Second attempt to post this, last time it had logged me out when I came to post it! I have had an interesting couple of weeks over Christmas after finding a lot of my 35mm colour transparencies from the early 90's are starting to deteriorate. Not all of them, the Kodachrome is alright as is the medium format 6x7cm stuff. So, before it becomes unusable, I have started to scan it as JPGs. THIS IS A BIG JOB! take the relatively small class of Locos the '58s' there were only 50 of them delivered between 1983 and 1987 and they were swept away by the EMD class 66s when EWS took over. So far I have scanned in 420 35mm colour slides, a couple of dozen medium format and 210 colour negs plus some black and white I dread to think how many class 37s and 47s I have got to do as I have been photographing them since 1978! One thing has struck me is how many places I visited in the South Yorkshire, North Nottinghamshire Coal field that I can barely remember! Like the Oxcroft branch seen below bear with me there will be more in a bit including video
Right, it let me post it that time. The principal traffic for these 3,300Hp freight locos was Coal. lots of it, in 30 or 36 wagon long trains working 'merry go round. between the collieries and the power stations dotted along the River Trent There were thousands of these HAA coal wagons moving at anytime day and night KEV Link to videos soon
One thing that happened as I was scanning in the transparencies was I started to wonder how much video I had shot of these beasts. I didn't really start filming till the late 90's but found I had got about 20 minutes of stuff. So I have split it into two parts part one is here http://youtu.be/kKbqwekOwcM this is mainlycoal trains in action around New Whittington and Worksop part two sees a rare passenger working, CWR train, sand hoppers and a visit by 58 042 'Petrolea' to Barrow Hill Roundhouse where we turn it on the turntable prior to an open day http://youtu.be/fZjEquVJhCM KEV
Not really shuttle trains. The MGR workings never stop at the Power station but slow down to 2 miles per hour automatically and the HAA hopper wagon doors are opened by levers as they pass over the bunker. The track layout at the power station is a big loop so once the train is unloaded it sppeds up and heads back to the coalmine. West Burton power station is typical of the big ones on the River trent http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Wes...Nottinghamshire+DN22,+United+Kingdom&t=m&z=14 Here we see an empty train behind a class 58 leaving West Burton Power station and in the background a loaded train crossing over the main line to enter the power station yard. A similar operation happens at the other end when the coal is loaded This picture taken at Clipstone colliery shows a class 58 just entering the loading hopper If you stood on Retford station you would see the loaded train heading east, returning empty a couple of hours later and then re-appearing loaded a couple of hours after that and so-on. On a busy day there would be eight different coal trains pounding up and down the tracks all day! KEV
Postscript. Had a very busy twelve months last year with big changes at the rail depot I've been given to run. have never seemed to have a minute with work, shows with the Z gauge layouts and finally being nailed down by the wife to do the home impriovements I had been promising (and putting off!) for ages. However. I got time to attend the Barrow Hill Roundhouse museum's Fab 4 weekend which was a celebration of LNER preserved 4-6-2 steam locos ( think Mallard, Blue Peter, Bittern, Tornado etc) and was pleasantly surprised by the progress the ' Class 58 preservation group were making with their restoration of 58 016. It seems strange to be preserving something so relatively modern but it ensures that one of these charasmatic beasts escapes the cutters torch. I caught it back in the days of service on MGR traffic in the short lived EWS Maroon (Wisconsin Central) livery on a coal drag north through Chesterfield station back in 1997 Anyway I joined up! I've given access to the society of my entire collection of class 58 images and video to use to promote the aims of the group and get the beast running again. Link to the societies video magazine 'Red Diamond' can be found at http://www.youtube.com/user/c58lgtv and shows the volunteers in action and some of my archive footage. Lets wish them well KEV
The 'Bones' looked so much at home on coal trains. Didn't see much of them where I lived in east Lincolnshire, but I did catch one on video at Spalding one Sunday in 1997 on an ballasts train, which came from Peterborough and reversed at Spalding station. [video=youtube_share;uUPCLWMBWS8]http://youtu.be/uUPCLWMBWS8[/video]
Kev, those are some neat photographs and videos of 90's British action. It would seem you get around a lot.
Well I was lucky that prior to working full time on the railway I was either a sales rep or a professional sports photographer. This took me all around the U.k and i could spend my lunch breaks parked by a rail line. I must be honest though I scan pictures in of some locations and I honestly can't remeber going there! A recent example I scanned in was Winchester station on the GWR which I shot on medium format, no idea what I was doing there (and no I havn't started with 'Summertimers disease' yet!). And I have regrets too, in hindsight I would have chased the last of the class 45 Peaks around as they were bumped off the Midland Main line by the new Intercity HST sets In this classic view at Chesterfield station with the famous crooked spire as a backdrop a London St Pancras-Sheffield train accelerates towards Tapton Junction KEV
Curious to see a Toton based engine mooching around the Eastern Counties rather than a local 47, good catch! KEV
Yeah, it was a lucky catch, we could not see the rail line from our house but it was in earshot. And as we didn't have trains on Sunday, when I head it I thought I would go and investigate. Pleased I did
