Review of 2017 : Music A-Z

As is traditional now i create an end-of-year review playlist of some of the best songs of the ending year. I do them as an A-Z of artists though some letters do not have artists so i've added a few duplicates to fill it out.

Trams and drains... a final London adventure for 2017

The last couple of days i have been in London having a final rail adventure for the year. As is usual recently i have been aiming to visit as many new stations as i can to gather content for my stations blog - well i now have eleven more potential posts. I also finally saw the new 707 EMU after a couple of near misses earlier in the year.

A highlight though was travelling on London's tram network, the Croydon Tramlink. The final part of Transport for London's mighty empire for me to explore (well ignoring the cable car anyway). I also travelled on the Waterloo & City Line again (aka "The Drain") which is also fun. Earlier today i visited the Northern terminus of the Bakerloo Line and a few other stations, i just have three left to visit before i can "clear" that (and my favourite of course) line. An objective for 2018! You can see my photos here.

Review of 2017 : November

I've always found November is a bit of a nothing month like February, it just exists to space out the year with nothing much exciting happening. Well November was still a fairly busy month for my travels. I tried a new model this month in visiting a single station in a short visit and not trying to fit so much into one morning. The model was trialed with a trip to Danzey and again for a trip to Wood End later in the month. In both cases the station was more or less all there was to see and needed to be visited for my stations blog. I've used this short trip model again in December and will again in the Winter months in 2018.

A longer trip was made to the North West, including the North West Museum of Motor Transport and the Sankey Canal - both in St Helens. I paid my first trip to the LT Museum Depot in Acton this year and also did some rail exploring around West London. I also had time at the end of the month to visit Stafford station.

Song of the month was "home again" by Let Em Riot.

Danzey

North West Museum of Motor Transport

Sankey Canal

LT Museum Depot

West Midlands Railway

When i went to Stratford-upon-Avon i said it would be my last trip on London Midland as they changed to West Midlands Railway and London North Western the next day (the old franchise has been split into two new brands). Today i finally got to travel on a "West Midlands Railway" train - though in reality it was largely the same as a London Midland one just sans logos. I did see the only (so far) re-liveried WMR train though and Birmingham Snow Hill has been thoroughly rebranded.

In the new year more trains will receive the new purple and orange livery though judging by other train company changeovers (such as FGW to GWR)  it will probably be a few years before the old LM green and black livery is gone.

Blakedown

Time for a little rail trip after the Christmas break. I headed up to Blakedown in Worcestershire, a station near Kidderminster. Getting there was not easy though, overnight bad weather had thrown the railway into a bit of a confusion. Earlier trains were cancelled and the one i finally got terminated early at Stourbridge.

Well i got there in the end, i just stayed long enough to take a few photos of the rather lovely little church and the station of course (which has a rather nice signal box). You can see my Blakedown photos here.