Just published to the “monorail” pages, the first page of what promises to be a very interesting set – the Kenneth Gray collection. Here’s a fairly random sample…

Great Britain II, Gleneagles
Originally uploaded by geoffspages

Should have done some homework before setting off… A trip to Skye, via Edinburgh, arranged at fairly short notice – never thought to see what was happening up there. We met the two locos – 45231 and 45407 – on Beattock bank as we drive northwards the previous day – quite a sight. Then, after an overnight stay in the Scottish capital, we continued northwards, via Falkirk and “the Wheel”. As we drove up the A9 towards Perth, we noticed lots of people beside the railway line – we’d better find out what was going on.
It was of course the “Great Britain II” railtour – seven days of steam haulage. Yes, we’d seen the 5s on Beattock – if we’d been organised, we might have seen Scots Guardsman too.

Ten locos in steam! Fantastic! Visit Ten in steam at Statfold on Geoff’s Rail Diaries for the rest of the photos…

Just published to “Geoff’s Rail Diaries“, an account of a trip to Edinburgh which coincided (is that the right word?) with new-built A1 60163 “Tornado” heading the first A1-hauled passenger train from Waverley since the mid-60s. Visit “Two A1s in Edinburgh” – if only to find the (pretty obvious) answer to the simple little puzzle posed by the title…

Just published to Geoff’s Rail Diaries, an account of a trip on the Kirklees Light Railway, the 15″ gauge line built on the trackbed of the former Clayton West branch near Wakefield, Yorks. Visit “Down the line with Badger“.

…I paid a visit to the Harton Colliery railway, last remnant of the South Shields, Marsden and Whitburn colliery system, and home to the “Westoe electrics”, a fine collection of overhead-electric locomotives which worked the coal from Westoe colliery down to Harton Low Staithe on the Tyne.

There’s been a page on “Geoff’s Rail Diaries” for some time – “Seaham and Harton“; in response to interest shown by a number of site visitors, here’s the full set of photos taken at the time (yes, it’s been another cold wet day here…). Visit “The Westoe Electrics” on the “Specials” pages.

Another random dip into the boxes – and two “one-offs”, the only photos resulting from a couple of little outings in early 1975.

The Peak is climbing out of the Severn Tunnel. This was a little outing aimed at exposing some slide film, which would shortly become my first attempt at home processing. Not an entirely successful attempt, it has to be said. This was the only useable(!) result (and it was a very strange brown-purple when first scanned); most of the rest were pictures of the nearby Pilning station.

The 2′ gauge Hudson Hunslet (4395 of 1952) is “Dodington Dragon”, which was one of a pair used to operate the Dodington Light Railway. The line closed many years ago – the locomotives moved to the Groudle Glen Railway on the Isle of Man, then undergoing resuscitation.