KWVR Grim Jan

Well as the Lockdown continues, and railway photography is tricky to impossible, here's another dip into the archives for some older shots.  I suspect I might end up going properly back in time with some future posts as we're not really doing any arty stuff at the moment (there's some model making going on though, but that will be on t'other blog).

Being a railway photographer in the winter can be a bit dull, especially with the warmer, wetter, winters we've been having lately (trains in the snow or frost are nice, but it's been a while since we've had any of that).  Hardly any railways are open, particularly in January, and when they are, generally I've ended up there on days with flat, dull, skies... what an old friend calls Tuppaware Days, as if you're in a box looking up at a white lid.

We're lucky in that we live local to the Worth Valley, and they run every weekend (or did up to the Remain Indoors crisis).  A day on the trains right at the start of the year nesscessitated some monochrome shots to deal with the conditions...

I did try some more experimental long-exposure pics, but my heart wasn't really in it as the camera was playing up.

One minor positive of the trains running at this time of year is the chance for some night shots; class 101 in the twilight above...

...and in the dark near Haworth.  This is actually a mobile phone shot; basically I had an hour to kill whilst waiting for Younger Child who was at a birthday party, and thought I'd get some pics.  So I set up, with tripod and SLR, tested everything...

Then just as the southbound steam service approached, the SLR died.  So I hastily improvised with my phone.

Another phone shot; didn't come out too badly, though it missed the front of the DMU being in shot, annoying after you've waited half an hour in the dark.

Ingrow station with the SLR which had mysteriously started working again... for about five shots.  I'd wanted a long-exposure of the DMU at the platform, then the trails of lights leading into the tunnel as it pulled away, but the camera died again.  It did convince me that the best way to get this shot would be to use miniatures instead in a more controlled environment, particularly with the nights drawing out again for another year...

Not all bad news though; I managed one day where there was blue sky and winter sun, and got a shot of the 2MT, 78022, into Railways Illustrated (April issue).  And we managed to fix the problem with the SLR too, annoyingly after the chance for night shots with trains had passed, but such is life.