UK Railways

Late afternoon, and Palmerston & Prince with vintage coaches climb the Dduallt spiral on the Ffestiniog Railway.

Time was when a tour of an industrial railway was undertaken with the participants climbing into wagons for the journey. To remember the old ways a nostalgic wagon trip was arranged on the Chasewater Light Railway for members of the Industrial Railway Society prior to their 2013 AGM. The trip was blessed with warm sunshine and a good time was had by all. Even the smuts were authentic!

Prince & Palmerston run out of Aberglaslyn middle tunnel on the Welsh Highland Railway.

I have always thought that the Brinnington railway bridge over the M60 motorway is a particularly fine structure. This Warren girder bridge is the largest single span structure of this type on British railways. Wikipedia says: The Warren type girder combines strength with economy of materials and can therefore be relatively light. Patented in 1848 by its designers James Warren and Willoughby Theobald Monzani, its structure consists of longitudinal members joined only by angled cross-members, forming alternately inverted equilateral triangle-shaped spaces along its length, ensuring that no individual strut, beam, or tie, is subject to bending or torsional straining forces, but only to tension or compression.

Flagging down the train at St Keyne Halt on the Liskeard to Looe branch.

First shot of today's charter on the Severn Valley Railway as 1450 departs Bewdley with an autotrailer in tow. Hey, we even had some sunshine!

1450 and autotrailer passing an accommodation crossing on the Severn Valley Railway.

The autotrain passes an accommodation crossing on the Severn Valley Railway during the recent photo charter. A lovely rural setting to capture a typical service as seen on a number of former Great Western branches in the 1950s.

At the regulator on the big Robert Stephenson & Hawthorns 0-6-0T Nechells No. 4 at the Chasewater Railway.

Heading towards the tunnel after leaving Bewdley; 1450 and the autotrailer on the recent photo charter.

1450 takes the autotrailer past Bewdley South Box during the recent charter.

Prince & Palmerston hustle a long load of empty slate wagons up the Ffestiniog Railway above Minffordd.

Action on the Caldon Low branch as 5199 starts from Threshing Barn crossing.

Just after leaving the Bewdley Tunnel.

Prince & Palmerston approaching Rhyd Ddu on the Welsh Highland Railway.

AB 2274, on loan from the Bowes Railway, is shunting chaldrons at Beamish during the recent charter at the museum.

Head Wrighton No.1 shunts chaldrons under the screens at the Beamish colliery during the recent photo charter. This locomotive can be quite alarming as from certain angles it appears to be running without a driver!

The mineral railway between Hope and Caphouse Pits of Denby Grange Collieries and the staithe at Calder Grove on the Calder and Hebble Navigation, and the Wakefield and Barnsley Railway, was completed in 1854. The upper sections included four inclines with two steam hauling engines. The No.1 enginehouse held a 36" vertical cylinder steam engine that hauled loaded wagons, two at a time from the Hope Pit. The line then descended towards Denby Grange Pit and the loaded wagons went down under gravity. Today the line of the railway is a road and only the foundations of the enginehouse and the brick chimney remain.