Today’s been another long one here at Bigland Towers, the pair of us have been working from home (upstairs and down) which means we keep meeting up in the kitchen to swap those ‘watercooler moments’ you get in mainstream offices. Admittedly, I have managed to me more mobile than Dee and nip out to do some shopping as well as get my daily steps under my belt. The weather’s certainly been conducive to working at home. It’s not that we’ve had torrential rain (nice for a change) more that it’s been dull and rather dismal – although there’s signs of life in the garden with plants poking their heads above ground, promising lushness to come. I can’t wait – I’ve had my fill of winter, the thought of spring fills me with joy.

Talking of Spring, the office ‘spring clean’ is reaching its end. There’s mounds of old paperwork stacked up in front of the shredder (which has been working overtime) whilst the office bookcase is looking decidedly empty. I’ve also discovered stacks of old photographs stashed away in various files, which included today’s picture, which in some ways seems like a different world. It’s certainly from a different railway age. It was taken at Penzance on the 13th August 2003, almost 21 years ago…

Myself and a group of fellow railway journalists and photographers were guest of Virgin Trains on a rather special adventure. Having rendezvoused in Aberdeen two nights before where we were entertained by Virgin PR staff including the irrepressible Alan McLean we’d travelled down from Penzance on what was the longest single railway journey in the UK – from Aberdeen to Penzance in a day, crossing three of the railways most famous bridges on one trip – The Tay, Forth and Royal Albert bridge at Saltash. In those days the service was still operated by HSTs (Voyagers were yet to take over). Virgin though it would make an interesting press trip – and who were we to disagree? We jumped at the chance! Having enjoyed a second night of Virgin’s hospitality we were making our way back to Birmingham where the group would disband to head off to our individual abodes. In my case – London.

I wrote up the trip for RAIL magazine. On board I’d met what could have been Britain’s longest regular commuters. Two fishermen from Buckie on the Moray Firth travelled down to Penzance to join their Scallop boat for the season. They’d do the round trip once a fortnight.

Here’s our HST ready to depart Penzance, working the 09:15 back to Edinburgh.

As I gradually digitise these old prints I’ll add a few memories to the daily pictures. I hope you’ll enjoy the stories.

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