Category Archives: Transport

The 7:12 arrives, on time (nearly)

Thursday 21st September 2023, 7.15am (day 4,410)

7:12 train, 21/9/23

Regular early morning shots seem to have mostly disappeared from the blog; this is the earliest, and the first before 8am, since 20th January, and that was taken when coming into Addis Ababa airport so not exactly normal circumstances. Other than that this is the earliest since 7th October 2022. In all that time Northern Rail might have run a whole morning’s service which didn’t contain at least one train that turned up just that few minutes late…. but I doubt it.

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Warning sign

Sunday 10th September 2023, 11.50am (day 4,399)

Mountain, drive slowly, 9/9/23

This would be a marvellous sign to see at any point, but the fact that it sits on the outskirts of Bradford makes it more entertaining still, in my opinion. Not to mention the fine optical illusion evident here. Take a good look — it’s almost like one of those ‘impossible objects’ that work in two dimensions but not three.

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Exhortation

Monday 4th September 2023, 9.55am (day 4,393)

Have a blessed day, 4/9/23

As made by this board outside Walthamstow Central station this morning. And thanks to ‘good service’ on the tube, Grand Central trains and….. er, OK, Northern (just about) — it was blessed enough. Blessed with very fine weather, at least.

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Boatman

Thursday 31st August 2023, 11.25am (day 4,389)

Boatman, 31/8/23

I don’t know whether the 19th century did outdoor seating and umbrellas in quite the same way as the Stubbings Wharf pub does in 2023, but otherwise this picture could well have been taken 150 years ago: man (with beard) waiting for nearby lock to fill, and trying to stop the boat floating away while he does so. It’s a slow way of life on the water, which I guess is why plenty of people like to live it.

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Anarchy

Saturday 19th August 2023, 12.50pm (day 4,377)

No parking, 19/8/23

It was still there when I passed it again in the early evening, too. Shocking, what is the world coming to, etc etc.

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Bus crash — aftermath

Tuesday 8th August 2023, 4.50pm (day 4,366)

Bus crash aftermath, 8/8/23

Walking through Manchester city centre tonight it was impossible to not notice the activity around the corner of Oxford Road and Whitworth Street, with everything cordoned off by police tape and some major sweeping up under way. Turns out at lunchtime a bus took out a central reservation, for some reason (which I can quite believe involved swerving to save the life of some idiotic cyclopath of the kind who thinks his Deliveroo bag gives him the right to ignore red lights), a few people hurt but nothing serious. And the picture? Well, the pink scaffolding is impressive. Some might say there’s not been enough pink on the blog recently.

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King’s Cross, as usual

Monday 31st July 2023, 9.55am (day 4,358)

King's Cross, 31/7/23

Almost every one of my trips to London ends here. Now and again I might leave in a different direction, but mostly it’s on one of the half-hourly Leeds services: we all watch the departures board over there, to see if this will be one of those times where LNER give us all more than about eight minutes’ notice. (Today, they did.)

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Bus driver

Friday 21st July 2023, 2.20pm (day 4,348)

Bus driver in mirror, 21/7/23

Anyone prepared to do some detective work, based on the evidence of the road sign in the background, could perhaps work out where this was taken and maybe even the service on which we were travelling. But I’m sure for a summer Friday afternoon, this is too much to trouble with.

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On Ullswater

Thursday 20th July 2023, 4.50pm (day 4,347)

Yacht on Ullswater, 20/7/23

There are many worse ways, and places, to spend a Thursday. Taken from the Howtown to Pooley Bridge ‘pleasure steamer’ service, following a good walk up Place Fell; soon to be duly recorded on the Wainwrights blog.

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The Netherton Tunnel, south entrance

Thursday 6th July 2023, 11.10am (day 4,333)

Netherton Tunnel, 6/7/23

My summer holiday has finally started, and being the type of person that I am, I went exploring, going to Dudley in the West Midlands largely because it was somewhere I had never been before, with not just one but two County Tops (report to follow). And it gave me the chance to walk 1.7 miles, more or less (2,776m according to the sign at the entrance) under ground, through the Netherton Tunnel, which accommodates a branch line of the huge Birmingham canal network, and was the last major canal tunnel ever built in Britain, opened in 1858.

This was taken as I approached the south entrance, which for me was the exit. A bit damp, but by no means an unpleasant experience, though the distant sound of many voices screaming that reverberated down the tunnel towards me for a few minutes — either a school sports day, or the tortured souls of Hell — was a little eerie.

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