Bodnant in August (1)

Two visits to Wales this year, and each time we've been to Bodnant Garden.  There's something amazingly calming about the place, even in the current climate.  This post has a selection of my (Amy's) flower pics and some research shots for a possible laser-cutting commission too.  A second post will probably be up shortly, from the second visit.

 

97's by night

I (Ben) really must be bloody mad.  Having been up at 6 to go to Skipton to photograph the heritage diesels, and then driven a 5 hour nightmare journey to Wales, I decided to make the most of my insomnia and go take some more railway photographs close to midnight.  What can I say, I after three months of not taking any railway pictures I was celebrating having something to photograph, and a quick look at Realtime Trains showed a special running up the Cambrian Coast line.  Anything other than class 158's on passenger trains is pretty rare these days, and I've not done any night shots in a while.  A glance at the Barmouth Harbour webcam showed a pair of bright yellow 97's top and tailing an MPV, all nicely lit-up like a Christmas tree.

I started at Porthmadog Town Station... as did the heavy rain.  Then I almost got started on by some of the locals; since the station was converted into a pub, it is now something of a hangout point for large groups of young people not keen on social distancing, and even less keen on Stranger-er-er-er-errrs sitting in cars looking shifty.  After half an hour of drunk teenagers leering at me I decided to go find somewhere else.

Criccieth, next town up the coast, was suitably spooky and suitably deserted.  Evidently the local youth have a cooler place to hang out than the creepy haunted abandoned station (though apparently the station is still open; didn't look terribly like it from the night-time visit.  Evidently Transport for Wales can't find a shilling for the leccy meter).

Thinking the train had passed me some time whilst I was driving between the two stops, I was about to head for home when it crawled out of the darkness, all LED lights and roaring engines.

Bit tricky to photograph; wish I'd gone for the abstract blurring on purpose.

The train was going to the end of the line, then back to England, in about half an hour and I couldn't face hanging around waiting for the return (sitting in a car in a deserted car park surrounded by houses full of curtain-twitchers rattled me a bit), so I thought somewhere more rural would be in order.  I vaguely remembered a spot near Porthmadog.

I found my way down to it; rather more overgrown than the last time, but then it's been ten years.  Moth city too, and then the rain started...

Spooky.  

I got back to the car with the vague idea of getting ahead of the train and going back to Porthmadog, even though it would be pub tipping-out time.  I set off, the rain came down so hard I couldn't see and I managed to nearly bin the car when it aquaplaned on a puddle I didn't see until it was too late.

I ended up missing the turning in the rain, so thought I'd carry on for Minfford.  By now the rain was properly coming down, so I wanted somewhere with a bit of shelter.  The pedestrian tunnel down to the platform offered somewhere dry, but not a terrifically inspiring angle.  A bit of exploring though revealed the platform extends under the bridge.

Dry, relatively warm, sheltered from the breeze and amazingly well-lit; must be where the leccy budget for Criccieth Station goes.

After twenty mins of me hanging around, no doubt concerning with my behaviour anybody watching the CCTV cameras, the train trundled round the corner, working hard against the gradient.

I'm used to photographing the older variant, the class 37, with somewhat naff lights; these refurbished class 97's with their LED's are fantastic.

What a nice spot for night shots, I'll have to remember this for the future.

Off into the darkness it goes!  Not a bad, if long day... more photographs of more trains taken in 18 hours than I've managed in three months.  Two class 97's, a 37, a 47, an MPV and two 158's, with a mix of day and night pics, in sunshine and storms.  I love a bit of variety.

The Staycation Express

Trains were starting to run again back in the tail-end of July, and as a railway photographer who's barely picked up a camera for 4 months, I was determined to get some shots of the heritage diesels operating on the Skipton-Appleby timetabled services.  We can't go on the trains (too many of us, not enough seats together on the trains, and not sure how we'd entertain three kids for several hours in Appleby with nowt open) but I at least wanted to get some shots.  After a week of awful weather, on a Friday morning I set off very early to get a nice spot on the outskirts of Skipton to see the train.

I thought I'd get some shots of the wildlife and scenery on the towpath whilst I walked down the Leeds-Liverpool Canal to get to the location.

Out early enough to see some animal life too.

I still had half an hour to kill, so ate my brekkie then went for an explore of the aqueduct.

Spooky.

The train rumbled past, and the lighting was perfect.  It would be less perfect for the return working half an hour later, shooting into the sun, so I headed back to the car.

Heading back.

More wildlife.

One thing I've noticed is that the lack of trains over previous months has bought out the photographers in droves for the few services actually running, so when I got to the planned spot, another chap had it staked out.  Fair enough, so I found another spot, on the bridge, just enough in sight to freak-out motorists who must have thought I was a copper with a speed gun rather than a railway nerd with a camera.  Probably shouldn't wear a yellow T-shirt next time.

Still, pretty pleased with how the shot turned out even if the light was the wrong side, and soooooo good to finally be back taking railway pics; genuinely hadn't realised how much of a stress-relieving activity it is for me until I couldn't do it any more.

Then it was straight home, pack the car, and off to Welshy Wales for a week...

Pace Yourself

When the Worth Valley Railway went in lockdown, the line managed to turn some extra revenue by storing some redundant Pacer units on behalf of Northern (who'd slashed their own services down so much they didn't need them).

A couple of the railway mags asked if I could go and get some pics of the trains on their behalf, which I had to decline; the KWVR themselves requested that nobody break lockdown to see them, and even though I could technically have included them on my daily hours worth of exercise, the supporters FB group made it clear they'd effectively ex-communicate anybody who went to take pictures of them.  On top of which, I also felt the daily hourly exercise was for exercise, and knew with the local peer-pressure that if I dared go out with a camera I'd cop it off someone.

So the Pacers sat there, infuriating me; about the only newsworthy thing happening on my patch and I couldn't take any pictures.

What happened then was that I ended up in A&E in the middle of the night; I had severe pains in my side which 111 diagnosed as possible appendicitis.  An understandably knackered and annoyed A&E department got me to do star-jumps after 6 hours, said I couldn't do them with appendicitis and that after 6 hours it should have killed me if it really was appendicitis, gave me a paracetamol and sent me packing.

Having managed at 6am to secure a ride on an otherwise empty local train to Keighley, I then couldn't get a bus or taxi from there onwards.  So I decided to make the most of the situation and walk via the line, and snap some pictures on my phone on a nice sunny morning.

This is the view that has appeared just about everywhere else; personally I was happier with the street-level pics, but when everyone else went to get shots evidently the street was too full of cars for that.

Well, I might not be able to do anything with the shots weeks after every other photographer had been out to see the trains, but at least I could tick-off that I'd seen and photographed them.

Happily though I got a request for a shot after all, with the KWVR possibly running a commuter service.  Pic in the July-August Steam Railway.

Steam Returns on the KWVR

After all these months of Lockdown, the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway have finally been able to get ready to get going again.  I was doing some DIY one recent Tuesday and thought I heard some whistling from up the valley; subsequent investigations revealed this was indeed the case, and that they'd be running test trains again on the Wednesday.

I took The Childs up to Oxenhope for a walk to Haworth and back.  Still a bit out of practise with the photography, and forgetting to factor in Childs Inability To Get Ready for ANYTHING On Time, we missed the arrival into Oxenhope, and had to make do with a tender-first shot in the gloom.

Still, at least the flowers were pretty.

The horses were less impressed with us walking around their valley though.

We missed the next smokebox-first run, again due to Childs-related reasons, so headed back for Oxenhope, and got another tender-first shot about 200 yards from the first shot.

On the way back home though, we stopped off at Haworth to see 78022 heading through the station, which rather made up for the earlier lack of photo opportunities.

Can't wait for the railway to get going again; hopefully be able to take a ride on it soon enough...