British Railway Photos

Among the newest trains in Britain are these Class 185 DMUs, which are intended for express and longer-distance regional services outside of electrified territory. Obviously, they often wander in and out from under the wires, and here's an example of that at Leeds, where 185140 is waiting to depart with a service to Middlesborough. In order to allow them to make full use of the British rail network and not hold up traffic, Class 185s are authorized to run at 125 m.p.h. where track conditions permit, as on this service. I originally never expected this shot to come out properly, as I shot it at f4 and 1/45, which I was sure would blur, but in reality it came out quite crisp, to my amazement.

I only just barely got this shot. The light in Leeds station was terrible, and then my camera malfunctioned, or rather, I had it set wrong. My friend heard a General Motors 710 prime mover bearing down on us, and saw the Class 66 coming in the distance, so it was obvious that it was going to run light through the station. Freights occassionally come through Leeds, even though its a passenger station, but this 66 was light engine only.

Not convinced that I had gotten the earlier shot of 185140, I moved in as close as I could while still getting the whole front end, and used my flash. This was what I got, decent, but surprisingly not as good as the first shot. It's that ugly bleaching from the flash, as usual.

Here's another shot of a Class 185, only this time pulling into Leeds New Station. It wasn't going anywhere close to its full 125 m.p.h. speed, of course, but was blurred because I was shooting at f4 and 1/30, I think.

Silverlink normally operate the local services from London Euston to Birmingham New Street, so 321423 is definitely outside of its home territory here. I'm assuming that it was substituting on another service for a diffrent TOC.

The weather was a bit rainy the while time we were in Leeds, so the lighting on this shot is a little dark, meaning a slow shutter, and hence some blurring. I still like it, though.

This was yet another random shot in Leeds, this one of 155347, which while quite old, was nevertheless painted in the new Northern Trains advertising livery.

Maybe the best known service worked by 333s other than the Heathrow Express is the Metro Trains service from Leeds New Station to Skipton. This service, which is monsterously fast for a local service, with 100 m.p.h. sometimes possible, was originally worked by old Class 307 EMUs with slam doors!! I actually had a chance to ride some of the last of those in 1998 before these 333s came into service. When I rode the 307s, it was on the way to Keighley for my first ride on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway.

When I went to Keighley to ride the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway for the third time, however, I departed from Bradford Forster Square rather than Leeds New. Here my train is on the left, with another 333 sitting over on the adjacent track.

This is, as many people know, the Great Hall of the National Railway Museum, formerly a shop. I used to do volunteer work here when I lived in York, and enjoyed every minute of it. From left to right in this photo, we can see the replica "Iron Duke," L&NW #790 "Hardwicke," SR #3030, BR #55019, "Royal Highland Fusilier," the original KF7 4-8-4 exported to China, BR #92220 "Evening Star," and 41001, which was the lead power unit on the original HST.

7050 was one of the first diesel locomotives in regular service in Britain, being part of the London Midland & Scottish Railway's limited attempts at dieselising shunting duties in the 1930s. Surprisingly, it's been preserved, and this was largely due to its long career in the War Department, which didn't end until 1979.

D6700 was the first of British Rail's Class 37 "Growler" diesels, and was also one of the first into preservation. These locomotives, in spite of their meager 1,750 horsepower and 80 m.p.h. maximum speed, are still used today, even occassionally working long-distance passenger services, although these more often than not are charters. #D6700 works charters and excursions exclusively, being a part of the National Collection.

The British Rail Class 86 electric was originally introduced in the 1960s for 100 m.p.h. Intercity passenger services on BR's West Coast Mainline, but today Class 86s have been replaced there by Class 87s and by the new Class 390 Virgin Pendolino tilt trains. Since the 1970s, when the Class 87s came into service, however, Class 86s have been used on mail trains, on the Great Eastern mainline after it was electrified in 1987, on charters, on freights, and in this case, in Maintenance of Way service. It is actually a bit rare to see a proper Network Rail locomotive, but since Network Rail took over their own track maintenance one would have to assume that having some dedicated locomotives have become a good idea.

Virgin Voyagers are primarily used, and always were intended to be used, for "Cross Country" services, in other words intercity services which bypass London. This brings most of them through York, as here.

This is the first of a series of black and whites that I took on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway on my third visit there on February 18th, 2007. I started shooting black and white, if I'm not mistaken, when I got to Oxenhope, but I have to admit that in general these photos may not be in perfect order. Here we see ex-L&Y #957, built in 1887 (really!!), and Taff Vale #85, which is also ancient. The 957 is my favorite, though, being an L&Y "Ironclad" 0-6-0, as brutally authentic as a vintage British steamer can get. Neither is the oldest I've ever ridden behind, but they come close. They're also both quite small, so our train was headed by both locomotives.

Here we are accelerating out of Oxenhope.

I don't know exactly where this was, but maybe some of you K&WV volunteers could enlighten me. Although I've been over the K&WV three times, I don't claim to know it well.

As on Picture 1, I don't know the location of this shot, so any advice would be welcome.