Tag Archives: train

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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Not the night service

Thursday 25th May 2023, 3.20pm (day 4,291)

Dark Victoria, 25/5/23

Don’t read the time from the light here. Victoria station is much improved from twenty years ago, when I first started using it, but platforms 3-6 are still mere warrens, skulking under the overhead bulk of the Arena. Dark holes in which one can wait a while to find out if they’re running your service today.

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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?

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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.

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The 7:10 at Rochdale

Friday 7th October 2022, 7.10am (day 4,061)

Sleepy couple, 7/10/22

7:10am on 7/10. People have their observable routines. With teaching having started and my having 9am classes here and there, I have been catching the 6:55am train at Hebden Bridge. This becomes the 7:10 at Rochdale, and each time I’ve caught it, these two have got on. Today, they almost immediately dozed off. I sympathise. They look comfortable enough together, and good luck to them.

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Rotterdam Centraal station

Thursday 25th August 2022, 10.30am (day 4,018)

Rotterdam Centraal, 25/8/22

In my mind’s eye there is a perfectly symmetrical version of this shot. But in the absence of its reality, this one will do.

This was the third of eight railway stations passed through today (nine if you count Wageningen bus station) as I travelled from a small provincial town somewhere near the centre of the Netherlands to a small provincial town somewhere near the centre of Great Britain (Hebden Bridge). And so ends my 11th complete year of doing this blog.

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Leeds station

Friday 19th August 2022, 4.25pm (day 4,012)

Leeds station, 19/8/22

On the move again — a schedule dictated by the rail unions. I support the strikes, though. Anything that pisses off the morons currently running this country must have some validity.

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Morning train, Rochdale

Thursday 14th July 2022, 7.35am (day 3,976)

Passengers at Rochdale, 14/7/22

Passengers in various states of thought and repose, as the train pulled into Rochdale on the way into work. Or, I suspect for the guy immediately opposite me, home after a rather heavy night.

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Dundee station, Sunday morning

Sunday 10th July 2022, 10.50am (day 3,972)

Dundee station, 10/7/22

For the duration of this visit, and certainly today, its final morning, Dundee has basked in balmy sunshine that is atypical for the city. It contributed to a pleasantly chilled out wait for the train heading back south, which I think this couple epitomise. (My journey was fine all the way to Bradford, after which it descended into a farce of the kind only Northern Rail seem able to manufacture, but that’s another story, hours in the future.)

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The Firth of Forth, from the train

Thursday 7th July 2022, 1.55pm (day 3,969)

Firth of Forth, 7/7/22

My son might have chosen to live out his university years in a place (Dundee) that is about as far as he could have got from us in West Yorkshire, while staying in the UK. But, there are compensations. Over in the distance, Arthur’s Seat and Edinburgh. Closer to the camera, the Firth of Forth, all taken just before passing through Burntisland station.

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