Wales

This is the entrance to the station, which is, as far as I know, up on that bridge to the right. The sculpture on the wall looks really 1970's, even Communist, although in this location that would be virtually impossible. In truth, a lot of similar artwork existed in America at the time. However, I know next to nothing about its actual origins.

I took this on my way to Cardiff Central Station. The old Great Western Mainline is on that viaduct you can see on the right, and you can see a steam-era water tower on the left. I've taken shots from this angle several times before. This wasn't actually a sunset, but a sunrise, as I had to get a train very early in the morning in order to get the Eurostar in London.

This was my train, still worked by an Intercity 125 after all these years. These trainsets date to 1976, but in some respects they're still the most advanced diesel passenger trains in the world. At the moment, I'm also unaware of anything faster than them, although some DMU's and ICE-TD variants can match them.

Created by the Government of Wales Act of 1998, the Welsh Assembly is another example of devolution to the constituent countries of the United Kingdom, in line with the Scottish Parliament (also created in 1998), and "Home Rule" in Northern Ireland, initiated in 2007. Perhaps surprisingly, this Assembly Senedd (Senate) building was constructed at Cardiff Bay, rather than in the city centre, in 2006. The old Pierhead building is also controlled by the Assembly, but is used as a museum to educate citizens and visitors about the Welsh government.

Originally constructed in 1897 for the Bute Dock Company, which almost immediately became the Cardiff Railway Company. It was transferred to the Port of Cardiff in 1947, as part of the Nationalisation of the railways to form British Rail. Following privatisation, it eventually was acquired by the City of Cardiff, and then by the Welsh Assembly. Today, it is used as a museum to educate citizens and visitors about the Welsh government. The clock tower, often called "Little Big Ben," had its mechanism replaced in 1973, with the original mechanism eventually being displayed in Cardiff's city centre in 2011, at the corner of Wood Street and St. Mary's Street.

The Norwegian Church, now used as a community centre with dance lessons and other services, was originally constructed in 1868 to serve Norwegian sailors. In contrast to most British churches, which were Anglican (Church of England), the Norwegian Church was originally Lutheran, which may explain why it was built. Roald Dahl was baptized in the church (probably) in 1916. In 1974, following a drastic decline in the size of the congregation, the church was deconsecrated, and in 1987 it was dismantled with an eye towards preservation and eventual reconstruction. Roald Dahl actually chaired the society responsible for the effort. It had actually been located on the site of what is now the Millenium Centre, so the present location was chosen in 1992, when the church was reconstructed as seen here.

The most notable ship preserved in Cardiff Bay, or at least the easiest to access until 2015, was this light ship, called variously Lightship 2000, Lightship 14, Goleulong 2000, and Helwig. Built in 1953, it was literally a "light ship," which served as a floating lighthouse to prevent other ships running aground. In spite of the development of radar before its construction, it remained in service until 1991, before being bought by an entity connected to the Cardiff Bay Development Corporation (I haven't been able to find a source specifically naming the buyer). For a time, it served as a chapel upon preservation in 1993, until it was closed to the public in 2013 and moved to Gloucester in 2015, with an eye to opening it as a museum following another restoration (which it has also served as over the years), but in Newnham-on-Severn, rather than Gloucester or Cardiff. At the moment, it is supposedly is being restored by Fred Larkham, although I have been unable to verify the owner. Their is an official website for the ship at: www.lightship2000.co.uk ...but the site appears to be down at the moment (June 12th, 2016).

This is a lock gate (chaisson?) to one of the dry docks(?) in Cardiff Bay. I took this as one of a series of shots I took of the Bay, mostly without any background research. Obviously, further information would be appreciated.

This was after our arrival at Cardiff, a few minutes early if memory serves. I didn't actually time the train this time.

St. Fagans was originally a castle, with the gardens seen here, but today it is the national museum of Wales. It isn't particularly photogenic unless you're talking about the gardens, but they do try to give you a good presentation of Welsh rural life over the past 175 years or so, with the predicable farming equipment, buildings, and so on. However, the National Museum in Cardiff has better mining displays.

This was one of those lucky shots, like most rainbow photographs. I was particularly lucky that my cameraphone could expose properly in this situation. It has almost no ability, for example, to capture sunsets. That big truss(?) in the background on the left is part of the Millennium Stadium.

This is the old Cardiff bus station, in front of the Cardiff Central train station. The location was ideal, so naturally the auto lobby had to pressure the city to move it far out in the suburbs, where no one could access it. However, this turns out to have not happened, and may have been an urban legend (although usually such things are not) as the new station will be on the same location as the old one. I took this photo from a building that used to be a terminal building of sorts, although at the time it was serving as a temporary location for the city library, which was also under reconstruction. The (real) new bus terminal will be located on the same block, but to my left in this picture, on the corner where Burger King is now. www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/first-images-cardiffs-new-bus-9532831

I saw these containers a number of places in Britain, and they struck me as an often unexplored area of rail marketing, namely the lower CO2 emissions possible with rail transport. This has always been the main marketing point of rail transport, at least as a government policy, in the modern era, although obviously to work, such a policy has to be implemented reasonably efficiently. For example, a one-car freight train will not have the advantage of a 100-car freight train. Britain generally is somewhere in the middle, running 20 to 40 cars typically, as in the rest of Europe.

I took this on New Year's Eve, after getting to Cardiff in the nick of time to meet my friends. I took several other cameraphone shots along the way, although nothing to speak of. I originally had hoped to get the number of this unit, but again I was using a cameraphone, so the exposure from the headlights was too much. This had been my first trip on Great Western after it reverted to its pre-1948 name, after having operated as "First Great Western" (in reference to First Bus) since privatization, and the creation of the train operating companies (TOC's) in 1996.