Sun in April...!

 

It has been strangely warm for April. 
Is it climate change? 
Yes, one ascribes (wrongly) every odd weather-happening to climate change, but, then, odd things are happening.

PS  I was standing on a railway crossing to take this photo.  Not trespassing.

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SSR bridge - in brown & yellow

The South Staffordshire Railway Walk is a footpath that makes use of the now disused SSR line, but you can walk beneath its bridges of course, as I was doing here.
Somebody carefully restores the paintwork every so often - even though the railway company itself folded in 1923, giving way to the LNWR. 
These colours - a mud-brown shade, with borders of yellow must have been the colours of the SSR itself, one supposes.

Famous photograph

This form of photograph is quite famous.  There is something bleak and yet profound about converging railway lines rolling into the infinite distance - which is why photographers like it.

This last snowfall was a nice one - thick and not damp.

Thomas comes steaming down

The 'high' season for the Churnet Valley Railway is coming to an end, so they are pulling the stops out with all sorts of extra attractions to pull in visitors.

I was enjoying a pint at The Black Lion, which lies by the railway line in a quiet part of the valley, and had strolled out for some fresh air ... only to see Thomas The Tank Engine suddenly steaming down upon me.  Mildly terrifying.
It meant I had to have another drink.

Once a railway was here

Walking on the meadows alongside the River Anker near Tamworth, I saw a hillock of vegetation, and wondered what could have caused it to have appeared.  In fact, as you can see, it was actually a growth of weeds & more around a broken railway bridge. 
What happened to the railway line that once passed over it, I've no idea - dismantled and sold off I suppose... leaving just this forlorn bridge, to be slowly suffocated by time and Nature.

Watching the trains go by

The West Coast Main Rail Line runs through Staffordshire, with frequent services up and down.  There are lots of bridges in the county where one can stand around idly and ... just watch trains.

This is the view from Fosse Bridge at Creswell.  This little bridge is almost exclusively used only by the local farmers' cattle - and occasional walkers.

Warmer outdoors; at Oakamoor

Just now the state of the weather means it's warmer to be outdoors than in.  Our English cave-like houses get to be very cold about now, and (if the weather is as mild as it is at the moment) it is just happier to be outdoors.  (Well, until the sun goes down, and it turns freezing of course!)

One of the best walks in Staffordshire is around Dimmingsdale. Starting at the old Oakamoor rail station (in picture) is best. 
And then making sure that one drops in at the Rambler's Retreat restaurant/cafe - which sits all alone in the woods, waiting for passers-by - makes for a terrific route...

(Oakamoor rail station opened in 1849, as part of the then Churnet Valley Line).

Burton at Euston

Being a fan of things Staffordshire, it always gives me a buzz to see a Staffordshire reference in an unexpected place.

Recently, coming into Euston Station on my way home from London to Staffordshire, I glanced at the frontages of the old lodges, which face Euston Road.  The square, stone lodges are the last bit of the old Victorian part of Euston Station (and now house a small bar).

On the sides of the lodges are listed the names of all the towns that you can reach directly from Euston - including the likes of Glasgow, and so on.
I was surprised to see the name of Burton there.  Burton's rail link is now simply on a provincial line between Birmingham and Derby - there is no direct connection to Euston.  
It just shows how old these lodges are!

Railway colours survive

On the South Staffordshire Railway Walk, a footpath that has taken over the trackbed of the old SSR, you will still see, on the bridges over roads, these 'colours' - a mud-brown shade, with borders of yellow.
I'm guessing that these are the colours of the SSR itself.  Certainly,  the brown tint was the official colouring given to the SSR. 
The SSR was taken over by the LNWR in 1923.

Curiously, on the other side of this fencing (ie the side you can see from the road below), the colours are lavender & white...

What does it all mean?

Stafford Knot - railway style

The ‘Stafford Knot’ is the symbol of Staffordshire - as I like to point out in this blog quite frequently!  The symbol is at least 500 years old (though some argue its origins go back a thousand years). Everywhere round here that a reference to the county comes up in a graphic form, you’re likely to see the Knot.

These old gates mark the entrance to a railway property in Stoke, which would have been owned by the North Staffordshire Railway Company up to the company's demise in the last century. The NSR used the Knot as a proud statement of its origins.

Link: Stafford Knot

Railway niche

There’s a tarmac path that runs behind the town of Kidsgrove. Cyclists use it a lot, as it’s part of the ‘Sustrans’ national cycle network.

It’s actually what’s left of a section of the now dismantled ‘Kidsgrove Loop’ railway line.

Once one realises that, then the purpose of the niches in the side of the embankment wall becomes obvious. Railway workers would scurry into them to get out of the way of any approaching train.
The same concept is applied even in today’s road tunnels. Nothing changes!