"Sir Nigel Gresley"

Sticking with railway photography (because it's us, and of course we'll find plenty of trains to photograph), we're at the North Yorkshire Moors Railway for this post, looking to get some pics of the A4 Pacific "Sir Nigel Gresley".

We got some shots of this loco a couple of years back at Kidderminster, just after it had been restored, and was running in black livery.  However, we really wanted some shots of it in gloss British Railways Blue, and found it was running on the NYMR midweek.  A thick fog didn't bode well (though might have made for dramatic pictures), but the train had just rolled through Goathland when we finally arrived.

Figuring we'd missed it, we carried on for an afternoon our in Pickering, and were just in time to see the loco arrive.

It was particularly impressive running-round under the magnificent overall roof.

Nice steam effects high up in the rafters.

Close-ups of the motion, after the loco had run-round.

Later in the afternoon, we stopped at Goathland, for a brew, and to see the A4 make another pass.

A nice cup of tea in the cafe in the old goods shed before the loco arrived, though oddly enough it was some shots of the 9F in the other platform which produced the better, more dramatic shots of the day, and these will follow in the next post.

Beamish; Industrial steam.

I (Ben) am a great fan of industrial railway photography, and have a great many books on the subject.  However, I was born several decades too late for the heyday of the subject, and indeed even the use of diesel-operated industrial lines were ending when I was a kid.

Beamish however offered opportunity for me to have a go at the sorts of photographs I enjoy looking at in those books.

Beamish regularly hosts photo charter events, and I'd missed a recent one... however, they had this rather nice Andrew Barclay trundling about the place, just pottering around, and it offered plenty of scope for nice shots.

The shots worked out brilliantly, and I really loved how they came out, particularly the arty, greyscale ones like this.

 

Beamish; Industry out in the countryside

Moving away from the town, we went to the pit village, which hadn't been open when we popped in back in 2007.

Possible prototype for something I'm building for Garden Rail.

And then, moving away from the somewhat pastoral village, to the more industrial end of the site.

The rest of us nipped underground for the tour of the mine; Amy, being more sensible (and not wanting a bad back or mild concussion) stayed on the surface, getting some shots of the colliery area.  The right choice, in the finish, given how many times Younger Child managed to bonk her head on the ceiling.

There was a small narrow gauge steam loco pottering around this end of the village; some of Ben's pics of it will follow in the next post.

 

Beamish; Trams

One of the great things about Beamish is they have a working electric tramway to get around the various sites at the museum.  And with some possible tramway modelling on the cards, it was another opportunity to get in some reference pics whilst we were there.

There were two trams in use, a Portuguese single-decker, and an ex-Sheffield double.

There's a nice mix of surroundings possible too, with the countryside sections of the line.

There were vintage buses running too, but we were more interested in the trams.

Plenty of opportunity for creative angles too, and a mix of possible magazine shots alongside the reference work for the model-making.

Next time, over to the more industrial side of the museum...

 

Beamish; Town

Not long after leaving University, me, Amy, and her Dad called in at Beamish on the way back from collecting some of my work from an exhibition in Newcastle.  It was Autumn, half the museum was shut, and it was utterly belting down, and we only had a few hours there.  Still, we said we'd come back at some point soon.

A mere 16 years later, here we are.  More of the museum was open this time, though the weather was just as wet and miserable as on our first visit.

What it did provide was opportunity to get some pics in the recreated older bits of the town, and some shots of the sorts of places I grew up in around the industrial midlands, which were disappearing when I was a little kid before I had my own camera. 

The manky weather did suit greyscale a little better than colour.

The town was actually quite busy, it took some effort to get shots without people in, but I was mainly interested in reference pics for model-making purposes with the detail shots.