I (Ben) really must be bloody mad. Having been up at 6 to go to Skipton to photograph the heritage diesels, and then driven a 5 hour nightmare journey to Wales, I decided to make the most of my insomnia and go take some more railway photographs close to midnight. What can I say, I after three months of not taking any railway pictures I was celebrating having something to photograph, and a quick look at Realtime Trains showed a special running up the Cambrian Coast line. Anything other than class 158's on passenger trains is pretty rare these days, and I've not done any night shots in a while. A glance at the Barmouth Harbour webcam showed a pair of bright yellow 97's top and tailing an MPV, all nicely lit-up like a Christmas tree.
I started at Porthmadog Town Station... as did the heavy rain. Then I almost got started on by some of the locals; since the station was converted into a pub, it is now something of a hangout point for large groups of young people not keen on social distancing, and even less keen on Stranger-er-er-er-errrs sitting in cars looking shifty. After half an hour of drunk teenagers leering at me I decided to go find somewhere else.
Criccieth, next town up the coast, was suitably spooky and suitably deserted. Evidently the local youth have a cooler place to hang out than the creepy haunted abandoned station (though apparently the station is still open; didn't look terribly like it from the night-time visit. Evidently Transport for Wales can't find a shilling for the leccy meter).
Thinking the train had passed me some time whilst I was driving between the two stops, I was about to head for home when it crawled out of the darkness, all LED lights and roaring engines.
Bit tricky to photograph; wish I'd gone for the abstract blurring on purpose.
The train was going to the end of the line, then back to England, in about half an hour and I couldn't face hanging around waiting for the return (sitting in a car in a deserted car park surrounded by houses full of curtain-twitchers rattled me a bit), so I thought somewhere more rural would be in order. I vaguely remembered a spot near Porthmadog.
I found my way down to it; rather more overgrown than the last time, but then it's been ten years. Moth city too, and then the rain started...
Spooky.
I got back to the car with the vague idea of getting ahead of the train and going back to Porthmadog, even though it would be pub tipping-out time. I set off, the rain came down so hard I couldn't see and I managed to nearly bin the car when it aquaplaned on a puddle I didn't see until it was too late.
I ended up missing the turning in the rain, so thought I'd carry on for Minfford. By now the rain was properly coming down, so I wanted somewhere with a bit of shelter. The pedestrian tunnel down to the platform offered somewhere dry, but not a terrifically inspiring angle. A bit of exploring though revealed the platform extends under the bridge.
Dry, relatively warm, sheltered from the breeze and amazingly well-lit; must be where the leccy budget for Criccieth Station goes.
After twenty mins of me hanging around, no doubt concerning with my behaviour anybody watching the CCTV cameras, the train trundled round the corner, working hard against the gradient.
I'm used to photographing the older variant, the class 37, with somewhat naff lights; these refurbished class 97's with their LED's are fantastic.
What a nice spot for night shots, I'll have to remember this for the future.
Off into the darkness it goes! Not a bad, if long day... more photographs of more trains taken in 18 hours than I've managed in three months. Two class 97's, a 37, a 47, an MPV and two 158's, with a mix of day and night pics, in sunshine and storms. I love a bit of variety.
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