tarboat's photos

This large draw kiln is one of several to be found in the area around the Clints Quarries in the west of Cumbria.

A small work camp for WWII prisoners of war at Biggin in Derbyshire. This site is due to be demolished soon.

Local passenger service leaving Shenxi on the Pingdingshan Coal Railway whilst a deflectorless QJ starts from the yard with a train for Mine 1. I have reworked this image of which I posted a version some nine years ago and I think this is an improvement.

New use for old gasholder frames seen from the platform at St Pancras station in London. These have been moved from nearer to Kings Cross and are now being incorporated into a development of apartments.

Rugeley power station back in 2007 when the flue-gas desulphurisation plant was being built. Now the whole plant is due for demolition.

This disused limekiln at Nanpiao was in excellent condition and had only been abandoned because larger draw kilns had been built alongside. The limeworks was in full operation and looked very busy.

The freezing afternoon draws towards evening as SY 0366 heads a passenger service away from Fulongshan towards Sanjiazi on the Nanpiao Coal Railway. This was the last train that I saw on this line which was dieselised before I could return.

A case of being in the right place at the right time. SYs 1369 and 1095 had brought the 160 tonne capacity Qiqihar based rail crane up the Hengshan bank with the final concrete beam for a new bridge close to the colliery at Zhangzin. The train is being split to take off the match wagon/crew accommodation before the crane is shunted up the slope to the bridge.

Daban was the location of a major locomotive depot and the workshops for the Jitong Railway. Locomotives were changed here and a fresh pair of QJs is departing the yard heading east. This was a bitterly cold day with a biting wind which is taking the exhaust southwards. Whilst waiting for this departure we were approached by a man on a motorbike who offered to sell us the brass injector that was strapped to the seat. It had not occurred to him that it was both bulky and very heavy and not something you can take on a plane home as hand luggage.

Established in 1906 by Walter Thomas Knowles, this brickworks at Elland continues to manufacture drainage pipes and chimneypots using downdraught beehive kilns. Today W T Knowles and Sons Ltd is one of only three such manufacturers left in Britain.

The introduction of tourist trains has also seen the concept of the 'runpast' being adopted on the curve above Jaioba by trains bound for Bagou. A long viewing platform has been constructed for tourists to stand on whilst the train is backed across the embankment before returning with whistle and boiler blow-down valve open in an attempt to make a rainbow for the multitude to photograph. All this is accompanied by a range of hot food vendors plying their wares to all and sundry. China at its tacky best.

The track gang take a well earned rest on the railway themed seating at Caiziba on the Shibanxi Railway as C2 No.17 charges through the station with a freight. This station has been modernised for the tourist traffic and now boasts a shop and a half-decent toilet block. We were able to dine here on noodles and beer whilst the action took place right in front.

The Hegang mining railway on a cold murky morning. SY 1498 accelerates away from Dalu mine which can be seen in the background. The overhead wires were only used by electric locomotives hauling coal trains from Fuli into Hegang.

Coal transfer tower at Northern power station, Port Augusta South Australia.

The fourth and final tramroad linking the Caldon Low limestone quarries with Froghall Wharf on the Caldon Canal was built to the designs of James Trubshaw and completed in January 1847. It comprised four self-acting inclined planes of 3ft 6ins gauge and included a tunnel on the top section. The tunnel starts at the uphill end with a wide section which accommodated the three rail layout and four rail passing place, and then about a quarter of the way down narrows to a single track bore for the remainder. This image shows the tunnel at the point where the bore is narrowing down to single track. It was abandoned in 1920.

The sliding swing bridge bridge, built by the Darlington Carriage and Wagon Works, spanned the channel between No.1 dock and No.3 Dock, just above the lock. It was hydraulically operated and the pump house is listed Grade II as are both the bridge and the adjacent signal box. It does not appear that anyone cares about the structures in this view, dating from 1889, and they are steadily disintegrating through neglect. The signal box existed to operate and protect the bridge. The single internal dock line and roadway it carried connected South Side Sidings with the Graving Dock and No.2 Dock lines.

British Coal closed Tower Colliery on 22 April 1994 but the workforce refused to give up and after pledging £8,000 each from their redundancy money bought the pit On 3 January 1995 the Colliery re-opened under the ownership of the workforce buy out company Goitre Tower Anthracite. Having extracted the economically attainable reserves the colliery was last worked on 18 January 2008 and the official closure occurred on 25 January. The company is currently involved in a joint venture with Hargreaves to extract a further 6 million tons of anthracite from an opencast operation.

Copper workings of different times and at different levels in the West Mine at Alderley Edge.