A Buxton Blog - 4/8, it's MY 30th and I'll spend it alone on the trains if I want!

I woke late today and sneakily allowed Facebook to display my birthday again. Not late enough though, obviously, as I immediately got an inane "happy birthday" message from someone I have never quite got around to blocking. Damn, forgot about daylight savings time, it's only 9pm back at home. Peak Facebook usage time.

So what do I do today? Same as yesterday - nothing is better than complete happiness and gunzelling is better than hanging around doing nothing. Hey, if an Arab prince told me I could go anywhere in the world for my birthday I reckon Manchester Piccadilly would be fairly high on my list by any measure, and I'm right here!

So I'm here on a Sprinter going through the Dove Holes tunnel at 20mph. I think it's time to do a Buxton line 2020 timetable. Google Docs coming right up.

Piccadilly, where to go... it's raining so I don't want to be trackside taking videos today. A Pendolino ride to Stoke on Trent, that'd be a good start!

Argh, the wifi on Virgin standard class costs! Not even a free 15 minutes like the other lot have! Ah well this is what 3G's for. Hopefully it works at 200km/h... Chris reckons handover between towers means signal declines with speed. We shall see!

Responing to birthday wishes on Facebook at limited speed is patchy - just occasionally the signal will drop right out. But it's workable.

I get to Stoke on Trent and there's a London Midlands service going through the other platform. That deserves a photo or three because the Class 350s have a very striking livery. And it's a nice station for photos too, enclosed but with a clear roof. It actually seems to have been the pattern for both Geelong and Ballarat, with slight modifications. Operationally it's not all that efficient, with just two platforms and the through roads pulled out. If it has Pendolinos calling every 20min or so plus connecting services to other places nearby it must get a bit busy.

Incidentally I think I've hit on why the British method of running trains (spaghetti services and huge junction stations) seems to work - because over here they build in masses of surplus capacity. I'm sure if you wanted a path from Manchester to Buxton you'd only have to ask and they'd start writing an S Circular. The only reason it doesn't work at home is because we try to save costs on infrastructure by building it for just a bit more than the expected amount of traffic. As a result it's always difficult to cope with anything unusual, so the only way to run things is to keep unusual occurrences to a minimum. That includes having trains cross tracks at flat junctions. Both methods should work, and all other things being equal our method (well really the American method) should be cheaper. It's just a case of following it through...

So I get a Voyager back to Piccadilly and that has taken up most of my available time. So I do some local runs - to Heaton Chapel on a Class 323, my favourite noisy spark. Then rather than go up and down I decide to stay there and take photos - it's quite a pretty site for it.

Soon it's time to head home. Show tonight!

I'll let Chris tell you all about South Anglia's Patience, but let me say that it's been EIGHT YEARS since I was in the audience for Patience. Every other time I've been in it! So it's hard to stop singing when it's my turn.

At the beginning of the show Ian Smith, as part of his usual pre-show talk, asked for blokes to help carry set into the theatre for the pro show tomorrow - for some reason they didn't have enough people to do it all. As regular volunteers we of course jumped right in. It meant we didn't get our favourite table at the Festival Club (the one with the power point) but some things are more important. And hey, Neil bought us all a drink at the bar!

To me, this sort of thing IS what the Festival is all about. The people who run it can get up there in a 900-seat opera house and ask the audience to help move the set. And afterwards they remember who did it and make sure they don't miss out on a drink. Neil saw Chris doing up his usual reviews and mock-read from the screen "Neil is a terrible slave driver and kept us working way too long. We are dripping with sweat and missed out on the community singing of Patience. Any time one of the Smiths asks you to do something, run the other way." I raise my glass to you Neil.

South Anglia did a great cabaret - lots of funny stuff and lots of audience participation. The Angelico Contingent resolved there and then to spice up the Gasvic cabaret to be more like that... ideas were thrown around and will be evaluated by the cold light of dawn.

At 1am we were about ready to go and Jackie Mitchell asked us if we were at the uni, in which case would we mind walking her home. Of course we wouldn't. And do we have to tell her how much we loved her show? Why certainly. These are the kindred spirits you meet once a decade at home and once a week in Buxton.

So, let's tally up:

- Late morning

- Afternoon's gunzelling

- An excellent production of Patience

- An unexpected opportunity to be Really Useful

- Drinks I didn't have to pay for and a fun Festival Club evening

- A walk home with a kindred spirit

I think I'll have to turn 30 more often.

A Buxton Blog - 3/8, Out Gunzelling Because I Can

I woke up this morning and wondered what to do. There's a show I want to see tonight but nothing until then. Option A: go gunricing. Option B: hang around doing nothing. Clear winner: option A.

So I head to Manchester and decide to ride the Metrolink trams. They were down for upgrade last time so I'll be interested to see how they're going. The Metrolink station at Piccadilly hasn't changed but they have some new trams and they're working on some new lines. Must check it out.

I get to Victoria station and decide to jump off and look around. It's actually incredibly similar to London Victoria! And again it's being refurbed. Which is a good thing because it's pretty dingy. Hopefully they upgrade the exhaust extraction gear too...

I think I'd be safe guessing that Victoria and Piccadilly were built by competing rail operating companies back in the days, like Flinders Street and Spencer Street, or like the various London stations. Now it looks like Piccadilly is mainly the long distance station and Victoria is for shorter lines - but there's a Class 180 set sitting there so maybe not.

One rather cool thing is that the Metrolink stop is a platform like any other - although the main footbridge between the platforms doesn't include the Metrolink platform. Again hopefully that's something they fix.

I'm wondering what to do when a three-car Class 144 Railbus set comes in. I swore off Railbuses after the interminable trip to Rose Hill in 2007, but it'd be interesting to see what they're like with a centre car. It's a Leeds service but I don't want to go that far... hopefully there's an intermediate station within reach of town with high speed trains running through to photograph.

As we leave Victoria I notice the Metrolink is running in the rail reservation for a while. I think I'll have to ride the rest of the Bury line just to see where it goes. And wonder of wonders, there's a track linking the Metrolink with the main line!!! Odds bodikins, what can it mean? I saw ballast hoppers on the Tyne & Wear, but I also saw Sprinters running on the same track to Sunderland so that's more of a suburban rail system than a tram. On the other hand, as long as the loading gauge doesn't interfere with the overhead wires or platform facings, why not run rail-standard works trains? It makes sense.

As it happens the ride is way better than the Class 142 I had to Rose Hill. Of course that might be a lot of things - improvements in the Class 144, state of the track, or ride quality with a third car in the middle. It might even be the effect of the internal refurbishment, which to be honest is quite nice for a four wheel vehicle.

I get off at Castleton and miss out on a shot of a Class 158 set because it runs through just as I'm getting off. Argh. I cross to the up platform and take stock of the position.

This is part of the GMPTE area - services are run by Northern Rail but they're part of the Manchester suburban network. Station spacing etc is definitely suburban - a little bit long for a true metro but not really a long distance service. Service frequency is NOT metro quality though. I guess it's like the Melton line. But running suburban services through to Leeds is wrong - it would be like extending Melton services to Ballarat. If people from Rockbank want to go to Ballarat they can change trains, for goodness sake!

Now I'm on a train back to Manchester. It's a Class 150 Sprinter this time, with a fairly new-looking interior. Again not the right stock for a suburban service but like all operating companies they cascade older stock from premium long distance services onto stopping-all services once they get nicer stuff. What else could they do with it? Apart from export it to Australia to replace our H cars of course.

The ride on a Sprinter, back over the same track, is slightly better than the Railbus, which indicates that the track has more to do with the ride than the train... at least on this line where the curves are gentle. We get up some good speed too, at least 100km/h, which is better than we get anywhere on the Buxton line. Remind me to blog about the Buxton line one day soon.

Back to Victoria and it's time to pay a closer look at this Metrolink question. At the pedestrian crossing it's definitely tramway rail, with the full grooved section and all. But a little way along... bingo! It's classic railway profile rail on standard concrete sleepers, with a wear pattern that indicates tramway wheels have run on it. All is explained.

The Bury line is quite obviously an old suburban line - probably built by the company that ran Victoria station before they were all nationalised. Or maybe before that, I'm just guessing. It's a nice medium distance suburban line, sitting between metro and interurban like most of ours, except not overcrowded. All the platforms have obviously been shortened (really they've just been fenced back to the length of a tram and resurfaced between the fences). Signalling is railway-style coloured lights - only two aspects though, they obviously aren't trying to make this a super mass transit system (which is a shame because there's lots of opportunities for in-fill transit oriented development out towards Bury).

As we approach Bury I see locos... and not 66s and 57s either, old ones. And carriages, wagons and assorted stuff. When I get into the station I look around for leaflets and sure enough, East Lancashire Railway. Time to break my promise about not doing tourist railways...

Their summer weekday timetable has two trains running, a DMU and a steamer. The steamer is just arriving as I walk in, and it's the prototype for Bill and Ben! That deserves a photo or six. The DMU is unfamiliar but it gets photographed anyway.

Since I don't have time to ride the line and get back in time for the show tonight, so to support them I buy a drink from the Refreshment Room. Hey, it's a nice place to sit down and write up a blog! What a picture I must make, with my pint of Guiness, backpack, camera, clipboard... and netbook.

I have a deadline to get back to Buxton so I can't wait for the trains to come back unfortunately. I head back to the transport interchange (Metrolink station and massive bus bay) and there's a tram just about to depart. Nice.

Just as we get to Manchester Victoria the ticket inspectors tell me a BritRail Pass isn't valid for the Metrolink... either that's changed from two years ago or someone's got their wires crossed. Sighs. So I buy a ticket for the trip.

Now it's basically time to head home, but I'll drop in on the Metrolink info centre to see what there is about the upgrade. A map, that's a good start. WOAH they're intending to nearly double the size of the thing! This merits some more study later on at home!

I get to Piccadilly being an hungered, so I drop in on a place called the Pasty Shop in the station. Five quid gets me some wedges and a big meat pasty - the wedges are nothing special but the pasty is full of meat, potato and onion, with no gristle or fat. Very nice indeed. I think I'll make the Pasty Shop a regular stop on my gunzelling trips!

Double Sprinter set on the way home. It's sunny, all the windows are open, and the engines have quite a soporific note, especially in the sections where the rail isn't welded. Good thing Buxton's the end of the line.

Now I guess I'll hand you over to Chris to tell you about tonight's show. But don't worry, I'm sure there'll be something to say about the Festival Club tonight, because it's somebody's birthday and everyone will want to buy her a drink!

A Buxton Blog - 1/8, a day out

You? You were at Cambridge? What were you doing there? Buying a tie...

I woke early and proceeded to catch up on news from around the world. Eventually I decided to get out of bed. Phones, netbooks and wifi are just amazing.

Off to the station for the 8:27 up, run with a pair of Class 156 Sprinters. Hi lads, did you miss me? We take off dead on time and traverse the non-welded rail at full line speed.

The tunnel on the up side of Dove Holes has a 20mph sped limit, and from the sound of it the problem is the track. The vehicle was swaying a bit and the stone tunnel walls seemed very close... Wise move to slap a TSR on it.

I'm a bit rusty on the order of the stations on the Buxton line. Two years ago I could tell how far I was from home even while dozing. Two years before that, same. It'll come back!

The Sprinter's heating is on... which means the locals must think it's cold too, not just the semi-sub-tropical imports. Apparently it's been a cold summer. Global warming, you know, like our cold winter.

Ah, semaphore signals... I have to force myself to remember they're the regular in-service form of safeworking. How on earth can the drivers see them at night? I'll never know.

Stockport, time to get off. People obviously aren't used to this, and the vestibule arrangement and narrow door don't help. I guess I'm used to metro-style services where people pour from the train onto the platform.

I have to change for the Trans-Pennine Express, it's a hard knock life let me tell you. It leaves from Platform 0 - why does everyone find that remarkable? Computers have always counted from 0 and our railways are all computerised these days!

Ah, the Trans-Pennine Class 185, my very favourite. When I ride one of these I can almost forgive Siemens for screwing over the state of Victoria to the extent it did. Then again, if they can build stuff like this for First Group and not for us it really just shows that they don't care... so I'll go back to never forgiving them ever.

The tea trolley just came through. Yes of course there's a tea trolley on intercity trains, do you think they'd make passengers walk all the way to the buffet car? Come on now! I bought a hot chocolate for £1.65 expecting the usual "small" size but it turns out to be a medium. And the quality is well up there with cafe hot chocolate at home. At current exchange rate it's less than $2.50 so this is pretty good value!

Actually the train is fairly well loaded today. There's a few empty seats but not many. Several people have luggage aboard, and since there's nowhere else for it they have it in the doorway. As a Melbourne commuter I'l also sitting on the floor in the doorway - but this is the cushiest doorway I've sat in since the carpeted Hitachis were withdrawn. Carpeted Hitachis... Westcode brake blocks... excuse me a minute. Anyone got a tissue?

OK I'm back. Sheffield, home of... oh something to do with cricket. Heaps of passengers get off, including most of the luggage - there must have been some overseas trip with everyone flying back into Manchester. So I get a seat. The seats in this thing are like V/Locity seats, but with tray tables like a plane. I suspect I raved about the 185s enough on my last two trips, so I'll stow me jaw and tackle and belay.

Meadowhall - a suburban station, why should this thing stop here? The Sheffield Supertram runs in the rail reservation, I suspect I'll have to check this area out a bit more closely.

It's amazing - everywhere I look I see vacant rail reservation, as if there's been four or six tracks through here in the past or as if someone thought they might want to and made the reservation wide enough. It's amazing. How can such a history-loving and generally luddite nation be so forward looking compared to a young and free new-world country?

Damn the soundproofing on this thing! I just saw the tail end of a limestone train, and I was totally unaware of the loco passing! Could be it was idling going downhill though.

Doncaster, where I have to change for the service to London King's Cross. Once again, it's a hard knock life. There are locos around. One (with a well wagon) is sitting in our platform, that's naughty. After a few minutes the stick clears and it takes off for points unknown. A Class 158 is waiting to come in. Nah, I doubt that's ours. We'll be getting a high speed job of some sort, probably (since we're in LNER territory) a Class 91 and Mk.4 set.

As it turns out I'm right - but the train was on a centre track and had to come over to platform 1, and the 158 had to wait for it to cross in front before going into platform 2. This is a bad way of doing things - either let the 158 go first (since there was a loco in our way anyway) or put the London service in PL02. Now we're five down, and I don't care to imagine how far down the other train might be.

The PA comes over and apparently I'm in a Quiet Car. No matter, I was intending to be quiet. And there's wifi! Woohoo! Let's see if it works... 15 minutes free then £4.95 an hour or £9.95 a day. Well it's enough to post a blog from.

And now if you'll excuse me, I'm on a 125mph train so I'm going to milk it for all it's worth. This doesn't happen to me often you see. Talk soon...

A Buxton Blog - 30-31/7, an idle weekend

Nothing much happened this weekend, except that I was struck with a batter pudding.

Chris has covered the show in his own interminable manner. I was smitten with the dreaded lurgi with heatstroke on top of it, which I thought was an impossible combination, but there you go.

We went to church at the Buxton Methodists, the ones we went to last time and the ones that host the Sullivan service which is listed as part of the festival programme. To be honest I don't think we'll go there again next week - they seem to have been overrun with social gospel theology in the last two years, which is very disappointing. What's worse is that there are a lot more people there now than there were last time we attended... what does that say about people's itching ears?

In choosing another church Chris suggests we use my rule about bakeries and restaurants - don't try one without a personal recommendation. And we're unlikely to get that here. What to do?

This arvo we sat down together and nutted out a problem with the wireless router. Until now David and I had been using our 3G connections for everything, and it's temperamental, to say the least. So we set up a high level cache on Traal and now all three of us have access via the wired network, which has high bandwidth, low latency and unlimited traffic. Phew!

Agenda for tonight... festival club! Looking forward to it. I was too sick to go last night so I didn't get to meet everyone, that's a pleasure yet awaiting me. Tomorrow I go to Cambridge to meet Charli and share her joy at being selected for a course there including a part time paid teaching position. Long train ride FTW!

A Buxton Blog - 29/7, first day

I woke up this morning at quite a reasonable hour and headed to Aldi for some essentials. Over breakfast Chris and I tried to get the wifi working but they've gone and disabled NAT so Rosuav.com's UK operation is scuppered. Damn it.

David and I have just come back from the Vodafone shop, where Christian and Hannah gave us excellent service in the very best Midga tradition. Getting overseas phones to connect to 3G services is tricky but they kept at it and eventually got us going. Hooray! It took a couple of hours, for which glowing emails will be sent to their head office.

And now I have nothing (much) to do. I guess the thing to do is show David round town so he can't get lost, settle some rosters for shopping, cleaning up, cooking, etc and catch up on what the rest of the world has done for the last 48 hours.

Buxton Bound - 28/7 arrived!

It's just gone 10pm and we're settled down in our flats at the uni. For the sake of the narrative I will back track to the landing at Manchester.

David was snap-happy all the way down (I was thinking of telling him to stop as the wheels touched down in case he bashed himself in the face with the camera) so hopefully there's some good shots there. Coming down I recognized a Class 170 and a Class 185, which got me all excited. As we taxied in we saw some sort of observation point with a mini-museum attached - a Concorde in a building, and a Nimrod and something else outside. Must go check that out.

Getting off the plane was a pain in the neck, the business class people just didn't seem to move! Or maybe it just seems like it because we're tired and want to get out. Manchester Airport is quieter and less commercialised than most, it makes a pleasant change.

We had just missed our Route 199 bus from the Airport to Buxton, but that was OK because we had to find a money machine, a water fountain and open wifi, and of course take a gander at the 156 and 185 sets at the station. We also swapped over our SIM cards, and discovered that they'd been cancelled. So quite possibly our phone numbers are going to change. But I'll sort that out at Manchester tomorrow.

We got our bus, paid our £8.40 return fares, reacquainted ourselves with Stockport's massive bus station and railway viaduct, tried to tune out the conversation of a couple of drunks, and arrived in Buxton about 80 minutes later - much better than the two hours I estimated. Off-Peak traffic does make a difference.

The staff here at the uni greeted us with "Ah, three from Australia? Yes I have your keys here", and showed us to our rooms with zero fuss. I like working with competent people. We're all in rooms looking out over the railway viaduct, so my Class 66 alarm clock is (probably) back in business.

Right now I'm lying on my bed with Clippy on my lap, having peeled my socks and shoes off and opened the window to let out the noxious gases contained therein. I will now turn in and wake up at whatever time I feel like it, and hopefully adjust my body clock to this side of the world. Have fun!

Buxton bound - 28/7 last leg

Takeoff from Dubai was great - daylight means visibility, and that means we can see the sheer size of the place. Also the number of freight aircraft, which are converted from older airliners like 737-200s and 727s.

Dubai from the air is much like any other city, except bigger... and browner. There's quite a lot of street trees, but the overall look of the place is sand coloured not grass coloured. I didn't think any Australian cities had that much grass but there's obviously enough to make a difference.

Killing time... I've read all the emails on my phone, played the games until I'm bored with them, and watched all the nerd-friendly stuff on the plane's movie server. Sore gluteals, worse than when I went from Pakenham to the city stopping all stations on a Siemens train. Are we there yet?

It's 3:30 Melbourne time and we're less than an hour from landing. Apparently London and the Midlands are under ten tenths cloud because we can see nothing but glaring white light. David managed to snap a shot of a cu-num formation that looks like Stonehenge... using my brand new camera which he seems to have taken a liking to. Good thing I brought them both. And hey, it's good for him to have something other than a point and squirt to play with.

Forgot to say that this 777-300ER must be one of a new batch - the first thing we noticed was power, USB and ethernet at most seats even in economy! Also the entertainment system has been uprated with more movies etc, and widescreen LCDs with a more responsive touch screen. NICE.

We're about to land now so I have to shut Clippy down. brb...