2007

This was as we were arriving in Leeds. I didn't get any station shots since I was in too much of a hurry to get my connection and the light was horrible.

This wasn't my train, but it was one of the first ones I noticed upon arrival in Bradford.

This is the new Northern Trains livery, sort of a purplish blue, on the train that took me over the final leg of my journey to Bradford Interchange.

Northern Trains is also part of the Metro Trains system serving West Yorkshire, and this is an advertisement included in their new livery on some of their trains.

Here's an additional bonus shot of my departure from King's Cross, which I forgot in include earlier. I hope you like it. Notice that in addition to the Intercity 225s, there's also an older Intercity 125 peeking out. GNER use them to serve cities north of Edinburgh that don't have electrification.

I was unable to get a lot of information about this hotel online, other than how to reserve a room, but my understanding is that it's a former railway hotel. Any further info would be welcome.

This is the Bradford City Hall notable for its clock tower and the fact that it features a statue of Oliver Cromwell, unusual since he wasn't popular and is often considered illegitimate. As with the Great Victoria Hotel photo, this shot regrettably suffers from glare, whiting out part of the clock tower. Also notable in this photo are the double-decker buses. Don't believe the media when they tell you that they're gone. :-) Transport For London pulled their fleet of 50-year-old AEC Routemaster double-deckers out of service a year or two ago, and then the media ran with it and claimed that all the double-deckers were gone. In actual fact, double-deckers survive in various forms all over Britain, even in London. It's just that London doesn't have Routemasters anymore. These don't look like Routemasters, though. Does anybody know what they are?

This is Tyrell Street in Bradford (thanks to Lordrich for the name). The ornate building on the end is the former wool exchange, now a bookshop.

This ornate building, one of the best known and regarded in Bradford, was once the Wool Exchange, but is now a bookstore.

We were told that photography isn't allowed in the bookstore in the old wool exchange...unless you're there to take pictures of the ceiling, which is also the roof. :-)

Here's another shot of the Class 333 a second or two later.

The Midland Hotel gets its name from the Midland Railway, as it was a railway hotel.

Bradford, a city of a quarter of a million people, is large enough to have two major rail stations, Bradford Interchange, which hosts diesel trains, and Bradford Forster Square, which can also host electrics. This is the throat for Bradford Forster Square, as you can see from the cantenary. The train is a Class 333 EMU, once used only on Heathrow Express services in London but now common in other parts of Britain as well, most notably on the Metro Trains services operated by First Northern in West Yorkshire, as here. These trains, while only EMUs designed for local services, and originally the Heathrow Express, can operate as fast as 100 m.p.h., and do so even on the Heathrow Express, making them the fastest trains in Greater London. This, however, is not London. :-)

This is another arrival by a different Class 333. Although it's on the outgoing track, notice, that it's being switched over from the arrival track to take an out of the way platform on its far right.

Here's a departure from Bradford Forster Square, heading straight out on the outbound track, which in Britain is of course on the left.

Here's the same departure a few seconds later.

I was walking up a hill with my friends, and I saw this photo opportunity, and took it. I really liked how the setting sun was illuminating the city skyline, such as it is.

No, I'm not a student at Bradford, and never have been, but I do have friends there. I took this shot more or less randomly, and amazingly it came out nicely, even though I was using my built-in flash at close range. Okay, so Old Speckled Hen is a recent development, not an old authentic English ale at all, but it is a NEW authentic English ale!! :-) It's also very good.