LMS Jubilee Class 45690 Leander heads The Great Britain IX through Woodlesford on the final day of the tour.
Monday, 2 May 2016
Saturday, 30 April 2016
Embsay and Bolton Abbey Railway Branchline Weekend
A visit to the Branchline Weekend at the Embsay and Bolton Abbey Heritage Railway in the Yorkshire Dales National Park.
The weather was a bit mixed and it was a bit on the cold side for late April. On a positive note, the trains all ran to time and all the tearooms had some cosy log fires burning.
Locomotives featured are:
The weather was a bit mixed and it was a bit on the cold side for late April. On a positive note, the trains all ran to time and all the tearooms had some cosy log fires burning.
Locomotives featured are:
- GWR Class 5600 no 5643
- No 35
- Beatrice
Friday, 11 March 2016
East Lancashire Railway Spring Gala 2016
Locomotives featured:
- BR Standard Class 4 no 80080
- LMS Black 5 no 44871
- LMS Hughes Crab no 13065
- SR West Country Class 34092 City of Wells
Saturday, 27 February 2016
The Special One
On Thursday, we set out to capture some images of the world famous steam locomotive, The Flying Scotsman. I suspected there might be a few more enthusiasts turn up than for your average steam locomotives. In no way did I anticipate the large number of people who would be there.
It's usually busy at Colton Junction which is another one of our reasonably local spots and I thought we would be better off heading to somewhere else where it might be a little bit quieter. It turned out that everywhere along the East Coast Main Line was crowded with enthusiasts trying to catch a glimpse of the world famous locomotive.
We've visited Moor Lane several times over the last few years. Usually, there will be maybe two or three other cars parked up, but on Thursday, there were no parking spaces left by the time Flying Scotsman was due to arrive.
This was the scene last December when 46233 Duchess of Sutherland headed by Moor Lane with a steam special.
However, things hadn't gone according to plan for The Inaugural Run and the train was delayed because of people trespassing on the railway in an effort to get the best photo. So the train had a helicopter checking that the line ahead was clear.
The train was stopped north of Doncaster before it reached our spot at Moor Road. We were buzzed a couple of times by helicopters and each time we thought this signalled the train's arrival only to be disappointed. Eventually, smoke was sighted in the distance at last heralding the train's arrival.
At leas,t we'd managed a decent view of the newly restored locomotive the cost of which is estimated at £4.2 million. She's now on display at the National Railway museum in York. Then she will be touring the country on both mainline trips and visits to Heritage Railways.
Thursday, 25 February 2016
60163 Flying Scotsman - The Inaugural Run
The Inaugural run from London Kings Cross to York on 25 February 2016.
Wednesday, 17 February 2016
A Mixed Weekend
It should have been a good weekend for
photographing and getting some video of steam train specials. It didn't quite
turn out that way due to the rather wayward timing of Sunday's Tin Bath
Special.
Saturday's trip out was to see The Valentine
White Rose running from London Kings Cross to York.
I'd got the timing from Real Time Trains
just about spot on for our 45 minute trip out to Colton Junction near York.
There were a good number of enthusiasts already in their chosen spots as we
arrived. I think 34067 Tangmere was third choice locomotive for this tour
behind 70000 Britannia and 60009 Union of South Africa. Actually it's a bit of
a treat to see an Ex Southern Region locomotive working in this part of the
country.
Tangmere sped by running a few minutes early
but with a rather disappointing amount of smoke.
Sunday's plan was to capture The Tin Bath
in Wakefield our local station. I've blogged before about the special charter
steam train called the Tin Bath named after the Last of the Summer Wine television
programme. On Sunday it was due to travel through Wakefield. This was too good
an opportunity to miss so my plan was to pop down to the station to grab a
quick video clip as it passed through. I knew from the Internet the train was
running almost an hour late and so tried to judge our arrival time accordingly. Then at the last minute I decided more of an action packed video would
be better rather than the train passing slowly through the station and decided
on a spot out towards Horbury Junction. The trouble was I got the timing all wrong and we
arrived just as smoke billowed over the bridge parapets. So as
you've probably guessed there are no photographs of The Tin Bath.
To finish off this post the video of
Tangmere heading The Valentine White Rose is included below.
Sunday, 7 February 2016
60103 Class A3 4-6-2 Flying Scotsman
The forecast for Saturday didn’t look too bad - well the morning looked dry with the possibility of some rain in the afternoon. As it turned out the forecast was wrong - very wrong. I’d decided it was my last chance to get some photos as videos of the world famous steam locomotive 60103 Flying Scotsman. After some test runs in the week it was scheduled to haul the Cumbrian Mountain Express to Carlisle on Saturday.
Our trip up the A1 to Scotch Corner wasn't too bad although it was a little bit misty in places. By the time we’d stopped for coffee at a farm shop near Scotch Corner not only was it misty but it had started to rain too.
By the time we reached the Cumbrian border it was cold and rainy which I suppose is only to be expected in early February.
Our Sat Nav managed to find some of the narrow Cumbrian roads to get to our chosen vantage point and at least on this occasion we avoided any closed bridges.
As I had suspected we wouldn't be the only ones out trying to get some photos of Flying Scotsman and by the time we arrived at Lowgill, other enthusiasts had already arrived. Need I confirm that it was pouring down with rain. After a bit of a discussion we decided our best option was to use an umbrella to protect both us and our cameras from the rain. It’s not that simple to take video and photos sheltering under a small umbrella. We’ll have to lash out and buy a bigger one for future rain affected photo opportunities.
So this is the best still image we managed grabbed off some video. Neither video or photography went according to plan due to sheltering under the umbrella.
After an excellent lunch in Hawes we set off to Garsdale to try our luck at some photos as Flying Scotsman headed up the Settle and Carlisle line. By now the roads were rather wet with some very large puddles in places.
My camera was already playing up which I think was due to it getting damp in the morning although it was certainly sheltered from the rain. In the end we took the comfortable option of trying to photograph and video the train from the comfort of the car with the windscreen wipers working hard to keep the windscreen clear. It might have been the comfortable option but it didn't work very well at all.
The Flying Scotsman’s next public outing will be its inaugural run from London Kings Cross to York on 25 February 2016 when it will have been repainted in its BR green livery.
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