tarboat's photos

This former school building on Waterloo Road in Stalybridge was opened in 1909 as a technical school designed by George Rowbottom, later serving as the Waterloo Road Girls' Secondary School (also known locally as the Central School). It is currently partly used as a medical centre and pharmacy.

The Fuxin Coal Railway with SY 0939 waiting at one of the stabling points and SY 0989 passing with a spoil train. In the middle is the oldest locomotive in this view - 1950 built electric locomotive 6583 which is one of a large batch supplied by LEW Hennigsdorf in 1950/51.

Thought to have been erected c1794 by John Wilkinson this building housed a beam pumping engine to drain the workings of his Brymbo Colliery. By mid nineteenth century it had been converted to a dwellinghouse and remained so until abandoned in the 1950s. Recently subject to considerable conservation work, it is the oldest standing full height enginehouse in Wales.

Decorative terracotta relief panels depicting architectural and surveying scenes on the exterior of what is now part of Jarrold's department store in Norwich. These form part of the architectural tableaux titled 'The Architect and Allied Trades' designed by architect George John Skipper and sculpted by Guntons of Costessey. The building was designed by Skipper in 1896 to serve as his own professional office. At the time, professionals were legally barred from outright advertising their services. To bypass this restriction, Skipper commissioned the intricate "Cosseyware" terracotta reliefs. The panels depicted Skipper himself collaborating with on-site craftsmen, effectively showcasing his skills to every passing pedestrian. Around 1903, the adjacent historic bookshop and department store, Jarrolds, hired Skipper to completely remodel and extend their own premises across Exchange Street and London Street. Over time, Skipper's original personal office at No. 7 was absorbed into the footprint of the expanding department store.

Locomotives under maintenance in the depot at the lower end of the Huludao Coal Railway. These comprise SY 1415 and JS 6307 and 8207. Central heating is visible in the middle of the shot.

JS 6305 with heads the empty wagons towards the limestone quarries on the short branch from Yangjiazhangzi on the Huludao Limestone Railway.

Shaft limekilns and hydration at Tunstead quarry. The original six kilns to the left have now been operating for nearly 100 years.

Shop front on Commercial Street in Batley. I was pleased to see the Crittall windows in the offices above. All the rest of the block has been altered.

The Xinhua power station on the Hegang Coal Railway with regular loads of coal being brought from the mines by a fleet of SY class locomotives. On a cold spring afternoon SY 1685 hurries nineteen empty hoppers back to the pits for another load.

Ruston Hornsby 7nhp general purpose traction engine DO 2953 driving a saw bench at the Astle Park event. It is always good to see these machines doing the work they were built to undertake.

The Hesketh shaft at Chatterley Whitfield Colliery was the last to be sunk on the site (1914-1917) and the deepest at 640 yards. I remember watching this pit proudly at work back in 1975 and now the state of the whole colliery site is extremely depressing as it rots into the ground.

SY 0513 and JS 6243 at the coaling station close to the cement works at the lower end of the Huludao Limestone Railway.

The Parish Church of Saint Peter, Stockport, was built of brick in 1768 and topped with this octagonal bell tower and dome.

On a very damp and grey afternoon a class 66 heads the binliner across Stockport viaduct. A grab shot whilst investigating the remains of the Cheshire Lines Committee infrastructure in the area.

Xibolizhan was a busy spot on the Sandaoling Coal Railway as it was the point where the lines from the opencast pit divided into routes to the tips and the lines to the east which carried the coal away. After the morning shift change when there could be six or seven trains in the yard there was a rush back out to work. On this morning a heavily loaded stone train is setting out for the spoil tips with two other trains in view.

Grade II listed Barclay's Bank at junction of Derby Lane and Prescot Road, Old Swan, Liverpool. It was built c1905 for Martins Bank, architects Grayson and Ould. The building is no longer a bank and currently stands empty and forlorn.

JS 6305 arrives in a cloud of dust at Yangjiazhangzi with a heavy load of stone on the Huludao Limestone Railway. The locomotive will be turned here before taking the train onward to Huludao where there are extensive cement works.

The former Midland Bank at the junction of Terminus Road and Cornfield Road in Eastbourne opened in 1913 and is now run by HSBC. The corner location leads to a rather abrupt transition to the brick facia on Mark Lane although even here there is a little decoration around the windows. In the 1920s and 30s over forty staff were employed here.