tarboat's photos

In bitter cold conditions and with the usual diesel out of action, SY 1662 had worked the early morning passenger service to the mines. It now heads for Yijing yard for servicing followed by coal hauling duties.

A friend called today with a small gift as he knows I am interested in bricks, especially those from North Staffordshire. This tiny special brick with a really deep frog (more than half the depth of the brick) was made as a souvenir of the visit to the works by William Hancock, the Lord Mayor of Stoke-on-Trent 1961-62. It is inscribed on the side of the brick: William Hancock Lord Mayor 1962 I wonder whether it was intended to be used as an ashtray?

Princess Elizabeth makes a good start out of the loop and away from Chelford with the Scarborough Flyer.

Another morning jaunt with Eagle 142 to see Princess Elizabeth with the Scarborough Flyer. The train is seen here just starting from the loop at Chelford as the local stopping service to Crewe heads away. It was dull, it was wet.

I spent a happy day with the crew of this locomotive as it worked along the Jitong railway between Chabuga and Daban. QJ 7081 is seen here after taking water and cleaning the fire at Gulumanhan. The signal had just cleared ready for the final leg of the journey to Daban and the crew are preparing to board. A few months later this became the regular passenger locomotive and at the end of steam on the Jitong line it was then sold to the Iowa Interstate Railroad in the United States where it is still occasionally steamed.

The millet is being loaded from the fields as a QJ heads west towards Lindong on the Jitong Railway.

Today I spent the afternoon surveying ponds on the moors and had hoped that I might see a few Common Hawkers ( Aeshna juncea ) even though there wasn't a lot of sun about. In the event I very nearly trod on this male before I spotted it. It was well settled and not warm enough to fly off immediately and this gave me the opportunity to take a few shots. The blurred forewings are due to the insect indulging in some vigorous wing whirring to generate enough heat in its muscles to allow it to escape. A few seconds after I took this shot it was off in search of a less disturbed place to roost until the sun returns.

Rail rapid loading bunkers at Daw Mill Colliery in Warwickshire.

William Blyth tileworks Barton-on-Humber. Their works in this area have been producing hand made roofing tiles for around 160 years. This site has been temporarily closed whilst the kilns are refurbished and production is expected to resume at some point.

Asphalt plant at a disused limestone quarry.

It was a bit of a shock to step around a corner to be confronted with this. Someone had obviously spent a bit of time setting up this little scene in a disused textile mill. It does provide a timely warning of the dangers of derelict buildings.

Somebody tidied away all the redundant plant and spares at this disused quarry.

Berresford liveried Leyland Leopard PSU4 on its return from Ford Green Hall on the morning of the Potteries Connection Classic Bus Running Day. I susequently had a most enjoyable run on this bus to the Foxfield Railway at Blythe Bridge.

Even in 1992 the long distance passenger services from Harbin to Hailar and on to Manzhouli were dieselised. However, the freight and local passenger train were all steam operated. Having arrived in Hailar in the morning, the afternoon was spent watching the traffic to the south of the town. As the sun fell low in the sky this stopping service headed by QJ 2852 caught a nice glint as it crossed the main road out of town.

I was driving along the M62 past Milnrow as I have done many times before, only this time I spotted something. On approaching a bridge carrying a farm lane over the motorway I looked up and spotted a bank of coke ovens on the hillside. How on earth had I managed to miss those for so many years? Moving on a couple of weeks I was back for a closer look at this row of beehive ovens built into the hillside. The stone facing has long been removed for re-use but the back half of the kilns remains. My first thought was that they were associated with Tunshill Colliery which was a short distance downhill from here, but after a bit of research I reckon they were built to use coal drawn from the Tunshill Hey Collieries operated on the north-east side of the hill in the later nineteenth century by Benjamin Chadwick and the Executors of Alfred Wild who also seem to have been involved with the colliery and coke ovens at Schofield Hall, of which more anon. The coal was brought through the hill from Tunshill Hey workings and emerged from a tramming level close to the ovens. By producing the coke here it was closer to the markets of Oldham and Rochdale and may even have been sent down the tramroad linking Tunshill Colliery with Butterworth Hall Pit in Milnrow itself.

The interior racks and baffles have been removed from the base of some of the cooling towers at Thorpe Marsh. This allows an unusual view of the sky and a chance to listen to the fabulous echoes within.

Another shot from the Scarborough Flyer at Goostrey with 6233 at the head. I thought for a while and decided that it's better to leave in the two guys by the signal rather than attempting to crop them out.

The latest addition to the Berresfords fantasy fleet is yet to be badged up and yet was pressed into service after an injector failure on the Swift during the Potteries Running Day. Here it heads for Hanley and Ford Green soon after picking up outside Longton St James church.