We’re on a roll here! Another page of Robin’s b&w photos published to the “monorail” pages – trains on the move in Scotland and northern England, hauling passenger and freight. Visit “Steam in Action” – and please, if anyone can help with the locations…

Just published – more of Robin Barbour’s wonderful black and white photos of northern steam. This time – an assortment of locomotive portraits, from humble 0-6-0 and 0-4-4 to main line pacifics. Visit “Assorted Locomotives” on the “monorail” pages

No, we’ve not gone sporty all of a sudden. This was the Golden Valley Light Railway‘s great event – its 21st anniversary celebration, annual steam gala (no less than 5 working steam locomotives*) and the official opening of its magnificent new running shed. And we’d had a formal invite!

Visit “Golden Valley – the Triple Event” on “Geoff’s Rail Diaries” for the full story; in the meantime suffice it to see we had a great time – bright sunny weather (the first for weeks), a superb buffet lunch, and wonderful steam action. The return trip from the Newlands Inn, with Graham Lee at the regulator of his new “Jack Lane”, was amazing (literally, the sparks were flying…) – see below for the action. Many thanks once again to Pat Draper and Paul Sharpe at the GVLR for their kind invitation and a super day out.

*resident “Pearl 2”, new Hunslet “Jack Lane”, vertical boilered “Taffy”, Kerr Stuart “Peter Pan” and “Irish Mail” from the West Lancs

Yes, 2007 marks ten years since the first pictures were published on the site, on the enterprise.net server webspace, which would become “Geoff’s Rail Pages”. It started with scans of prints and drawings, but on acquiring the first slide scanner (a Nikon Coolscan II), the slides started to appear. Soon afterwards, the first video clips were digitised (which was real fun in those days, on a Pentium 120 – took hours to compress a minute or two of video) and the links page created (not many of them still going, ten years on…)

I’m not sure how much web space we got in those days – was it 10mb? Didn’t need a lot, with a 28.8kbit modem. Anyway, if you’ve not been there before, visit Geoff’s Rail Pages – original and best!

Just back from a little outing to see the King – 6024 “King Edward I” hauling the “Cambrian Coast Express” between Shrewsbury and Paddington. The line climbs at 1 in 137, steepening to 1 in 100 through Albrighton, after the descent from Hollinswood – consequently, the train was moving quickly – perhaps 60mph – and working hard enough for a decent action shot – see below:

Shame about the horrid water wagon immediately behind the tender – no doubt it’s going to be an increasingly necessary feature of main line steam operations. Bring back the Ethels – all is forgiven!

Just published to “Geoff’s Rail Diaries“, an illustrated account of a few days wandering around the railways of Yorkshire, Durham and Northumberland in July 1984. Visit “Northern Counties” now…

…and another ancient Southern tank at Horsehay… Yes, the blog is a year old – and the first entry depicted the Beattie well tank’s visit to Horsehay, home of the Telford Steam Railway. A year later, the bank holiday visitor to the railway was ex-LBSC “Terrier” 662 “Martello”. Last time I met this little locomotive, it was in steam, in the pouring rain, at Bressingham. Once again, the clouds had gathered – Sunday was a total washout, and within an hour of my arrival this afternoon, it was raining again. Can’t win them all! Nevertheless, an attractive little visitor, and an opportunity for one or two half-decent snaps…

   

Just published to “Geoff’s Rail Diaries“, an account of a visit to the standard and narrow gauge railways based in the Peak District’s Derwent Valley – the standard gauge “Peak Rail” running on the route of the former Midland main line to Manchester, and the “Derbyshire Dales Narrow Gauge Railway”, a line that is nearly as long as its title, but with plans to extend… Peak Rail has aspirations to extend too, through the National Park to Buxton.
Visit “Peak Rail – standard and small“, 15 April 2007.

Just published to Geoff’s Rail Diaries, an account of a trip to the Great Orme Tramway – photos and video – followed by a quick look at the very fine collection of industrial locomotives at Penrhyn Castle. Visit “Great Orme – and a peep at Penrhyn“, 12 April 2007

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.