Mixed Weather

The mixed weather (now known as 'very scary global warming, but if you buy and electric car, all will be good weather') in Little England continues, as the autumn firmly makes its mark. The last portion of the goods train which originated at Poole, passes Combwich shed, some of it being a consignment of empty French made mason jars for the local thriving moonshine industry and empty tins to be filled with the much sought after Combwich crab. 

 

Meanwhile Standard Class 3 tank engine number 5 sits on shed between duties, with the crew most likely having a cider or two in the nearby Royal Oak. You can just make out the pub roofline in the distance, it being just to the right of 53809’s chimney. 

 

Airfix kit aficionados will notice the similarity between the engine shed and the well loved kit. Allegedly the plastic kit was based on Combwich engine shed, with its distinctive ventilation fan being an old ship propeller salvaged from the sunken Good Ship Mermaid. I’m sure there’s a sea shanty in there somewhere. 

 

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The Railway Automotive Club

 

Back in the olden days when there were more railways than roads, if your car broke down you’d use the services of the Railway Automotive Club - aka RAC.

Here we have such an occurrence, as Beryl’s supercharged Austin Seven is returned to her nearest station after it blew a head gasket and cracked the sump doing 98mph on the A37 flying over the railway bridge next to Pylle Halt. 

 

Not many know this, but the halt was originally called East Pennard before being renamed in 1928 to reflect the fact that drivers complained of a sore bottom as they bounced over the hump backed railway bridge even at quite modest speeds - especially those suffering from piles. 

 

Later she’ll ask Harry the Hammer to sort the issue out, for there is nothing Harry can’t do with his hammer. Though she’s quite enjoying the tiny pale blue brand new 3 wheeled bubble car the RAC have loaned her as a courtesy car, for it is marginally drier in wet weather and has yet to smell of mildew. Back in olden times all cars would smell of mildew after 3 months, that and leaded petrol and engine oil as they marked their territory on the driveway. 

 

And finally one of the axle boxes is missing on the well wagon. Harry will sort it with a couple of taps of his mighty tool.

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Harman Phoenix 200

 

Some results from this new ‘quirky experimental’ Harman Phoenix 200 colour negative film made at the Ilford plant in Mobberley Cheshire. It’s definitely an ‘art’ film, with increased sensitivity to the warmer end of the spectrum, grain and limited anti halation layer. 

Box speed is supposedly 200 iso, but in reality it’s a 100 iso film as rated here. But could drop it further tbh. Probably not at every day film, but interesting nevertheless.

I wasn’t sure what to expect, so just shot a few images around the garden aiming for warmer coloured subjects that I’d read and seen suits the film well. Definitely a Marmite film, with very mixed reviews online, especially YouTube. I like Marmite with a dash of hot sauce on toast btw. 

Whilst I process my own B&W, I got Southsun lab to C41 process this set. Having done colour processing at college many years ago it’s not something I wish to get involved with, even with all the right gear it’s a real faff with processing temperatures around 40c and chemistry with very limited shelf life. 

Southsun provided these 25mp scans to download, which were nice and neutral so I could pop them through Adobe Lightroom to boost colour and contrast a little to suit my palette. When the negs arrive back shortly I’m keen to see how my scanning will compare, the film having a mauve colour mask rather than orange. 

Will I use it again? Possibly, it’s not something I’d use for my miniature photography, far too grainy and off the wall colour and contrast wise. But it could be interesting to use for some urban grot environmental photography, I imagine old brickwork and graffiti would respond well to it. Of course I could easily recreate what you see here shooting 100% digitally, but that’s rather too easy and throwaway. 

Zenit 12XP with 28, 58 and 135mm lenses.

Saturday Morning at Whitehall Halt

Saturday morning at Whitehall Halt, as Arthritic Arthur powers around the bend at breakneck speed with the 8.23 & 1/2am mixed goods from Hemyock to Tiverton Junction, there the wagonload behind his engine will be added to the 6.37am express milk and perishables train from Penzance.

Waving Wally waves at Arthur to slow down. For he has to collect a fresh consignment of country air which has just been loaded into the wagon. The air being destined for that there London.

In olden times, fresh country air destined for smokey towns and cities was always transported in open wagons, it helped to keep it fresh with the constant ventilation, thus avoiding a musty aroma upon arrival.

Alas, with forgetful Arthritic Arthur at the helm, the little train doesn’t stop, Arthur simply waving back at Waving Wally whilst shouting ‘see you in the pub later, it’s skittles night! To which Wally mutters to himself “no that was last night, and you were there with me.”

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From our Westminster commentator Hilary Gove-Tuckshop-Fugg

I posted this one a year ago, but I reckon it’s worth another punt even though we have new leaders, but they’re all much the same - mostly self serving incompetence…. Obvs not to be taken seriously…

Today’s post is written by our Westminster commentator Hilary Gove-Tuckshop-Fugg (with apologies to any northern readers who can read and might be offended or lefty leaning southerners who want to be offended on behalf of others). 

 

So without further ado, over to Hilary….

Here are are in ’The Grim North’, which curiously looks like the Somerset Levels, but I’m assured it is ‘northern’ - I mean, just look at all the smoke, that melancholic sky and steam lorry, not a Tesla in sight.

Today’s the launch of the new HS2 ‘Network North Rail’ service between Birmingham and some northern town or village known as Manchester. But one being, as you lot call ‘a namby-pamby’ southerner living in the Westminster area of ‘that there London’, I know little of such, so please excuse any ignorance by my behalf. 

 

Here’s the first train, and most stylish it is in those bright colours designed to brighten up your almost monochromatic soot stained landscape. And because we in the south imagine most of you walk, use bicycles or horse and carriage to get to work ’at t’mill’, you’ll I’m sure enjoy this extravagant nod to Victorian times when Britain was at its height. 

 

And if you look beyond the fine red carriage, which at a push can get 78 of you grubby lot in, there’s even an unmanned guard’s van for your pet whippets, pigeons and of course your small children employed in the mills and pits (though of course we’ve closed them all now). 

 

You’ve never had it so good, so stop moaning and get back to your bingo, vape and betting shops or whatever you do after a 19 hour shift in the frozen rag pudding factory.

 

Yours,

Hilary Gove-Tuckshop-Fugg

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38 years ago (and a bit)!!

6998 Burton Agnes Hall, with the Blackmore Vale Express, heads away from Salisbury destined for Yeovil Junction on a dull misty 5 October 1986.

 

I took it on my 1959 vintage Rolleicord Va loaded with Ektachrome 200 colour transparency 120 format film. The camera is still fully operational and used from time to time, and here it is posed on Fountain Colliery a few minutes ago. 

 

I bought the camera in November 1983 secondhand from City Photographic in Southampton. It’s funny how we remember these things.

 

I doubt many of today’s digital cameras will still work 38 years from now, the electronics almost certainly failing well before then. But there are enthusiasts who’ll want to keep such alive….

Early 2000s digital cameras have a bit of a following, and often with younger folk who’ve maybe only known mobile phones. The other day I saw a young woman who was probably only just twenty with a Nikon D1x from around the year 2000. And fashion conscious young chap at my local station wanted a photo of him and his pal as he thrust a mint 2006 vintage Canon G7 Powershot in to my grubby mitt. Naturally I obliged and commented on his choice of vintage digital camera. 

 

The same goes for film, when out and about it’s the younger people who are experiencing and championing film photography, maybe with grandad’s old SLR. And there’s certainly no problem getting film these days. It’s having quite a renaissance, as people rediscover those old cameras. Rollei and Pentax have recently released brand new 35mm cameras, reinforcing the photography equivalent of vinyl.

 

And finally, the Rolleicord featured here is currently loaded with Ilford HP5 film for further adventures....

 

Watercress Line Autumn Gala 2024

A few snaps taken at the Mid Hants Railway Autumn Steam Gala on Friday 4 October. 

 

Most try to avoid people in their shots, but looking back at my old stuff, the ones with people in are the most interesting. Just as well, for railway nuts love wandering in front of cameras pointing in their direction. But they are part of the scene and have as much right to be there as me, the railway wouldn’t exist without them. 

 

No prize winners here, but for me half the fun is digging out the old cameras and using them,  this camera dating from when day to day steam was still working on Britain's railways.

 

All taken on my 1966 vintage Mamiya C33 with 80mm Sekor lens. Kentmere 400. Home dev.

 

Click to enlarge as usual....

 

Balsawood, Pitheads and Pit Ponies

Saturday morning at Moorewood Colliery. And down at the coal canal, Pete & Dud are chatting to Boatman Brian about his new unsinkable narrowboat which is made almost entirely from balsa wood by a company called Craftline. The same company also produced the pithead, that too is also made of balsa wood and is also unsinkable. 

Driver Stavros the Steam is pottering about the sidings pushing wagons from here to there, and from there to here. His engine came from a long closed railway on Cyprus by all accounts. Roxey Mouldings based their kit on it apparently, but theirs has handrails unlike this one. 

 

Barry Bullhead from The Ministry of Misery is trying to communicate with Hubert the conversational Latin speaking shunting horse. Because Hubert is near retirement age, he’s suggesting that he goes underground to be a pit pony, the low light levels will be kinder on Hubert’s cataracts. 

 

And finally, I doubt Barry’s plans will come to fruition, for Hubert is somewhat bigger than Barry, far too big to go down the mineshaft - and anyway the balsa wood pithead structure would struggle to take the weight, Hubert being made of lead. 

 

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Slow Speed 1

The first train on the new and much hyped SL1 (Slow Speed 1) service has just arrived at the remote Brew Street dockland location somewhere in North Somerset. 

A former London Underground tube train has been repurposed, and because there is no electricity to power it, the little diesel mechanical locomotive on the extreme left pulled the train on its 86 hour journey from somewhere near Cockfosters - much of it under the cover of darkness. 

The harebrained scheme instigated by The Ministry of Miserable Transport to rejuvenate deprived parts of The West Country, is unlikely to be a success, for the train ran empty with no media interest whatsoever, even though there was free moonshine and pickled winkles on offer. Not even Nasal Nigel is to be seen, and he loves hanging around on the final train of the evening to Hatton Cross playing with his slightly sticky TT gauge Flying Scotsman in the company of slightly sticky Adenoidal Andrew. 

And finally, Bob Geeza Cat is after some milk, and hasn’t even noticed the arrival of the train. 

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Seahorse

From left to right….

Inch High Portillo is recording another TV series, and as regular UK based railway nuts will know he has a love of railways, but has never recorded an inch high series of programmes. Until now. 

Next, Neal and Neil are trying to warn Bob Geeza Cat about PC Rob Banks and former artisan ice cream makers, now turned security guards Ben & Gerry creeping up behind him. Though quite why they’re after a harmless cat I’ve no idea. 

Behind ’the law’, synchronised railway guard dance duo are alerting everyone of the diesel shunting engine which has just appeared through the archway with a freshly packed wagonload of misery from that there Westminster in London. 

And finally, Hubert the conversational Latin speaking horse is watching from the comfort of a departing fishing boat, having decided to become seahorse for the day. 

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Off for Scrap

The present day at Brew Street, and an old hopper wagon is being removed for scrap, having been dumped on the wharf for more than a decade. Very little rail activity happens here now, and rumours are afoot that the whole area will soon be redeveloped and turned into posh condominiums and luxury yacht harbour for foreign investors.

On the left ‘Oh My Gawd’ Oliver’s grandson ‘Easily Triggered’ Toby is having a bit of a crises about the wagon being moved after so many years. He struggles with change, including changing his underwear, but we won’t go there. 

Former artisan ice cream makers, turned security guards Ben & Jerry are trying to catch Bob Geeza Cat the 4th, but they don’t stand a chance, for the Bob Geeza line of cats are very smart indeed. 

PC Pretend isn’t a policeman at all, but likes to dress in vintage police attire at weekends and will frequently turn up here and there in an old Citroen 2CV which he calls his unmarked police car. He’s a strange man who lives alone with a Hornby trainset on top of the bath. Rumour has it ‘mother’ is in the bath, she has been for many years. 

And the chap with the yellow jacket, could that be TV’s inch high Portillo? 

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20 Years Ago Today

 

20 years ago!!!!!

Here’s my view on 16 August 2004 grabbed through a long lens of the containerised waste transfer terminal at Calvert in Buckinghamshire, England. At the time they were filling up a huge disused clay pit. 

The loco 66529 is the 4M60 Bristol to Calvert containerised rubbish train and to the right we have 66077 on the recently arrived 6M35 King’s Cross to Calvert, which looks like it’s loaded with spoil. I’m not sure of the details, it was 20 years ago. But I’m pretty sure some of you knowledgeable people here will know far more than me. 

The same view more recently is very different, with this being the course of the new HS2 Hight Speed rail route - pop 51.9169580, -1.0007465 in to your favourite map browser or Google Earth or Maps https://maps.app.goo.gl/hFotFmfUg2XJnfnZ7?g_st=ic

Nikon D70, Soligor 400mm lens.

Midweek Murkiness

 It’s a murky Wednesday in the Somerset coalfields as Peter prepares to top up his trusty Peckett loco water tank. Dud calls caution, “Be careful Pete, not all water towers have water in them these days, best not light up that cigarette until after you’ve checked.”

This pic was taken on traditional film (Kentmere 100) and scanned in to the pixel grinder. It was taken with a 35mm Zenit 12XP SLR (found on Marketplace locally for £15), with a Tamron 28mm Adaptall 2 lens set at f32 - a £25 eBay find.

Ted’s Quiff

The sky looks like it might storm over Combwich shed. That’s one of Templecombe’s ex GWR pannier tanks simmering after having recently arrived with the 6.03 am service from Templecombe. 

Meanwhile trespassing Ted, part time Teddy Boy and French polisher from Bromsgrove surveys the scene, before passing his comb through his huge quiff. Hopefully it’s well loaded with Brylcreem, for if it storms it will hang down to somewhere just below his groin.

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Sunday Shine

It’s a lovely Sunday morning in late July, as the 5.32am Chilcompton to Frome goods snakes between the colliery and the rear of The Pedant & Armchair pub, hauled by Templecombe shed’s former GWR tank engine number 4631. Today Wee Willy Winkle and Wobbly Wilfred are in charge of the engine, you can just about see Wee Willy in the cab, he’s a shy soul, and hates being photographed. 

Over on the left, multiple pub owner and moonshiner, Shamus O’Shandy, accompanied by Bob Geeza Cat, stand next to their still enjoying the soft morning sunlight next to the brew house at the rear of the pub. Shortly they’ll be firing up the still for another intoxicating 180% proof run using liquor from fermented apples, turnips and anything else that they could find like Nasal Nigel’s underwear. 

In addition to ‘shine, the beer brewed here is said to have psychedelic qualities due to the water being drawn from the stinking orange mine-water contaminated pond. The ‘psychedelic’ aspect is more likely due to a huge depth-charge of moonshine being added to the fresh beer at the barrelling stage, purely to extend the shelf life of course. 

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Computer Glitch

Due to a computer malfunction, for even when computers were made of polished mahogany, brass, Welsh marble, lithium crystals and powered by pigeons, things could still go wrong. 

A computer controlled signalling error at Neasden Junction has resulted in a shiny red museum-engine from that there London Transport ending up at this little known railway served dockyard on the North Somerset coast. And due to further errors, it’s even ended up being rostered onto the works train. 

Double Denim Dancing Dando brings the little red loco and coach to a halt at Brew Street, and word must have got around, for even Dizzy Lizzie & Awkward Teresa have left their gins in The Kettle Inn to witness the spectacle. DDDD is of course performing a footplate shimmy, something that he’s able to do anytime of night and day, his magnetic tap shoes giving him a firm grip on anything made from iron and steel. 

Meanwhile Barry Bullhead from The Ministry of Misery mutters to himself “heads will roll for this almighty glitch”, whilst his snivelling sidekick Neil takes the knee to examine the fine wheel flanges. 

And finally, Oh My Gawd Oliver and Bob Geeza Cat look on in awe at the shiny red beast, as well as balancing the composition of this photograph. 

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Canal Aged Moonshine

Sunday morning down at the wharf, and Clive has just arrived with a milk churn full of ’canal aged’ moonshine. Meanwhile Douglas, who was formerly known as Doug, because he no longer has a shovel to lean on (the delicate 3D printed shovel broke), and pub landlord Shamus O’Shandy have arrived to collect the order of moonshine for The Kettle Inn. 

You’ll note that Templecombe shed’s 3F number 43216 has been carefully positioned so Stroppy Syd (half cousin of Waving Willy) the local jobsworth can’t see the illicit exchange. Anyway, he’s more Interested in the photographer taking this photo as he shouts “Do you have permission to be here? If not you’re contravening railway trespass law 73492a section ii, and I’m going to report you to Barry Bullhead at The Ministry of Misery!”

And finally, wheezing old 58072 which is soon to be withdrawn, sneaks past Stroppy Syd, the crew having a secret plan to take the engine to an undisclosed location the other side of the Bristol Channel deep in ‘The Forest’ so it can evade withdrawal. 

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Return of the SS Canberra from the Falklands Conflict 11 July 1982

 42 years ago today as a whippersnapper, I was standing with Dad’s camera on Weston Parade, Southampton witnessing the return of the troops from the Falklands conflict upon the SS Canberra. 

Whilst the focus was in the ship which I recall was covered in rust streaks, pointing the camera the other way captured possibly equally interesting cameos of those who’d come out to witness the spectacle on this calm, hazy sunny day - 11 July 1982. 

All photography my copyright