F.O.H.S. - FIRST PUBLIC APPEARANCE

This coming Sunday 27th May will witness our first ever public appearance, at the Grand Opening of the Hadfield & Padfield Heritage Trail, which fortuitously for us is in the station yard, more commonly known as the Hadfield station car park these days!

Double click to enlarge the poster below for full details on what's on at the event.

Suffice to say that it runs from midday until 4.00pm with a ribbon cutting ceremony scheduled for 1.00pm. It has been reported in the local press that Glossop's 'Apprentice' star Adam Corbally and Hadfield's very own Olympic pole vaulting hopeful Katie Byres will be helping at the official ceremony on Sunday.

CLICK ON THE POSTER TO ENLARGE

Hopefully one or two of you readers out there will come along and find out about what we're about and what we hope to do. Who knows some of you might even decide to join us in our quest to improve and enhance your local railway station. See you there.

Last of the Grotspots (Grotspot 3)

At first glance nothing too disastrous here. Some leaves to be swept up, overhanging branches to trim, rubber tubing lying around and a fence that could do with some protection from the elements. Let's walk down to the end of the platform though and we see a different picture...


Here's a close up of the same:-


Naturally we felt the urge to deal with this fine mess as a matter of urgency and quickly set to work filling several bags of rubbish, which Eric willingly disposed of at the local tip. The same morning we trimmed the trees back and swept up the leaves and debris and have made a good start at improving this far top end of the station.

Pictorial evidence of the improved environment will follow in a post very soon, when I will round up some of the work we have been carrying out over the past few weeks.

And that folks concludes our tour of the worst grotspots on the station. From here on in, things get a little more savoury.

Bye for now but don't forget that if you want to follow the progress of the FOHS group, just type your e-mail address into the long bar across the top of the blog and new posts will go straight into your inbox.

Areas Earmarked For Improvement (Or Grotspots by Numbers)

In the last post I promised to round up the other two grot spots for litter on the station. For easy reference let's call the Station Approach, highlighted in the previous post, Grotspot 1.

Below I now present images of  what will henceforth be referred to as Grotspot 2.

The following photo clearly shows the location of our next litter grot spot. It is unfortunatley behind the platform fence and therefore on Network Rail property, which means it could be some time before we can get the necessary permission to access the area for a litter pick. In terms of the volume of litter it is also the worst area of the whole station, because of the very fact that it is inaccessable to all for removal.

To illustrate the extent of how littered this area is, let's zoom in - not very pretty at the moment:-

More Friends

Sunday 22nd April was our second assembly on the station platform and as you can see from the photo we added more friends so grew in number to seven, including myself behind camera.  From left to right we have Jake, Joy Hallsworth, Darren, Jake's sister Kayleigh, Eric and Andrew Fidler. Not quite so warm as two weeks prior but at least not raining, so on to the first job.

At our initial note taking session, this minor irritation but an irritation nonetheless was one that was spotted by everyone, unsurprisingly, as it hangs at eye level at a very prominent vantage point on the platform.

Darren promised to bring his hacksaw next time to make this quick gain, which was duly implemented and can be notched down as the first job done and dusted.

The rusty old lock which has been hanging there gathering even more rust for donkeys years, is no more.

The next thing to mention is litter.  Now the station as a whole doesn't suffer too badly from this slovenly practice, certainly not compared to some others and there are two litter bins on the platform which are well used. Notably however, there is no bin at all at the ticket office end of the platform or on the station approach, something that we feel needs rectifying..

There are also several areas that are an exception to what has been stated above and which can only be described as very messy or unsightly.

I'll focus on just one of these areas for now to illustrate.  Without zooming in nothing obvious here:-

So let's zoom in at ground level to the foot of the metal posts:-

Clearly what's happening here is that because smoking on the platform is no longer allowed, people are putting out their dimps like dutiful citizens before entering the station but as no tray has been provided to stub them out, they are being discarded by their hundreds on the station approach.

Horrible and unsightly but preventable by the introduction of a tin/tray/stubbing device, the sort which you see outside pubs these days, preferably sooner rather than later or this one will run and run.

Still, we've highlighted one problem and have a cheap solution for it, so we'll call that a blog and  I'll finish the litter issue in the next post.

Bye for Now.

Steve

Introducing the Friends

Truly not a prank, 10.00am Sunday April the First 2012 was the official time that the Friends of Hadfield Station group (henceforth to be abbreviated to FOHS) was finally born. This was when we held our inaugural platform meeting, with a view to surveying  what jobs and affectations could be undertaken in the here and now to begin the process of  improving and enhancing the station and its environs.

The above photo was taken on the occasion, during that fantastic spell of warm spring weather, as indicated by Darren sporting shorts and t-shirt which normally would have been considered unseasonal wear.  Aah, see how the sun shines on the righteous!  Also pictured are Jake, Darren's son (and a real train enthusiast) and standing, is Eric Igo who has been a real spur, motivating us from stationary to station platform.

The Gang of Four at this inaugural meeting was completed by myself, Steve Bagshaw, hidden from view , by virtue of being the photographer. For future reference and to avoid the further necessity of my mugshot appearing on these pages, below (far right) is a photo of yours truly, posing for the Glossop Chronicle last summer, when the notion of a Friends group was first mooted.

Having sojourned the platform and given it the once over, we have come up with a few jobs to be getting on with and have some ideas for the future, which I'll share in the next blogposts. If you'd like to have future posts sent to your inbox, so as not to miss one, then please enter your e-mail address in the large box above and it will be done. Consider yourself a friend!