In Between Connections...

Carole and I spent another successful and interesting day on Thursday doing the Ticket Exchange at stations around Langwith Whaley Thorns, a post about the day will appear soon!

Meanwhile, we have received a number of postcards from people we connected with from our last Ticket Exchange, many with fascinating and thoughtful comments on the experience of travel.

Film still

There is also a short film put together by Mac Canonymous which he filmed on our day around Whatstandwell - click here to see it.

Film still

Thanks to everybody who has taken part so far and especially those who have sent us a postcard!

Whatstandwell Ticket Exchange

Travelling between the Derbyshire stations of Belper, Ambergate, Whatstandwell and Cromford, artists Miles & Dacombe staged their first Ticket Exchange on 23rd August.  We offered a ticket with a question on it, in exchange we asked for an answer!


We made ourselves badges, tickets, bags and postcards, and jumped on and off the trains all day to talk to as many people as we could.

It was remarkable how friendly and open most people were.  We are always delighted by the staff on this stretch of railway who all seem to be having such a happy time of it and love their jobs.  They were all really supportive though rather bemused by our antics!

All the railway staff we met seemed really happy in their line of work

and were friendly and welcoming to the artists.

Reasons for travelling were varied.  Many were going off on day trips and felt that the train was the most enjoyable way of doing this.  Others had more serious intentions.  A man from Leicester was cycling alone to Telford for charity, dipping on to trains with his bicycle to link up parts of his journey.  A couple were laden with flowers, on their way to place them at the grave of a loved one.

Passengers alighting at Belper Station

A family group on their way to Matlock Bath for a day's outing

The theme of connections grew stronger throughout the day.  Our ticket designs and strange request helped us form an instant connection with passengers - people were intrigued and curious to know what question would be on the back of the ticket they picked.  Our questions opened up conversations straight away.

This is one of the first passengers Carole met at Whatstandwell waiting for the return train from Belper. Carole had spoken to her and some of the other passengers, asking whether the trains were well used. It seems that since the introduction of parking fees at the station car parks there has ben a drop in rail usage, but the parking fees were introduced as many visiting walkers were parking before exploring the canal side walks. The passengers thought it might be fairer if parking fees were refunded to those who were travelling on the trains, as is common practice in supermarket car parks.

A husband and wife sitting in different parts of the train in order to capture parts of their journey on film.

Walking on up the carriage, we often turned around to look back and see people discussing their ticket questions with each other and sharing them around.  Connecting again.




We felt we had changed their journeys.  Intervening and asking challenging questions about train travel, asking them to consider a new viewpoint.  "Have you ever thought of a network of rail travellers as a community?"  "Are you leaving or returning, and how different do these feel?"  "Do you ever imagine the story of a stranger travelling near you?"

Jo giving out her tickets

Some people wrote us answers on the postcards straight away.  Others took their postcards with them to think about it more and post them back to us.  We really hope they do.

Mother and daughter

Fabulous friends

We made new connections with 71 people that day.  Some were travelling short distances, others were going a long way.  Jo met a man who works at the Brush company in Loughborough, a place not only visible from the train but also just up the road from where Jo used to live.  Other people connected to us through art - we met art students and art teachers.  A small child drew us a picture.

This lovely lady took one of each ticket as her husband was an art teacher!

We experienced parts of other people's journeys.  Jo sat with a couple who pointed out the bits of the journey they liked - the new log cabins being built just past Whatstandwell.  They watched the lorries trundling down the road below us, parallel to the train and matching our speed!

We met Jim and Pat at Belper Station and travelled with them for a while

We hope the postcards will further connect us.  We imagine a network of postcards which have all started on that particular short train route, travelled to different places and hopefully been posted back to us in Corby.  Jo met a lady from Australia who took a postcard to write back to us!

It was good to visit the Stations again at Whatstandwell, Cromford, and short stops at Ambergate and Belper.

At Cromford, yet another Handy Andy helping to collect his Aunt's camper van and take it back to Devon

Beautiful nasturtiums in the planters and the commemorative sign at Whatstandwell Station. There are no longer any station buildings there but we did find this link with wonderful images of the station and lovely recollections by William E Glossop.

On the same site there are also the recollections of Mr A C Phillips a former Station Master at Whatstandwell Station.

Whilst waiting for Jo to arrive, Carole's eye was drawn to the house, some of which was built during the 1700's, which has a tunnel running beneath it. The previous evening, whilst Mac Canonymous was filming, Carole walked over the bridge and onto the towpath by the canal, only to meet Sheila, the current owner of the house.

 
Sheila very kindly invited Carole into her garden to see the railway line from the less commonly viewed direction.  Carole invited Sheila to come and take part in the Ticket Exchange the following morning, but sadly they missed their connection!

A slice of train heading towards the tunnel under Sheila's house.

A view of the house behind the restored Cromford Waiting Room

It was a great day and gave us lots of food for thought!  Mac Canonymous is putting together a film of the day, and we'll let you know when that's up to see.

We're looking forward to doing our Ticket Exchange again, this time at Whitwell, Cresswell and Langwith Whaley-Thorns, where we will be visiting on 15th September.  Perhaps see you there?

Last train from Cromford Station

We're on our way...

Thank you to East Midlands Trains who have just rung me to confirm that they are happy with our proposals, so we are all set to do our first exchange activity on the Derbyshire trains.

Watch out for us in the week of 22nd August when we will be travelling between Cromford and Ambergate and Whitwell and Shirebrook stations.

Whatstandwell

Our idea has always been to go somewhere unknown to us, without doing any research, to explore what we find and meet people along the way. Our second away day was to Whatstandwell in Derbyshire and we were fairly certain we would find a very different location than we found in Perry Bar. There were no station buildings but there was a graceful bridge between the active platform and the one on the other side, which was colonised by a wonderful array of wild flowers and weeds.

Gary the Train Driver was the first person we met, on his way to work in Derby. He’d had a variety of jobs with the railway and told us it was best to contact the main station in Derby if we wanted to stage an intervention at Whatstandwell. He hopped on the train and we crossed the bridge in search of a cup of tea.

The bridge took us to the towpath of the Cromford canal.  On the towpath we met three sisters, all local, who told us there was a tea shop further along “it wasn’t far”, so we fell in step with them for a while. By the end of the day we’d discovered that “not far” was roughly 2 and a half miles in any given direction! 

After walking with the sisters and hearing about their lives, local industry, family ties we fell back to better appreciate the lay of the land discovering that there were 4 levels running in parallel, river, road, rail and canal.  At points along the way these networks crossed each other.  Our feet on the path added a fifth network.

Canal crosses over railway

Canal crossed over river

Hidden behind trees on the far bank

Finally we came to High Peak Junction, where we not only found a cup of tea but a wealth of information from the Countryside  Rangers at work there.  They told us about some of the work that used to go on on the railway along the route that we had just walked.  They were intrigued by the idea of an artistic intervention and, again, were very helpful with giving us contacts and information.

Cromford Station itself was beautiful, painted in the same red and cream livery as Whatstandwell and again with wonderful details in the iron work.   A black and white cat bellowed at us as he crossed the rail line and wandered around the platforms that he clearly owned!


We took a train ride from Cromford Station, through Whatstandwell to Ambergate, and then walked back from Ambergate to Whatstandwell.  It felt strange to be travelling the same route we had just walked on the train, the experience of the two modes of travel were diametrical opposites.  We seemed to have been walking for hours that day, whereas the train journey from Cromford to Ambergate was a mere 10 minutes!  No time at all for the contemplation of small details and to take in the play of light on water and through trees, as we had on the walk.

Kevin the Conductor, a mine of information and a very kind man who had the time to show us just how his ticket machine worked. We have been intrigued by tickets and ticket machines ever since our visit to the London Transport Museum. He had worked in finance for most of his career but found that working for the railway the past three years had been a completely joyous experience. He was a man truly happy in his work!

Walking back from Ambergate, we had no idea how far it would be!

A welcome sight for our hot feet, the foot bridge to the platform at Whatstandwell

The day had been one of crossing networks, modes of travel, helpful people, sunshine, getting lost and endless possibilities!