So, it's June 16th 2020, and I've ventured out to my local lineside spot of Burbage Common, near Hinckley. It was overcast, and although there was rain forecast, at this particular moment in time, it was relatively dry. I had seen some gen that 37884 Cepheus was taking 3 former East Midlands Railway HST Power Cars; 43052, 43054 and 43066 (not in that order I may add) from Long Marston to Leicester L.I.P, I understand that these HST power cars will eventually be used for high speed testing on the Midland Mainline from St. Pancras to Kettering and Corby.
Anyhow, getting to the location, and walking across to the foot crossing, the weather began to turn, and it began to drizzle, OK not enough to warrant a hasty retreat to the car so I persevered, but as the time went on, and subsequent passage of 66506 Crewe Regeneration working 4M81 Felixstowe - Crewe Basford Hall freightliner, the rain got heavy. Eventually I made the decision to retreat to the car, after all it was literally a stone throw away, and I do mean, I could throw a stone from the crossing and hit my car. By time I got back to the car, it was a full torrent of rain and my T-Shirt was more or less soaked.
I continued to follow the train, which was running as 5M60 due to the barrier coach at the rear, and it was at Water Orton, making good progress Eastwards, I was faced with 2 choices. Do I:
A) Make a retreat back home.
or
B) Just sit in the car and watch it pass.
In the end, I did neither as I decided to bite the bullet, and say "Bugger the rain" and wandered back to the crossing, where I had also left my steps as well, what with the forecast for rain and potential thunder and lightning, I opted to use my steps instead of my pole.
Getting back to the crossing, and the cavalcade was passing Nuneaton, so in the pouring rain, I set the shot up, got my desired settings on my camera and it was a case of fingers and toes being crossed. At this point the sky was clearing to the South but there was no way that the clear sky would reach me in time.
Sure enough, 37884 appeared around the corner in the distance, and I took position on my steps, as soon as they came into the frame it was a case of rapid shooting, by the time I hit the shutter, I was absolutely soaked through, so much so I had to take my T-shirt off and wear an old jacket which I had left in the car boot, itself an old jacket from work as we've recently had new clothing to wear.
So, was I absolutely bonkers for stopping out in the rain??.
No, I more like to call it dedication. However, the real kick in the knackers was, about 5 minutes after I took the shot, the clear sky got to me, the rain stopped, and the local area was lit up in glorious Summer sun.
Still, that's the way the cookie crumbles right?.
Another welcome addition to my local line over the last year or so has been the as required flow of oil tanks running to Theale or Westerleigh with DB Cargo. We use to have a regular flow running along the South Leicestershire Line to the Warwickshire terminal at Bedworth, in later years with GBRf but this ceased a couple of years ago. Nowadays, DB Cargo run the oil flow on behalf of Puma Energy from the sites on Humberside to the sites at Theale or Westerleigh, more often than not with a Class 60.
Today's train was no exception, in this case, 60091 Barry Needham doing the honours from Theale, in Berkshire.
Hi Folks,
Well after a few months of uncertainty, I am back out and about with my camera, my first location since March was Kilby Bridge Junction, main reason being to see a brand new Class 701; 701002 for South Western Railway being delivered from Derby Litchurch Lane to Eastleigh Works, with 66745 Modern Railways - The First 50 Years and 66740 Sarah doing the honours, running as 6X20 10:54 Derby Litchurch Lane - Eastleigh Works.. Eventually, South Western Railway will have 90 of these new units.
Other bits of note was that one of the former LNER HST sets were out, in this case, 43238 and 43318 working the St. Pancras International - Nottingham circuit as well as a couple more VP185 sets, which are in their final weeks of operation prior to withdrawal by East Midlands Railway.
A Couple of HST consists.
1D23 10:34 London St. Pancras International - Nottingham.
43238
41007 41064 40749 42151 42164 42165 42153 44047
43318
Passed Kilby Bridge Junction @ 11:38.
1B38 11:45 Nottingham - London St. Pancras International.
43060
44051 42149 42148 42341 42328 40756 41076 41075
43050
Passed Kilby Bridge Junction @ 12:18.
1D28 11:34 London St. Pancras International - Nottingham.
43049
41071 41072 40753 42329 42139 42140 42141 44048
43048
Passed Kilby Bridge Junction @ 12:37.
CORONAVIRUS UPDATE.
With the Covid-19 pandemic currently sweeping the globe, and in particular the UK, in keeping with UK government guidelines, there will be NO new additions to this website for the foreseeable future as I am only going out for essential reasons (work, as I work in the food industry, and also for shopping). Hopefully I'll be back out again before long, maybe a matter of weeks or months, but until such time my camera will be staying firmly put in it's bag.
I would like to take this opportunity to say Thank You to all of you who have viewed my images over the years, and hopefully I'll see you again at some point in the not too distant future.
Please take care everyone, and keep safe and follow your local authorities instructions where applicable.
Cheers
James
Saturday 8th February seen me attend my first Timeline Events photo charter at the Mid Hants Railway, in Hampshire, also known as The Watercress Line (as back in the day, it transported fresh, locally grown watercress to the London markets).
The subject of the charter was SR Schools Class 30925 Cheltenham, which had recently been repainted into BR Brunswick Green at the end of 2019 on rake of green coaching stock - a truly authentic Southern Railway prototypical train.
After a relatively pleasant 2½ drive from the Midlands, travelling mostly via the M40 and A34, I arrived at our starting location, the pleasant Ropley Station, where our locomotive was in the process of being prepped for the day ahead. As ever, with any photo charter, all of the photographers had to be present for the all important safety briefing before the train pulled into the station and we all boarded. The train was a 5 coach train, with coaches 2 and 3 being made available for our use to travel in.
Our first location was an area known as Bishops Sutton, where a solitude tree stands line side, more than likely back from a time when the railway was once part of the main rail line between Alton and Winchester prior to closure in 1973, at this point is was quite cloudy and a number of run pasts was executed for the photographers and videographers, the absence of sun made it possible to take many different angles as the light was neutral for whatever side you were on.
As the morning went on, we decided to head up to the line's terminus at Alresford for a break, stretch our legs and have a bite to eat, from a personal point of view, I always try to keep my business to the railway concerned and use their facilities as much as possible - in this case, using the station at café. I had a very tasty breakfast bap which consisted of sausage, bacon and fried egg on a white bap/roll/cob/batch/barm depending on what part of the country you're from.
Afterwards, we boarded the train for our afternoon session, whilst we was having a break, the clouds began to clear and soon we was blessed with some sunshine, we retraced our steps back to Bishops Sutton with that tree and began run pasts again.
After we filled our boots, our next location was Chawton Woods, which is more or less at the opposite end of the line between Alton and Medstead & Four Marks Station, it was seeing other peoples work online of Chawton Woods which actually swung it for me to book on the charter. At this location, the line is on an embankment running on the Southern fringe of Chawton Woods, and looking at the location seems a quiet and idyllic location. Don't be fooled however, as the A31 trunk road between Winchester and Farnham passes close by.
Having spent some considerable time at Chawton Woods, we had to head back to Ropley to give Cheltenham a drink, again the photographers had a choice of either disembarking the train or staying on the train whilst it was shunted into a siding where the water facilities are located. I disembarked the train to stretch my legs at Ropley and to spend a penny shall we say lol. Once watered, Cheltenham eased back into the station, and we headed West back towards Bishops Sutton, although there are a wide number of various locations to visit at Bishops Sutton, so the shots weren't all the same as when we visited in the morning.
We ended the day on the Western fringe of Bishops Sutton, at a location collaquially known as Weavers Curve, after which time we returned to Ropley Station, and subsequently time for me to retrace my steps back to the Midlands.
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