Cheshire

Sunset behind the Ineos Fluor Castner Kellner plant at Runcorn.

70013 Oliver Cromwell was motive power for today's Scarborough Flyer. It is seen with the train in the loop at Chelford whilst the Arriva service to Manchester overtakes. 1000 ASA this morning due to the gloom. :-(

70013 Oliver Cromwell with today's Scarborough Flyer gets the train started out of the loop at Chelford.

Bollington's 'beach huts' ™. :-) A reminder of the Bollington Flickrmeet a few years ago. Maybe we should organise another one for Macclesfield and Bollington groups?

Male Southern Hawker Aeshna cyanea at Newchurch Common. I have been sorting out some of the files on my computer and found a lot of dragonfly shots that hadn't been catalogued. This one is from central Cheshire and is of one of the species more likely to be obliging by staying still for the photograper.

70013 Oliver Cromwell accelerates through Chelford station after leaving the loop with the Scarborough Flyer.

Coal mining on Sponds Moor has a long history back into the eighteenth century. In the second half of the nineteenth century a series of shafts was developed by the lessee James Jackson, each of which was wound with a horse gin. This particular shaft towards the top of the moor is shown as working on the 1873 OS map, but was abandoned by 1897. In 1982 when I took this photograph the bearing stone for the gin was visible in the side of the collapsed shaft. The metal piece was for the pintle of the vertical post to pivot in. On a recent visit the stone was no longer visible and may have sliped further into the shaft.

70013 'Oliver Cromwell' is just starting from the loop at Chelford with the Scarborough Flyer.

It was back to 6201 'Princess Elizabeth' on the Scarborough Flyer today. Sunshine, for the first time this year when this train was running, catches the exhaust as speed builds up passing Nether Alderley. The building on the left is the gaurdhouse a the point where a siding entered the Royal Ordnance Factory Chelford site. This operated as a munitions store from 1942 to c1964 and had an extensive railway system operated by industrial diesel locomotives.

The tree tubes suggest that this view of 6201 taking the Scarborough Flyer over the Alderley Edge bypass will soon be hidden. I cannot understand the need to impose trees on every bit of spare land. So many good views have been lost due to this plague of green.

The coal mining industry on the Wirral has a long history with extensive workings stretching under the Dee estuary towards North Wales. This last colliery closed in July 1928 and this view from the 1930s shows the site of the Wirral Colliery soon after the shafts had been walled up in brick for safety. The main winding shaft in later years was that on the furthest right.

This one came as a complete surprise. I had no idea that this firm had existed and do not know where they made their firebricks. Harrop is a district at the north-west of the parish of Rainow where there were a number of small coal and fireclay mines in the nineteenth century and into the twentieth century in a couple of cases. The only kiln that I know of in that area was at Brink Brow north of Further Harrop Farm.

Sponds Colliery lies across a moor some 1100ft up in the parish of Lyme Handley. in the nineteenth century the land was in the ownership of the Legh's of Lyme Hall and the coal mines were let for many years to James Jackson, a farmer from Pott Shrigley. He worked the Sweet Seam via a series of pits which he sank as the workings moved from north to south across the moor. This shaft was around 300ft deep and may have been in operation in the 1870s or early 1880s. On the bank immediately behind can be seen the circle on which the whim winding gin stood and under the grass can be found the flagged path upon which the horse walked.

6201 enters the loop at Chelford with the Scarborough Flyer. There was plenty of steam available and the safety valves lifted before the train had stopped.

6201 " Princess Elizabeth " on Bate Mill viaduct with the Scarborough Spa Express from Crewe. One of my rare panning attempts.

It was Middlewich Boat & Folk weekend and there was lots happening around the canal. Here the tanker narrowboat is powered around the tight turn between the second and top locks on the Middlewich flight. The drydock is just off to the right on the outside of the bend.

Fine terracotta over the entrance to West Park Museum, Macclesfield. The profile sculpture of Queen Victoria marks her Diamond Jubilee in 1897. The lettering represents the initials of Marianne Brocklehurst and her brother, Peter Pownall Brocklehurst who donated the museum "for the education, refinement and pleasure of the people for all time to come." The building was opened on the 3rd of October 1898.

The 2011 season of the Scarborough Flyer commenced today with 34067 ' Tangmere ' being given the task of heading the train. It was certainly cracking on as it neared Goostrey.