KWVR Grim Jan

Well as the Lockdown continues, and railway photography is tricky to impossible, here's another dip into the archives for some older shots.  I suspect I might end up going properly back in time with some future posts as we're not really doing any arty stuff at the moment (there's some model making going on though, but that will be on t'other blog).

Being a railway photographer in the winter can be a bit dull, especially with the warmer, wetter, winters we've been having lately (trains in the snow or frost are nice, but it's been a while since we've had any of that).  Hardly any railways are open, particularly in January, and when they are, generally I've ended up there on days with flat, dull, skies... what an old friend calls Tuppaware Days, as if you're in a box looking up at a white lid.

We're lucky in that we live local to the Worth Valley, and they run every weekend (or did up to the Remain Indoors crisis).  A day on the trains right at the start of the year nesscessitated some monochrome shots to deal with the conditions...

I did try some more experimental long-exposure pics, but my heart wasn't really in it as the camera was playing up.

One minor positive of the trains running at this time of year is the chance for some night shots; class 101 in the twilight above...

...and in the dark near Haworth.  This is actually a mobile phone shot; basically I had an hour to kill whilst waiting for Younger Child who was at a birthday party, and thought I'd get some pics.  So I set up, with tripod and SLR, tested everything...

Then just as the southbound steam service approached, the SLR died.  So I hastily improvised with my phone.

Another phone shot; didn't come out too badly, though it missed the front of the DMU being in shot, annoying after you've waited half an hour in the dark.

Ingrow station with the SLR which had mysteriously started working again... for about five shots.  I'd wanted a long-exposure of the DMU at the platform, then the trails of lights leading into the tunnel as it pulled away, but the camera died again.  It did convince me that the best way to get this shot would be to use miniatures instead in a more controlled environment, particularly with the nights drawing out again for another year...

Not all bad news though; I managed one day where there was blue sky and winter sun, and got a shot of the 2MT, 78022, into Railways Illustrated (April issue).  And we managed to fix the problem with the SLR too, annoyingly after the chance for night shots with trains had passed, but such is life.

Blue Monday (well, it was a Wednesday, but that doesn't scan)

God, but I miss when you could go out to take photographs.  Technically I suppose as part of my 'hour a day Boris-ercise' I still could, but there's enough curtain-twitching going on to make me wary even walking to the end of the drive to get the bins, and carrying a camera isn't something you'd normally do on a jog.  I doubt any railway mag would touch the pics if I saw something, photographed it, and sent it off in case they suspected I was breaking quarantine.  Plus locomotives have dash-cams, and I don't want to appear on some 1984-esque National Rail most-wanted list.

So lets go back to the heady days of, oh, about a month ago.  I love the Settle-Carlisle Railway Webcams; no more just going out to take pictures on-spec, you can see what's coming by looking at the Ribblehead or Horton cams, with plenty of time to fill a flask and get somewhere lineside in a location that's a bit less Middle-Earth for when the trains pass my neck of the woods an hour later.  

Generally, I don't bother photographing Sheds (class 66 diesel locomotives) on the mainline, because they're boxy and uninspiring and blinkin everywhere.  DB Schenker examples are either dirty, dull maroon and gold, or shiny but still bland red and grey, Freightliner ones are dull green with a bit of yellow.  I make an exception however for unusual livery examples, and bless 'em, GBRF know the value of painting some of the fleet in weird and wonderful colour schemes to attract the photographers.

This one has been on my 'to see' list for over a year; I've never managed, because it so rarely does the Airedale line.  But one morning whilst checking the webcams whilst I was working from home, there it was trundling through Horton in Ribblesdale station.  Just time to make my way to Utley by the time it had gone up to Ribblehead, run-round, and headed back south.  This is a vintage livery from the 80's, and the 66 looks magnificent in this colour scheme.

The only shame of it is that I never get photographs from this location published; I do from a minutes walk away, a high-angle shot from a footbridge, but never the low-angle ones from this spot.  I suspect they look too much like trespass shots.

The next day I mugged my Father-in-Law to give me a life up to the Dales in the Landy so I could shoot a couple of miniatures projects on location; the last time I was up there taking pictures was the above shot, just before Christmas when Amy was on Jury Duty and I had the car (DBS class 60 on the southbound Gypsum working).

I got the model shots done in the morning, and we dared hope that the Blue Shed would be rostered on the quarry train again; the sky was blue, the sun was out, we were in the beautiful Dales, but no.  A bog standard shed.

We stopped off by Ribblehead; sun still out, and would be shining the right way for the return working and also the southbound Gypsum; which ended up being cancelled.  So no decent train shots here.

I got a picture of it anyway, racing through Settle, whilst we stopped off for lunch on the way home.  But a bit disappointing session (even more so knowing I won't be getting up there for a bit.  I suspect it's the sort of area where in these current conditions you'll end up in a wicker man or something if some of the locals don't recognise you).  Still, I'll just have to keep on eye on the Webcams...

Just a quick pic of the model shoot; this is scheduled to appear at some point later in the year in Garden Rail Magazine, so I'll post a bit more about it nearer the time.  I'm doing more Garden Rail stuff at the moment but having to (shock, horror) actually shoot the pics in my garden, rather than pass-off one of the most beautiful locations in the North as my back garden, as above.

A day with the KWVR Civil Engineers at Bridge 11

Back in the heady days before the lockdown, I (Ben) was invited to take some photographs on behalf of the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, and their in-house magazine ("Push & Pull"), of the delivery of the new Bridge 11 to Ingrow.  I've done quite a lot of photography for the mag and written a couple of articles last year, so it was an honour to be asked to participate in what is such a big project for the railway.

Also, I got to strut around the side of the track in high-vis and a hard-hat, and bask in the resulting sense of power.  Supervised and in a position of safety of course, but still fun to be allowed to stand somewhere you normally can't.  

From a railway photography point of view, the preparation for this work has seen a lot of unusual movement on the line ("Vulcan" with ballast wagons, above, being such an example) and it livened up an otherwise dull month for train pics.

The delivery itself was scheduled over a weds and thurs in Feb, and featured the delivery of a kit of 8 parts by road -4 each day- which would be unloaded by road crane onto railway wagons, moved by rail to the bridge site, then unloaded by steam breakdown crane.  So it was out bright and early (well, dull and 8-ish) at Ingrow Yard for the arrival of 37075 and 20031 on the Weds...

Lots of shunting by the 37 to position wagons, and prepare the breakdown train from in front of the Bahamas Locomotive Society shed...

...which was then propelled through the station, passing the first of the lorry arrivals.

The sky cleared in time for the unloading, with 20031 moving the flatbeds.  I was positioned a little way back from the action, so I didn't get myself smacked in the head with 15 ton of concrete whilst trying to get arty close-ups.

Just before lunchtime, and 20031 had propelled the flatbeds up to the work site.

Then followed a lunch break, and then the fun really beginning, with a walk through the tunnel to the bridge.

Not the sort of shot you can normally get without trespassing.

Quite unusual to be down at rail-level like this, and an enjoyable new angle on the action for these photographs.

It's angles like this which illustrate why I chose the steam crane as inspiration for the Steampunk Jabberwock model last year...  I still think it looks quite monster-like.

Annoyingly I had to break-off the day early for an appointment (which got cancelled anyway), the inconvenience somewhat made-up for by the cab ride back to the yard on the class 20.

Dropping off the borrowed safety gear, and a view from the Vintage Carriages Trust shed.

I wasn't free to be on site during the second day of works, but I did get chance to pop over a couple of times whilst on the school run.  View from the tunnel with the breakdown crane being positioned...

...and later on, in use.  Challenging lighting to say the least, but must have been hell for the chaps working down there in the gale-force wind and occasional bursts of heavy rain and hail.

So that's it for now; the old bridge came out after the Spring Gala.  Thanks to Melanie at P&P for arranging it, and John on the engineering team for accommodating me on-site during the day, along with all the other volunteers who put up with me strolling around taking pics.

With the blessing of the railway I sent off shots to most of the major railway mags, resulting in pictures being published in Todays Railways...

...Rail Express...

...and Railways Illustrated.  I'm donating the fees from these to the bridge appeal so it's nice to get a few shots in print.

The most recent issue of Push and Pull went to print before my shots were received by the mag, but one of my photographs made it onto the leaflet (85 on the bridge).  The vague and confusing nature of how long the lockdown will last rather throws the future of print mags, the railway itself, and the next printed issue of P&P into doubt, but maybe some of my shots will end up in there.  As I type this, the part-completed new bridge is in place, and I'll post some shots taken on Monday of them clearing the site, in a bit...

Anglesey Model Village- as featured in Garden Rail, April 2020

I (Ben) am something of an enthusiast of Model Villages; I like model-making anyway, and I had a visit at a formative age to the model village at Himley which was soon to close and lie derelict for many years; typically right up to the point I decided to see if I could get access for a photography project.  With typical bad timing, it was demolished just before the Uni project was announced.  The result was that I ended up making my own model village for my final major project, and a continuing interest in these tourist attractions.

Anglesey Model Village was known to me, given I spent pretty much every summer holidaying in Wales, but the jaunt over onto the island was always that bit too far when I was younger, and the place closed by the time I had access to my own transport.  Last year though, whilst on a holiday with The Childs, and with a couple of hours spare after a trip to the Sea Zoo nearby, on a whim we headed up to the model village which we'd seen had reopened.

It was a nice visit; the month before we'd done the grand-daddy of all model villages, Bekonscot (which is Down South), a massive, sprawling, busy place.  I actually enjoyed Anglesey a lot more for its compactness, and the fact is wasn't cluttered.  In fact we enjoyed the visit so much I decided to take a ton of photographs, and approach the editor of Garden Rail magazine to see if he knew about, or wanted some more info on the place.

There followed a request for an article on the visit and the model village- the origins, the new owners, the specifics of the model railway and the buildings, and so on.  I spoke to some interesting people with lots of information; the new owners, and also experts/historians in the field of model villages.

I won't go that much into detail on here, but it was a good experience writing the article, and it was a genuinely pleasant place to visit.  The Childs enjoyed it (especially the miniature train by the car park they could drive themselves).

The buildings are modelled on local Anglesey landmarks and structures in the main, and the refurbishment of the model village to its current state from miniature Day of the Triffids (whilst it was mothballed, awaiting sale) is remarkable.

The piece I wrote ended up as cover story and lead article in the April issue of Garden Rail- my first lead article and first photograph on a mag cover.

It looks great on the page (thanks to the editorial team at the mag), and has given me a taste for doing more of the same anyway.  I hope I've done the place justice, it deserves to succeed as an attraction as the new team there are throwing their heart and soul into resurrecting it all.

All in all, a nice start to the month, and at the risk of blowing our own trumpets, the first of four features of our work in print for this month... more on the others shortly.