A sunny Spring lunchtime on the Worth Valley

I (Ben) have an article under way for British Railway Modelling, for which I'd shot a load of prototype pics earlier in the year. With the weather having improved significantly since they were shot, we decided to make the most of the Spring sunshine and head out for some more pictures. 

First stop, Ingrow, and a visit to the always-excellent shop the at Vintage Carriages museum.

Then it was off up to Oxenhope for a quick (and very tasty) bacon sarnie at the buffet coach.

An atmospheric view of "Vulcan", which was on pilot duties due to the fire risk. In fact the two above views make the place look quiet, but they were lucky shots; the trains were heaving!

Amongst the many items photographed for the article was the playground... had to wait for all the kids to sprint over to watch the locomotives running round.

With that, it was off home to crack-on with more work...

 

Flower Abstracts for a Sunny Spring

Amy has been gradually adding to her Flower Abstracts series, digital manipulations of photographs she's taken around the garden.

Since moving house, she's been working hard to bring the blank-canvas of the new garden, well yard (yarden?) up to snuff, and with the sunny weather this last couple of weeks, it was perfect to get some more material.

The above is the only odd-one-out, being in the wonderfully-kept displays at Oxenhope Station, which we visited for a magazine shoot last week.

 

Long Exposures in the Glaslyn Pass

On the way back to the car from the trip out to photograph "Russel" on the WHR, I (Ben) took the opportunity to try a few long-exposure pics in the gorge.

It wasn't brilliant conditions for it, as I really could have used a tripod, but had rushed out the house for the shots of "Russel".

Still, turned out OK, though I think a return visit later this year might be in order. 

 

"Russel" in the rain, in the Glaslyn Pass

Something of an unplanned last railway shoot; we were out on a mass-family gathering near Caernarfon, near the Welsh Highland Railway. Whilst we were there, a toot of a whistle heralded the arrival of "Russel" on a special. 

"Russel" is about to be withdrawn for maintenance, and to mark the occasion, it's been running some excursions on the WHR. But the fire risks the previous weekend scotched the run, so this was its last scheduled go.

Well, having apparently caused the end of the hot, dry spell by daring to come on holiday, thus making it possible for this train to run, it seemed rude not to get some pictures.

A quick drive into Caernarfon, and a lucky parking space, enabled a few shots as the loco ran-round.

More ridiculous was the attempt to get some pics, in the rain, in the Glaslyn Pass a couple of hours later. But it seemed worth the bother, given the fact this loco won't do this again for quite some time to come. A bit of a (slightly sketchy) scramble up the rocks to the trackside later, and a decent spot for a pic. And what's more, nobody else mad enough to try it, so nobody else to stumble into shot.

Ffestiniog in the Easter Sun

Proof that it was, in fact, sunny, on at least one day of our Easter Holiday... After four days of miserable rain the sun briefly popped out, at the point we happened to be in Porthmadog.

Even better, there were actually trains in Porthmadog Harbour Station, which seems to be something of a rarity with the present timetable. Whereas in the past it felt like there was always something moving here, the current timetable seems to leave big gaps. But no, Welsh Highland Railway train with no.130 departing.

"Lyd" manoeuvring out of the sidings.

"James Spooner" buffering up.

It was only a quick visit, but allowed us to get a few snaps in the sunshine for a Garden Rail piece. 

 

Talyllyn Railway visit, April 2025

Honestly, drought-stricken nations could pay us to come on holiday. After weeks of dry, warm, windy weather, and railways having to ban steam haulage because of the fire risk, our arrival in Wales heralded rainfall to levels which prompted Yellow Met-Office Alerts.

Anyway, a positive for us meant some steam haulage on the Talyllyn Railway, which we were visiting to get a load of reference pics for upcoming Garden Rail Magazine articles.

No.1 "Tal Y Llyn" doing the honours on our train, pictured running-round at Nant Gwernol Station.

We did a round-trip of the line...

...photographing quite a lot from the windows, that we want to replicate on our garden line.

"Tom Rolt" passing.

More photographs from the train, things we might want to model.

The main target for the visit, "Edward Thomas". We have our eye on a model of this rather wonderful ex-Corris Railway locomotive which we're planning to pick up at the Llangollen show.

The Talyllyn is one of those railways which has an important place in the history of rail travel in the UK, and it was great to pay a visit. Plenty of inspiration for upcoming articles, and lots of photographs taken...

 

Ffestiniog Railway Diesels

A Spring of very dry weather meant there was a ban on steam locomotives on many railways in the UK, and especially around North Wales, when we arrived. From a photography point of view, it meant a bit of variety on the Ffestiniog.

We were visiting Tanybwlch partly for cake and a brew from the excellent tearoom, but mainly to get some reference pics for a couple of articles we're writing.

Detail pics of Tanybwlch station.

Normally we'd do a walk up over the hills, but we weren't really feeling it today.

"Criccieth Castle" arriving with a Mountain Spirit service.

Wanting to bulk the shots out a bit to send a selection off to the mags, we headed down to Minfford later in the afternoon, but were put off a bit by a group of local Youthery messing about.

So we moved a bit nearer to Boston Lodge Halt, for the arrival of the return Woodland Wanderer with "Upnor Castle" noisily hauling.