#255 – Great North Steam Fair 2 – Coffee Pots and a Colliery

I think this is a de Winton engine, similar to the ones photographed on the Geotopoi blog

The colliery at Beamish is a real one,  well sort of, it’s made up of bits of other collieries that have been rebuilt to form one new one. The steam engine works as well, and the entire setup makes a wonderful backdrop for some railway photography. Unfortunately, none of the larger standard gauge  engines were in steam on the colliery line, although some narrow gauge line had been set up for some visiting narrow gauge vertical boilered engines, known colloquially as ‘coffee pots’. I’d only ever seen photographs of these before, so it was interesting to see just how small they are in real life.

A recent arrival at Beamish is standard gauge 0-6-0 ‘Newcastle’. This was named after Newcastle-under-Lyme in its native Staffordshire, not the nearby Newcastle-on-Tyne. It’s not been steamed since the 80′s but seems to be in reasonably good condition, and is due for restoration at Beamish.

A somehwat larger standard gauge vertical boilered engine. This was as close as I could get and couldn’t speak to anyone about it, so I know nothing about it.

#254 – Great North Steam Fair 1 – The Steam Elephant

Last year I went to the wonderful Beamish Open Air Museum, and loved it! Only thing was, we went a tad early in the season and not everything was open. Vowing to return, we opted to visit during the Great North Steam Fair, which pretty much opens the season.

As we’d already seen a lot of the pit village and town already, we spent more time looking at the transport that was running. This was many and varied, but the resident attractions are predominantly railways and trams. This intriguing device is known as the Steam Elephant, an exact replica (built in 2002) of a loco originally built in 1815. Predating Stephensons ‘Rocket’ by 14 years, it is atypical of the early locomotives with it’s single tube boiler and vertical pistons and motion.

This was the first time I’d seen an engine like this in actions and an intriguing (and slow) thing it is to. It’s ironic that the North East was the cradle of steam railway technology thanks to the needs of the massive local coal mining industry, but this engine is actually fuelled by Welsh coal!

#240 – Crane Tank at Foxfield Colliery – Part 4

Maybe the only one I took in my usual style. Couldn’t quite get the composition right as the engine was in the wrong place for a good silhouette, but I’m quite pleased with it though.

# 239 – Crane Tank at Foxfield Colliery – Part 3

Night photography tends to mean long exposures, but that presupposes everything is going to be static. Even in strong winds, buildings don’t tend to move a great deal, and neither do steam locomotives if they’ve got their brakes on. However, the crane tank was an exception as it had it’s jib extended and a coal tub dangling from it. While not exactly a kite, the large surface area and strong winds resulted in some noticeable movement on longer exposures, so I had to resort to using half a second at ISO1600, in between gusts of wind.

This has come out well, especially with the lighting on the colliery, and the deep blue sky of dusk. Sadly, this was about all I got, as the rain started to come down heavily, so I called it a day!

 

 

 

 

# 238 – Crane Tank at Foxfield Colliery – Part 2

Much as I enjoy photo charters, they’re something of a double edged sword from a creative perspective – on the one hand you get multiple runpasts, in the best locations, in the best light if it’s available. On the other hand, you tend to move from location to location with the rest of the group, often to what are rightly regarded as being the best spots, but are limited once you are there to where you can go as you could end up being in everyone elses shots. That’s not a criticism, it’s me wanting to go and experiment with something when I’ve got a great opportunity being handed to me on a plate. I don’t know, sometimes I seem to enjoy making life difficult for myself, but sometimes the path less travelled can bring riches. So as well as the gallery shots, I tried to take a few more of things that I saw. Not many of them worked out, it has to be said, and they all could do with some work in Photoshop.

Ha – I timed this slightly wrong and it now looks like an out of focus crane tank is about to lift the chaps cap off his head. Oops.

More contrast needed? or maybe the rails weren’t wet enough for what I had in my minds eye? This is a more or less straight conversion with one or two adjustments in Lightroom, and it shows just how much effort is needed with black and white to get a decent image. Straight conversions rarely make the grade.

What did I have in mind here? Not sure. It was the answer to my usual ‘I wonder what it would look like if I tried this?’ question.

This had potential, but I took it a bit too late. That bloody wind didn’t help either.

This one I like, just needs some local adjustment in Photoshop to lighten the train a bit.

 

# 237 – Crane Tank at Foxfield Colliery – Part 1

Colliery headstocks were once a common site in the many mining areas of the country, but with the decline of the industry, these industrial landmarks are now virtually extinct. Colliery closures tend to result in a rapid demolition, witness to that is the speedy clearance of Welbeck colliery that I photographed in 2008. Even those that are nominally spared demolition are not safe – Clipstone, look doomed, and the Annersley colliery headstocks were eventually demolished after being left marooned in a desolate wasteland for several years. And of course there is the sorry state of the former Chatterly Whitfield Colliery museum in Stoke, which since closure in 1993 has deteriorated into an unsafe state.

However, at the other end of Stoke lies a forgotten colliery – Foxfield. Closed in 1965, the site was sold shortly after by the NCB and while some of the site has seen demolition, much remains. For some reason, the headstocks were never cleared, and they still stand, over forty years later. My guess is that their concrete construction was of little scrap value, so unlike their adjacent steam winding engine, they were left to rot rather than being cut up.

Like most collieries, the mine was served by a railway to provide a link to the mainline and in recent years, the Foxfield railway has managed to relay the line to the colliery. Although they are not yet operating passenger trains to the site, they do operate demonstration coal trains at their galas, as the gradient up the bank from the colliery is the steepest adhesion worked line in Britain (i.e. it doesn’t have a rack like the Snowdon mountain railway). And having seen the line, I can confirm that this is a surprisingly steep hill, and requires an engine to work hard, which is this was the venue for the latest photo charter I attended.

The engine for the day was not really authentic to the surroundings or even suitable for the job of hauling wagons up the bank, but what the hell, I don’t get hung up on authenticity. The engine was a crane tank built for the Shelton steelworks in Stoke, and I was intrigued to see it in action, having never seen one before. It’s a funny little engine, but quite characterful, and almost cartoon-like with it’s long overhangs and huge crane jib.

Signs of a glint! The wind is blowing the exhaust all over the place, but at least there was some colour in the sky.

Well, there’s the glint, or as much as you’re going to see from a watery December sunrise in Stoke. I’ve underexposed this a bit to emphasise it a bit.

A wee bit later on and there’s more light. I moved down the line a bit but I lost the best position for the glint.

Back down by the colliery, and the early morning light has gone and the wind is still strong. I managed to capture this one just before the smoke obscured the headstocks. You can see from this that the engine is climbing uphill, but it’s difficult to judge the grade here.

# 236 – Best of 2011 Part 2

Misty paraboloids

The further I drove into Yorkshire, the foggier it became. In fact, I couldn’t even see the cooling towers until I was right next to them, and this was the site I was met with when I entered the site. Eerie.

Three Kings, Thorpe Marsh

As the fog cleared, the sun made an appearance, leading for just a few minutes, to an unusual tint to the mist around the cooling towers. Pity the foregound is boring.

Linda

Included in this selection as I took it on my cameraphone. I’d not intended going to the Ribble Steam Railway gala, but I was in the area, so I pulled in and had a look. Only had my phone on me, when I noticed the sun going down over the hill so I found a gap in the trees to see if I could get a ‘glint’. Not bad in the circumstances, but I’m sure the guy who came and stood next to me with a D700 would have got something a little bit better.

73129 at Burrs

I’ve seen loads of similar images from Burrs, but had never bothered to try and get something similar as I rarely visit this location. The raw file out of the camera showed some promise, so a quick tweak to the white balance and saturation resulted in this which I was quite pleased with.

73129 in Brooksbottom Tunnel

I’d never been in a tunnel before (except on a train), so the opportunity to go into one on a photo charter was not one to pass on. This turned out much better than I expected, and probably works better in colour than monochrome.

# 235 – Best of 2011 Part 1

In an idea shamelessly ripped off from Martin Creese’s excellent blog, I’ve decided to post up some of my favourite photos from the past year. Regular readers will probably recognise these pictures, but I’m halfway through writing half a dozen posts currently, so this seemed like a quick and easy way to fill in the gap until they’re ready!

On reflection, I’ve been less prolific in my favoured industrial / mechanical themes in 2011, as I have a lot less time on my hands than previous years, and this isn’t going to change, so there will be a lot fewer posts this year. However, I want to try to get up to #300 this year, but we’ll see.

Fernhurst Mill – Inside

This was one of my two explores of the year and was an old-fashioned (although hurried) through the fence and wander round explore around the now demolished Fernhurst Mill. I got some nice pics from the place, pity I didn’t get chance to see the fabulous engine house though. This one is very much my style and the kind of thing I look out for when exploring.

Fernhurst Mill – Outside

I like this as although it’s a fairly standard shot, the converging verticals emphasis the size of the place, and the piles of rubble and dark skies give a foreboding sense of what is to come for the doomed mill.

Zeebrugge

My only time spent overseas this year (unless you count The Isle Of Wight as being overseas) was a mini-cruise to Zeebrugge with the dreadful P&O. Well, the standard of service was poor on the ship, but at least Brugge was nice as was the weather. Taken from the deck of the ship as we left Zeebrugge.

The Driver

I took a whole series of similar photos at the nightshoot at the East Lancs, and it’s hard to pick a favourite. This once edges it for inclusion as it’s the most popular of the set on Flickr, although I still think the crop needs tweaking. Must remember to take my telephoto to this years so I don’t have to crop as much.

Vulcan

As a lifelong plane nut (as well as working in the aerospace industry), the Vulcan is my favourite plane ever and has been since I first saw it at airshows in the 1980′s. Various airshow cancellations and no-shows meant our paths hadn’t crossed since 1989, but finally, at the 2011 Southport Airshow, my famine ended. Charging down the coast at low level, a large black silhouette erupted from the wings of the stage that was Southport beach to perform its exquisite,  noisy ballet against a beautiful blue backdrop.  Perfection. But I converted it to black and white anyway to emphasis the elegance and menace that this endearing shape provides.

Ryde

A fairly average holiday in the Isle of Wight at least afforded me the opportunity to take a quick look at the crumbling remains of the paddle steamer Ryde. Due to its location it’s not possible to get an interesting camera angle on it like I could with the Duke Of Lancaster, so this is more of a record shot, as I can’t see it being there for much longer.

#234 – Super D Part 3 – riding the line

A few more random shots from the day!

Riding on the rear verandah of the guardsvan gave some different views than you’d get from sitting in a carriage.  This is looking back down the line in Brooksbottom Tunnel.

Not sure how to describe these lights, but they are hung on the back and front of the train. This is the one hung on the back of the guardsvan, and is actually a candle, which surprised me.

A deserted Ramsbottom station. The canopy has greatly improved the station in my opinion, would be nice to have something on the other side, but I can’t see that happening unless another canopy becomes available from Network Rail. In retrospect, I should have straightened out the paper mill chimney on the left, but it’s probably going to be heading that direction anyway soon as the mill closed last year and has been largely demolished.

#233 – Super D Part 2 – on the footplate

I’ve written before about people in railway photography, and how you don’t see much of it. Well, the opportunity came up again to ride up front with the crew on the footplate (thanks to Nigel for organising this again!) which is always a privilege.

It was also a bit of a squeeze, as the Super D was not designed to have four people driving it, so the other passenger and myself were somewhat in the way wherever we positioned ourselves, so Frank and John (the crew) have my gratitude for putting up with our presence.

Lens choice was, theoretically, a no brainer, with the tight confines making the 16-35 the obvious choice. In reality, it was both not wide enough and too wide at the same time! I did have my dinky little 35mm F2 in my pocket, but this was just duplicating focal length, I could really have done with my 85mm prime, or the lightweight 28-105. Thing was, 16mm was not wide enough to get the full cab in (14mm would have been better), and 35mm was no use for getting close up for portraits, as there was no room really for moving around once I’d taken up position on either the firemans seat, or sat on a ledge on the tender.

Still, it was an experience. Watching Frank and John, both far older than I, do a demanding, physical job in cramped conditions in the baking heat (the firebox didn’t appear to be clad) was marvellous, especially when you consider the vagaries of  driving the Super D, an engine known to be difficult.

How many railway photographers does it take to get a Super D moving again? Answer – not as many as you think! After we ground to a halt just before Irwell Vale, with the wheels slipping furiously, everyone got off to pitch in (except me). Frank and John took some sand from the rear sanders and spread it over the tracks to get some traction, which thankfully worked a treat!