Author Archives: Tim Hall

Further Up North

Posted on January 2, 2013 by Tim Hall

Northern Rail's 156448 enters Haltwhistle with a Newcastle to Carlisle train, on the northermost of the trans-Pennine lines.

A few more photos from my trip up north in June 2012. This one shows a Northern Rail class 156 at Haltwhistle on the northernmost trans-Pennine line, the one running from Newcastle to Carlisle. The station retains the old North Eastern Railway footbridge and tall signalbox.

Jazz four-piece Brass Jaw play an impromptu set on the concourse of Carlisle station to promote the Glasgow Jazz festival.

So there I was, drinking a coffee at Carlisle station, when suddenly this happened. The jazz combo were Brass Jaw, promoting their forthcoming appearance at The Glasgow Jazz Festival with a set at each major station between Glasgow and London

Freightliner Heavy Haul's 66553 pauses at Carlisle on a northbound train of coal empties returning to Scotland.

This was more the sort of photo I was expecting to take at Carlisle. Freightliner Heavy Haul’s 66553 on a northbound train of coal empties, which will probably have come off either the Newcastle-Carlisle or Settle-Carlisle lines, having delivered it’s coal to one of Yorkshire power stations.

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When will people realise that higher and higher train fares aren’t “investment in better services” but the entirely avoidable overheads of the cumbersome structure of the privatised railway?

Posted on January 2, 2013 by Tim Hall | Comments Off

North York Moors

Posted on January 1, 2013 by Tim Hall

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Some photos from The North York Moors Railway plus a few of Whitby, taken in June 2012, on one of the very few days that year when the sun actually came out.

Veteran class 24 locomotive D5061 at Pickering having just brought the first train of the day down from Whitby. This locomotive is almost as old as many of the BR Standard steam locomotives on the railway,

They’re not all of kettles; quite a few are of the veteran Class 24 D5061, which is probably as old as the 9F

The long-disused viaduct that once carried the Middlesborough to Scarborough coast line across the Esk at Whitby.

I do like this shot, taken from the train window, of the long-disused viaduct that once carried the coast line between Middlesborough and Scarborough across the Esk just outside Whitby.

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And finally, the ruins of Whitby Abbey, taken at sunset, after first taking precautions against being bitten by goths.

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I loathe having to go through the “forgotten password” rigamarole just so I can leave a comment on someone’s blog. Yet another way in which spam has ruined the internet.

Posted on January 1, 2013 by Tim Hall | 1 Comment

Mostly Autumn at Bilston Robin 2

Posted on January 1, 2013 by Tim Hall

Mostly Autumn's 2012 Xmas Show at Bilston Robin 2

Some photos from Mostly Autumn’s Christmas show at Bilston Robin 2. With the sleigh bells and Santa hats towards the end, it’s very obvious what time of year it comes from. Musically it was superb; as the fifth of six back-to-back gigs the short tour probably peaked with this show, with the band full of energy, playing a setlist drawn heavily from the new album “The Ghost Moon Orchestra” mixed with plenty of old favourites, and of course those Christmas covers.

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Chantel McGregor, The Flowerpot, Derby

Posted on December 31, 2012 by Tim Hall

Chantel McGregor at The Flowerpot Derby in December 2012A few photos from the fantastic gig by Chantel McGregor at The Flowerpot in Derby at the beginning of December. If you haven’t seen Chantel live before, her guitar-shredding mix of blues and rock is not to be missed.

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Panic Room – Bilston Robin 2

Posted on December 29, 2012 by Tim Hall

Panic Room's Christmas gig at Bilston Robin 2 on 2nd December 2012

Some photos of Panic Room, as well as the supports Morpheus Rising and Howard Sinclair, taken from the stunning Christmas gig at Bilston Robin 2 on December 2nd.

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Thunderer at York

Posted on December 29, 2012 by Tim Hall

Preseved Class 50 locoomotive 50008 Preseved class 50 locomotive No 50008 “Thunderer” standing in the December sunshine outside the National Railway Museum in York. It wears the “Laira Blue” livery from the locomotive’s final months in main line service, where it was used as a dedicated railtour locomotive after the class were withdrawn from regular service. It’s a sobering thought that this locomotive has now been a museum piece for almost as long as it was in traffic now.

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Fate Core

Posted on December 29, 2012 by Tim Hall

Just as crowdfunding has revolutionised the independent music sector, it’s been having a similar effect on the world of roleplaying games. Most recently, Evil Hat Productions‘ Kickstarter for Fate Core has been a runaway success, reaching it’s initial target within hours, then hitting stretch goal after stretch goal.

Fate has to be one of the most revolutionaly pencil-and-paper game engines to be developed over the past decade or so. It grew out of Fudge, with “Aspects” as a very elegant mechanic improving on what I felt were Fudge’s weaknesses. Games such as the two-fisted pulp action Spirit of the Century, the hard-SF space opera of Diaspora, and the licenced monster-mash urban fantasy of Dresden Files built on Fate’s core engine adding new mechanics and game tools to support many genres and styles of play. It developed the so-called “Fate Fractal”, in which everything from equipment to an entire nation can be modelled as a character. Fate Core aims to be an improved and streamlined core engine on which the next generation of Fate games can be built.

Pledge just a quid (although most people seem to have pledged far more than this) in order to get the finished printed book), and you can download the current laid-out version of the core rules. No art, and some details may be tweaked for the final release, but it’s a complete game.

If Fate is your sort of game, and you haven’t contributed yet, what are you waiting for?

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RIP Gerry Anderson

Posted on December 29, 2012 by Tim Hall

Gerry Anderson, who died at Christmas, was a major part of my childhood. As noted science-fiction author Alastair Reynolds said on Twitter, Anderson created a future that seemed believable and lived-in. He filled the loosely-linked universes of Stingray, Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet with vast engineering projects, all lovingly created in miniature, then frequently blown to bits at the end of the episode. And it was all made in my home town of Slough, in an industrial unit so anonymous nobody is now completely sure which one it was.

It’s remakable how well his 60s work stands the test of time, and has been proved by the number of times it’s been repeated to enthrall new generations. Compare it with the cardboard and plasticene of Dr Who from the same period, for example. And it’s all from an age where children’s TV weren’t just glorified toy marketing campaigns. I don’t think there ever were toys made of half the machines from Thunderbirds.

And we mustn’t forget Barry Gray’s magificent scores, which I’m sure had an effect on my taste in music over the following decades. How many other TV series had incidental music still memorable after 40 years?

So farewell Gerry. You were someone who knew how to capture the imagination of every seven year old.

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