tarboat's photos

MSC Viceroy of the Carmet Tug Co heads towards the Stanlow refinery and dock on the Manchester Ship Canal. The tanker in the background is the Stolt Puffin.

Catching the morning empties heading for Sandaoling in the early light proved to be a chancy affair as in December sunrise clashed with the shift change. However, on this day the sun was still very low as a short-ish train gathers speed across the desert after a stop to raise pressure on the line between the interchange at Liushuguan and the yard at Nanzhan.

Twin block railway sleepers stacked at the Stanton Bonna concrete factory at Stanton by Dale. This company has supplied materials to the Channel Tunnel Rail Link from London to Folkestone, and for light rail systems at Sheffield, Birmingham, Manchester and Nottingham.

Stanton Ironworks was founded in 1787 and had just been closed down by Saint Gobain when I took this photo in 2007. The high quality pipes were the speciality of this works but in spite of operating very efficiently, productuion has been transferred to Germany. This plant has now been demolished.

In the hills above Tuoyaozi a loaded coal train is banked up from Lixin on the Huanan Coal Railway. Somehow this little line has survived into 2010 and continues to run an intermittent service with increasingly decrepit rolling stock.

Cokeworks are a rare commodity in Britain but in China they are plentiful. This small example near Hegang was a surprise as neither it, nor the branch railway serving it, had been there a couple of years earlier.

A cold winter's day on the Huanan Coal Railway as a C2 class 0-8-0 waits at Xiahua whilst the fire is cleaned and the water tank filled.

Fussell's Lower Ironworks, Mells was abandoned in 1894 after a long history of producing edge tools since at least 1744. The works was largely stripped at that time and has since been left to decay.

Far end of one of the galleries in the Cracken Edge Quarries. Somebody has been having fun with the tea lights in here.

The late afternoon sun catches SY 1205 hurrying across a level crossing as it brings a loaded coal train from the mines in the hills down to the washery on the Didao section of the Jixi Coal Railway. This was the last train that I photographed during the December 2009 China visit.

Parked on the wasteland on the other side of Wellington Road from Mersey Square in Stockport are a 1963 AEC Reliance with Willowbrook bodywork, and a 1962 Dennis Loline III with Alexander body. The other bus to the right is another AEC. March 1968.

It was a long way off across the hills, but I couldn't resist the sight of an aerial ropeway in action. This fairly modern ropeway carries ore from the Xiaotieshan Lead/Zinc mine over the hills for several kilometres and down to the Sanyelan smelter of the Baiyin non-ferrous Metal Group.

Late afternoon on Lough Derg

Another load of coal is pushed out of the Sandaoling opencast coal mine, whilst the empties set off back into the pit as the single line clears. This rotation of trains and coal has been running continuously since the late 1950s but will end in the next two or three years as lorries and conveyors take over the work.

During the first half of the 20th century there were many hundreds (possible thousand) of holiday homes to be found across Britain. Today very few survive as holiday requirements have changed and few people are prepared to accept the rather basic conditions that these places offered. In the Irish Republic there are a number of survivors in better condition than most of those in the UK. Even so, it is clear that neglect has set in at this lovely example at Dromineer on the shores of Lough Derg. To make the shot I had to hold the camera over my head in order to clear the rather overgrown hedge that is symptomatic of such places.

The 999grt bulk cargo ship Matrisha was launched in Japan in 1976 and, after a number of name and ownership changes, was wrecked after running aground on the south coast of Ireland. After salvage the hulk was towed to the remote Carhiracon Quay on the Shannon estuary where it was used to store cement for a number of years. Today it lies quietly rusting and awaiting its fate.

Prohibition notice on the Cromford Wharf goods shed. Signs such as this were common in steam days when there were concerns about sparks setting fire to the goods within. I vaguely remember one stating " Engines must not enter the potato siding ", which I think was also used as the title for a tv programme about railways.

The signalman prepares to exchange tokens with the fireman on 5199 at Consall station.