It's fair to say that this website hasn't had much attention in recent times. The tailing off of regular travel here has meant I'm less often inclined to update things, which consequently meant that I'd really not thought much about how it looked over the past couple of years. It's worth pointing out here that Lost::MikeGTN isn't a Wordpress blog or based on some sort of hosted solution, it runs on my own webserver, using a site I wrote from scratch - mostly just for the experience of doing so. Back in 2004, there weren't any content management systems that did quite what I wanted as simply as I'd like, and I wrote Areopagitica in response. It was functional, if clunky at time, and allowed me to upload and edit content wherever I was in the world. I learned a lot about MySQL and PHP in the process too. Overall, things worked fairly well for the next ten years or so with just the odd tweak or minor irritation to work around. It's easy to get comfortable...
Having worked with a modern system on my other blog during 2011/12, I knew things had moved on a fair bit. Some experience of learning about newer technologies for other projects had also left me wondering about how easy it would be to build something around the database of stories and articles I'd amassed here since 1999. I set about the task with my usual lack of planning or foresight over the Christmas break, and have had a fair few stumbles along the way. However, what I've definitely noticed is how technologies like Bootstrap make it much easier to make a site look presentable quickly, freeing me to make it work how I want it to. As someone with very little eye for design, and even less talent at graphic arts, this is a huge relief. I was able to build around the original database in which the articles live with a minimum of fuss and get a new design working in a few hours. That encouraged me to take a far more radical approach to things, and I'm still exploring the possibilities.
So here it is, the second incarnation of Areopagitica. For you, the reader, it hopefully looks and feels a lot nicer - certainly it should behave far more sensibly on smaller screens now. For me, the fun was more about the back-end of the system. How I could really make editing and updating the blog easier, quicker and more enjoyable. It's been a fascinating project - with many tasks left to complete. But I'm already able to sit and compose this article feeling far more like a writer and a lot less like a programmer. I'd do neither profession justice I'm sure, but this is definitely progress!
Less than a month into the year and I'm writing about my second railtour - this is far from the usual course which January takes. However, years back when I had a lot less ink in the atlas I used to see start the year by how many weeks I could keep up the practice of covering a new bit of track. For a while now, that's just not been possible given all the easy bits are covered, but this year would have been a pretty good one in those stakes by all accounts. I found myself in Watford once again this morning, with an early start ahead of me. Staying in Central London had proved pretty costly when I set things up for this tour in October, with a Travelodge sale being announced after the fact, but I had a comfortable Premier Inn bolthole in familiar surroundings. The only drawback was the long, dark DC lines slog into town first thing, but with headphones on I was soon coasting into Euston and heading for the bus across to Paddington where the tour started. Plenty of time to breakfast, watch the day start and witness an assembly of rather odd looking cranks descending on the Upper Crust concession the second it opened. It's times like this that appearing relatively 'normal' in the rail enthusiast world is a welcome choice. Instead settled down to coffee and wandered over to the stock which had arrived early.
I don't travel often with UK Railtours, but the increasing number of 'Forgotten Tracks' trips which they operate, and the recognition that not all First Class passengers want dining has opened a few more of their trips to my interest lately. This one was a winner from the outset, reflected in it being fully booked very quickly and a re-run programmed for next week - almost unheard of in these austere times! With a couple of winning locos - one which had reputedly never worked a passenger service before - and a realistic itinerary all reasonably comfortably achievable in the short winter daylight, this was going to be a good one. So, out of Paddington on time for the short run into Southall Yard where we reversed for the first of many times today. The branch to Brentford Goods curved behind the sheds and workshops of the preservation group, with a couple of the Class 08 shunters which had been involved in the production of The Railway Children at Waterloo International spotted on site. Then we pulled alongside the Grand Union Canal, passing under Windmill Bridge where three tiers of brickwork see the railway, canal and road stacked together in an impressive engineering feat. The lines began to fan into a range of sidings before the end of the branch in the West London Waste terminal.
A swiftly accomplished reversal took us back to Southall, and a brief run along the main line to West Drayton, where we took the line at the far north of the station which would once have served Uxbridge trains. The line curved tightly to the south, with little trace of the former junction, passing under the mainline and heading towards the perimeter of Heathrow Airport. Progress was slow, with points being clipped ahead of us as we passed - but the operation was pretty efficient, with a single Network Rail operative managing the whole process on both of the branches so far. We were soon cutting along at a faster pace as we entered the curious section of line which passes through the M4/M25 interchange. The huge four-level stack junction was constructed with the two lowest level sliproads running along the fringes of the single line at ground level. This gives the weird sensation of having high speed traffic zipping past both sides of the train in the wrong directions! However, it's a tribute to the ingenuity of the engineers and planners that this freight branch was stitched into the complex road works rather than being closed or diverted from it's historic route. We slowly made our way to the terminus, this route being protected due to the Elf Oil depot. With the loco practically touching the gates to the facility, we turned and headed back towards the mainline.
We now made a circuit of north west London via the mass of lines which tangle around Willesden. This has always fascinated me, and no amount of coverage on numerous railtours and diversions has every quite led to a complete understanding of how it works. However, with Quail maps out and some eagle eyed companions, we plotted out course which took the lesser used connection from Acton Canal Wharf down to Willesden No.7 Junction. After a tiny burst of speed on the West Coast Mainline we crossed under the fasts and came to a rest near Wembley Depot. The tour was almost in two parts, with this marking a crew change and the start of the second half so to speak. Once underway again we headed north. It was now a remarkably bright afternoon, with the few tiny showers we'd had earlier soon dispelled. Thundering past the hotel I'd left about eight hours earlier at Watford, we made our way out into the Buckinghamshire countryside. Once through Milton Keynes Central we slowed, coming to a stop a little shy of the platforms at Wolverton. This is where things got complicated! The layout here is essentially the remains of a flying junction which connects the works to the mainline. However, the road allowing entry from the Down Slow has long gone - its alignment still apparent on waste land, before disappearing under new flats and a large Tesco. The connection to the up lines rises between the slewed pairs of tracks, but is connected only from the north - essentially the 'wrong' end. Thus we now reversed into the 'Incline' siding, before turning north again, and taking the steep grade which dips into a brick culvert and passes under the lines. Emerging to the west of the mainline, we passed the point where the lost 'down' connection would have trailed in and proceeded along a straight beside a road and much new development. Some warehousing here had been recently built - or perhaps rebuilt - in the style of the original and once vast carriage sheds. We finally entered open waste ground as the extended headshunt of Haversham Bank curved back in towards the mainline - of which is was once a much straighter and more direct part! The connection to the works trailed in from the left, still a vast site despite it's much reduced output and rather uncertain future. Parts of it lie derelict and are, it seems home to an unofficial BR museum of sorts!
So with today's rarest of track covered and the record set right after the cancellations which followed the unceremonious scrapping of the Wolverton Works Open Day a couple of years back, we headed back south via the reverse of the complicated manoeuvres we'd taken to access the works. For me the final part of the tour was less novel, having covered the flyover at Bletchley previously - but as the daylight was holding it was good to be seeing where we were heading this time. At Denbigh Hall Junction South we peeled away and climbed behind Bletchley station, curving west over the unloved but impressive concrete viaduct which stands as a folly to BR management - opened to keep the Oxford-Cambridge 'Varsity Line' traffic from crossing the WCML on the flat, it soon foundered - the 'modern' hump yard at Swanbourne sensibly knocked on the head as those at Tinsley and elsewhere were proving less useful than expected. Then the passenger trains ceased too, and now the line proceeds only to a run-around at Swanbourne where interested neighbours poked their heads out of windows and waved at us. The line doesn't end, but from here through to Claydon it is unused - and having frustratingly visited both ends, there is hope that the now funded East-West Rail project may join up the gap and provide Oxford-Milton Keynes services, with ambitions to restore the final but more complex link to Cambridge too.
Reversing once more we headed back over the viaduct with the sun beginning to set, then down the eastern arm which descends to join the line to Bletchley. At Fenny Stratford we reversed again, curving back to meet the mainline near the now almost abandoned Bletchley Depot, still kept remarkably tidy I noticed. Finally we had the fun of a fast run into Euston arriving a surprising ten minutes early - with the odd novelty of a railtour finishing before 6pm. However, it had been an incredibly successful day - mostly on time, all of the interesting stuff done in daylight and exactly as planned and described. I don't do many of Mr Farrow's trips - because they start in London most often, and have few non-dining options primarily - but the reawakened 'Forgotten Tracks' programme has provided some gems in recent times. Long may they continue to provide fantastic days out like this one.
The desperate dash through January continues, with more mileage accrued. Customary start to proceedings – off at 06:33 in the dark, with a change at Weston for 1M42. Breakfasted around Yate Middle, a little later than planned. The weather developed into a cold, bright morning with daylight finally breaking somewhere around Cheltenham. As we passed Stoke Works the Malvern Hills emerged from the mist in the middle distance, and I couldn’t help but feel pleased I’d opted for this odd programme of trips to kick off the year. The Malverns have always had a strange effect on me – and I can’t help but think of how I could see them every day from the raised plateau of playing fields behind my first primary school. They stirred something primeval in me even back then, as I distinctly remember getting into hot water for forming a small cult who would sort of worship the hills then run around making silly noises at playtime. Not a great move in a Church of England school I suppose. Into Birmingham via Camp Hill once again, with enough time to get coffee before the empty stock of the Newcastle service arrived at the platform.
A carriage to myself as far as Derby, when a group of real ale enthusiasts got on, and chattered excitedly about their planned day. Almost wish I could have joined them as a wander around Sheffield’s hostelries would have been welcome in the winter sunshine. Resisted however, and on arriving at Sheffield decided to explore the much refurbished station. To put it bluntly, it used to be a dark, filthy hole of a place with outdated customer information systems, nasty little corners where odd people could lurk unseen, and a general feeling of claustrophobia. How different now – a bright new footbridge over light, clean platforms with clear screens. The concourse is open and airy with plenty of shops and facilities, but a bit of a scramble for the solitary working ticket machine. Queued at the ticket windows instead to rebook for Barnetby, before heading out to watch activity in the busy station.
A little before time, 153315 trundled into platform 1B and three of us boarded the Cleethorpes train. In fact, five boarded but a couple realised that a Transpennine service across the platform would get them to Barnetby and beyond much quicker. The guard seemed to guess that I was some sort of crank from the outset, and didn’t even advise me of the faster service! So it was me, a couple of passengers for Worksop, and from Gainsborough Central onwards, a pair of curious spotter types with their bicycles. The train didn’t really get a great deal busier throughout the journey but what can you expect of a service which runs infrequently on a Saturday only? An interesting bit of new track, with some curious little places along the way, including the very attractive station building – now a dwelling – at Kirton Lindsey. But Brigg had been selected as the nominal goal of the day, and nothing prepared me for how desolate it was going to be. A couple of crumbling platforms, a rusting footbridge and an exit onto the back of a small industrial estate. I stuck to the original plan, and pressed onward for Barnetby.
I’d been concerned about this connection – twelve minutes off a slow, regional limited service onto a Transpennine train into Sheffield the quick way. As it happened, we ran to time all the way, and entered Barnetby station a little early in fact. Time to attempt a snap of 153315 basking in the sunshine, and to watch several passing freights – even in the short time I was there!
Just about on time, the strange hybrid liveried 158750 arrived – half old style Regional Railways Express and half First Transpennine. Things ran slowly but smoothly from here. The line between Scunthorpe and Doncaster seems prone to delays and slowness in my experience. As ever, we crawled throw Crowle and didn’t really get going until a little before Doncaster where we were held again for a London-bound GNER service to pass into the station. From here, a further sluggish drag along the dull bit of line through Conisborough and into Sheffield, completing the circle for me. More people watching at the station until the 15:53 arrived a little early, and a smooth and uneventful journey back into Weston for my connection home.
You Need A Mess of Help To Stand Alone 21 years ago
Posted in Updates on Friday 21st January 2005 at 11:03pm
A week of plodding forwards and moving backwards. Finally conviced people at work I needed to just get on with things - and things promptly stopped happening completely. By the end of the week, the air of disinterested composure I try to convey clearly wasn't working at all anymore.
Anyone who works in School Admissions will understand the level of panic I'm facing just now. Awaiting a much delayed patch from our IT suppliers, trying to second guess what it will do, and trying to plan some kind of contingency if it doesn't do what it should. In the midst of this, some people seem to be engaged in an inter-LEA points scoring match which I'm dangerously close to the centre of.
The most frustrating thing is, I know I can do this job well. I've got excellent collaborative relationships with the onsite IT team, I've just about got a handle on how things work. What I haven't got is ultimate control over what happens when... and that, I'm sorry to say is what some people seem to want.
This rant is pointless, and probably misdirected. It comes at the end of a week where almost everything has gone wrong or underwhelmed me in some way. I've tried half-heartedly to plan for my leave at the end of the month, and even that has been unrewarding and dull because of the pervading sense of people mistrusting me and expecting me to fail.
Need to turn things around somehow.
Lost::MikeGTN
I've had a home on the web for more years than I care to remember, and a few kind souls persuade me it's worth persisting with keeping it updated. This current incarnation of the site is centred around the blog posts which began back in 1999 as 'the daylog' and continued through my travels and tribulations during the following years.
I don't get out and about nearly as much these days, but I do try to record significant events and trips for posterity. You may also have arrived here by following the trail to my former music blog Songs Heard On Fast Trains. That content is preserved here too.
