tarboat's photos

The sun has already dipped out of sight in the deep valleys of Viseu-de-Sus as the afternoon timber train heads homewards from the Novat valley on the branch that was destroyed by flooding in 2008. Sadly, although the main line of this system has been repaired, the branch will not be rebuilt.

Abandoned smallholding at Cramer Gutter on Catherton Common in south Shropshire.

On my last visit to Nanpiao we piled off the train at Jinzhou after a 22 hour journey from Manzhouli and straight into a minibus for a dash to Xiamiaozi. Within a few minutes of arrival we were watching SY0366 bringing the track maintenance train across the Zaojiatun road and back into the yard. The height restriction caused by the bridge is a problem for the lorries piled extra high with coal, but they overcome this by driving onto the floodplain of the adjacent river and under the next span where there is more headroom. Any coal swept off by the bridge is soon swept up and bagged by the gleaners who lurk nearby.

A great vantage point to shoot the trains on this short branch line off the main Selketalbahn.

There are still gems of mining sites to be found in forgotten corners of Britain. This little stone mine stands disused but untouched after several years since closure.

John Slater purchased the Berry Hill Collieries after 1914 and in 1918 set up John Slater Ltd to operate Berry Hill and New Haden (Cheadle) Collieries. The brickworks at Berry Hill came as part of the deal and I wonder how pleased Mr Slater was with the misunderstanding regarding the stamps for the brick press. :-)

Blending plant at Lafarge Cement, Hope.

Eighteenth century drainage sough serving colliery workings in north west England.

Another Cheddleton yard view from the evening of the winter steam gala. Ring Haw and the Jinty.

SY 1437 at the head of a spoil train at the large spoil tip between Xinghua and Zhengyang on the Jixi Coal Railway. A small number of the host of coal pickers can be seen just to the right of the locomotive.

Screening plant and loading bunkers at the Bardon Aggregates Topley Pike Quarry near Buxton.

On an evening walk in Macclesfield Forest just after the rain stopped.

This tramroad tunnel was provided with a ventilation shaft half way through. Looking up it can be seen that it has been boarded over. On investigating at the surface all that can be seen is a grass field. One day somebody is going to get a nasty surprise.

99 6101-2 climbs past the reservoir on the short branch from Alexisbad to Harzgerode on the Selketalbahn.

I don't take much pleasure in photographing lines of rusting, derelict locomotives and have to seek alternative approaches. In the yard of the Banovici works there were several disused locomotives of a variety of classes, including this example of a class 25 tank engine which were still sometimes used to shunt the washery and sidings at Oskova. It is seen here through the glassless window of the one of the loco cabs lying around on the ground.

Frames, with boiler behind, from a locomotive under major overhaul at the repair shops of the Banovici Coal Railway.

Thomas Bolton copperworks at Froghall, Staffordshire.

Clearly reading is not top priority for the boating classes in Garlieston, SW Scotland.