Night Photo Super Sprinter Class 153364 London Midland DMU Bedford 2015

Class 153364 DMU Alone At The Platform

Photo:  Charles Moorhen

This night photo London Midland 'city' DMU, Class 153 364, was lucky to make it onto my camera's memory card on one particular visit to Bedford railwaystation in 2015.

On that particular day I had been photographing a small variety of trains when, during a quiet spell just as the evening was beginning to draw in, Class 153 153364 slid into a bay platform at Bedford station following a run from Bletchley

I hadn't seen an example of this class of diesel multiple unit up until then and I was eager to photograph it. However, there was a problem. I had no tripod with me, which I really could have done with for a long exposure time.

Looking around for something stable on which to place Nikon D3200 camera, it quickly became apparent that nothing was usable within the area. So, if I wanted to record the image, there was nothing for it but to hold the camera in the usual way and hope for the best.

Setting the camera to a four second exposure I planted my feet shoulder width apart, tucked my elbows into my sides, framed the shot, held my breath, pressed the shutter button...and prayed that I would not cough, sneeze or feel the need to scratch my nose.

After what felt like four minutes, rather than four seconds, the shutter clicked closed and my breath came out in one loud whoomph!

Tentatively I looked at the rear screen, dreading that the whole exercise had been a complete waste of time.

However, my anxiety turned to delight when I saw, apart from a little softness to the picture that, in the end, all things considered, things had worked out quite well in the end.

Though I would not want to repeat the same process too many times.

 

 

The sprinter Class 153 diesel multiple units such as the example above, were built by Leyland Bus between 1987 and 1988 as two-coach commuter train units before being converted to single-car units in 1991/92 by Hunslet-Barclay.

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Other 'London Midland Trains' blog posts you may wish to see:

Class 350 250 EMU at Wolverton Station 

Other Class 153 DEMU's:
Class 153 366 DEMU at Bletchley 2015
GWR Class 153 370 Super Sprinter DEMU Entering Truro

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