageless.

The theme of the elements brings me on to the picture of the day which is another of my latest batch of old slide scans. I took this at Lake Maninjau in West Sumatra, Indonesia during the first week of June 1992.

In some ways Maninjau reminds me of where I live now although the landscape couldn’t be more different. Maninjau is a lake in the caldera of a massive extinct volcano. But, the lake is so wide and where I was staying faced the prevailing weather you could watch storms approach in the same fashion that I can now. The little ‘homestay’ I shared with several other travellers was right on the lake. We has access to canoes and rubber rings (old wagon inner-tubes) so we’d spend many a happy hour floating or swimming in the temperate waters of the lake. In the evening we’d sit there with a few beers, chatting and watching the sun set, which sometimes produced scenes like this.

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West Yorkshire wanderings…

02 Sunday May 2021

Posted by in Musings, Photography, Travel, West Yorkshire

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The bank holiday weather’s been mixed to say the least but today was meant to be the best of an indifferent bunch so Dawn and I chose it to get out and go walking. We’d originally considered driving over to Derbyshire but then I suggested exploring somewhere more local – the hills above Todmorden. We’ve often hiked around the town but that’s either because the pair of us have walked up to Stoodley Pike (a favorite walk with fantastic if windswept views) or I’ve been up in the hills around Walsden as it’s an excellent location for railway pictures. Today we tried somewhere different. After parking the car on the edge of the town we headed up some steep paths through an area called Hole Bottom (no, really!) towards Todmorden golf club which gave some wonderful views across the town. We also passed some really interesting and curious properties. I love this old mill towns as they contain some fascinating buildings tucked in backstreets or on the edge of town. Many have seen several incarnations in their lifetime so often have original features like doors or windows bricked in. Trying to work out what they might have been is always fun. Here’s a classic example.

Further up the hill on the edge of the golf course we discovered this view. I’ve often tried for this shot from the other side of town without the same degree of success so I’m pleased to have found this place – even if you’d be shooting directly into the light on a sunny day.

Here a train from Blackburn to Southport traverses the viaduct which bisects the town centre before it arrives at the station just to the right of the viaduct. The imposing building behind the train is the neo-classical Town Hall. Designed by architect John Gibson it’s a grade 1 listed building that originally opened in 1875. Beyond the town hall is the Gothic splendor of the Unitarian church (The Unitarian movement originated in Todmorden in the early 19th century). Another grade 1 listed building designed by Gibson it was constructed between 1865-69. Both buildings were paid for by the wealthy Fielden family who were local mill owners, reformists and philanthropists.

By the golf course we joined the Calderdale Way footpath and headed west along the edge of the valley for several miles. This gave us some stunning views – even if we did end up stopping to eat our sandwiches in one of the rain and hailstorms that passed our way! You can see what the weather was like from this wider picture.

What’s very different about this side of the valley are the number of rocky outcrops and strange formations that dot the skyline. Places with names like Whirleaw, Stannalley or Golden stones – or the one we walked to – Orchan Rocks high above Lydgate.

From the rocks we continued on for another mile or so along the valley edge as far as Cross Hill before heading back to the valley floor. The first part was easy as we followed the road but then we cut across country along various footpaths to a place called Shore before descending an incredibly steep and narrow path through the dense woodland along Wittonstall Clough. I’m glad we’d not made the mistake of trying to climb this way as it’s band enough on the way down!

Reaching the main road at Cornholme we decided discretion was the better part of valour and walked back along the main road to Todmorden, although if we’d had time it would have been very tempting to scale the opposite side of the valley. Instead we decided to leave that for another day.

Now we’re back at home and relaxing. Dawn’s making one of our favorite weekend treats – spicy prawns and garlic bread. After that it’s time to settle down in front of the TV to join a large chunk of the country to watch the final episode of ‘Line of Duty’ – what a perfect end to a great day…

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Thank you!

1st May picture of the day…

01 Saturday May 2021

Posted by in London, Musings, Photography, Photojournalism, Picture of the day

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The pair of us have had a productive if hardly exciting sort of day – unless you count the opportunity to tour garden centres again! Maybe it’s one of those signs of ageing, a bit like realising how much you enjoy watching the ‘Antiques Roadshow’ on the telly! As someone who’s been a keen gardener for nearly 30 years I make no apologies for such a pastime – even if my present patch of land is a lot smaller than I was used to. Even so, there’s plenty of opportunity to be creative as the massive stone walls that make up the terraces at the back of our cottage do lend themselves to some imaginative opportunities. Sadly, there’s not a great selection in our local garden centres. Maybe I was spoiled with living in London for 25 years, you could find almost anything you wanted within just a few miles and a trip to the Columbia Rd flower market in the East End was a must when you needed annuals. One centre we visited was just getting a delivery from Holland. A large HGV was taking up a chunk of the car park as pallets of plants were unloaded. I hate to think how much extra the Brexitshambles is costing them in both time and money. What was once a seamless operation is now mired in bureaucracy thanks to us throwing up rather than taking down barriers to trade. Despite the deliveries I’ve noticed that it’s really difficult to find the variety of ferns that I used to be able to buy in London. Maybe they’re not as popular up here? The back of the house is sheltered and in perpetual shadow, so it would ideal for displaying ferns – if only I could find the ones I want. Still, first world problems eh? At least I managed to restock our herb garden and replace some plants we lost due to the harsh winter.

Back at home I had a happy couple of hours replacing knackered hanging baskets, repotting and replanting and generally tidying up the garden – even tho’ the weather’s hardly spring-like as the temperature rarely makes it into double figures at the moment. As soon as the sun gets trapped behind clouds the temperature plummets. Frost is still a concern so I’m being careful what I plant out right now. How different to this time last year when we had such balmy days!

All this talk of gardening has chosen the picture of the day for me because it fits the theme. I scanned this one recently, although it was taken on the 12th March 1994 at Columbia Rd flower market.

Lynn and I were still living in London’s East End at the time and a trip to Columbia Rd was a regular occurrence for myself and some of my neighbours in the Housing Co-op where I lived. Decorating the communal balconies of our flats with plants was a great way of adding a splash of colour. Not everyone who joined us was green-fingered, it was just a great morning out as there were plenty of cafes offering coffee and cake and the opportunities for people-watching – hence this image which was a ‘grab-shot’ through the crowds.

Sadly, this sort of street photography has become harder for all sorts of reasons – especially to do with privacy laws. We’re in danger of losing the ability to document everyday life in the way the old masters of documentary photography never had to worry about – but that’s another blog entirely…

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Thank you!

30th April picture of the day…

30 Friday Apr 2021

Posted by in Malaysia, Musings, Picture of the day

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Wait? What? It’s the end of April already – where’s the year gone whilst we’ve all been sat on our backsides at home? I thought time was meant to drag during lockdown but the opposite seems to be the case. Either that or someone’s been sneakily stealing days off my calendar whilst I’ve not been looking. As we’re now allowed out will someone please give me some of those days back so that I can savour them in the style in which they should be enjoyed? Joking apart, the year does seem to be flying by but for the life of me I can’t work out why unless it’s the ‘Groundhog Day’ effect. I wouldn’t mind but I’ve got so much that I want to do this year I really don’t want to run out of time.

Today’s been a good day – apart from the weather which has been cold with momentary flurries of rain and hail. Mind you according to Facebook’s memory prompt a few years ago we were covered in snow at this time – so I shouldn’t really complain. I certainly had a valid excuse to hole up at home ‘type-swiping’ to get an article written and a few more archive pictures added to my Zenfolio website which makes it rather a productive day.

Those old slides supply me with the picture for today. My 1991-92 solo odyssey has moved on from Thailand (yesterdays picture) to Malaysia where I discovered what – 30 years later – is still what I regards as a ‘happy place’. I’m sure many of us have them. They’re somewhere you’ve discovered where you feel perfectly at ease and at home for a whole host of reasons. Georgetown in Penang island, Malaysia is one of mine. I’ve been going back there every few years ever since. The first time I arrived I fell in love with it and that feeling remains despite the fact it’s changed a lot since those early days. What hasn’t changed is the mix of cultures (Malay, Chinese and Indian) the fantastic food, the fascinating architecture or the laid back atmosphere. Like many backpackers I ended up staying on Lebuh Chulia. In may case it was at an old Chinese hotel called the Eng Aun. It’s still there today but it’s gone much more upmarket from when I took this picture on the 1st May 1992.

Hotels like this had a central hall with reception on the ground floor behind which was a central staircase to the first floor. Each floor had rooms off to each side. The thing I remember about the Aun was the smell. It had a really weird one and I never worked out what it was. It wasn’t Durian (the stinky SE Asian fruit banned from most public transport) but it did smell like something had died beneath the floorboards! After a couple of days you got used to it, but I’ll never forget it! I passed through a couple of times on that trip and met some great people staying there. Nowadays I stay just around the corner in a place I first discovered in 1997, but I’ll never forget this place as my first introduction to Malaysia after a long trip overland from Thailand.

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Thank you!

29th April picture of the day…

29 Thursday Apr 2021

Posted by in Musings, Picture of the day, Thailand

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I’ve not had time to post one of these for a while as I was away all of last week, concentrating on getting new pictures whilst enjoying the freedoms granted due to the easement of lockdown. As this coincided with some wonderful weather I was kept pretty busy. I’ve been back in Yorkshire since Sunday trying to catch up with all sorts of stuff that took a backseat as I was on my travels.

Being back in the office and stuck in front a screen made me appreciate having had the chance to get away. I’ve done so little travelling this past year but I count myself lucky as I’ve done more than many but right now it’s time to knuckle down and get some writing done. I’ve an article to prepare for RAIL magazine but once that’s done I’m looking forward to getting out and about again. On the 17th March hotels and B&Bs reopen in England, so I’ve been busy preparing a ‘cunning plan’ that involves cycling around some of the High Speed 2 railway construction sites in the Chilterns. The project is really ramping up so I’m keen to be able to document the work at this early stage in the same way I did with High Speed 1 from London to the Channel tunnel. Plus, being on the bike will give me a bit of exercise. OK, it’s not as exotic as cycling around India for charity, but at least I’m not expected to do 75 miles a day!

Of course I’m still trying to get through scanning my old slide archive but that’s going to be taking more of a back seat now the weather’s improving. Plus, Dawn and I have plans to get out and about too. Now I’m concentrating on ‘banking’ the scans (which I can only do at home) so that I can edit them at my leisure from wherever I am. I’ve already added another 60 plus to this gallery of my 1991-92 travel odyssey in the past few days – which brings me on to the picture of the day. I took this picture of the beautiful Thai island of Ko Phi Phi on the 20th April 1992.

The island is essentially two massive outcrops of karst rock linked by a narrow, low-lying sandbar, which is where the majority of the islands accommodation could be found. As you can see from the colour of the sea, the right hand beach is shallower whilst the left hand is deep enough for yachts, long-tailed boats and ferries from Krabi on the mainland. I spent an idyllic few days here exploring the island (this picture was taken from the viewpoint, a hot sweaty climb from the beach) and snorkelling in some of the fabulous bays around the coast.

A few years later the island were made famous as the setting for the film ‘The Beach’ which was based on the Alex Garland book. This sparked controversy due to allegations that the film crew caused a lot of damage to one of the beaches, but far worse was to come. On Boxing Day 2004 the Tsunami that devastated parts of SE Asia hit the island, killing over 1000 people. There but for the grace of God…

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Thank you!

Back to blogging…

21 Wednesday Apr 2021

Posted by in Liverpool, Merseyside, Musings

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Humble apologies for the lack of blogging recently but I’ve been taking advantage of the country slooowwlllyy opening up to get some work done away from the confines of the Calder Valley. Much as a I love the Pennines and home it’s so refreshing to be able to get out and about again, visit places old and new – and start to see what’s being happening whilst we’ve all been constrained.

In order to do that I’ve been popping over to Merseyside most days (bar today) in order to experience life in the big city and see what’s been happening with the rail network whilst we’ve all been doing our Rip Van Winkle impressions. I’ll blog about some of my experiences in greater detail when I have the time as my wanderings have given me a huge amount of material – and pictures. The pictures are slowly starting to appear on my Zenfolio website in the ‘recent’ section but there’s a few tasters in this blog.

I’d hoped to have been able to capture shots of the new Stadler built trains that will be taking over Merseyrail services from two of the oldest train fleets in the UK – the BR built Class 507/508 fleets. There’s a blog looking back over their lives and times here.

Sadly, the only 777s I could find on the network were a handful confined to barracks at Kirkdale, as you can see here.

Four of the new Stadler built Class 777s grounded at Kirkdale.

Also at Kirkdale was one of the older Class 508 units which had had an ‘interesting’ time at Kirkby when it tried to make its way to Wigan, despite the lack of track, electrification or that there was a chunk of platform in the way. In my day a ‘Kirkby kiss’ was a metaphor for a head-butt. Here’s the Merseyrail unit that tried to recreate the old tradition with a nice little board in front of it explaining what it failed to do…

– and failing at 42mph too…

My wanderings took me over the river to Birkenhead and the Wirral exploring some areas that I hadn’t visited for forty years, which was a bit of an eye-opener. To start with, here’s another ‘new’ train that’s having a few teething problems. OK, I admit, it’s not really new at all, this is ex-London Underground D78 stock converted to diesel power to be used on the Bidston – Wrexham line. The Vivarail conversions cover a variety of traction packages and are actually a clever idea.

As a former East Londoner I may very well have travelled on this old District Line train when it ambled its way across London from East to West. I’m looking forward to see how they work far away from London in the Welsh borders.

Whilst visiting Birkenhead North I was drawn to the dereliction of the old docks which once had an extensive rail network – although that was already well in decline during my last visit in 1981! Now the area looks like a backdrop for a ‘ColdwarSteve’ montage. I spotted this which summed things up for me. Derelict shipyards and docks occupied by a pair of mothballed Royal Navy ships and – what the hell’s an old Blackpool tram doing there?

I’ve got a whole host of pictures to finish editing yet which will appear in another blog. Tomorrow I have a couple of ‘Zoom’ meetings but hope to get them done before then. After that, there’s a lot more blogging to come…

I’ve a favour to ask…
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Thank you!