tarboat's photos

Pyenest Street Etruria

Seen stacked at the side of a barn whilst out mooching near Congleton.

The steam heating is on and the sun is shining for the first train of the year 2005 on the Churnet Valley Railway. It was a magical morning and with the sound of the 8F up front it was a great journey too!

LNWR Super 'D' 49395 awaits the off from Consall Station on a day with crowds enjoying the sunshine outside the Black Lion at Consall Forge.

Processing plant building at the Maes-y-Droell silica sand quarry, Llanarmon.

The washery at Resavica Colliery in Serbia with 0-6-0 locomotive 126-014 built by MAVAG, Budapest, in 1899 shunting the yard.

Coal has been mined at Resavica for around 150 years. Here a battery-electric locomotive shunts two tubs of materials into the railway workshop area. There are adits on both sides of the river at this location, one of which is off camera in the bottom left of this view.

Zenica is an old mine opened in 1884 and employs around 1,100 men. The shaft is 275 metres deep and the deepest seam worked is at 410 metres. Brown coal seams here are often several metres thick but the quality is low

Redevelopment of the Middlewood area of Salford has seen the renewal and restoration of the Manchester Bolton and Bury Canal through the site. Looking towards the Irwell and with the new Hilton Hotel in the background, the old lock No.3 can be seen under restoration. This whole area had been filled in many years ago.

This building was originally built as a Scottish Presbyterian Church in 1846 and then converted to a cinema in 1912 when the terracotta faience was added. In 1938 it became the Rex and continued to show films until 1958. It later operated as a bingo hall between 1967 and 1985. Today the building is back as a church for the New Harvest Christian Fellowship.

Sometimes the trains stop at Consall station long enough for the alighting passenger to run along the access track and down to the canal bridge near the Black Lion in order to photograph the train as it crosses in front of the pub. In this case I breathlessly made it to my chosen spot just in time, much to the amusement of the local birdwatcher who had to step aside to let me hurry past. The position of the canal boat was one of those lucky circumstances. The loco is USA 5197.

The Churnet Valley Railway took a brave decision to run trains on the wednesday after the May Day Bank Holiday and was rewarded with warm sunshine all day, but sadly not too many passengers. This lack of people did allow for uncluttered photography and seen here is USA 5197 blowing off hard at the safety valves as it arrives at Consall with an early afternoon train.

A rare beast indeed - a long-established independent cinema and in a much older building that has been re-used as a cinema. The Regent in Marple was opened in 1932 by the Marple Cinema Company in the 1878 built Union Rooms that had been established by a local mill owner, Thomas Carver, as a coffee tavern and mission hall. The premises survived conversion to a bingo hall in 1969 after the council refused a licence, and after refurbishment at that time continues to operate with a single screen and seats for 285. Further information can be found here .

The Vreoci area of Serbia has extensive opencast coal workings as well as deep mines. The brown coal deposits are of great thickness as can be seen in this view across the pit to one of the draglines loading coal onto a conveyor. The size of this machine is evident when compared with the orange coloured excavator.

Temptation ......................................

And now ....................... ?

Sucked down the shaft and into the mine.

Crossing a minor road east of Plumley on the first run from Chester to Altrincham of the Mid-Cheshire Rail Day steam runs.