Another fallow period for this website, gentle reader, regrettably one likely to continue for the remainder of this year due to an unreasonably intense workload coupled with a nasty dose of commuting. Having been blessed with the ability to work largely from home since the tail end of the last century, this has come as something of a shock to the system, I can tell you. I suppose I haven't really got much of a right to moan when I consider that some poor devils have to do the c-word for their entire working lives. But, by 47081's beard, it's getting on my wick...
Being something of an anoraky-nerdy-transpottery sort of chap, I try to travel by train whenever possible. Deep down I know it's A Good Thing, in a 'get you into heaven without having to go to church or be a vegetarian' kind of way. I stubbornly persist in the belief that, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, it's still a practical and efficient way to get from A to B when you live and work outside of the corner of the map with London on it. Even as I'm bullied, boiled, squashed, deafened and generally customer-processed (for my safety and convenience) en-route I'm still determined to enjoy myself - silly b*gg*r that I am. Strange as it might seem, I do actually manage this from time-to-time. I'm endlessly fascinated by observing the expanse of concrete that used to be the GWR's Walsall Street yard, or the state of play around Wolverhampton Low Level. I love to see the rose bay willow herb where a long gone secondary route used to join the main line, or the dense buddleia plantations where carriage sheds once stood. However, I can't help but notice my fellow travellers don't seem to share my increasingly desperate enthusiasms.
The train service between Shrewsbury and Birmingham (a section of line I can't avoid, no matter where I'm heading) is one of the worst in the land. I say this not with a typical commuter's unrealistic if understandable fixation with his local line's failings, but with the certainty of someone who spent the best part of 2006 travelling all over the country. I clocked up a colossal amount of rail miles last year, very pleasantly at someone else's expense. Whilst delays and problems were commonplace nationwide, the biggest struggle was always that last gammy leg of the journey, between Brum/Wolverhampton and Telford. Whatever little trials I'd had in Bradford or Bermondsey were always put very firmly into perspective.
Half of the services are advertised, if not run, by Arriva Wales and West, the remainder by Central. Whilst the latter outfit is not without it's failings, typically the provision of 2 car units on rush-hour services (if only a newspaper reporter had been on hand last week to see two young mothers with pushchairs being turned away from a train at Wolverhampton because it was physically impossible to force any more 'customers' through the doors) it's the one that seasoned commuters nevertheless aim to catch. It is, as they say, better to travel hopefully than Arriva. Whilst this story on the BBC site might seem at first glance to be typical of the anti-rail sensationalism beloved of our media*, it is in fact very much a 'day in the life' for my fellow commuters and I. It is, unfortunately, a very factual piece - Arriva cancels it's trains at Wolverhampton on a daily basis, leaving stranded passengers to make other arrangements for travel to Wolverhampton in the hope of an onward connection. If your employer isn't the kindly sort who lets you out early to catch a preceding train that might just connect, then hard luck. In a typical week I suffer at least 3 cancelled trains, this week it's been a gob-smacking 5. Give me a break! There're only 5 days in the working week, you useless b******s!
I don't, I must admit, know much about the law, something a solicitor friend of mine is all too keen to point out. I'm sure he'd be the first to emphasise that nothing fraudulent or criminal is going on. Hell, there's probably some obscure old law that says I can't even put these people up against a wall and shoot them. Nevertheless, to a clearly ignorant layman, something is not quite right here. How can a company continue to take money for services it demonstrably isn't providing, particularly when it has a proven track record of not providing them month in, month out, year in, year out? Why is this company not held accountable for it's actions? Why, especially when we're all expecting it to be kicked into touch as regards future contracts, are we told that Arriva has amazingly been rewarded with the cross country franchise?
I do know enough about the law to not repeat here some of the comments I've heard from fellow travellers over the last couple of weeks. Suffice to say speculation about what processes go on at government level as regards these matters seem to have a markedly consistent theme.
This ongoing tale of woe, unsuprisingly, leaves me little time for the finer things in life. I haven't been up the loft for an age now, whether to play trains or photograph new products, which explains the absence of website updates. I haven't done much prototype photography, either, which is my excuse for the somewhat tangential stock images I've used this time. I almost managed a snap of a shy and elusive Arriva 158 the other week, but a bl**dy unicorn got in the way.
I can't go without some remarks about the recent Bachmann Class 47 release, however pressed for time I might be. Perhaps I'll find an opportunity for a more detailed look with photos at a later date, but for now I'll just say I like it. For the asking price, I think it's the sort of good, solid, basic model that Bachmann can do so well when it makes the effort. It's what I'd class as an entry-level model if there wasn't already a whole heap of UK time-warp offerings of a much lower standard in the shops to confuse matters. It leaves the field wide open for a Super Duff from any interested manufacturer in the future, but will nevertheless serve many modellers well in the interim. I certainly intend to amass a small fleet to replace my dependable Heljan workhorses, if only because the Bachmann model looks much more 47-like than the Danish equivalent.
As an enthusiastic Duff-mitherer, I'm not 100% happy with the cab windows and a tad disappointed** with the overly begubinned bogie sides. These are detail issues, however, and I'm trying to keep them in perspective, it's just that the latter problem hits me squarely in the 'will we never leave the Lamer legacy behind?' nerve. I'm sure I'll get over it if I don't undermedicate.
I'm also chuffed to bits about Bachmann's Ivatt 2-6-0, if a little miffed that the boiler bunnies once again get a slightly better deal. The clumsy loco/tender coupling/wiring arrangement leaves a little to be desired (an area that Euro-Kettle models have handled transparently for many years now) and I'd like to have seen tender pickups, but I still love it. Easily my best purchase of 2007 so far.
* Steve Jones is not responsible for the content of external internet sites. Some of them may have been written by journalists.
** The word 'disappointed' has been used under qualified professional supervision. No Britons were hurt.
Currently On My Stereo: Les Claypool - Of Whales And Woe