KWVR 50th Gala- Small Engines

Thursday saw a day of services worked with vintage coaching stock, and the smaller locomotives.  And from a photographic point of view, a day of cock-ups.  After an initial shot went reasonably, down in the woods near Keighley, my plan was to go up to Damems and get a shot of the visiting Pannier Tank by the side of the river.  But when I got there, the path was closed because of a fire the night before.

I ended up racing up to Haworth via a mad dash by bus, only to find the location I had planned as a reserve was badly lit at that time of the morning.  This marked a day of ending up in locations where the lighting was constantly against me.

Hot, tired, and a bit fed up, I headed back down to Damems, and ended up on the wrong side of the level crossing when trying to keep out of the way of another photographer.  Trying to make the best of it, I went for as mad a low-angle shot as I could manage by pushing the camera under the fence, which turned out better than expected.

Still stuck the wrong side of the crossing, I got a not-brilliantly-lit couple of shots of 1054, the ex-LNWR Coal Tank.

I hung around Damems to eat my lunch, in time to get the Coal Tank going back facing right way (the pic at the header of this post).  Though my annoying day continued; a chap showed up with a drone (swanky) to get some shots, and sat by his car to get the pics.  However, the station staff -rightfully angry that his shiny toy was far too close to the running line and infrastructure- and the filming chap next to me -angry that his video was sound tracked by a noise like angry wasps in a bean tin- , both laid into ME assuming that because I was the youngest person in sight the drone must have been mine.  The fact I was holding an SLR, not a remote control, apparently counted for nowt, I must have been flying it with my Jedi skills.

Rushing to get back for the school run, I managed a passing shot (again, lit wrong) of the Pannier, the location I had wanted to be in that morning just tantalisingly the wrong side of the river...

An unexpected last shot of the day, whilst The Childs were at an engagement and we had time to kill.  Oakworth station was nearby, and had both a) cold drinks and b) cake, thus providing a nice place to kill an hour waiting for the kids to finish.  Amy wisely wandered off at this point, to avoid me embarrassing her with Railway Children quotes.

So a not altogether successful day from a photography point of view, so I decided for the next day, the actual Reopening Anniversary Day, to plan in more detail, and head for the more scenic end of the line at Haworth...