Just back from a little trip into the Welsh border country around Knighton – and the Central Wales Line, destination for a railtour hauled by a pair of “Black 5s”, 45407 and 45432. Called in near All Stretton first – and nearly missed it – only just had time to get the camera out of the bag.
The lineside seem to be heavily overgrown these days – the line is more like a linear forest – so at Knucklas we took to the hills for a near-aerial view of the train on the viaduct.
Just published to “Geoff’s Rail Diaries” – a visit to the North Ings Farm Museum, in deepest Lincolnshire, home to a wonderful little 2′ gauge railway with a home-made steam tram loco, and coaches whose height is greater than their length… Visit “North Ings Narrow Gauge“, 1 April 2007
A walk along this fine ridge on the Herefordshire – Radnorshire border, on a bright March day. Visit “Hergest Ridge” on “Walks with a Camera”
Published to “monorail“, another page of the late Robin Barbour’s b&w photos from the days of steam – “Scottish scenes, highland and lowland“. Callender, Killin and the Aberfeldy branch; 46115 at Quintinshill, Black 5 action at Riddings Junction – and some Scottish shed scenes (help required here…)
New on the “monorail” pages, the first of many from another northern railway photographer, Robin Barbour of Hawick on the old Waverley Route. Robin sadly died last year, and the proceeds from the sale of his railway book collection have paid for an eccentric crank for the new A1 “Tornado” – what a great legacy!
Visit page 1 – “Wandering Willie” on the monorail pages.
Just published to “Rail Diaries” – “Lowry and trams” – an illustrated account of the trip on 15 February 2007
A little trip to Manchester, by rail from Shropshire, and by tram from central Manchester to “The Lowry”, the gallery established on the derelict docklands to display, among other things, the works of L S Lowry. Can’t say the “other things” were quite my cup of tea – World Cup photography and football art (!), but it was great to see the originals of those “matchstalk men and dogs” which we’ve been familiar with for many years.
The new(ish) Metrolink tramway through the docklands is great fun – lots of ups and downs and tight curves. The rail journey? – bang on time both ways, but the crammed conditions in two- and three-car trains are hardly going to tempt motorists into greener habits…
…which turned out to be perhaps the heaviest snowfall for over 20 years. Some photographic opportunities – shame about the lack of sunshine. By the time the sun came out, most of the snow had melted.
Finished! At the very least, the map(s) used to plan the walks are listed. And except where indicated, they’re all maps I own and have checked to make sure the walk is actually covered by that particular map. Most of Wainwright’s little books are listed too – they’re still invaluable in planning a day out, in the areas they cover. What a shame he never did Shropshire!
I’d be interested to hear from site visitors whether they find the “Books and Maps” useful…
Instead of a new year’s resolution – a new year’s redesign. It’s a new front page for Geoff’s Rail Diaries. Well, there were 150 entries on the original front page… So here’s the improved version – looks a bit neater, I think.
geoffspages.blog 