Category Archives: Transport

Mar 12 2023
Leave a comment
Daily Post, Urban scene, Transport

Hugh Town, Isles of Scilly

Friday 10th March 2023, 10.45am (day 4,215)

Hugh Town, 10/3/23

A trip out to the furthest south-western extremity of the British Isles (assuming we treat Ireland as separate) — namely the Isles of Scilly, a hundred or so lumps of granite stuck thirty miles off Land’s End, of which five are inhabited. The ‘capital’, Hugh Town, is located on St Mary’s island, and built on a narrow isthmus, which is apparent here thanks to the houses having blue sea behind them as well as in front, which is why I chose this picture — that, and the profusion of coloured things (buoys?) in the sea.

That’s one of the harder-to-reach County Tops bagged as well. There were lots of photos from the day I could have chosen to give an impression of this distant part of my country, but see the other blog for more.

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,
Mar 08 2023
Leave a comment
Daily Post, Transport

Penzance Harbour

Tuesday 7th March 2023, 8.40am (day 4,212)

Penzance Harbour, 7/3/23

And here’s what more-or-less the same part of the world looks like in the morning — pointing the camera in the opposite direction. Seems an OK place, Penzance — attractive, plenty of pubs — but it’s a long way out, and typical incomes in Cornwall are among the lowest in the whole UK. Being peripheral is not an economic asset these days: but the thing is, in some ways this is the centre of things. More on that tomorrow (if I remember).

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,
Mar 03 2023
Leave a comment
Daily Post, Transport

Cattle truck

Thursday 2nd March 2023, 8.05am (day 4,207)

Cattle truck, 2/3/23

Documentary. I got on this train at 7.56am at Hebden Bridge. A few minutes later I got off it again, at Todmorden (where this shot is taken), thanks to it being, as you can hopefully tell,. a stupidly overcrowded two-carriage cattle truck, and waited for the next one. On Monday I have to spend about 10.5 hours on a train…. what we do for our kicks, eh?

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Feb 15 2023
Leave a comment
Daily Post, Transport

Europe’s busiest railway station

Tuesday 14th February 2023, 10.45pm (day 4,191)

Clapham Junction, 14/2/23

Clapham Junction station takes everything that Victoria and Waterloo stations have to throw at it, and as a result is apparently the busiest railway station in Europe, judged by number of trains. Except between midnight and 5am there can be up to 200 trains an hour passing through here, which makes it more than one every twenty seconds.

I like this golden spillage of light, and the seemingly random fractions posted on the top. I was here late on: this is the latest shot since 5th October 2020, in fact.

Tagged , , , , , , , ,
Feb 11 2023
1 Comment
Daily Post, Transport, Flora/Fauna

The calm under the flightpath

Saturday 11th February 2023, 2.00pm (day 4,188)

Horses under Heathrow, 11/2/23

These have to be among the world’s most stoic horses. The poles in this field are one end of the series of guidance beacons for one of the runways at Heathrow. Gigantic flying machines like the one seen here are coming into land every few minutes, and the noise is incredible. But they don’t seem all that bothered.

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,
Jan 28 2023
Leave a comment
Daily Post, Transport

Boats at Jamestown

Friday 27th January 2023, 11.20am (day 4,173)

Jamestown boats, 27/1/23

Spent all day in Jamestown, where it was hot and sunny, certainly the warmest I’ve experienced it here on this trip. Ten years ago today I had just arrived in Brisbane for my four-month-long sojourn in Australia (and other nearby countries), and even if the weather on my arrival there was less-than-optimum for a couple of days, like today, that did remind me how much nicer it is sometimes to not be hanging around in the UK at this time, with all its lack of light and wintry bollocks. Pottering about in the tropical heat of a late January doesn’t have to be done every year but I will certainly take it now and again.

Is the horizon straight on this one? It’ll do.

Tagged , , , , , , , ,
Jan 20 2023
Leave a comment
Daily Post, Transport

View from Terminal 2

Thursday 19th January 2023, 4.20pm (day 4,165)

Airport sunset, 19/1/23

At the point in time that this photo was taken, I should have been somewhere over the Congo, maybe Zambia. This, however, is definitely not the interior of Africa. Having got up at 4am, by 6am I and a few dozen other people were sitting on a plane at Manchester Airport waiting to depart, only then the powers-that-be decided that due to a few snowflakes falling, nothing could move. Time passed, and by 9am we were all back in Terminal 2, the MAN – AMS leg of my journey wiped from existence. (Other excessive flight delays to have featured on here: Bergen, Nov. 2012; Keflavik, Jul.2019 [still the epitome].)

I finally left the ground about two and a half hours after capturing this shot. I will still make my final destination, and already know that a completely unexpected new country is going to make the blog tomorrow, perhaps that can be seen as a minor compensation. At least I won’t be seeing any more snow for a couple of weeks, that’s guaranteed.

Tagged , , , , , , , ,
Jan 12 2023
Leave a comment
Daily Post, Transport

Evening train home

Wednesday 11th January 2023, 6.10pm (day 4,157)

Victoria Platform 4, 11/1/23

Made use of a facility that I haven’t accessed since December 9th, namely Manchester Victoria station. It’s not a bad place — when it works — and certainly way better than it was when I first started using it regularly in 2005, when it was still largely a hole in the ground.

But in all honesty, this is a picture of her trousers, which I think are excellent, particularly the shape they make.

Tagged , , , , , , , ,
Jan 08 2023
Leave a comment
Daily Post, Transport

Abington services, again

Saturday 7th January 2023, 12.45pm (day 4,153)

Abington rainbow, 7/1/23

A bit of a cheap shot perhaps, but when one spends most of the day on a motorway, there aren’t always many opportunities. This does give a reasonable impression of the weather conditions in which the drive was done. Abington has become a ‘service station of choice’, purely because of timing: by the time we reach there, somewhere in the wilds of South Lanarkshire, there always seems to be the need for a drink, or lunch, or a pee. Sometimes all three.

Tagged , , , , , , , ,
Jan 01 2023
Leave a comment
Daily Post, Transport

The Isle of Man ferry

Friday 30th December 2022, 2.50pm (day 4,145)

Isle of Man ferry, 30/12/22

Off it goes across the Irish Sea, from Heysham, the sea wall of which I was stood on as I took this shot. The Isle of Man has not yet featured on this blog although I am due a visit at some point, to bag its County Top. Maybe next year… there is still time in my life, I feel.

Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,
← Older posts
%d bloggers like this: