Out for lunch yet again, the Prairies were just seen departing with their trains as we headed for the station. We stayed long enough to see the next trains – 7812 was on the diner & 42968 on the train for Kidderminster.
Out for lunch again. No diner today so trains weren’t crossing at Bewdley but 42968 was on the same train as yesterday, the 1.13 and then 5164 was seen on a train for Bridgnorth at 1.44.
First visit to the Railway since Christmas. A very misty day and I didn’t take any photos, but we had a nice lunch & met up with many of our regular friends. 7802 was on the diner, crossing with 42968 on the train to Kidderminster.
Haven’t done very well for photos this month. Much as I would like to have been out in the snow taking photos before Christmas – it wasn’t worth the risk of driving across there & these days I’m not so keen on standing around in freezing cold weather.
Trust me to leave it until Christmas Day to add the photo. I think it was taken at the end of November, so there has been plenty of time to prepare – but no, like everything else I do, it is left to the last minute.
Roads still slippery & covered with snow from Saturday, so no visit to the SVR today. Pity really, as I would have liked to have taken some photos of the trains in the snow – and the sun was shining!!
Better to play safe and stay at home, no point in risking an unnecessary journey for a few photos.
Snow too deep to go to the SVR today. Spent some time watching vehicles trying to get up the hill on the nearby main road, it would probably have been easier if grit had been put on the roads – but I haven’t seen a gritter this winter!
Nothing else of interest, think I’ll hibernate until spring.
If I have a burst of enthusiasm for anything – I’ll let you know…..
Travelling back from Small Heath, I had to change at Moor Street. There was just time for a few photos before my train arrived. 9600 was seen in action, before moving out of the way for 168107 to arrive. The Pannier then ran into platform 3 just as my train was arriving – I wasn’t waiting another 30 minutes for the next train, but at last managed a few photos which show how the station looks and the track layout where it joins with the main running lines.
9600, and that’s my train approaching on the left, I’m gone………
Looking out of the window as my train headed into Birmingham, I thought it was going to be too dark for photos, but the light increased enough for some good photos at Small Heath. Fortunately I was able to rest the camera on the bridge parapet to keep it steady, as even at iso1600 the best I could get was 1/250th sec – not good with a zoom lens!
The special train, heading to Paddington and organised by Vintage Trains, was the first departure from the new Birmingham Moor Street platforms, which would be in use for service trains on the following day.
Plenty of smoke & steam:-
Just seen 5043 at Small Heath on the train to London and 9600 at the new Moor Street platforms.
After completing my household “chores” I was able to get a few hours out to see Clan Line at Tamworth. It was heading south from Crewe on a loaded test run to Northampton, then just loco & support coach to Wimbledon. From reading timings posted on the internet, it was limited to 50mph as far as Stafford, then 75mph to Northampton. 67027 would return with the empty stock.
Drifting steam & a soft exhaust didn’t help as the loco passed by:-
The photo gallery updates were completed yesterday, the blog today. All hard work on the poor old brain, but saying that – WordPress more or less updates itself, all I have to do is make sure I back up the database first.
That’s all the galleries updated, again. Only seems a few weeks since I updated to 1.5.8. Suppose it gets easier each time, probably have forgotten it all again by the time the next update is relased.
There is a later version of WordPress for this blog, something to do another night.
