04:45.

Ugh! The alarm went off at 04:15 and I’m now showered and on mt first cup of coffee – but it won’t be my last. Today’s going to be a long day. But first things first, which is a long walk to the station, which should get the blood pumping. On the bright side (literally) is the weather’s fine and the sun’s almost up. Let’s see how things go…

05:55.

The walk to Halifax station was very pleasant. The town’s not woken up yet and the streets were deserted. Plus, the slight chill in the air meant there was no danger of overheating. Now I’m on Northern’s 05:45 heading for Manchester on the first leg of the route. Today it’s a 4-car and at the moment pretty quiet with just half a dozen of us in the front car.

07:45.

When we passed Newton Heath depot in Manchester I had to do a double-take as the ranks of Northern liveried trains was broken by a pair of interlopers. A pair of Transport for Wales class 150/2s occupied one of the sidings. Made surplus by Wales’s investment in new trains they’ve been cascaded to Northern. I wonder if they’ll be pressed into service before they’re reliveried?

On arrival at Victoria another unusual sight greeted me. A rake of Pullman liveried MK3’s, top and tailed by a pair of Class 47s sat in Platform 4. It turns out this was a West Coast railways dining train heading down to Ascot for the races. The return working gets back to Victoria after 1 AM tomorrow, by which time I expect the occupants will be very wined and very dined!

I didn’t have time to get a picture as I needed to hotfoot it across the city to get to Piccadilly in order to catch my next train. I’m now aboard Cross-Country’s 07:03 to Bristol, which I’m using to get to Birmingham New St. The service was quiet leaving Manchester but we’re now South of Stoke and the 5-car units filled up considerably en-route.

09:30.

Well, that was fun! On arrival at Wolverhampton we got told that – due to a ‘train in difficulty’ ahead of us we were being diverted via Bescot and Soho Junction. Passing Bescot was sad. Most of the old freight yard’s abandoned with all the overhead wires stripped out, only the skeletal portals tell the tale of how how many freight trains used to be electric hauled. The rest is just fans of rusting, weed-strewn sidings. The once-busy loco depot disappeared years ago, to be replaced with a wagon repair shops. The area’s a world away from the incredibly busy site I first visited way back in 1977.

We arrived at New St 15 minutes late but that still gave me time to walk over the Moor St where I picked up my scheduled connection. I’m now aboard Chiltern’s 09:15 heading to Warwick Parkway where I can catch the free coach service to Long Marston.

18:00.

I’m back! Sorry for the interlude but not only is Long Marston difficult to get to but the phone reception is awful. Plus, I didn’t have a spare minute to blog as there was too much to see/photograph and people to catch up with.

If you’ve never been to RAIL live you won’t appreciate just how much shoe-leather you wear through. It’s a huge site and it’s getting bigger each year. But then it has a 3.5km long test track, miles of storage sidings and the event brings in 100s of stalls and outdoor displays. I’ll add some pictures later, but to give you an idea. There’s 100s of millions pf pounds of new (or nearly new) trains in store on the site, as welll as re-engineered Porterbrook Class 769s rendered surplus before they were even introduced by GWR. Then there’s the exhibition stands. Ever seen a ‘robo-dog’? There were several on site. These incredible automatons that look like they’re out of ‘Star Wars’ are used for surveys and inspections. Then there’s some cutting-edge Road Rail Vehicles (RRVs) that look like spiders because of their flexibility. They can literally crawl across the land through their use independently wheeled arms. The first to be registered on the UK rail network was on display.

But RAIL live isn’t all about technology. There’s three stages where discussions take place with humans. One of the most powerful was with Ukrainian railways, who explained how they keep the network running amidst the biggest European war since World War 2. Whilst we’re all dressed in lightweight high-vis jackets one of their number talked about trying to raise funds so that Ukrainian rail workers can wear the version they need. Bullet-proof high-vis. Sobering…

I left the site around 1500 as I was offered a lift with old friends (other RAIL magazine alumni) who dropped me off at Stratford-upon-Avon where I caught a train to Birmingham. It’s such a lovely evening I’d have been tempted to stay for a pint in Birmingham, but the journey back to Halifax is long and slow – and will be for decades – thanks to Rishi Sunak’s capricious decision to scrap HS2 to Manchester. Now I’m on a busy 5-car Cross-Country service to Manchester Piccadilly. Fortunately, I’ve managed to blag a free table seat to set up the mobile office and begin downloading today’s pictures.

22:50.

I’m home – and knackered after a long day in which I’ve walked over 14 miles with a camera pack on my back on one of the warmest days of the year so far. Despite that, it’s been a really good day. There’s lots of photos to sort out tomorrow, but right now I’ll leave you with these.

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