British Railway Photos

I'm 90% certain that this is Damems, but if anyone knows better please clue me in.

Again, I'm 90% certain this is Damems. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

I'm again not sure of the correct order of these shots, but this is a shot back at Keighley before either an earlier run than the first that I showed, or a later one after the first. This wasn't the train I rode, though, as far as I know.

Whenever or in whatever context that I took this (I don't remember) I like it. :-)

Here's a shot of 957 running around at Keighley. In reality, both 957 and 85 ran around, but seperately.

I took this out of a train window and over 957's tender at Keighley. I just liked the shot.

Apparently a lot of people had line permits for the weekend, as it was a Steam Gala weekend. I never found out whether they were working for the railway, for a magazine, for themselves, or a combination of things, probably a combination.

Either this was at the start of the previous run or halfway through the second one, I'm not sure.

This one is kind of an oddity that I took at Keighley.

Here's another oddity that I finished the roll of Ilford with. Maybe it's not as dramatic as the Keighley & Worth Valley stuff, but it is still, I think, a valid use of an FP4 frame.

Whoops!! I forgot these two. Enjoy. :-)

Here's another one.

This is, in actual fact, only a model. It's one of the most accurate model locomotives I've ever seen, and the only notable flaw I can see with it is that the "soot" around the chimney (smokestack) just looks like a finger smudge or spilled model cement. I think it was in O Scale, but I'm not sure since I don't remember, and in any case the model is far too good to identify as one scale or another based solely on a photograph.

This is my first photo on Flickr taken from a train cab while the train was in motion, and my only shot ever taken from a moving train while I was in the driver's seat. The way I got away with this, as I don't have a license, was that I wasn't actually driving. Although all DLR trains can be driven manually, they rarely are, instead being run driverless using a version of Automatic Train Operation. Crews are then limited to a few ticket inspectors and station staff who catch fare dodgers and protect the public's safety. The driver's controls are locked up under a heavy cover while not in use, and the driver's seat is open to anyone...like me, which gives people like me a chance to get photos like this one.

Here's a shot that I actually planned in advance, knowing that "Green Arrow" was working the Scarborough Express on the day in question. The yellow tint to everything is from the sun.

This may raise the eyebrows of some British trainspotters, who are constantly hunting this one-of-a-kind (and quite old, being built by British Railways Engineering in 1987) experimental electric, yet never finding it. The well-informed know that it's usually at Doncaster, working as a stationary power unit rather than a locomotive, although I once spotted it working a service in King's Cross back in 1999. Here it wasn't doing anything, being instead a display during the Doncaster 150 celebrations. The other locomotives around it are interesting, too, even if they're far less rare.

Here's ex-GWR #5972 "Olton Hall" a.k.a. "Hogwarts Castle" pulling "The Wizard Express" into York after a run to Scarborough, taking advantage of the Harry Potter craze for all it's worth. In actual fact, not only is the story pure fantasy, but so is the paint scheme and name on "Olton Hall!" It's a Great Western Hall Class, not a Castle Class (Castles were 4-cylinder, while Halls were 2), and Great Western painted their locomotives Brunswick Green, not red!! Oh well, one would have to assume that everyone enjoyed themselves on this particular day.

This is my second shot of Leander at Bury. Here you get to see more of the smokebox and front, albeit obscured by the lead passenger coach.