Welsh Highland Wet Weekend

Apologies for the slightly delayed update, but being as it is about railway photography, a post involving trains being slightly delayed seems quite appropriate.

Our final weekend in Wales (at least for a month or so, depending on if I can get some time off before Christmas) has come and gone… we'd set off with every intention of getting at least one more pic for the “Home is…” project, but that fell through in spectacular fashion when the weather decided to revert to form for North Wales, and it tipped it down for about 48 hours.  So, therefore, I thought I’d head out for some train pictures instead.

The Welsh Highland Railway http://www.festrail.co.uk were having their “Superpower” gala, so it was off up to Dinas Station on the Tuesday, followed by a few shots out in the wilderness on the Sunday.  Lots of unusual and special trains running, so plenty to photograph.

Being someone who does lots of model making and miniature sculpture, I was also very pleased to see some of the model railway layouts on display- this is “Bron Hebog”, a layout which has its own blog which I’ve been following for a few years http://bronhebog.blogspot.co.uk

Unusually I hadn't bothered with a timetable, just rocking up to see what was happening, so was pleasantly surprised to see a freight train (which seemed to catch the other photographers equally by surprise) hauled by a loco I'd last photographed about 5 years ago.

I know its a running joke among some people I know, about my attempts to get ultra low angle shots of trains/rally cars, but I was very happy with just how low I managed to get with this shot...

Something else I'm having a play with, long-exposure blur shots.  I'm actually going to be doing something very similar to these in the near future using miniatures for a separate project (using a home-made model of a similar train), so I couldn't resist having a go at doing a pic using the full-size subject matter.

Sunday was incredibly wet, but dodging the showers in Porthmadog I managed to get a quick shot at the joint Ffestiniog/Welsh Highland station… the lighting was poor, and the world and his dog were stood there taking pictures, so I decided to have a bit more of a play with some long exposure shots.

The number of other photographers about proved to be an issue for the afternoon, when the weather finally brightened up.  I had intended to just photograph the Vintage train (two of the oldest narrow gauge steam locos in the world, lots of lovely old coaches) in the Glaslyn Pass, but I reckoned a fair few people would be out to photograph this rare service, especially at so popular a location, so I drove out to an odd little spot that I figured nobody else would bother with (and as it happened, a fair few other photographers were near-by, but missed the bit I’d chosen).  Its off a farm track near Plas Y Nant, and involves a bit of a scramble and the risk of getting your feet wet, but worth it... or would have been had the train run on time when the sky was completely blue behind the bridge.  Ah well.

Getting to Aberglaslyn, and a spot we'd recently used for the "Home is..." shoot turned up an unexpected train, which I managed to snap in a hurry.  Very odd lighting in the afternoon, and the camera seemed to be struggling a bit with the dark and light greens in this spot, but I still rather like the image.

Racing the train back down the valley, to my slight surprise (given how many cars with old men toting cameras we'd passed on the way) I was able to get into my original location of choice half way down the beautiful Glaslyn Pass.  I did end up beating a couple of annoyed photographers who seemed quite angry that I’d got there first, about 20 mins before they had.  It was worth the effort and the scramble though; this is the sort of shot I’ve wanted at this location for years, especially with these particular locos.  All in all, a very successful couple of days…