I’m autistic. Not because of Tylenol. Not because of vaccines. Not because of some headline. I’m autistic because that’s how my brain works. Stop treating us like a problem. Start listening to us.

Darlington I am in you. Setting up for the 8th International Early Railways Conference!

The glory that is modern train travel. Seats with no padding and which don't align with windows.

A pair of freight HSTs dragging a MK1 and a steam loco (backwards) Trains are getting weird.

A tad moist, but enjoyable interacting with the public about what we were wearing, and our tools of the trade. Particularly so with ex-railway workers and with present train crew. That's our second Railway200 event this month. Two more in October.

When James and I started watching Star Wars: “Andor” we found it boring and didn’t want to continue but rave reviews kept us watching. By episode 3 we were hooked. This TIMELY speech by Mon Mothma against the Emperor shows why it won an Emmy for writing. Worth watching for this scene alone.

I was radicalised by Jesus Christ and Captain Jean Luc Picard.

Another excellent article!

Despite easily being the most British fighting vehicle ever developed, the mock-Tudor AT-AT programme was sadly cancelled due to budgetary concerns

So according to the usual suspects Blue Sky is full of horrible, dreadful, ugly things, but as regular followers of this account will know the truth is- Ah. Yeah.

This is brilliant. Read to the end!

🕯️ Blessings of Hildegard of Bingen on her day.

Rocket came to Church today! As did a pair of original 1831 Rudolph Ackermann 'long prints' of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway.

Make a joyful noise unto the lord. And I shall. Ding dong! Ringing in Railway200 at my beloved Brookfield for Heritage Open days this weekend. Long, but tiring weekend.

Interesting items in this Kirkwall tailor's 1650 inventory: Silk, French thread and bolts of 'camelhair' cloth! What is the last word in the entry though? #palaeography #skystorians

Call for Papers @imc-leeds.bsky.social Following my recent fieldwork sailing down the Seine in a reconstructed tenth-century ship, @stevedehailes.bsky.social and I are organising a panel on practice-based/experiential research in medieval studies. We welcome abstracts from any field. #Medievalsky

Oh looky here... A book review :-) www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/usreviews/bo...

"Lazy" she says pushing the button marked "plagiarize," 15,000 times a week. And "Luddites" she says without the faintest shred of irony, knowing full well that the Luddites were champions for human dignity whose chief concern was "pay your fuckin' artists."

Coming soon from Wakefield Historical Society, written to coincide with Railway200 and the unveiling of a Blue Plaque for Thomas Peckett, locomotive builder, who was born in Wakefield.

That's it for another year. Brilliant archaeology. Brilliant people. Friends who I've known for over 20 years who are basically family. And the oldest standard gauge railway in Scotland. Well before Carron Ironworks in 1810.

Lovely stuff at the Museum of Scottish Railways. But if you believed their displays you'd think railways in Scotland began in the 1840s not 1720s....

End of the day. Wooden waggonway in our big trench not really playing ball: rails don't meet. Hello derailment! Looks to be on a timber raft to float it across a marsh 100 years before Chat Moss. Small trench evidence of the iron railway: grubber up sleeper blocks. All a bit confusing.

So very pretty and peaceful here. Cockenzie feels like a second home a d certainly full of people I consider family.

End of day 2 and we definitely have a wooden waggonway. Preservation including joints, and peg holes. Timbers surviving as wet and mineralised wood. The gauge is wider than expected. Detailed micro excavation tomorrow.

End of Day 1. And we have an C18th wooden waggon way. Surviving as mineralised timbers (rails and sleepers) and some funky finds like musket balls from the 1745 Battle of Prestonpans. #Archaeology #waggonway

There be early railways here

Sometimes we find clarity not in big revelations, but over breakfast, in small acts of care, and in returning to what matters most. #Unitarian #SimpleLiving #OrdinaryMagic #UKUnitarians

Hi ho Hi Ho its off to Scotland I go tomorrow at the crack of doom for eight days of archaeology on the Waggonway.... Image of a Railway Navvie by Alan Braby (C) Alan Braby.

This is a really, really, good letter. Absolutely *destroys* the transphobes without ever once using rude, aggressive, or other language that could cause handwringing.

Just joined this Class Action case against Meta for stealing my work. Bastards. Lets hope something comes from it!

Red crosses daubed on the roundabouts of the local town like the doors of plague houses. Lord, send in the meteorites.

activists please paint four other crosswalks rainbow colors. every site they watch should provoke four new sites

'Black Batholomew's Day' duly marked. We focused on the dangers of conflating faith and belief and stressing believing the right things over doing the right things - despite that being contrary to what Jesus did. Deeds not Creeds! Quite apt after Pride. Also much love for my new rainbow stole :-)

One of my favourite things about torcs, is that the word comes from the Latin word torquere (tor-kwe-ray) meaning twist, bend or torture. This is also where we get the word 'queer'. So even in its origin, queer meant twisted and wrong, as well as something shiny and fabulous.

Manchester Pride over for another year. Another chance to show that steam is for everyone (not just old cis straight white men). The way the crowd cheered and applauded everytime we blew the whistle or make her bark will never, ever get boring.(yes leather daddies do hump coal. lol)

I would really like to see a stronger statement from the Scouts than this. (There’s a newspaper link in the comments - the abuse seems to have taken place online, because apparently some people now consider it acceptable to film young teens and post it online if they’re not 100% white).

It’s easy to agree that discrimination has no place in society. It’s harder to act on that belief, especially if it means giving up the advantages the status quo gives us. True equality challenges comfort, but it’s the only way to build a just and inclusive world. #Unitarian #Equality #UKUnitarians

Labour has, in practical terms, gone further than the previous government, and, in a select few cases, even than Reform has proposed, with undermining rights and security for a number of marginalised groups. Perhaps factor that in when telling those affected that they should still support them. 3/3

For those communities, migrants, trans and non-binary individuals, disabled etc, the practical reality is it doesn't matter who's stripping rights from them. The end outcome remains the same. Own that at least if you are going to say people shouldn't criticise Labour in order to prevent Reform. 2/3

I get people's argument that "you can't undermine Labour or Reform will get in". If you are making it though, at least be honest that you are voting out of self interest and acknowledge that your choice still means marginalised communities are thrown under the bus. 1/3

Service two done! Pride service followed by Open Table Communion in Wakefield. Two services, two different churches, two different counties, and no microphone in either! My voice feels wrecked. Knackered, but in a good way.

Teddy's Bear Picnic Service at Brookfield done. Now a pit-stop and then off to Wakefield to lead their Pride service.

New Book Alert! "Early Railways of Scotland" by Dawson and Bethune which explores over 300 years of Scottish Railway History, from the first potential railway in 1606 to the earliest mainlines of the 1840s. £15.99 from Amberley Books or the 1722 Waggonway Heritage Group.

Good! Because it isn't.

Major piece of work Alert! My paper on the history, archaeology, and experimental archaeology of the Tranent-Cockenzie waggonway - the first in Scotland - has been published! exarc.net/issue-2025-2...

Obligatory Greatest Gathering Photos