Out for the Night; Bradford and Saltaire

Towards the end of the summer, we went to the new Bradford Live to see Bill Bailey (very good; the second or third time we've seen him over the last ten years). They've done a good job of the refit, very industrial chique in the main area...

...and restored period details in the stairways and things.

From a photography point of view, a useful opportunity for some shots at Forster Square in the dark, visual reference for an upcoming project Ben is doing...

...and some more night shots around Saltaire.too when we got off the train.

Considering these were just shot by free-handing it with a phone, they've come out rather well. It might be worth going back out with a proper camera at some point; Autumn is when we usually go all-in on the night shoots anyway.

 

Keighley Station in the Dark

Previously on the blog... we'd been to see The Railway Children live on stage at Oxenhope. Having travelled back down to Keighley on the special service, we hung around at Keighley Station whilst the public all left; Amy's Dad was one of the stewards on the train, and her was hanging about to help the guard close-up the train ready to head back up to the carriage sheds. 

We ended up helping him check the compartments were all empty, and the windows and doors shut ready for the guard to lock. This looks like we've used too much flash on the camera, but actually this was a car with its headlights on full-beam that was on the adjacent road.

Sealed up, ready to go.

And off the train went, leaving four of us with the station to ourselves, and an unrivalled opportunity to get some nice shots of the place in the dark.

We'll be back here in the dark again in a month during the beer festival, though it will be rather busier at that point. This though was a great chance to get some pics for an upcoming project Ben is doing, some nice visual reference for a model he's doing.

And with that, it was time to leave as the lights were knocked off and the place locked up.

 

A quick trip to the Holyhead Breakwater Country Park.

Just a quick post tonight, a few architectural studies around the old industrial ruins at Holyhead Breakwater Country Park. We'd not been there since doing the research for one of the Hornby articles. 

 

Portmeirion Again

We took a return trip to Portmeirion this year- we went last August, but the weather was a wee bit manky. Making the most of the heat-wave summer, we went back for a picnic and a walk.

It was as lovely as last time, and we got some cracking pictures around the place to use for upcoming projects.

 

His Lordship's Railway; The Hornby Collectors Club

One by Ben for Hornby today, another piece in the Collectors Club.

The inspiration was this, the Wressle private railway out Hull way. Ruston and Hornsby 48ds and a couple of wagons, and two wagons; a perfect real-life micro layout.

I'll be posting more about this on the model-making blog, as usual, but for now on here, just a few photographs.

These were shot in  the house, but with natural light at least; the backdrop is a printed sheet, which doesn't half make a difference to the final pictures compared to some of the earlier pictures I've done for the club.

Hopefully the layout will be appearing in the Micro Model Railway Despatch later in the year too.

 

The Railway Children

At the end of August, we attended the performance of "The Railway Children" at Oxenhope, on the Worth Valley Railway. This was running as part of the Bradford City of Culture Celebrations; one of the few things we've engaged with, sadly, but then there hasn't been a lot that stood out to us on the program of events.

The trip started with a special from Keighley...

...up to Oxenhope.

The conversion of the Display Shed into the venue was stunning, and some superb bits of set-staging and design work.

We obeyed the instruction not to photograph anything during the show of course, this is just before...

And the end. The money-shot, as it were, with the L&Y tender loco starring.

Then back to Keighley in the dark. We're no theatre critics, and in-depth analysis of the play is a bit beyond this blog, but from the point of view of being fans of the film, this play was spectacular. Funny, emotional, brilliantly acted and wonderfully-staged. We had a great time here, and so glad we managed to snag tickets for one of the final performances.

There'll be a follow-up post too, as we had the station to ourselves once the rest of the public had gone (Amy's dad was stewarding the service, so we hung about to help him, which meant an unrivalled opportunity to photograph the place in the dark).

 

Erdigg

 

During mid-August we made a short visit, on a very hot day, to Erdigg.

This is a preserved stately home near Wrexham- to be honest, we were looking for somewhere old, stone, and cool to lurk in during a VERY hot day.

Nice and dark in there, and atmospheric. Younger Child was shooting reference pictures for a project they've got on the go, we just took a few pics on the phones and let them get on with it.

Out into the grounds, lurking wherever possible in the shade.

Some lovely old glass-houses and cold frames in the walled garden.

And unusual plants- this razor-edged specimen caught the attention!

For a variety of reasons we didn't spend as much time there as it perhaps deserved, but we've family in the area so a return visit is a probability.