LNWR Coal Tank No. 58926 approaching Oakworth with a charter goods working on 21st February 2012.

My latest photographic charters were held at the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway using the recently overhauled LNWR ‘Coal Tank’, numbered as No. 58926 and in plain BR Black livery as it appeared in the 1950′s.
The engine has been restored by the KWVR based Bahamas Loco Society in their workshops at Ingrow, the engine is actually owned by the National Trust. As the overhaul neared completion contact was made with the BLS to see if the loco could wear its BR livery a short period of time and through the efforts of John Hillier of the BLS this was agreed to take place for just a few months in 2012. Initally the engine was relaunched in its more familiar LNWR guise as No. 1054 and then had some minor modifications carried out to give it its BR period appearance. Later in the summer it will be outshopped as LMS No. 7799 and will visit the Severn Valley Railway for the lines autumn gala. It will look good with the SVR’s LMS coaches.

LNWR Coal Tank No. 58926 standing at Oxenhope with a charter local passenger train on 20th February 2012.

Our charters ran on Monday 20th & Tuesday 21st February, day 1 being booked as a two coach local passenger set of ex suburban stock. The engine was requested to be turned on the turntable at Keighley to face north for the start of the week of charters – Geoff Silcock’s Sentimental Journey’s running two days following mine. Unfortunately the weather was not too favourable and cloud prevented us from getting the hoped for early morning glint shot at Haworth. We made the best of the poor light however and personally I concentrated on trying to make some reasonably contrasty RAW files to be converted to black & white images later.

LNWR Coal Tank No. 58926 approaching Oakworth with a charter local passebger on 20th February 2012.

At least the rather vintage engine looks the part in black & white! We did manage a pretty full days photography making the best of the conditions, with the engine turned to face south later as would have been our preference for afternoon shots if the sun were shining.
The engine was turned again at the end of the day to face north for the start of day 2 with a mixed goods train, my thanks to Kieran Pilsworth and the KWVR crews for their co-operation with this. Sadly despite a better forecast Tuesday also started off rather damp, although the sun was visible and the light slowly improved as the morning went on, but it did keep drizzling for some time which made keeping our lenses clear rather difficult. Persistance paid off though and we got a sunny (and dry!) shot just north of Oakworth station before proceeding up the line to Keighley to turn the engine once again and prepare our train for a trip down the branch facing south. Once this task was complete we obtained a shot just outside Keighley, although this did mean a fair wait had to be endured “waiting for the light”. A couple of further sunny shots were obtained Nr Oakworth facing south before we headed off for lunch as the cloud rolled in once more. Some sunny breaks during lunch time gave a hint of a good afternoon to come, but sadly this was not to be as the cloud thickened up after lunch. All participants left happy that had got a few shots ‘in the bag’ of the engine in what will be a very short lived period in BR Black livery.
Sadly the two days for Sentimental Journeys following were also greeted with poor weather – a full days steady rain and wind on the Weds – so that proved challenging also. Typically the Friday was a glorious sunny day, has had the Sunday before – you can’t win them all!

LNWR Coal Tank No. 58926 leaving Oakworth with a charter goods working on 21st February 2012.

Black 5's 44871 & 45407 passing Garsdale, North Yorkshire with the Waverley excursion returning from Carlisle to Manchester on 28th January 2012.

After a number of years when engineering work had prevented the Settle to Carlisle line being used for steam excursions during the winter months, the completion of these works has allowed mainline steam to again be scheduled on Saturday’s throughout February – between Jan 28th and March 10th in fact, no less than 7 weeks in a row.
My first visit back to the line for a number of years, summer visits when steam excursions are quite regular have been prevented by business commitments and the lack of desire to tackle the M6 on a summer weekend, was on Jan 28th 2012 when Black 5′s 44871 & 45407 double-headed a Manchester to Carlisle and return trip. An extra feature over past winter steam on the route has been the addition of steam haulage over the West Coast mainline between Preston and Carlisle (or part of) including the famous Shap bank. I attempted a shot of this first train at Tebay but this failed due to the exhaust blowing down over the train as it passed my location and the light had become very flat. I then headed across to the S&C line and enjoyed some stunning scenery of the Yorkshire Dales with snow on the upper fells. I had desires on a shot at the summit of the line – Ais Gill, and this looked amazing with a good covering of snow on Wild Boar Fell as a backdrop. However this was clearly not going to be properly lit when the train passed as the sun would have dropped behind the nearby fells. I therefore headed down to Garsdale instead and opted for shot (above) of the train just south/west of the station where the low setting sun was able to catch the front of the approaching train and the snow covered fell provided a nice winter backdrop. An added bonus at this location was the ability to turn around and capture another shot of the two locos catching a golden glint as they headed away into the setting sun.

Black 5′s 44871 & 45407 passing Garsdale, North Yorkshire with the Waverley excursion returning from Carlisle to Manchester on 28th January 2012.

Overall a very satisfactory result with which I was very pleased. I had been tempted to go to Ribblehead viaduct where the best option would have been a silhouette of the train working across the viaduct against the setting sun. I’ve seen some very good results from this by other photographers, but didn’t feel that I wanted to go home with a silhouette shot from such stunning winter conditions.

The weather forecast for the next two weeks discouraged me from travelling north for the trains in the first two weeks of February, in fact the second train on 4th Feb ran in near blizzard conditions! I next found myself up north for these trains on 18th February and opted for a shot at Greenholme on the climb to Shap for my first shot of the day. The weather forecast was generally favourable but with some wintry showers developing later. As I waited for the train the light kept changing dramatically from bright sunny to very dark and threatening so I was on edge as to the potential success of this shot. A large cloud passed over and left the background fell very dark but with full sun on the line itself and my prayers were answered when the train then appeared and truly memorable shot was obtained, even allowing for the presence of the overhead wires along this line.

Black 5's 44932 & 45305 head a Cumbrian Mountain Express up Shap at Greenholme on 18/02/2012.

I then travelled over to the S&C for the afternoon’s southbound run over that line, however a rather unfortunate incident with my 4×4 car and a deep river ford near Smardale caused me to have to abandon any attempts that afternoon, but it seems from various reports that the train was followed by a large cloud all along the S&C and I’ve seen no sunny shots of the train that afternoon! My earlier than planned return south, courtesy of the AA, meant that I was unable to be up north for the run of Britannia No. 70013 on Feb 25th. My next visit is likely to be in April due to other commitments.

A wave breaks just as the shutter is pressed on as slow setting to enable the movement of the wave to be captured on this lovely winters afternoon with warm low angle lighting.

Just one and half hours from home lies the wonderful Jurassic Coast which stretches from
Swanage in Dorset to Exmouth in Devon, it includes a whole host of wonderful locations to practice the art of landscape photography. I use this stretch of coastline for my Dorset coast workshops so visits are quite frequent when added to my own expeditions when the weather looks just right.
Among my favourite locations along this stretch of coast is Durdle Door, a very picturesque natural arch formed in the cliffs near Lulworth Cove, itself another wonderful feature of the area. Shots can be taken from down on the beach (but note is long slog back up to the car park with your camera kit and tripod!) or from the cliffs above.

Late afternoon lighting in the summer months illuminates the face of the arch.

During winter the sun sets out over the sea and provides wonderful low level and warm lighting on the shingle beach and cliffs, whilst in summer the late light illuminates the “face” of the arch. During the deepest part of winter in December around the shortest day the rising sun can be positioned in the arch if you are careful with your composition – I’ve not caught that myself yet though!
I have enjoyed an early morning visit to Durdle Door, setting off from home early in the darkness for the two hour drive and hoping that the weather produces a good sunrise as predicted from looking at the weather charts the previous day. I was rewarded as can be seen below with a wonderfully colourful sunrise, captured with my Canon 5D Mk11 and 24-105mm lens with the aid of Lee 0.9 ND Grad and 0.6 ND filters to obtain a 3.2 sec exposure at f16.

Dawn at Durdle Door on a December morning with a wonderfully colourful sunrise.

Maybe join me for a workshop day on this wonderful bit of Englands coastline.

Britannia No. 70013 Oliver Cromwell passing Kinchley Lane, Great Central Railway, with a charter goods working on 17th January 2012.

The “Brit’ on the goods” charter ran as planned on Tuesday 17th January, this was despite rather poor support for this event but thanks to Russ Hillier who managed to help the charter to run due to good support for his mail train charter the following day.
On the day the railway provided us with a mixed goods with a string of mineral wagons added to the rear as requested. We were greeted with excellent weather conditions of clear skies and frost to start (more than could be said for the mail train the following day!) and some great lighting for a number of runpasts on the approach to Quorn.

Britannia No. 70013 Oliver Cromwell approaching Quorn, Great Central Railway, with a charter goods working on a frosty 17th January 2012.

The forecast had indicated a largely clear day, however this quickly became wrong as the clouds rolled in from the west much earlier than the met office had said. We did however manage some run pasts in reasonable light at Swithland, where we were able to photograph the train among the new signals now nearing final completion. This location also produced a nice going away glint with the low sun thin clouds producing some pleasant yellow lighting. The remainder of the morning was cloudy and although some run pasts were enjoyed by the photographers present these were in rather poor flat lighting.

Britannia No. 70013 Oliver Cromwell passing Swithland, Great Central Railway, with a charter goods working on a frosty 17th January 2012.

As is often the case at the GCR the sun reappeared at lunch time whilst the crew were changed and the engine watered for our afternoon session. We did manage to take advantage of this light with some shots taken at Beaches Road bridge on departure from Loughborough, however the cloud again rolled in whilst we attempted to cover Woodthorpe. I firmly believed I could see better light and clearer skies on the horizon, but several of my entourage didn’t share my opptimisum! I then took the train to the well known location at Kinchley

Britannia No. 70013 Oliver Cromwell passing Kinchley Lane, Great Central Railway, with a charter goods working on 17th January 2012.

Lane and whilst carrying out the runpasts here the sun reappeared and some nice results were obtained, I could not resist a “told you so” comment to some of my friends present! We finished the day off back at Quorn for the sunset and Silhouette shots. Overall a good days charter, one of the better ones I have experienced weather wise at the GCR in recent years.
Weather rating 8/10.

Britannia No. 70013 Oliver Cromwell approaching Swithland, Great Central Railway, with a charter goods working on a frosty 17th January 2012.

Note that the new, yet to be commissioned, signals in the above shot have been digitally altered by removal of the ‘X’ markers and showing the signal arm in the off position.

Britannia No. 70013 Oliver Cromwell approaching Quorn, Great Central Railway, with a charter goods working on a frosty 17th January 2012.

Dunstanburgh Castle at Dawn on an Autumn morning

Another visit to the wonderful Northumberland coast in October this year as part of a 9 day tour of Northern England in the motorhome paid off quite handsomely with some nice images of Dunstanburgh from both the Embleton and Craster sides with good light.
The first shot above was taken after a walk along the beach and down onto the rather perilous and slippery rocks in the darkness to wait for the dawn light which I wanted to reflect colour onto the wet rocks from the receding tide. The cloudy weather of the previous day was just clearing as forecast, but perhaps a little early to be ideal and the sky was rather clear of any clouds at first so this rather reduced the colours of the dawn light. The shot was taken by metering off of the foreground rocks and the recomposing the shot and placing both a 0.6 and 0.9 Lee ND Grads in place over the sky to balance the huge contrast between the dark rocks and the sky. This worked fine with an exposure of 10 seconds at f11 with the camera set at 200 ISO to prevent the exposure being perhaps too long.

The dawn light develops at Dunstanburgh

As the dawn light developed a few more clouds appeared and added a rather more dramatic appearance to the sky with the deep red/orange colours as the sun approached the horizon. Having set the tripod a little lower to give more impact to the foreground rocks I increased the aperture to f14 to give a little more depth of field and ensure the foreground was in focus. Now reduced to just the 0.9 ND Grad the exposure time was more shorter 0.3 secs.All in all well worth getting up early for and being in position on the beach before first light. Later in the day we returned to Dunstanburgh but this time on the Craster side so as to catch the light on the more obvious walls of the castle remains from this side. The tide was up and a stiff breeze ensured some good waves breaking over the foreground rocks to add interest to the scene. I climbed down onto a rock ledge to give myself a clear view of the castle with the rocky ledges in the foreground and set the camera to f13 (at 100 ISO) to give an exposure time of 0.6 secs in the lovely warm and soft evening light. This slower exposure time allowed the waves to be recorded breaking over the rocks and for the spray to show along with the water running back off the rocks to bring the shot to life. The wave breaking in quite spectacular fashion on the left of the shot I think adds a feeling of movement to the shot. Waves break in the foreground as the warm evening light plays on Dunstanburgh Castle beyond.

Midland perfection - 4F No. 43924 leaving Damens loop, KWVR, with a charter goods on 22nd September 2011.

Two days of photo charters I ran on Yorkshire’s Keighley & Worth Valley Railway on 21st & 22nd September 2011 proved quiet successful light wise. Originally intended to be a day with Ivatt tank No. 41241 on two coaches and a day with 4F No. 43924 on goods, both days had to run with the 4F as the Ivatt was declared too delicate to work photo charters at the present time.
For day 1 the 4F was matched with a two coach suburban set which have been typical of a Yorkshire branch line in the 1950′s, although these particular vehicles were ex Kings Cross commuter trains.
The day commenced generally cloudy and we had to wait at our first location for some time before the sun broke free from the clouds and several run past were completed just south of Haworth before the clouds returned and all concerned thought that with the forecast for it to cloud up later in the day that was that for sunny shots. We proceeded to the end of the line at Oxenhope and managed a couple more run pasts on the approach to the station before running round and heading back north to Keighley.

4F No. 43924 leaving Keighley with our charter passenger set on 21st September 2011.

On departure from Keighley, which has seen much redevelopment around the station in recent years making the backgrounds rather difficult on some shots, the sun returned and we obtained several quite pleasant run pasts on the steep climb away from the town.
Following this we proceeded to Oakworth and again alighted from the train for some shots on the approach to this very nicely restored country station and the backdrops here are much more pleasant and quite typical Yorkshire Dales. These are among the best known photographic locations on the line but rarely fail to produce a decent shot providing you have the light. We also managed a few run pasts to the south of the station although the level crossing makes this quite difficult to perform.

4F No. 43924 approaching Oakworth, KWVR, with our charter on 21st September 2011.

The morning session was extended to after 14.00 hrs as we had the sun and we arrived back at Haworth around 14.15 hrs for lunch and for the engine to take water and have a change of driver. It then clouded over and we didn’t obtain any further shots that afternoon but were treated to a guided tour around the railways carriage workshops and museum.
Day 2 and we were scheduled to have the 4F on a mixed goods, which the railways volunteer staff had assembled for us after dark in the pouring rain the evening before!
We again started quite cloudy but the forecast was better and the sun duly broke through for the location south of Haworth eventually. Following this we headed south to Oxenhope for some runpasts approaching the station and then in the station loop with some nice early autumn colours as a backdrop and the platform flowers as added interest.

4F No. 43924 at Oxenhope with our charter goods on 22nd September 2011.

Following this session we then headed back north to Keighley for some quite unusual shots of the goods train running through the station on platform 3 where the modern Asda supermarket building could be hidden from view. An extra surprise, which no one was ready to photograph, was the passing of 8F No. 48151 and Royal Scot 46115 Scots Guardsman through the adjacent mainline station on their way to York light engines and support coaches.
We then attempted some run pasts on the climb away from Keighley which were reasonable but quite difficult to call for the light. On arrival at Oakworth the clouds seemed to be winning the day so I declared lunch in the hope that an approaching clearer spell that could be seen on Met Office satellite site on my Andriod phone – technology is so useful! However the sun decided to come out whilst we were at lunch – typical – and we spent the next hour at Haworth in sunshine only for the clouds to reappear as soon as we restarted! A number of our participants decided at this point to leave us and head for home – rule number 1, never leave a charter until “the fat lady has sung” and you can be sure that the sun will not reappear. Those that stayed were awarded with some excellent shots of the 4F hauled goods with the Midland signals and signal box at Damens loop in glorious late afternoon lighting.
Before the day finished our crew needed to put the goods train away in the sidings at Ingrow and collect a ballast wagon and drop the second brake van at Oakworth, all of which resulted in some extra shots and run pasts performed by our very co-operative crews for these charters. Many thanks to the railways commercial manager Kieran Pilsworth and all the crews involved on our two days.

4F No. 43924 leaving Haworth with the mixed goods on 22nd September 2011.

Porth Dinllaen, Llyn Peninsular

A recent trip to North Wales, based in Criccieth, mainly for family reasons also gave me the opportunity to get some fresh shots of the Snowdonia National Park area. However the rather changeable weather continued, as it has done for much of “summer” 2011, and the mountain area was often bathed in cloud so we ventured out onto the beautiful Llyn Peninsular.
Visits to the lovely ports of Abersoch and Aberdarren were enjoyed and I was able to make some decent images of the former despite a strong wind – the left overs from a former Hurricane.
We later arrived at Porth Dinllaen on the north coast of the peninsular, having been tipped off that this was a particularly scenic spot. From the top of the cliffs near Nefyn you get sweeping views of the bay which is well sheltered from the prevailing westerly winds.

Porth Dinllaen, Llyn Peninsular

This stunning bay has easy access to the sandy beach from Nefyn and a pub sits right on the edge the beach, visible in the image to the left. The shot was taken at 1/30th sec @ f13 using my EoS 5D Mk11 mounted on a tripod and with a Lee ND Grad in place to keep the sky from becoming too bright in contrast to the shoreline.

Looking around behind me I could see the potential of a shot from the headland by the Nefyn golf course, this was in shadow at this time of the afternoon so I vowed to return on another day to obtain an image of this area of the bay. Conditions the following morning led me to return to Porth Dinllaen and walk out onto the headland and explore the beach and visit the pub/cafe right on the beach for a very pleasant tea and cakes in the warm morning sunshine after making an image of the beach area itself with the retreating tide.

Porth Dinllaen, Llyn Peninsular

Following this I ventured onto the top of the headland for the image that heads this article which shows the Ty Coch Inn below and the wonderful views across the bay on this fine morning. What a tonic to get my shutter finger working!
EoS 5D Mk11 with Canon 24-105mm L lens, 1/15th sec @ f16 with Lee ND Grad and Poloriser in place on Manfrotto tripod.

Lilstock beach sunset

Lilstock is a little known beach made up of rocks and boulders on the West Somerset coast just west of the Hinckley Point nuclear power station near Bridgwater. There were once old jetties here but nowadays very little remains except some wooden stumps around the pebbles and rocks on the beach. However these are neatly laid out in lines and so provide ideal lead in lines in the foreground of photographs. Another benefit of the location in  summer is that the sun sets out over the Bristol Channel and thus lights the beach up beautifully in the evenings and provides some wonderful sunsets. The tidal range at Lilstock, as on most of the Bristol Channel coast, is very large and the sea can often disappear from view at low tide but then come back in very quickly. At high tide the remaining wooden stumps are submerged so you need to judge carefully if you want to get the waves breaking over the rocks adjacent to the old jettie remains – not as easy as it sounds I can assure you!
On my most recent visit the sunset was rather special and having pre judged this from home, about 10 miles along the coast as the crow flies, earlier in the evening I decided to drive to Lilstock to obtain a shot with the sun setting over to the right of an image of the old jettie remains and using the background cliffs to complete the composition. A very nice sunset did indeed occur that evening and the very satisfactory image above was obtained, although I would have preferred the tide to have been further in.
The shot was taken with my Canon 5D Mk11 and Sigma 17-35mm lens with an exposure of 5 seconds at f.22 with the camera mounted on my tripod and Lee 0.9 ND Grad fitted. The RAW file was then processed in CS5 using the HDR software to blend 4 images together to overcome the huge range of light and tone between the beach and sky.

To illustrate the possibilities at this location if you can catch the tide right I have included below a shot taken some 3 years ago which whilst quite satisfactory I have always wanted to improve upon. This shot was taken with my older Canon 5D and Canon 24-105mm L lens (at 88mm) with Lee ND grad fitted at 2 secs at f.22.

Lilstock beach sunset and incoming tide

However as August progressed I have found time on a few Sunday’s to cover the 2011 season of “Weymouth Seaside Express” steam hauled excursions from Bristol to Weymouth and back operated by the Railway Touring Company. On the first weekend I was able to cover the train the weather of course did what is expected and was very cloudy and the shot I attempted in the morning at Wyke Champflower of 5029 Nunney Castle was defeated. The evening brought even worse cloud so I didn’t bother to go out for the return train.

Better luck was enjoyed on 31st July when the train was hauled by Battle of Britain Pacific No. 34067 Tangmere. A drive up to the Bristol area obtained a result in bright sunshine at Hicks Gate near Keynsham with a nice grey exhaust showing up despite the warm tempertures.

Bulleid Battle of Britain class No. 34067 Tangmere passing Hicks Gate, Keynsham with Weymouth Seaside Express on 31st July 2011.

A further drive south along the A37 followed to try and get a further shot near Evershot tunnel on the Yeovil to Weymouth line. On arrival however I found the potential shot very poor compositionally, rather overgrown and dominited by a large radio mast! No shot worth while there so went on a discovery mission around the lanes between Evershot and Yeovil, finding that the view from each bridge was rather poor due to heavy tree growth, I eventually settled for a shot in the village of Beer Hackett which was acceptable but not really worth “writing home about”. Poor weather later that day meant that I didn’t go out for the return run.

My next opportunity came about on 14th August so I again headed for Wyke Champflower. This time I phoned the support crew on the train to arrange some exhaust by asking the fireman to leave the firehole door shut when coasting towards the junction at nearby Castle Cary, the crew duly obliged and a very pleasant result was obtained of 5029 Nunney Castle heading its train past the village.

Castle No. 5029 Nunney Castle passing Wyke Champflower near Castle Cary, Somerset with the "Weymouth Seaside Express" on 14th August 2011.

I returned home for the day and ventured out again in the evening to Bruton to capture a shot of the train climbing the Brewham bank, having checked out the location in the morning. I had again phoned the crew whilst they were at Weymouth and requested exhaust as the weather was quite warm. Fireman John Hunt duly obliged and a very satisfactory result was obtained of 5029 climbing through the Somerset countryside in the evening sunshine, the load 4 cylinder exhaust beat sending the cows in the foreground running across their field.   Castle No. 5029 Nunney Castle climbing Brewham bank, Bruton, Somerset with the return “Weymouth Seaside Express” on 24th July 2011.

Castle No. 5029 Nunney Castle climbing Brewham bank, Bruton, Somerset with the return "Weymouth Seaside Express" on 24th July 2011.

Golden dawn light appears across the Lavender fields at "Somerset Lavender" Nr Frome, Somerset.

An image inspired by the stunning one that was entered into “Take A View – Landscape Photographer of the year” by Anthony Spencer last year.
Having researched the location and contacted the farm and asked permission to visit outside of normal hours (many thanks to Judith) I visited the site during the day to have a look around and assess my options for shot the following the morning. The cream teas and fare at the tea shop is well worth the visit on its own!
Jane & I arranged to stay overnight on the farm in our camper van so that we could awake at 03.45 hrs the next morning to photograph the Lavender in warm dawn lighting. As the previous evening passed the clouds cleared from the west, I was photographing Cherhill White Horse during that evening which was in itself successful after three visits this year to get an image of this notable Wiltshire landmark.
Dawn itself arrived to clear skies, not ideal for what I had in mind, but up we got at 03.45 hrs and set up for shot looking across the gardens and stone wall with the field of Lavender behind which was in full flower and looking stunning. A little patience being required to get the image I wanted as several landscape photographers arrived to take their shots that morning.
My first image shows the low warm sunlight catching the purple & green display from the left side and despite the clear sky still has a pleasant warm glow to it and makes for a very satisfactory image. I stayed a little while longer and obtained further images as the sun rose higher in the sky calling it a day at around 06.30 hrs and heading off home.
Somerset Lavender is located in the village of Faulkland, Near Radstock and Frome, Somerset and is open until September, Weds – Sun 10am – 5pm, well worth a visit.

As the sun rises higher the more usual purples and greens start to appear.