Railway Photo Gallery
October 2008
Click on the thumbnails to view a larger image.
3rd
October 2008 - Trams By Night in Cleveleys
The first evening of a short family holiday
to Blackpool to see the lights. We were staying at the excellent Briardene
Hotel in Cleveleys (well recommended if you like very comfortable rooms and
exquisite cuisine!), and after our evening meal we took a stroll down the road
to the centre of Cleveleys. This gave an opportunity for a few night shots
around the Cleveleys tram stop. Most of the trams that turned up were the usual
suspects operating the double deck service between Starr Gate and Fleetwood, and
from Pleasure Beach to Cleveleys. However, one notable tram did turn up, that
being the illuminated trawler which worked up to Cleveleys as a special to cover
for a later running service car which had turned short to get back on schedule.
4th October 2008 -
Blackpuddle
An absolutely awful day weather wise. Biting
cold winds, horizontal rain and waves crashing into the sea wall sending water
50 feet into the air! I spent most of the day riding up and down on the trams in
an attempt to keep dry and didn’t take too many photographs. In the evening,
the Fylde Tramway Society ran their annual Illuminations Tour using twin set
674+684. This is one of the twins I don't have a decent photo of, so I tried to
make some form of effort to obtain a decent night shot of it. Although I had
bought a couple of tickets to ride the tour, I decided just to try and get the
night shots and then give the family some of my time (for a change!). I followed
the tram up to Fleetwood and attempted a bit of night photography. This was
extremely difficult as the wind was swirling around and the drizzle seemed to be
hitting the lens from random directions. Eventually, I set up the camera under
the raised tailgate of my car and somehow managed a handful of decent shots.
After my evening meal with the family, we caught a tram to Starr Gate and back
to view the lights. By luck, this tram turned out to be ‘heritage’ balloon
car 717. As well as 674+684 on the tour, another twin set was out with 673+683
working an illuminations tour and a special to Little Bispham. Although I passed
these while they were stood at North Pier, I flagged the chance to photograph
them as it was absolutely bucketing it down and didn’t fancy another soaking.
5th October 2008 - Normal
Service Resumed! Sunny Blackpool!
After the dreadful weather on the Saturday,
Sunday could not have been better. From about 9.30am onwards the sky was totally
clear with not a cloud to be seen, and it remained like this until sunset. Tram
output was fairly standard at first with 11 double deckers on service and a
handful of Brush and Centenary cars on specials. Around mid afternoon, more
specials came out and this time there were some much more interesting trams to
play with. Replica Vanguard 619, Standard 147, Brush car 623 to name a few and
it really was ‘fill your memory card’ time. The crew of 147 were up for a
bit of fun, and we had a couple of shots at North Pier with the tram displaying
‘Marton’ and ‘Palatine Road’ on its blinds. When it left North Pier
though, it did have ‘Pleasure Beach’ properly showing to avoid any
confusion.
9th October 2008 -
Local Chopper Move
An after work move for an unusual working -
20905 and 20901 working a 6F23 1525 Old Dalby to Toton Up Yard.
11th /
12th October 2008 -
GCR Steam Gala
The GCR staged it's autumn steam gala, which
featured newly built A1 60163, Britannia 70013 'Oliver Cromwell', LMS 'Jubilee
5690 'Leander' and SR 850
'Lord Nelson'. A fantastic gala and some nice weather to boot. I couldn't resist a
little play with one of the photos of 60163, turning it from grey to BR green.
18th October 2008 -
Scrap
A quick drive across to Elford and Portway
for 57005 and 47810 on a Stockton to Cardiff Tidal scrap train. No sun as the
train entered Elford loop, and then as the train left the loop, the sun was
coming out, but not quickly enough. The train was way off being fully lit but
was casting a slight shadow, so the resultant shot is what I would describe as a
digi razz up.
21st and
24th October 2008 - Autumn Trams in Nottingham
A few autumnal looking shots of Nottingham
trams.
26th October 2008 - Tyseley
Night Shoot
A night shoot organised by 30742 Charters for
which I assisted with lighting. A very difficult one to light thanks to the
abundance of sodium lighting at the adjacent DMU sidings. Many of the images
have had to have some degree of colour correction to remove the cast of the
sodium lights. It was very enjoyable though, and as well as the standard front
three quarter views, there was a fair bit of arty stuff to take too. Big thanks
to Martin and Phil and the staff at Tyseley for a very enjoyable evening.
