Going To Hillsborough
The trip to Sheffield Wednesday didn’t start too well, as I got almost to the Angel on the bus to Kings Cross station, when I realised I’d forgot my pills. It wouldn’t have been too important, if I’d not gone back, as I planned to be back in my house about nine in the evening with some food to cook for supper and I could take the drugs then.
But I decided to go back and get them and in the end I just made the 11:03 train to Leeds. I would change for Sheffield at Doncaster and take a train to Meadowhall, where after lunch, I’d take a tram to the ground.
The trip up was excellent in First Class on East Coast. It was also notable in that the service was excellent with copious amounts of tea in proper English china cups from Stoke-on-Trent.
Tea In A China Cup On East Coast
We arrived on time at Doncaster and then it was one of the dreaded Pacers to Meadowhall.
If George Osborne wanted to buy votes, a large order for something like London Overground’s Class 172 to replace the Pacers would be an easy way to do it.
I did see the New Measurement Train or Flying Banana at Doncaster, which I’d seen a couple of years ago at Basingstoke.
The Flying Banana At Doncaster
There is an interesting difference in British and Japanese attitudes to names illustrated by the Flying Banana. The Japanese call their equivalent trains, Doctor Yellow.
I do wonder how many of the redundant Inter City 125’s will live on in this role. I wouldn’t be surprised if a couple even get exported to countries with long railway lines that need to be checked. After all to put the equipment in a brand-new train will be expensive, but to use a redundant and reliable diesel train, would be a lot cheaper. When checking overhead wires, I suspect that a diesel train may even have an advantage, as it doesn’t interact with the wires! And there aren’t many diesel trains that can do the testing at 200 kph!
Terry Miller’s iconic creation, never ceases to make fools of us all! But good engineering does that!
I had intended to go to Carluccio’s at Meadowhall for lunch, but after locating the restaurant after slaloming through, the hoards of obese people, who always seem haunt shopping centres, I was too short on time. Often these people make matters worse by pushing equally obese children in enormous buggies.
So I resorted to Plan B and bought some gluten-free sandwiches and a still lemonade in Marks and Spencer. This store incidentally, is by the bridge from the station, so is quick and easy to get to. One thing I noticed at Meadowhall is that they actually have proper Left Luggage lockers and lots of them.
Left Luggage Lockers At Meadowhall Station
So if you are going to an event like the football, Meadowhall is the place to unwanted bags (or babies), whilst you visit the city.
I did have one problem, as there was nowhere convenient to sit and eat my sandwiches.
The Tram Arrives At Meadowhall
This picture was taken as the tram arrived. Note the lack of seats. One of the London shopping centres has a garden, where you can sit in the sun. Eastfield certainly will have, as it is just a short walk to the Olympic Park. Meadowhall should provide something!
On my trip to Hillsborough, I didn’t see any seats at stops at all. Here’s the stop at Fitzalan Square.
Fitzalan Square Tram Stop
Note the improvisation on the left. At least most stops seem to have proper information with a map. One unique thing I saw as I walked down from the tram to Hillsborough was this sign.
A Unique Sign
So often, you approach a strange ground and there are no obvious instructions as to which end of the ground you go. That excellent sign at Hillsborough must have cost an absolute fortune, otherwise why don’t other grounds have them?
Shopping Centres Aren’t For Me!
Tomorrow, I’m going to Sheffield to see Ipswich at Wednesday. As there is now a Carluccio’s at Meadowhall, I thought that it might be an easy place to have lunch before the match.
I’ve booked a ticket out of Kings Cross to get to Meadowhall with a change at Doncaster, rather than go the obvious way of St. Pancras and Sheffield.
So I thought, I’d look up where Carluccio’s was in Meadowhall on the web. They are apparently in the Oasis Dining Area. But can I find a plan, which shows me where that is in the centre? No! Of course not! After all, the one thing I don’t want to do, is walk past every useless shop in the place, as I would expect few would have any goods that I would ever need. But that is what these infernal shopping centres want me to do, as they think I might buy something. But I’m going to a football match and then home to London!
After all, I’m only ever going to Meadowhall for one reason! And that is to have lunch!
In fact this is probably why I don’t use shopping centres. when I go shopping, I generally need some specific things and have a list of shops I will visit to get what I want! I don’t want to walk miles, when I need one specific item.
I suppose you could call it precision shopping. I arrive, buy and retreat immediately.
Often with John Lewis, I just go and check out what I need, write down the stock number and then go home and order it over the Internet.
They must love shoppers like me!
Sheffield Put The Don Valley Stadium Out Of Its Misery
The news yesterday that Sheffield City Council is to close the Don Valley Stadium Is something that should have happened years ago.
Although it is a fine stadium it is costly to run and out of scale with all of the other athletics venues in the UK, with the exception of the Olympic Stadium in London. Even Crystal Palace is smaller with a capacity of 16,000 as against the 25,000 of the Don Valley Stadium.
It is not just my view that this will be best for Sheffield and athletics, despite what some vested interests are saying. Respected BBC athletics commentator Mike Costello has said, that it the right decision as Sheffield has a superb indoor training centre in the English Institute of Sport and the council will be providing an alternative outdoor track. Probably, the whole of the UK needs more decent indoor 200 metre tracks and training centres, with some more well-maintained simple outdoor stadia, where everybody can get a taste for athletics on a proper track.
It was probably a massive mistake on the part of Sheffield to bid for the 1991 World Student Games. It doesn’t seem to have left the city with the sort of legacy that Manchester got from the 2002 Commonwealth Games, with a large stadium and a velodrome. The only legacy would appear to be the world-class Ponds Force pools.
Incidentally, does anybody have any memories of those World Student Games in 1991. I can certainly remember the Commonwealth Games in Manchester.
LED Street Lights In Sheffield
BBC Breakfast is covering this story in detail.
All street lights in the city are being converted to LED ones, that can be centrally controlled according to the conditions.
I can’t find the story anywhere on the web.
Does it show how low green issues sit in the minds of the average journalist?
Having used LED lights for years, I can’t understand this indifference to a technology that should be rolled out across the country.
An example was given, where Sheffield say they will change the light levels around evening football matches. Bright as they arrive and leave and low during the match.
How for instance are sensible lighting levels going to help in the fight against crime?
Midland Main Line To Be Electrified
It is being reported this morning, that the Midlands Main Line from St. Pancras station to Sheffield is going to be electrified. At present it only goes as far as Bedford, which must be one of the most stupid planning decisions by Railtrack and its predecessors.
But then there are several cases, where electrification stopped in the UK, rather than continue to its logical conclusion. I remember as a teenager, that the original plans for electrification in East Anglia included the branch line to Felixstowe. It should probably have included Ely to Norwich and Norwich to Yarmouth as well. Now there is a strong case to electrify Ipswich to Peterborough to haul all that freight from Felixstowe. Although the last bit would be difficult due to the number of bridges on the line, but hopefully when the line was upgraded for larger containers, they did it to allow for electric wires as well. But knowing the muppets in the Department of Transport, that like to think it’s their railway, deliberately didn’t, so that electrification would stay in the sidings.
This is what surprises me about Midland Main Line electrification being announced. Logically, it should be done before the Great Western, as it is a smaller scheme, doesn’t have a difficult tunnel like the Severn Tunnel and many of the current trains can be converted to electric operation, as I posted here. I think it is mostly three track too, which helps with the engineering.
But when do governments do things logically?
Have they seen sense or does Justine Greening read the railway press?
It will be interesting what is said on Monday.
Thinking about this more, we have to take into account the fact that a spur into Heathrow from the west has also been announced. Putting my old project management hat back on, I can’t help feeling that underneath all this is some very good project management. Three electrification projects on the go at the same time, all relatively close together mean that the expensive electreification train that Railtrack has bought can be fully utilised.
Does Sheffield’s Public Transport System Work For Visitors?
Of all the major cities I’ve visited; Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle and Sheffield, Sheffield seems to have the public transport system that is most understandable to visitors. I’ve left out Liverpool and Birmingham, where I didn’t have time to look at the systems. Although of course, Liverpool is different for me, as I know the city well.
In Sheffield, I was greeted by this walking map.
Walking Map at Sheffield Station
At the other side of the station, there was a proper information board explaining how the trams worked, with details on fares, routes and where all the places I needed to visit were located.
Sheffield station is also located closely to the major bus interchange.
Sheffield Transport Interchange
This picture shows the interchange with the station behind the buses.
If you arrived in Sheffield with just an address, you should be able to find your way very easy. One small point, is that if you need to walk to the bus interchange or the trams, it is generally under cover and pedestrian friendly.
I used the trams extensively on Day 31 and didn’t get lost once. The only thing they need is indicators at the tram stops to tell you how long you will have to wait. But all the stops do have good maps, which is very rare in the UK, except in London.
I didn’t actually use the buses, but then I didn’t need to as the trams covered everywhere I wanted to go and they had the maps to guide me from the stops.
Sheffield is unique in that it has two major train stations linked together; the main station and the one at Meadowhall Interchange. On Day 31, I arrived at the main station from Manchester and then when I returned from Scunthorpe, I arrived at Meadowhall. I left for London from the main station, but say if I’d been going to the north east, I could have left from either.
92 Clubs – Day 31 – Rochdale, Rotherham, Scunthorpe, Sheffield United, Sheffield Wednesday
This was an ambitious day, but I managed it.
I took the 06:17 from Euston to Manchester and then took the tram to Victoria for a train to Rochdale. It was then a taxi to see Rochdale ‘s ground which is shared with Rochdale Hornets, as the picture shows.
Rochdale's Spotland Stadium
To get to Sheffield for Rotherham, who play at the Don Valley Stadium in that city, it was back to Victoria and then another tram back to Piccadilly for a train across to Sheffield.
Don Valley Stadium
The stadium is one of the more unusual football grounds in the country, and the only one with a still-used athletics track. It also has very good access from the Sheffield Supertram.
From there is was on to Scunthorpe on one of the awful Pacer trains, to view the worst stadium, Glanford Park, where I’ve watched a Championship match.
Outside Glanford Park
The picture of course doesn’t show the fact that it is one of the worst stadia to get to from the train station. At least I had a good taxi driver, who got me there and back efficiently.
I went back to Sheffield via Meadowhall on one of the Trans Pennine Expresses. I bougth the last gluten-free sandwich at Marks and Spencer there, before taking the tram to Granville Road for Sheffield United.
Bramall Lane
It was dark by now, as the photograph shows. After this it was another tram to Hillsborough for Sheffield Wednesday.
Hillsborough in the Dark
I actually went to the stop at Leppings Lane. In the end I was back at Sheffield station, with lots of time for my train to St. Pancras.
Made 1960, Still Going Strong
My everyday cutlery is Sheba by Butler of Sheffield. It was time for a changeround of the pieces, so I took the chance of photographing most of it.
My Sheba Cutlery
There are a dozen or so other pieces, but they were in the dishwasher. For probably the several hundredth time for some of the knives.
This cutlery is really a good example of what design can do for something quite humble, like cutlery. This cutlery wasn’t designed to be thrown away, but to last a lifetime or perhaps as in my case outlast a marriage.
Sheffield United 1 Ipswich 2
Yesterday, I went to see Ipswich play at Sheffield United and they duly obligued with a reasonably tidy win, that puts them sixth in the Championship.
It was a good trip as I went up by train from St. Pancras with a friend and his son, who support the Blades. It took just over two hours to get up and we had a sensible lunch in a Greek cafe called Hellas close to the ground.
I had a ra
Hellas Cafe near Bramall Lane, Sheffield
ther nice bean soup with some salami and home-made humous. I wouldn’t recommend the cafe to super-sensitive coeliacs, but I had no reaction at all. The toliets were also very smart and had that important accessory of a coat hook. Why should I try to prop my coat on the door handle or put it on the floor.
I’ve been to Bramall Lane three times now and it seems to get better every time, which is something you can’t say about all stadia in the Championship.
Bramall Lane
As I’ve said in other posts, at some places the security is rather over top, but it is best to say that at Bramall Lane, it was sensible and fair, which can’t be said for every ground.
It was a short walk back to the station from the ground and then another two hour train ride back to London. We were in one of the Meridians and I managed an hour’s sleep or so. i’ll be glad when I finally move to London, as I’ll be able to do more trips like these without the inconvenience of going cross-country from Suffolk.
Butler Sheba Cutlery
When we married in 1968, we didn’t have much, but we did purchase a rather extravagant set of Butler Sheba cutlery. There is very little information about the cutlery on the Internet, except for this small piece in the Design 1965 Journal.
Sheba Cutlery
They are a classic sixties design that was made in Sheffield. The handles are actually a plastic called Delrin from DuPont.
I still use them everyday and they have always been washed in the dishwasher.
If anybody has any cutlery of this design in good nick, I might be pleased to purchase them.
The Anonymous Widower 