Tag Archives: Railway

On the old railway line

Sunday 13th July 2025, 12.10pm (day 5,081)

Old railway line, 13/7/25

Originally I was heading for the Scottish Highlands again today, but a general sense that it was not the right time was confirmed by a dubious weather forecast — not for today, which remained a pleasant day, but for tomorrow, Monday, a forecast of wet weather which I already know as I post this seems to have come to pass. So I made the right decision, stayed in Dundee, and went out on a walk anyway, which included this agreeable stretch of woodland growing along what, a century or more ago, was one of Scotland’s first railway lines. Like many such spots it now exercises legs rather than engines, but is none the worse for it.

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Superhero snowplough

Saturday 19th April 2025, 10.25am (day 4,986)

Superhero snowplough, 19/4/25

My Easter Saturday trip out found me in the Locomotion museum in Shildon, Co. Durham, at 10.30ish. This snowplough looks almost absurdly macho, like it’s Thor’s snowplough (Marvel Comics version). Look at the light beams that shoot off as it steams along! The watching human simply stands in awe and wonder as it zooms past. “Me? Put ME in a museum!? The impudence!”

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Train at Blea Moor

Monday 11th November 2024, 9.45am (day 4,827)

Train at Blea Moor, 11/11/24

The 09:47 service from Ribblehead (ex Carlisle) to Leeds is more or less on time. This is the Settle-Carlisle railway, one of the country’s finest. In the background, Ingleborough, definitely the best-looking English mountain outside the Lake District — it’s 3,730 days (or 10 years, 2 months and 16 days) since it made its first appearance on here, on my 45th birthday day out (26/8/2014). And as it’s a good place to come for a day out, on the first appearance of sunshine for about two weeks — it was worth coming back.

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Bredbury station

Monday 16th September 2024, 9.45pm (day 4,771)

Bredbury station, 16/9/24

Am I pleased allowed to say someone is a nice shape, without this being a salacious observation? Because this person definitely is.

With this photo, Stockport, the 11th place I depicted on this blog back in October 2011, finally relinquishes its title as the most-ignored-place-since. The accolade now passes to Dunsop Bridge. I know you care about these things, as do I. Overall, 477 different locations have appeared on here — a neat near 1/10 ratio — and I’m sure you already care about the carefully-maintaned stats.

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Crossing the Forth

Thursday 30th May 2024, 4.10pm (day 4,662)

Was sat in an office for all the first part of the day and a train for all the second part of it. But at least, when travelling home from Scotland, the Forth Bridges usually make an appearance, and they’re almost always worth photographing. The monochrome, as so often, conceals colour balance crimes caused mainly by the scene being viewed through the windows of the 13:59 from Aberdeen to Edinburgh (arrived 16:20).

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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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Platform 5, Crewe

Saturday 8th January 2022, 11.45am (day 3,789)

Railway stations often give good photo — particularly when they are massive, Victorian palaces of rail, like Crewe, which is one of the biggest provincial stations in the country. If I didn’t live on the other side of Manchester you’d almost certainly have seen this place before, as everyone changes trains here at some point. As it is, this is the place’s debut on the blog. I like the red lights reflected in the wet platform and the misty haze beyond (in fact it’s raining heavily here, as it was everywhere in north-west England, yesterday morning).

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Under the locomotive

Saturday 12th June 2021, 12.05pm (day 3,579)

In the National Railway Museum, York. Joe used to be taken here frequently when he was little, but with around two-thirds of his life having passed since the last time, he now claims no memory of the place, so as we had a couple of hours to kill in York this afternoon, it was worth the revisit. Thus, York becomes the latest location to hit double figures on the blog: 10 shots taken there now, in what is nearly 10 years.

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Busy valley

Saturday 20th March 2021, 11.45am (day 3,495)

Gauxholme viaduct, 20/3/21

A walk around the Todmorden area today gave me the chance to see from above the railway line on which I travel frequently to Manchester. The settlement is certainly packed into this narrow valley at this point, isn’t it. But the railway somehow dominates, like it’s the thing that really controls the transport here.

This is the fourth shot in a row taken outside of Hebden Bridge. The last time that happened was over Christmas, in Norfolk — and the time before that, early October. This says a lot about the last few months.

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Into the light (Clare with blue cube)

Sunday 28th February 2021, 2.15pm (day 3,475)

Under the railway, 28/2/21

Whatever it is I wanted to say with this picture, the cube is there; it is Clare (and I) who are just passing through.

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