Remember Cadley Hill colliery? Near Swadlingcote, just out of Burton on the road to Nuneaton? It was one of the last (if not the last) outposts of regular industrial steam in the UK. Steam finished here in the early 1980s, and the colliery closed on 1988. Today, little remains to indicate Cadley Hill’s industrial past.

Visit “Cadley Hill” for a glimpse of the scene in south Derbyshire around 30 years ago

In April 1981, I paid a visit to the Manchester area, and photographed several scenes which have all changed substantially – out of five sites visited, only one remains rail-served, and the three electric traction systems have all long-since vanished.

Visit “Obsolete Electrics – and other assorted motive power” on “Geoff’s Rail Diaries”

In July 1986, I visited the two main signal boxes at Shrewsbury – Crewe Junction and Severn Bridge Junction – a visit organised by the Shropshire Railway Society. Here’s a photographic record of that evening’s entertainment – “Shrewsbury“, on “Geoff’s Rail Diaries”

Just published to “Geoff’s Rail Diaries“, an illustrated account of a Yorkshire trip in September 1980, focusing on main line action with “Lizzie” and “Lord Nelson”, plus a peep at the Worth Valley and a Shipley scrapyard…

Visit “In and around the Aire Valley”

Here’s an account of a trip out getting on for 30 years ago – to see and photograph a special hauled by ex-LMS “Jubilee” no 5690 “Leander” (a locomotive I’d met for the first time in Barry scrapyard). Later in the day, a quick peep at Dinting, and a look at the western portal of Standedge tunnel, near Diggle.

Visit “Leander” on “Geoff’s Rail Dairies”