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September Publishing - Geoff Marshall

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210 pages

English

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vicki pipe geoff marshall First published in 2018 by September Publishing Copyright Vicki Pipe and Geoff Marshall 2018 The right of Vicki Pipe and Geoff Marshall to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988. All photos copyright Vicki Pipe unless otherwise stated. The authors have made every effort to obtain permission from the properties and individuals photographed to include their images in this book. Please do get in touch with any enquiries or any information relating to this at info@septemberpublishing.org. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright holder Maps and quaint scale by Liam Roberts Design by Clarkevanmeurs Design and Martin Brown Printed in Poland on paper from responsibly managed, sustainable sources by Hussar Books ISBN 978-1-910463-87-1 September Publishing www.septemberpublishing.

Informations

Publié par	September Publishing
Date de parution	16 octobre 2018
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781910463987
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	9 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0500€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

vicki pipe geoff marshall
First published in 2018 by September Publishing
Copyright Vicki Pipe and Geoff Marshall 2018
The right of Vicki Pipe and Geoff Marshall to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All photos copyright Vicki Pipe unless otherwise stated.
The authors have made every effort to obtain permission from the properties and individuals photographed to include their images in this book. Please do get in touch with any enquiries or any information relating to this at info@septemberpublishing.org.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright holder
Maps and quaint scale by Liam Roberts Design by Clarkevanmeurs Design and Martin Brown
Printed in Poland on paper from responsibly managed, sustainable sources by Hussar Books
ISBN 978-1-910463-87-1
September Publishing www.septemberpublishing.org
Contents

Map 6
Introduction: 7

1 First, Choose Your Place 11
2 Remember to get off at the Right Station 37
3 Don t Forget About The network 75
4 Talk to as Many People as you Can 103
5 You can t help but love the trains 137
6 have your own adventure 159

All The Stats 200
References 202
Thank you 205
Index 206

introduction
our All The Stations journey

During the spring and summer of 2017 we, that s Vicki and Geoff,
undertook an adventure to travel to all 2,563 national railway stations
in Great Britain. Crowdfunded by 1,564 people on Kickstarter, we cap-
tured photographs and posted them on social media and filmed the
entire experience, sharing it with our followers on YouTube. Now we ve
written this book as we want to inspire you to get out there and have
your own railway adventures too.
Vicki: For me it s the people that make the railways such an excit-
ing place to explore. Railways have such a dramatic impact on our
lives, they connect us to places and people that we would otherwise
not think to reach out to. The process of travel and adventure helps
us understand ourselves, our communities and the communities of
others in a way no other activity can.
Geoff: I ve always been fascinated by the infrastructure and the
systems that make the railways work. Understanding timetables and
how one facet of the system interconnects with another is a puzzle that
never ceases to change, and I am constantly eager to learn how it all
comes together.
Together we wanted to really see where the railways could take us,
to bring to life the places and stations which for so long had just been
indistinguishable names on a map. How pleasant is Pleasington? How
awe-inspiring is Loch Awe? Is there really a Hall i th Wood? And who
exactly are the 12 people using Shippea Hill station every year?
Another crucial factor was the realisation that Britain s railways are
changing. In the next five to ten years, services that exist now will
become twice if not three times as fast; some may not even exist at all.
The trains we travel on will have been replaced and the idea that you
can live in London and commute to Edinburgh may just have become
a reality. Technology is advancing the way we shape our lives and how
we travel at high speed (pun intended). We wanted to take our journey
and document it for posterity, for people to look back on and under-
stand what Britain s railways were like in 2017.
Introduction | 7

But we got more into the bargain. We met people who shared their
time, their knowledge and their railway experiences more generously
than we could have imagined. They gave us lifts, gifts and told us about
their communities, how the railways affect them, the good and the bad.
Where services are efficient opportunities flourish, in areas with more
limited choices people can find themselves isolated. As the nucleus of
many communities, the railways are not just a mode of transport, they
have shaped the country and they continue to shape people s lives.
And the journey itself is sometimes the best part of all. Unlike travel-
ling by car you don t have to choose a designated driver; that decision
has already been taken care of. Everyone can be part of the adven-
ture. Relax and spend time watching the landscape change through
the window, share stories or plan the details of your day. It s in these
moments that you might decide to be spontaneous and completely
change your route - we made some of our best discoveries by get-
ting out at unexpected places, just because we could. And, you never
know who might be sitting just across the aisle from you. Chances are
there will be someone local to where you re going, an expert who can
tell you all the best places to visit, as well as which ones to avoid.
Be curious, ask questions and take your time - you never know
what you might discover. Whether you go just a few stops further than
normal on your daily commute, travel to the other side of the country or
break your journey to explore that interesting building/castle/statue/
topiary you ve always noticed from the train, all are an adventure.

To the trains!

Previous pages | The view form the Ffestiniog Railway, just pulling out of Porthmadog station (see page 168 ).
10 | The Railway Adventures
CHAPTER
first, choose your place

1
First, choose your place

First, you have to choose where to alight, and with so many interest-
ing areas to explore that is one of the most exciting and challenging
aspects of the journey. While you can find loads of information online,
we recommend using local knowledge. For our challenge, we asked
for tips and suggestions from the Great British public on social media
and, as it turns out, the public are incredibly passionate about where
they live or used to live - the places they grew up, where they went
to school or where they ve visited their grandparents every Sunday
for the last 20 years. Ask your friends and family, question your col-
leagues, you could even pop a message out into the Twittersphere.
You will notice that while passions are predominantly positive, people
also feel compelled to tell you where you shouldn t go - however, we
found that unravelling why we shouldn t go somewhere often gave us
more insight into that place s identity than those locations we were
told were must see (see Welsh Valleys, page 18 ).
We received literally hundreds of suggestions, and every single tip
went into our Master Spreadsheet , but we knew there was no way we
would be able to visit every place we d been given. We quickly devel-
oped two key questions to help us decide where to alight:

1. Is it within walking distance (or a reasonable taxi ride) from the station?
2. How long have we got before the next train departs?

Of course, having a railway adventure isn t just about travelling on trains. It s about exploring the places the railways take you.
12 | The Railway Adventures
Right | Our recreation of the Oasis single cover Some Might Say . If only we d have been able to find some fish.

You don t even have to spend an entire day somewhere. If you ever
find yourself with a 40-minute change over somewhere, you can most
certainly fit in a mini explore. It s easy to do this at the very central
city stations, such as Birmingham, Glasgow and Cardiff, but it s also
doable in smaller areas too, like Canterbury, Hinkley, Largs, Penmaen-
mawr, and that s just for starters.
We often found that the activities we hadn t planned turned out to
be the most interesting and exciting moments of the trip. If someone
you are chatting to becomes very animated, or if you receive multiple
YOU HAVE TO GO AND SEE . . . tip-offs, always reroute if you can.
Just like when we travelled through Derbyshire. Originally, we had
planned to end our first day at Matlock; however, we d received so
many messages telling us that Cromford station (on the same branch)
was used as the location for the cover of the 1995 Oasis single Some
Might Say that we simply couldn t ignore the opportunity to take a
closer look.

Of course, your adventure doesn t have to be about historical
sites or pop culture references. On our challenge we also wanted to
explore the current status of the railways. To discover how they work,
and work differently in different parts of the country, and also how
they are used and what they are used for. The idea that the network
provides something more to society than just a service from A to
B is often overshadowed in day-to-day announcements about can-
celled trains, changing franchises, performance statistics, timetable
First, choose your place | 13
Right | We met Sir Peter Hendy outside Euston station just a few weeks into our journey. Sir Peter was also a Kickstarter backer for the project, and adopted Dalston Junction and St Erth stations as his reward.

alterations or the costs involved in upgrading a line. But as Sir Peter
Hendy, chair of Network Rail, told us when we asked him what he
thinks the railways are for, It s very important people realise its huge
place in the society and economy of the Britain we live and work in.
From the building of infrastructure and the systems that make the
network run, to the people who work and use the railway as well as
the connections between different places along the way, our adven-
ture taught us there is almost no aspect of modern Britain that the
railways do not impact.

Discovering new locations, talking to local people, hearing stories
that have shaped those places at different times and being able to
see first-hand where it all happened, where it still happens, has given
us a unique and comprehensive perspective of Britain which we never
could have envisaged at the beginning of our adventure.
Every place, no matter how