Winter on the Leeds-Liverpool Canal... some new locations

Back to pre-Christmas again, and some recce-work for possible transport shots, combined with a walk to Frizinghall Models and back for some bits for a project.  The bridge (above) on the edge of Shipley is a cracking location, though hindered by the lack of variety of stock which runs on the Ilkley services...

...by contrast, more trains of a greater variety run alongside the canal, but the trees make angles tricky even here in the winter, come the spring this location will be pretty much useless.

Up towards Thackley Tunnel, there are some interesting remnants of old buildings, and this nice cobbled path going up through the trees...

...and another possible location for shoots, again until the greenery appears with the spring.

The bridge over the Aire towards the model shop...

A little later chronologically, but back along the canal towards Keighley, this is near the top end of the 5 Rise locks.

And finally, a grubby industrial building in Keighley itself, which caught my eye.

Cold Keighley

More from the pre-Christmas backlog and the frosty weather for this little update, fitting given that the temperature out there is dropping like a stone as I type this...

Down by the River Worth, on a footpath soon to be transformed by the building of yet more houses, as the developers rush to tarmac-over any green spaces in the town.

River Worth.

Odd detailing with the frost on a bridge.

Not related to the above (but taken about the same time), fresh snowfall and stark lighting  creating an odd, stark effect on these steps behind a church up near Queensbury.

On a frosty morning in Utley...

Apologies for the lack of updates of late- some fairly serious health problems (two nocturnal trips for me, Ben, to Casualty, one of which in the big yellow van with the flashing lights on the roof, woohoo) have meant not much photography has been done since Christmas.  But we've managed to get a few bits shot and edited, so we're playing catchup at the mo.

First up, some pre-Christmas shots, taken on a walk to Utley, near Keighley, bright and early on a very chilly morning.  Time for a mix of transport and landscape shots.  The above angle looked promising...

...though typically the shot didn't come out too well.  The train was travelling rather fast, and the very nice sunrise was disappearing by the time the (delayed) Settle-Carlisle train on its way to Leeds put in an appearance.

A little more luck nearby with the sun glinting down the side of a train, a class 333 on its way to Bradford.

Shooting the other way from a bridge further down.  Skipton-bound train.

I started playing with some shots on some of the many bridges on the walk, thinking of a mini-series, but this was the only one which came out in the odd lighting of the early morning.

One with no trains, but my favourite of the morning.

All in all not too bad a walk, the landscape shots certainly turned out better than the transport ones, not least because the trains are absolutely batting along at this point, and the odd light on the morning was making non-blurred shots very tricky.

OK these next two are not strictly related except by subject matter, but I couldn't find anywhere else to group the pics.  Class 333 on its way into Bingley from late-November (still some greenery on the trees at this point).  A location I might return to for more transport shots...

...and the same location as the transport shots in the main body of the blog post.  At this point an old level crossing projects out into the trackbed, giving a brilliant rail-level shot from a position of safety, but which looks so much like a trespass-shot that I'm having trouble getting anything published from this spot.  Shame about the weather, but A4 Pacific "Union of South Africa", heading back to the sheds just before Christmas, was utterly amazing tanking along at full speed.

Winter in the Severn Valley 2018

Continuing with editing the backlog of pics from the West Mids, our annual post-Christmas, pre-New Years walk in the Severn Valley.  A nice walk, with plenty of opportunity for some railway photography.  "Taw Valley" above, in poor light...

The day was somewhat gloomy, lighting-wise, with frequent wintry showers.

Ivatt "Flying Pig".  We were somewhat lucky in our timing, nearly all the service trains were facing the right way for our photography purposes...

We stopped for a brew and a sarnie from the refreshment hut at Hampton Loade, and a browse of the second-hand sales carriage.  Pannier tank on southbound train in the platform, seen above.

The shelter came in very useful when the heavens opened somewhat dramatically around lunchtime.

The pannier again, just setting off in gloomy, post-rain light.

This is what we were there to see- "Erlestoke Manor", on it's last day in service before withdrawal from service for repairs and rebuilding, at the end of it's 10-year boiler certificate.  Happily the weather obliged for once, and it was facing the right direction, which we were very pleased with.

By late afternoon the light was really fading, so we decided to try some long-exposure stuff.  The 'Flying Pig' on its return.

Then it was off home.  Happily we'll be making a return in 2018 as we won a photography competition with one of our shots from a previous winter excursion to this stretch- the prize was a family ticket for a day, so we'll have a crack again later in the year when hopefully the weather will be a bit brighter...

On a gathering storm...

...comes a tall handsome man, in a dusty black coat, with a red right hand...

Sorry, went all Peaky Blinders there for a minute, but it's very tricky to visit the Black Country Museum (where much of Peaky Blinders is filmed) without imagining yourself walking in slow motion, head tilted down to the ground, dramatically, with the theme song playing.

We've had an Unchained pass so made a few visits in the last year, but the pass is about to expire so we made what will probably be our last visit for a while.

The lighting being a bit poor, and us having taken lots of photos there during 2017, this time was just about playing around a bit with grey scale.

My (Ben's) favourite spot during this visit, with the willow tree contrasting nicely with the brickwork.  This patch hadn't actually been open the last couple of visits, so it was nice to have a poke around a new area.

So that's that.  They're about to massively expand the museum over the next few years so there should be a bit more to photograph in a future visit.  In the meantime, we're looking at getting an unchained pass for somewhere else, as we've really enjoyed being able to do so many visits to the Black Country Museum over the last year.

Apologies for the lack of updates recently- Christmas coincided with some rather serious illness issues, but hopefully should be getting back on track soon.