A selection of shots taken during November 2009

A day around Newport and Bristol. Starting at Coedkernew, I worked my way round to Bishton Flyover before heading back into England at Filton Abbeywood and Pilining.

A small selection of shots taken on Sunday 25th of the West Somerset's 'Somerset in Autumn' Gala.

A trip to York on 'The Jorvic Growler', planned to be double headed 37's. In the end we only got as far as Bristol Parkway before one of the 37's, 37516, failed. In a big swap around, 47851 which was being used to supply ETH for the train, was taken off the rear, and with the two 37's, shunted around so that now 37676 lead dead 37516 and working 47851, as a tripple header. We were around 1 hour and a half late, making up around 10 mins by the time we got to York.

A selection of shots taken during the WSR's Autumn Steam Gala.

A selection of shots taken during October 2009

A selection of Photos taken during September 2009

A day trip to Tamworth 18th Aug 2009

A selection of shots taken during August 2009

Just a stop off at Garsdale station to see the Spitfire Railtour go through on route to Carlisle. We wereee grounded at Garsdale Station due to the extreme rain but we would have prefered Blea Moor or Selside.

A supprisingly good day at Doncaster with the sun out at the right time in the morning. Lots of variety in both freight and passenger. Leeming Bar, on the Wenslydale Railway, was just a stop off on the way back to where we stayed at my Grandad's house in Leyburn.

A very frustrating day to say the least. Arriving at Scout Green, the early appearance of 66411 'Eddie the Engine' climing up to Shap on the Tesco's was encouraging. However, it was well over an hour before the next freight and then it was just two southbound Malcoms fairly close together. Not long after that An EWS 66 came north on engineers. After that it was well over an hour and to my excitement I saw the Logs approaching from the North. The sun was perfect, the banks of the cutting were lined in beautiful pink flower and I had previously got this shot of a Voyager. To get the logs would be even better. Then to my horror, I turned artound to see a FL 90 on a freightliner going North. I got a shot of this but the 90 completely bowled out the shot of the 57 on the logs. After waiting nearly two hours for a freight, I couldn't believe it. To ad insult to ingury, the Eastleigh Enterprise which is booked to be Cl 92 hauled turned out to be a Cl 66! Then, even worse, the Southbound freightliner which is booked to be a pair of FL 86's, as it had been at Carlisle the day before, turned out to be a FL 90! Two bad things that rarely happen, happend, on the same day. The day I'm there, when I only come once a year! The only bit of luck was to see a WCRC 37 on a stock move in sun. Most of the day was cold and very windy. All in all quite dissapointing.

A much better day than Monday. The weather was more sustained with no extreme rain & wind. There were extra freights today as there had been problems in the night. This lead to rare daylight runnings for some trains.

A great day. Lots of traffic, no rain and lots of semaphores! This really is one of the top locations for freight, and it certainly beat Carlisle. This was my first visit to Barnetby.

Our first day up north was spent at Carlisle. On the way back, Army liveried 60040 made a welcome supprise on the Jarrow-Lindsey tanks at Northallerton where we left our train

On the way up north, we stopped off at Toton & Barrow Hill.

A day trip with a friend, we started off at Worle to get the EWS Management train on route to Plymouth. We then went to Yate station to get the same 60's that had worked the 6B13 & 6E41 the previous day. Then we headed into Wales for lunch, then to get the Cardiff-Taunton 67's at Coedkernew. Then we spent the rest of the day at Undy with a brief visit to Seven Tunnel Junction. On the we back we stopped off at West Huntspill in a bit of a desperate shot to get the 6M37 Moorswater-Earles cement.

Some shots from a morning at Seven Tunnel Jn & Wickwar Tunnel on Monday 20th July 2009. The main aim of this trip was to get Load Haul 60059 on 6B13 Robeston-Westerleigh & DB Army Red 60040 on 6E41 Westerleigh-Lindsey.

Like the day before at Sion, we were aloud ample time to explore the town. Well That's what I did, on my way to the the station! Another good day. Lots of ugly french trains aswell as a rather contrasting TGV. We all managed to cool off in the lake afterwoods when we hired out paddleo's and jumped off them! Great fun.

The next day we went to Sion aswell as some other places on the way where I managed the odd phot. When in Sion we were given nearly 2 hours to rome around the town. To most people that meant shopping but for my mate and I, that meant railway & McDonalds! So there we are!

As part of my School Alps Trip package, we rode the mountain railway from Chamonix to La Mer De Glace in France.

A rather good spot of luck that this loco should be parked up in Fleet as I passed through. This was ineed a great start to the Holiday! However I had no idea at the time of the drama of the event. The loco's stay was quite long. It was soon realised on its journey that the loco was to heavy for its route. The Loco was later seperated from its bogies and they travelled seperate while the loco's body laid on large wooden blocks on the ground. This happened whilst I was abroad. All of this I could not see on my return the following Saturday as I was on the opposite side of the motorway so therefore having a different section of the services.

A brilliant trip starting at my local station, Taunton at 19:31 with a train to Paddington, then a trip across the capital to Euston where we borded the Sleeper as far as Carlisle arriving at 05:19. After seeing a few things at Carlisle and a at a bidge near Kingmoor Depot, the return was then 13:30 off Carlisle and back to Taunton via Manchester arriving home at 20:09. That was the theory, we just hoped nothing would go wrong! In the end all went well.

A selection of images taken during July 2009

A super weekend with plenty of Maybach and Sulzer power to play with. There was of corse Tornado running as the only steam Loco of the event. All in all good weather and plenty of entertainment.

Despite the horrible weather, a good time was still had. This was my first visit to Long Marston and it was nice to see plenty of locos that bring back memories from both mine, and my fathers childhoods. Albeit in pretty poor condition!

A selection of phoptos taken during June 2009

A selection of shots taken on Saturday 30th May at the Mid Hants Railway during their Diesel Gala.

A selection of images taken on the Sunday (24th) of the Eastleigh Open Weekend. Many interesting and diverse loco's and Liveries to be seen.

An unfortunatley short day on Sat 9th May on the Swanage Railway for their Diesel gala. Still, managed to get everything that was running and a very good day out. Weather was good all day and as for the locos! Very nice to see the return of 45060, 20107 & 26007, all of which have had extensive overhauls finished at the last minute for the Gala. Also very nice to see 55022 and Zontar out to support it!