Tag: Nuneaton

July 23rd -By the time of my return, the sun was shining hazily, and things seemed to be drying out a bit. It was still threatening, but the ride home was dry and uneventful. At Nuneaton, the light was interesting, and highlighted the exaggerated perspective of the railway and it’s architecture. I love the accentuated vanishing point, the repetition and recursion. The forest of overhead metalwork – every member in that mess of stanchion, gantry and wire does something. 

For a quite simple idea, the railway is incredibly complex and deeply fascinating.

June 27th – I came home in a rainstorm. It was drizzling steadily as I left Leicester, and it was steady, too, at Nuneaton. By Lichfield Trent Vally, is was heavy, and driven by an evil wind. I battled home without waterproof trousers, I was soaked, the traffic was horrid. Summer this year seems elusive…

July 26th – I’m really liking this summer malarkey. I think it might catch on. Commuting in just a teeshirt and jeans is so liberating. This morning it was dull, but warm. Whilst changing trains at Nuneaton, I leant my bike up against the glass of the waiting room. As I did so, I noticed this little indicator of the advancing seasons: a moth. I’ve no idea what species it is, but the way it was resting caught my eye. With the warm sun and still conditions, there will be a lot of Lepidoptera emerge over the next few days. There’s been a marked shortage this year. 

Hello, little fella. Welcome to summer!

April 19th – I’m fascinated by the machinery of the railways. I’m no train spotter, and wouldn’t cross the road to watch a train go by. However, as a train traveller of a certain geeky nature, things like signalling, communications and the weird and wonderful machines that one sees whilst negotiating the morass that is the British railway system hold a certain fascination. At a wind-blown and damp Nuneaton, there sat an incredibly complex ballast regulating machine. This Austrian made train levels, adjusts and cleans the ballast, the bed of shale under the track, and keeps the track in perfect condition. Usually run with a tamper (the yellow machine parked behind), a train that measures and corrects the sleeper and track positions, this is a very complex machine indeed. While I was admiring it, a General Motors class 66 locomotive trundled through the station; at a little over walking pace, it clanked its couplings, pulling upwards of thirty containers behind. The raw, yet controlled power of that – the noise, vibration and sheer presence – is awe inspiring.

You’d have to be dead not to be impressed by that…

November 28th – A day in Leicester again, so I shot down to Lichfield Trent Valley before dawn. Dawn itself came just before Nuneaton, where I change trains. From the platform, the railway and it’s peculiarly universal vanishing points made for in interesting view in the golden morning sunlight. Sometimes, the oddest things can be precious.

November 7th – a drizzly wet, frustrating day. I took lots of photos today, but only a couple of ones I took of Nuneaton Station came out anywhere near good enough to use. I was in Leicester for work, which necessitates two trains – one between Lichfield TV and Nuneaton, and one from Nuneaton to South Wigston. I don’t normally mind this journey at all – it’s relatively quick and Nuneaton isn’t a bad station to change at. The London Midland service down the Trent Valley line which is normally excellent has been lousy so far this week, and on my way home, wet, tired and irritable, my train was cancelled. Faced with waiting an hour for another train that may not turn up either, I thought hard and got a train into Birmingham instead, and from there another to Shenstone. Two hours late I arrived home. 

Life can be trying sometimes.

August 4th – Nuneaton Station is a lovely interchange. I really don’t mind being there at all – good lifts, decent coffee shop, clean and tidy. Certainly one of my preferred stations, and when visiting Leicester, I change trains here. Have to say though, that’s one of the most horrific public murals I’ve ever seen. It’s vicious. Careful now, it’ll have your eye out…