Category Archives: Transport

Dec 27 2025
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Daily Post, Landscape, Transport

50-mile view, with plane

Friday 26th December 2025, 12.25pm (day 5,237)

Culter Fell with plane, 26/12/25

Boxing Day was spent walking in the Ochil Hills. Grey skies above us were contrasted with the sight of sun shining on hills to the south. This shot, from the summit of Innerdouny Hill, was taken with a very long zoom, and I am prepared to state that what is seen here is Culter Fell, the 2,454-feet high summit of South Lanarkshire — it’s in the right direction, and it certainly looks like it (see the second image down on the page as linked). Which means that here we have a view of just under 50 miles. That’s impressive — but in the end, I pick the shot because of also capturing the aeroplane, which is just cute. (More pictures from the walk will appear on my other blog in due course….)

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Dec 24 2025
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Daily Post, Landscape, Transport

The 12:10 to Edinburgh

Wednesday 24th December 2025, 12.15pm (day 5,235)

Train on Tay bridge, 24/12/25

As seen crossing the Tay rail bridge, more-or-less on schedule. The shot is taken from Newport-on-Tay, on the opposite side of the firth from Dundee. I am feeling minimalist this Christmas Eve, it seems.

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Dec 22 2025
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Daily Post, Transport

The tractor from the deep

Sunday 21st December 2025, 8.45pm (day 5,232)

Tractor creature, 21/12/25

‘Tractor runs’ seem to have become a definite thing in the last couple of Christmases, giving the local farmers an excuse to drive their machines out on public roads, blocking them while making large amounts of noise and raising money for, well, something or other. Following on from the one at home last year, here we have the Ribble Valley version. Virtually impossible to take decent photos of these things, at least, not with my kit, but I go with this one if only because it reminds me of something from the twisted mind of H P Lovecraft; Great Cthulhu’s Tractor perhaps?

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Dec 17 2025
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Daily Post, Transport

Freight passing through

Tuesday 16th December 2025, 5.50pm (day 5,227)

Freight does still make an occasional appearance on the line, usually long trains of wagons marked with ‘Drax’, meaning they are heading to or (in this case) from the power station. Not that you can tell any of this from this extended blur, but I challenge anyone to get a sharp picture of something moving at at least 30mph in the dark. Drax (it’s amazing what you can learn from Wikipedia pages on a Wednesday morning) burns wood imported from the US and Canada, which these trains then ship across the country from Liverpool, with Hebden en route — so we often see these, at all times of day and night.

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Nov 21 2025
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Daily Post, Transport

The 9:31, according to Northern

Thursday 20th November 2025, 10.05am (day 5,201)

Very late train, 20/11/25

I do appreciate the notion of ‘First World Problems’ and that there are parts of the world where trains can run days late, if they run at all. But for Christ’s sake, Northern….. at this time of year particularly (‘leaves on the line’ plus the cold snap of the last couple of days). This train was due to arrive in Manchester at 10:01, so there went the first twenty minutes of my 11 o’clock.

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Nov 17 2025
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Daily Post, Transport

Sir Nigel Gresley, and admirers

Saturday 15th November 2025, 12.30pm (day 5,196)

Gresley loco at York, 15/11/25

We were passing through York station today when this impressive hunk of metal pulled in on platform 9, and we were almost crushed in the stampede of trainspotters and steam enthusiasts which greeted it. But it’s a photogenic object, so I joined the crowd for a minute or two. The Sir Nigel Gresley, named after the engineer whose oversized statue now stands at King’s Cross, holds the post-war steam speed record of 112mph — and unlike Mallard this speed was achieved not on some specially organised run but with a train full of passengers. And it arrived more punctually at York this afternoon than any of the other train companies’ services.

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Nov 12 2025
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna, Transport

Between platforms

Tuesday 11th November 2025, 12.15pm (day 5,192)

Platforms 4 and 5 of Manchester Victoria station, to be precise (making this, incidentally, the 900th shot taken in Manchester). The sign is meaningless in context, but the pigeon seems to be wilfully defying it anyway. On the left (4), the 12:15 to Redcar Central and on the right, the 12:15 to Blackburn, both punctual. But was I on my way into work late, or coming home early?

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Nov 10 2025
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Daily Post, Transport

The canal, again

Sunday 9th November 2025, 12.35pm (day 5,190)

Lock gates, 9/11/25

The second somewhat abstract shot in a row of some part of the country’s transport network — though a quite different one to yesterday’s. And I picked it before remembering that I depicted the Rochdale canal only the other day. Never mind. I like the asymmetrical scene here, as the excess water comes over the lock gates by the end of Holme Street in town.

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Nov 10 2025
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Daily Post, Transport

Bridge across the Mersey

Saturday 8th November 2025, 12.15pm (day 5,189)

Silver Jubilee Bridge, 8/11/25

Before embarking on its final spread into its estuary, between Widnes (on the north bank) and Runcorn, the River Mersey narrows significantly. This convenient crossing point, known as the Runcorn Gap, has been exploited for hundreds of years, but it was only in 1961 that a proper road bridge was opened, and given the ‘Silver Jubilee’ name 15 years later. And, well, here it is, seen from the Widnes side. The second longest bridge I have walked across as part of my little walking project (after the Humber Bridge). Pedestrians take a rather exposed and vertiginous walkway that dangles off the main arch to the left, by the way.

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Nov 04 2025
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Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger, Transport

Cancelled

Monday 3rd November 2025, 10.25am (day 5,184)

Cancelled at Preston, 3/11/25

An early morning derailment at Shap, in Cumbria, meant the West Coast Main Line was completely closed. Fortunately we were heading south and not trying to get to Scotland, but I suspect this gentleman was one of the many people in Preston station this morning for whom that was the intended destination.

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