We’ve had another busy day here at Bigland Towers. One that’s involved looking at the future as well as the present. The ‘here and now’ has involved the pair of us getting an early morning walk in to eat up the miles and try to stay dry as the weather here in the Calder valley’s been changeable to say the least. Whilst the weather’s been hot and humid down South we’ve had very different conditions around here. When the rain arrived it was initially fitful and desultory, hardly worth putting up umbrellas for. That changed just before we arrived back home, leaving us glad we’d taken time to get out when we did.
The rest of the day’s seen us both staring at screens as we caught up with work. My plans changed as yesterday I had enquiries about two commissions, one of which was booked very quickly. Now I’ve a several days work around Manchester to fit into my schedule in short order. It’s weather dependent, which could make things interesting. Another job remains in the pipeline…
One more task was sorting out picture captions for my next RAIL magazine feature. I was sent a PDF of the finished piece to add captions to the article on the new HS2 Thame viaduct which will be appearing in issue 1017 which will hit the news-stands on September 4th. Now all I have to do is finish four more large articles over the next fortnight or so – as well as fitting in another HS2 site visit next week – and the Manchester commissions!
Meanwhile, here’s today’s picture, which illustrates how the weather’s been here in’t valley. This was the view from our bedroom window late this afternoon.
Looking down over Sowerby Bridge as storm clouds approach over the valley.
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Another busy day here in West Yorkshire, even if it doesn’t quite feel like summer. The weather’s been mixed here and whilst some parts of the UK have seen the hottest days of the year we’ve not been one of them. Instead the weathers been cloudy, muggy and with showers hardly worth their name. No matter, as I’ve had plenty to keep me occupied. All my RAIL rover pictures are edited, my records are up to date and I’ve office shelves clear that haven’t seen the light of day for a very long time.
The weeding out process has uncovered some stuff I’d forgotten I had and pictures I don’t even remember taking! I found an old 4Gb CF card (remember when they were the bee’s knees?) and had a look to see what was on it. Pictures from a rededication of a war memorial at a railway depot taken in 2008, that’s what! I don’t even recollect taking them, so now I’m going to have to do a bit of digging when I’ve time and find out where I took them. I suspect I was commissioned by one of the freight companies, but I’ll need to check.
Another old picture I found wasn’t taken by me as I’m in it. It’s the picture of the day. I suspect it was taken in 2007 during a group trip to Germany, but I’ll need to check my records. It shows a group of us hamming it up at one of the old Berlin Wall watchtowers. The picture was taken by my late good friend Major John Poyntz, who passed it on to me. God, we had fun on those trips! There’s a few well-known railway faces in there too from railway preservation centres in Carnforth, Birmingham and Barrow Hill, plus a member of Her Majesty’s Railway Inspectorate – and me! It’s not the best picture in the world. Der John was still using a simple film camera, print film and getting his shots developed at Boots (so the back of the picture tells me). It wasn’t long after this that I gave him one of my old DSLRs as I’d upgraded. He was eternally grateful but he never took to SLRs. They took up too much room in his Bergen!
Happy days. Who knows what else I’ll find as I clear the decks?
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It’s been a long day here in West Yorkshire as I clear the decks of various things and prepare for a busy time ahead. I’ve had another office clearout, with lots of stuff going off for recycling as ‘not wanted on voyage’. The amount of stuff one accumulates in a lifetime is sometimes surprising. Things that ‘will come in useful one day’ – only never do. Plus, all those books and magazines that you’ll get around to rereading ‘one day’. Now they’re off to either charity shop or recycling…
Beside the clearout and researching some future plans I’ve also been editing the pictures from my RAIL rover, ready to use as an aide-memoir and background to writing the articles themselves. Whilst doing this I came across a pair of photographs that show just how much the railways and the environment around them have changed since I started doing these rovers, 20 years ago. The pictures are from Raynes Park in the West London suburbs, on the London and South Western main line. I’d not ben back there for sometime but I always remember it as having good views into London as the railway’s on an embankment at that point. Here’s the first picture, taken on the 3rd April 2005.
The picture was taken from the station footbridge. Here’s a shot I took from the same footbridge on the 1st August.
The signal gantries give it away as the same location, but that’s all. London has now disappeared behind dense woodland growing along the embankments either side of the line, plus a new housing development.
I feel old…
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It’s been another day of staring at computer screens for me as I continue my picture editing marathon ready for my next series of articles. I’ve also managed to clear the decks of some slightly older pictures to go out to another client – and add a few dozen images to my Zenfolio picture website. You can find which galleries have been updated by following this link. Mind you, the weather’s been pretty naff today, so being stuck indoors hasn’t been too much of a hardship. Whilst temperatures have been reasonable we’ve had grey skies and enough hours of rain to make you think twice about venturing anywhere. On the bright side – at least I haven’t had to water the garden.
This evening I’ve been catching up with the news of the aftermath of the riots. I’ve refrained from commenting on them so far as they happened whilst I was away and I had other things to talk about. I’ll admit to a personal interest. I grew up in Southport, where the horrible murder of the three children were used as the excuse the far-right had been waiting for to kick-off. I know the Hart St area well. I went to school nearby. I had an aunt who I’d stay with who lived on Hart St.
I share the opinion of others that this was a concerted effort to destabilise the new Government, only that hasn’t gone as planned. What we’ve seen since has been a Government of experienced adults who didn’t let things run away with them. Entirely the opposite, when you consider our current Prime Minister is a former Director of Public Prosecutions. Instead, the government moved quickly to ensure the police and courts had the resources to mete out swift justice to rioters and looters.
There’s another side to it too. The people who were intent on stirring up trouble, the Farage’s, the Tommy Robinsons and the right-wing journalists and ‘social influencers’ overplayed their hand and the backlash was swift. Revolted by what was happening, ordinary decent people came together to clear up the mess and protect their own communities from what was a tiny gang of racists who’d wildly overestimated how much support they had. They’d fallen for their own rhetoric and assumed that all those social media bots and trolls were actually real and would join them on the streets. You could see the bemusement in the faces of the handful of people who turned up in Brighton, Blackpool and elsewhere, only to find themselves vastly outnumbered. Now the prosecutions are well under way. There’s been nearly 500 arrests already and the first (tough) sentences are being handed out. 2-3 years, and there’s many more to come. What’s also been revealing is how many of those sentenced already have convictions for other offences. The Metropolitan police reckon it’s roughly 70%. These are no ordinary citizens, supposedly outraged at the senseless murder of three children, these are career criminals and racists, who’ve followed the call of Farage, Yaxley-Lennon and Co.
Now the rabble-rousers are starting to get arrested too. The woman (Bernie Spofforth)* who started sharing the claim that the murderer was a Muslim ‘asylum seeker’ has been arrested. She won’t be the last – hence the frantic rowing back of the likes of those involved, including Yaxley Lennon (aka ‘Tommy Robinson’), Farage and some of the mainstream media. Suddenly, the Daily Mail, a newspaper that’s spent decades running scare stories about immigration – is praising the counter-demonstrators! The Editors of certain national newspapers shouldn’t be let off the hook here. They’ve spent decades fearmongering about immigration and asylum seekers, making the phrase ‘illegal immigrant’ commonplace. Their reach is far larger than a few people on Twitter, or Facebook. They’re just as complicit in this.
My hope is that the prosecutions for incitement and posting hate continue and they don’t stop with Spofforth. I’d like to see some more well-known names be charged and convicted too. Then (maybe) some of those poisonous voices in the mainstream media (as well as on social) media will learn that the old adage ‘fuck around, find out’ (FAFO) should never be forgotten.
Right now, it looks like the rioters teeth have been pulled. There may be one or two more ‘events’, but the arrests, prosecutions and convictions will continue – and continue to deter. A lot of people are going to be jumpy every time there’s an unexpected knock on their door for quite some time yet…
Anyway, away from all that, I’ll leave you with today’s picture, which relates to a rather important sporting event that’s going on right now. The Olympics. When I passed through Hertford last week I saw these knitted postbox covers in several locations across the town, made by locals to celebrate the medals being won by the UK team in Paris.
*Spofforth is no random member of the public who just shared something. She’s a long history of climate change denial and opposing Covid restrictions and has appeared on right-wing ‘talk’ TV channels espousing her views.
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Home sweet home! After all my travels it’s been lovely to kick back at home and not have to rush around after trains, worry about making connections or walk miles up and down railway stations – I kid you not, I covered over 77 miles on foot last week, nearly all of it carrying a camera bag!
Today’s been spent at home, catching up on some sleep and recharging my batteries. I’ve not switched off completely as I’ve too many pictures to edit and notes and spreadsheets to catch up on, but that’s all been done from a sedentary position. I’m back to fasting too, having spent the past week living on sandwiches or other food to go. Now I can have food that’s hot – and spicy, just not a lot of it.
I doubt I’ll be doing much travelling for the rest of this week as I’ve got several articles to write and need to get them done as soon as possible to clear the decks for other work. Watch this space…
Meanwhile, here’s today’s picture, which come from my travels.
A study in front ends at Glasgow Central, where a trio of Hitachi built Class 385s sit between turns.
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The pair of us have had a busy Friday here at Bigland Towers. It’s not that we’ve been anywhere – although we will be over the weekend. It’s more a case of clearing the decks so that we can. I’ve been busy type-swiping – finishing another article for RAIL magazine – only this one’s full of history, facts and figures, which involves a lot of research and fact-checking. That’s not always easy, although it is time-consuming.
Whilst I’ve been doing that upstairs, Dawn’s been equally busy downstairs – until it was time for her to break off from her day job to indulge in a spot of baking, creating some delicious foods to take away with us tomorrow to a friends soiree down in Cambridgeshire. Right now the kitchen’s full of the smell of Bakewell tart and lemon drizzle cake!
As I’ve mentioned, tomorrow we’ll be heading off to Cambridgeshire, with an overnight stay in an old haunt – Peterborough. No doubt I’ll have some time to blog about our adventures, but in the meantime I’ll leave you with today’s picture. Shame it’s not ‘scratch and sniff’!
Dawn’s delicious lemon drizzle cake. Still cooling…
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Another week begins here at Bigland Towers, where it’s been a mixed sort of day. Summer seems in retreat again. It’s been warm, but gloomy skies, threats of rain – and gusting winds have rather taken the edge off things. You just don’t know how to dress for this weather. One minute you need a fleece, then the sun comes out, the wind drops and you’re roasting.
Not that I’ve seen much of the great outdoors until I went for an evening stroll. Most of my day’s been spent glued to a scheme, picture editing and planning. You can find the latest tranche of pictures that I’ve added to my Zenfolio site by following this link. The updated galleries will appear at the top of the page.
Besides editing and getting on with some household chores I’ve also been planning my round Britain trip for RAIL magazine. I should have done the trip already, but I had to move it back a couple of weeks for various reasons. Instead, I’ll be starting off next Monday. There’s still a lot of details to firm up as there’s so many things I want to try and include on the itinerary due to the way the railways are changing. The system looks very different to how it did on my first odyssey back in 2004!
Something else that’s kept me occupied has been meal planning. After the holiday I returned to my two day a week fasting routine (you’re allowed 600 calories per day max). The first couple of weeks I winged it with a very unadventurous diet as I’d no suitable recipes. But I’ll be damned if I’m going to live on meals consisting of beetroot salad or baked beans every week! Thankfully, Dawn’s come to the rescue with a book she had on her Kindle, so tonight I had an excellent Thai-style veggie stir-fry which was well within my calorie budget and also delicious! Tomorrow’s a ‘normal’ day, so I can be a little more free and easy, although I’m trying to cut down my portion sizes as it makes fast days easier. Mind you, I may venture out tomorrow if the weather’s good, we’ll see…
For now, I’ll leave you with today’s picture which is of tonight’s big (and moody) skies over the Calder valley.
I’ve a small favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, 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 me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
This is the last blog from Bigland Towers for a while as tomorrow I head off to Crewe to join the Railway Children’s annual ‘3 peaks by rail’ charity fundraiser. I’d hoped to have been able to enjoy some of the gorgeous summer weather that’s arrived but instead I ended up stuck indoors for the vast majority of the day in order to clear the decks of various work before I decamp. Plus, I’ve had to pack for the family holiday which I’ll be joining once the 3 peaks is over. Dawn and her folks will be heading to Dorset on Saturday and I’ll follow on behind.
The logistics of these trips means packing for all eventualities and climates as it looks like we’ll be having changeable conditions depending on whether we’re in England, Scotland or Wales. Then there’s the Scottish midges to contend with, which means packing different protective equipment to keep the little buggers at bay! Right now I’m almost done. All the batteries are fully charged, spares packed, cables secured and the laptop cleared of pictures which have all been archived – just in case…
I’ll be blogging throughout the next few days as and when wifi and phone reception allows – which isn’t always. In the meantime, here’s today’s picture, which comes from a previous 3 peaks. One of the many delights of the event is the opportunity to take a trip on the Ravenglass and Eskdale narrow-gauge railway, which is used to move the teams from the coast inland, where they then walk from Dalegarth to the start of the climb up Scafell. Here’s ‘Whillan Beck’, the locomotive that was used in June 2018.
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We’ve had a busy weekend here at Bigland Towers and it’s one that’s (finally) been blessed with good weather. There’s been several days in a row with glorious sunshine and lovely evenings, which is a first for 2024 as normally rain follows the sun as night follows day. Today both of us managed to get out for a long walk and enjoy an hour in the beer garden at our local, topping up on liquid refreshments and also vitamin D. The timing’s been excellent as I’ve got a very busy week ahead so having time to recharge both mentally and physically has been a Godsend.
Tomorrow I’m back in Manchester with another visit to Northern’s Newton Heath depot. I’ll blog about some of it but the rest you’ll be able to read about in a future edition of RAIL magazine. My fasting regime kicks in again tomorrow which should be interesting as so far I’ve only stuck to that when I’ve been at home. On Thursday I set off for another major event where fasting will not be part of the programme (I’ll need all the calories I can get) as I join the Railway Children’s annual ‘3 peaks by rail’ as the event photographer. Regular readers will know I’ve been volunteering every year since 2017, it’s a fantastic charity fundraiser but it’s hardly a walk in the park for either the teams or the volunteers who keep the whole event running. We finish next Saturday night after living on the train for two nights and two days. I’ll try and blog as I can, but you’ll be able to read about the whole trip in RAIL magazine.
I’ll need a holiday after that. But then I have one planned, because just as soon as I finish I’ll be travelling down to Dorset to meet Dawn and her parents as Bigland Towers is moving to that neck of the woods for a couple of weeks – so expect many more blogs with a travel flavour.
Right now it’s time to go as I’ve stuff to prepare for tomorrow. I’ll leave you with today’s picture, which is from a previous ‘3 peaks by rail’ adventure, 2021 in fact…
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There’s a very short blog from me today as I’ve got to be up at Sparrowfart tomorrow in order to get down to Long Marston for RAIL live. That means my alarm’s set for 04:15 so I can catch the first train of the day from Halifax. Right now I’m just finishing packing my kit before heading to bed.
Today, the weather’s actually felt like summer. We’ve had hours of sunshine, even though there’s been a fair amount of cloud around. The temperature’s started heading in the right direction too. RAIL live looks like it’s going to be blessed with good weather again too, so I’ve packed a pair of shorts – just in case!
One of my little chores today was to amalgamate the previous years RAIL live pictures into one gallery, which you can find here. There should be a lot more to add from this year’s event in a couple of days time. I’ll be doing a rolling blog as I’m travelling tomorrow, but don’t expect too much from the event itself as I’ll be kept busy catching up with friends and colleagues from across the industry, although I hope to be be able to add one or two pictures if I can.
In the meantime, here’s today’s picture which is from the 2022 event, when GBRf sent along one of their rebuilt Class 56 locos, renumbered 69005 and repainted into a heritage style livery.
I’ve a small favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, 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 me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
Paul Bigland 