The Early Bird...

The Early Bird Catches the Worm... and the Insomniac Railway Enthusiast Photographs The Ridiculously Early-Running Loco Movement.  One of the lesser-known advantages to only getting about 4 hours a night's kip is being able to nip out in the very early hours of the morning to see and record unusual movements on the railway.

The summer heatwave meant that "Royal Scot" got stuck on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, and after some weeks, the owner sent one of his Class 47 diesel locomotives to pick it up.  And yes, jealousy being what it is, I would love to have the sort of money where I had a fleet of steam and diesel locomotives to play with...

Anyway, the Elder Childs were both on an inset day, and the 47 passed us whilst we were on the way to Skipton.  When we got back to Keighley, it was parked up at the steam railway, so we went to get some snaps from the public footpath, along with at least a dozen other railway photographers, but the white sky didn't exactly help getting the shots.  I did manage a couple by leaning out of the window whilst on the next leg of our day trip.

The sky was looking a little better come the evening, so I nipped back out with the camera.

Having checked the online timetable, I knew the train would be leaving the KWVR just after 5am, so headed on to Keighley where to my surprise there were other insomniac photographers knocking around...

The consist leaving the KWVR, and out onto the mainline...

I thought I'd head down to Bingley Station where I could at least get up close to the train in nice surroundings.  Being so early in the morning, the camera was struggling a bit with the moving target; despite several trains being listed as running beforehand, the collapse of the NR timetable meant actually nothing came trundling through to practise on...

Happily, the whole ensemble was reversing at Shipley on the triangle of lines there, for the run to Crewe, so after about half an hour I was able to photograph it running back through again, when it was slightly lighter.  It was a novel experience to have something other than reading or housework to do when I couldn't sleep, and I had the car home in time for Amy to be getting up at 6 to go to work.  I was slightly surprised how many other photographers were up and about though... maybe we could start a support group.