Day and Night Photos of Leamington Spa Station Platform Sign 2016

GWR Leamington Spa Station Platform Signs

Photo: Charles Moorhen

I visited Leamington Spa railway station a few summers ago on a train spotting/photography session, and couldn't resist taking this picture of the railway platform sign surrounded as it was by a fantastic variety of colourful flowers.

It was a pleasant encounter to discover an old-fashioned wooden platform sign such as this  which for me brought back memories of the days of locomotive smoke, steam and whistles; the waving of green flags and the morning milk train - when compared to the plain, bland metal platform signs that are so numerous at stations across the UK now.

During the summer of 2016 I once again visited Leamington Spa station, this time during the evening.  During a break in the railway traffic, where I captured a number of diesel multiple unit images, I decided to photograph the same sign again; this time with a tripod and a long exposure.

After a few trial exposures I believed that I'd got it right, and back at home I was pleased when I compared the two images on the computer.

I hope that as a new or regular blog visitor you will also enjoy them.

  Photo: Charles Moorhen

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Night Photo Milk Churns on Kidderminster SVR Train Station Platform Trolley 2016

Shining in the Night

Milk Churns on Platform Trolley
Photo:  Charles Moorhen

"Drinka Pinta Milka Day"!

Milk churns such as these - photographed at night in October 2016 on a platform of the Severn Valley Railway, Kidderminster - were once a common sight at railway stations throughout Britain's rail network.

The churns were collected from farms or dairies and delivered to the local station.  

To identify the owner of the churn either a metal nameplate was attached to the container or the farm/dairy name was stamped into the metalwork.  In addition to this, a label was attached to the handle stating whether or not the milk churn was full or empty.

This system of transporting milk survived for decades until a modern system was introduced whereby milk was collected directly from farms by motorized tanker vehicles.  The milk was subsequently transferred to specially-built milk tank wagons operated by the railway.

Along with barrows loaded with wicker racing-pigeon baskets and others piled high with packages for transport on the trains, seeing platform barrows containing milk churns was a common sight back in the days of steam.

Travelling between Kent and Hampshire as a young lad with my spotting book ready on my lap as my train - usually hauled by a Southern Region steam locomotive - sped through country stations, saw milk churns standing in the shade of a platform canopy.

In the early 1920's around 282,000,000 gallons (339,000,000 litres) of milk was transported by the four national railway companies.

The system ceased completely in the 1970's.

 

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Night Photo Class 57307 DRS Diesel Loco 'Lady Penelope' Rugby 2016

Railway Loco Homage To 'Thunderbirds' Television Show Character

 

Direct Rail Services Class 57 57307 'Lady Penelope' 
 Photo: Charles Moorhen

A night photo of Direct Rail Services Class 57307 diesel locomotive 'Lady Penelope', named after the popular UK Thunderbirds TV series, standing in a former bay platform looking bright and clean after a sudden downpour at Rugby railway station on the 25th August 2016.

'Lady Penelope' is one of 16 Class 57s that carried a 'Thunderbirds' name and the only locomotive that retains its name.

In January 2014, the locomotive nameplates donated by Virgin Trains, Tin Tin and Parker, fetched over £4,000 at a charity auction run in association with the Railway Magazine to raise funds for The Alzheimer's Society.

The locomotive was built on the 20 September 1965 by Brush Traction at Loughborough and is allocated to Carlisle Kingmoor Traction Maintenance Depot, operated by Direct Rail Services (DRS).  The current depot code is KM.

The original steam shed was called Carlisle (Kingmoor) and its shed code was 68A which was later changed to 12A.

This Class 57 locomotive originally carried the number D1901, later to be renumbered 47225.

Apart from its 'Lady Penelope' name, it has also carried the name, 'Cable Thieves: We're Watching You'.

 

Class 57307 'Lady Penelope' on YouYube:

Class 57307 drags Pendolino.

 

Class 57307 departs Carlisle.


512 Class 47s were built, of which 30 have passed into preservation and can be found (at time of blog-page publication) at the following locations, though this may be subject to change for various reasons.

D1524  47004 - Embsay & Bolton Abbey Railway.

D1693  47105 - Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway.

D1705  47117 'Sparrowhawk' - Great Central Railway.

D1842  47192 - Crewe Heritage Centre.

D1855  47205/47395 - Northampton & Lamport Railway.

D1994  47292 - Great Central Railway Nottingham.

D1787  47306 'The Sapper' - Bodmin & Wenford Railway.

D1886  47367 - Mid Norfolk Railway.

D1895  47376 'Freightliner 1995' - Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway.

D1500  47401 'North Eastern' - Midland Railway Butterley.

D1501  47402 - East Lancashire Railway.

D1516  47417 - Midland Railway Butterley.

D1566  47449 - Llangollen Railway.

D1662  47484 'Isambard Kingdom Brunel' - (Private Location).

D1107  47524 - Dean Forest Railway.

D1778  47183/47579/47793 'James Nightall G.C. - Mid Hants Railway.

D1762  47167/47580/47732 'County of Essex - Carnforth.

D1933  47233/47596 'Aldeburgh Festival' - Mid Norfolk Railway.

D1606  47029/47635 'Jimmy Milne' - Epping Ongar Railway.

D1970  47269/47643 - Bo'ness & Kinneil Railway.

D1948  47505/47712 'Lady Diana Spencer' - Crewe Heritage Centre.

D1619  47038/47564/47761 - Midland Railway Butterley.

D1643  47765/47059/47631 - East Lancashire Railway.

D1946  47503/47771 - Eastleigh Works.

D1755  47541/47773 - (Location Not Known).

D1909  47232/47785/47820 - Wensleydale Railway.

D1656  47072/47609/47834/47798 'Prince William' - York Railway Museum.

D1654  47070/47620/47799/47835 'Prince Henry' - Eden Valley Railway.

D1966  47266/47629/47828 - Carnforth.

D1661  47077/47613/47840 'North Star' - West Somerset Railway.

More Class 47 and 57 images on 'Along These Tracks'.

Class 47100 'Merlin'

Class 57316 'Fab 1'

Class 57305 'John Tracy'

Class 57308 'Tin Tin'

Class 47822

Class 47701

Class 47790 'Galway Princess'

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Night Photo Desiro UK Class 350250 EMU UK Passenger Train Wolverton 2016

London Midland Trains Class 350250 EMU

Photo: Charles Moorhen

Strangely enough, this 2016 night photo of London Midland Trains Class 350 250, UK passenger commuter train, standing in Wolverton station on its way to Euston station, London, came about following the change of a set of spark plugs in my car earlier in the day...and an infuriating lapse of memory.

In my eagerness to ensure that I had set the plug gaps to the correct size I decided to drive the 16 miles to Wolverton railway station, a station I've visited a number of times in the past, to test how the car was performing and do a spot of night photography while I was there.

Arriving at Wolverton station I opened the boot only to find that I had left behind a vital piece of equipment - my tripod!  

Now I was left with two options.  Drive back home and collect the tripod, or take my chances hand-holding the camera and hoping for the best.  

Well, the first option was totally out of the question as it would have meant a total driving mileage for the evening of around 64 miles. And it was only meant to be a quick trip!

So, it was the latter option or a complete waste of time and petrol.

After a couple of blurred, out of focus failures I managed to produce a small number of half decent hand-held photos, this one of electric multiple unit, Class 350 250, probably being the best of the bunch.   

The moral of this little tale?  Even if the odds are pretty much stacked against you have a go anyway.  You may be pleasantly surprised!

And yes!   The spark plugs worked fine.

 

 

 

Video Clip - Two Class 350 EMUs Passing at Bletchley Station

Class 350250 electric multiple unit was built between 2008 and 2009 and is allocated to Northampton King's Heath Siemens Depot.

The unit coach numbers for this EMU are as follows: 61450  65250  67550  61550.

 

Wolverton railway station historical note:
It was at Wolverton railway station in Buckinghamshire, on the 9th September 1845, that bare-knuckle fighter, Bendigo, stepped from a carriage of a London & Birmingham Railway train surrounded by a horde of his supporters.

His destination was the nearby town of Newport Pagnell where it was arranged that he would take part in an illegal fight with Ben Court.

At the last possible moment, for various reasons, the venue was switched to the village of Lillington Lovell, 4 miles north of Buckingham.


The match went ahead with Bendigo being heralded the winner after 96 gruelling rounds.

___________________________

 

 

 

A few historical facts about Wolverton railway station:

• The first station was built on the canal embankment above Wolverton Park and opened on the 17th Sept. 1838

• In 1840 a newer, more permanent station was built close by.

• The waiting room of the newer structure, which surprisingly had a full-time staff of 29, was lavishly redecorated for the visit of Queen Victoria in 1824.

• In 1881 yet another station was constructed replacing all previous buildings.

• The wooden station buildings built on the road bridge over the tracks stood for 100 years until British Rail demolished them in 1991.

• A modern brick station building, close to the car park and platforms, was opened on the 21st June 2012.

• Wolverton station has four platforms although only two are used for 'stopping' trains; the other two being reserved for fast 'through' expresses.

• Between 1865 and 1964 there was a branch line from Wolverton to Newport Pagnell Railway Station, primarily for employees at the nearby Wolverton Railway Works.  It was closed to all railway traffic in 1967.     

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Pensioner Railway Enthusiast Photographed Every UK Railway Station

Railway Photographer David Brewer at Dumbarton East Station

Former railway worker and railway enthusiast, pensioner David Brewer, 68, has recently completed a personal ambition that has taken him to the four corners of mainland Britain to photograph every railway station in the UK.

His target was reached when he snapped the 15.52 train from Norwich to Liverpool Lime Street passing through the tiny station of Manea, Cambridgeshire, on the 9th May 2016, served by Abellio Greater Anglia.

Speaking about his eight-year hobby, Mr. Brewer said that Redcar British Steel was probably the most difficult to reach.  The station, used solely by the steel works employees, has only two services a day and special permission had to be obtained to photograph on the site.

Redcar British Steel Station

So, is this the end of David Brewer's photographic travels?  Apparently not.  He is now photographing every station on the London Underground system.

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Rare Heritage Railway 'Thumper' DEMU Destroyed By Fire

Mindless Vandals Consign 'Thumper' DEMU To History

Burnt Out 'Thumper' DEMU at Swindon Cricklade Railway

A vintage DEMU train, 'Thumper' number 1302, owned by the Swindon and Cricklade Railway and valued at around £100,000, was completely destroyed by fire in May 2016.

The 2-car 'Thumper', (so nicknamed by railway enthusiasts due to the noise the diesel engine made while running) DEMU, believed to be one of only three working units in preservation after withdrawal from Southern Railway service with British Railways, was parked up near the Hayes Knoll end of the line when the fire was discovered.

Dave Peacey, a trustee of the Swindon and Cricklade Railway, said: "It is completely beyond repair.  We are all devastated to say the least".

Three box wagons parked nearby containing electrical equipment were also destroyed.  It appears that the fire may have started in one of these and spread to the train.

The cause of the fire was investigated.  At time of writing the culprits had not been found.

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Photo Southern Railway Merchant Navy Class Loco 35006 Nameplate Unveiling 2016

 

 

'Merchant Navy' 35006 Steam Locomotive Nameplate Unveiled 

Pete Waterman Unveils Merchant Navy Loco Nameplate

Pop! Goes The Loco

Nearly 500 people recently attended the unveiling of the former Southern Railway Merchant Navy Class Pacific locomotive, 35006 'Peninsular & Oriental S. N. Co', at Toddington, on May 20th 2016; home of the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Steam Railway following an immense years-long overhaul providing a glimpse of times past and a bygone era.

John McMillan, P&O Locomotive Society chairman, opened the day's proceedings and GWSR's president, celebrity and record producer, Pete Waterman, unveiled the locomotive's nameplate.

One of 30 engines of the class to built, all named after shipping lines that used Southampton Docks, Class 35006 locomotive was salvaged from Dai Woodham's scrapyard in Wales, where she had stood rusting away since her withdrawal in the 1960's, and brought to the GWSR - then in its infancy - in 1983.

35006 in Dai Woodham's scrapyard 

David Brown, a locomotive fireman in the 1960's based at Yeovil, worked P&O's final journey on a mail train from Yeovil to Eastleigh, then returned it to its home depot of Salisbury.

The locomotive will make its public debut at the Cotswold Festival of Steam at the GWSR from 28th to 30th May.

Full details are available on the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Steam Railway website.

 

Merchant Navy Class Locomotive Technical Specifications: (British Railways Classification).
Designer: O. V. Bulleid.
Origin: Southern Railway.
Introduced: June 1941.
Purpose: Express Passenger.
Wheel Arrangement: 4-6-2.
Number Series: 35001 - 35030.
Driving Wheel: 6ft. 2in.
Bogie Wheel: 3ft. 1in.
Length: 69ft. 7 3/4in.
Weight: (without tender) 94 tons 15 cwt. (Increased to 97tons in rebuilt engines).
Water Capacity: 5,000 gallons.
Cylinders: (3) 18in. x 24in.
Boiler Pressure: 250 lb. sq. in.
Tractive Effort: 37,515 lb.
Coal Capacity: 5 tons.
Power Classification: 8-P.

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Southern Railways Double Decker EMU Train Mystery Lasting 40 Years Photos/Story

Photos and True Mystery Story of Southern Railway Double-Decker EMU Train

8-Car Southern Railway Double Decker Electric Multiple Unit

  Childhood Memories Of A Strange Train

Little did I realise, as I waited on a platform at London’s Waterloo East station on a particular day in the late 1950’s, that I was about to witness purely by chance one of Britain’s railway experiments that far from living up to its expectations, turned out to be a ghastly and expensive failure. 

 

It was a brief encounter that created in its wake a mystery which would remain unsolved for almost forty years.

It was a warm afternoon in early September.  I was on the ‘Down’ platform waiting for the train that would take me home to Dover, dressed in my school uniform complete with cap and short trousers which my grandmother insisted I travel in because ‘it made me look neat and tidy’.  

To say that I was feeling pretty miserable that day was an understatement.  I had recently spent six glorious week’s holiday at my grandmother’s home in Basingstoke, where endless  carefree days trainspotting had been spent. 


As I sat on a wooden platform seat, idly watching a bored Southern Railway porter wearily pushing a squeaky barrow, piled high with wicker baskets of fluttering racing-pigeons along the platform, a crackling, popping sound caught my attention.  

Looking away from the porter and his barrow, I noticed an electric train approaching the railway station.  Its power shoes sending out bright blue sparks as they made intermittent contact with the electrified ‘third rail’.  

Assuming that it was just another electric train, I was only interested in Southern Railway steam locomotives, I was about to turn my attention back to the pigeon porter when I noticed that there was something distinctly odd about the shape of the approaching electric multiple unit.

With the reflexes of a seasoned ‘train-spotter’, I pulled the dog-eared notebook from my inside jacket pocket kept solely for recording train numbers, and scribbled down the number on the cab front – 4002.  As the train squealed to a halt my eyes nearly popped out of my head - it was a ‘double-decker’!  

8-Car Southern Railway Double Decker Electric Train 4002

In green Southern Railway livery the train was four carriages long with a strange configuration of doors and windows unlike anything I had ever seen before.  Where the usual row of ‘slam doors’ would have been every other door was missing, replaced by a body panel above which a curved window overlapped the roof area.

It was an unusual-looking machine indeed.  

 

The faces of bored passengers peered out through the windows on two levels, and I wondered how on earth the top tier of travellers gained access to their seats.  But, as the doors were opening on the ‘blind’ side from where I stood, it was impossible to see.

Author's '8-Shot' Kodak Brownie 127 Camera

Not wishing to miss an opportunity such as this I took hold of the Brownie 127 camera that hung around my neck by a thin black cord and raised it to my eye.  I was so preoccupied with trying to fit the long train, into the tiny little viewfinder, I failed to notice my train was puffing into the station from Charing Cross, with the result that at the precise time I pressed the shutter button my train entered the viewfinder.  

I would not have a perfect photograph, I thought, but at least I would have some kind of record of this unusual sighting.

Struggling aboard the Dover train as quickly as I could, holding the camera in one hand and my little brown suitcase in the other, I found an empty compartment and dived onto a seat near the window to get a closer view of the double-decker.  

 

To my horror its tail-end was heading towards the end of the platform.  It had gone in the time it had taken me to find a seat.  In the vain hope of perhaps seeing it disappearing out of the station I jumped to my feet and frantically fumbled with the catches to open the narrow sliding windows, in order to poke my head through.  

As I did so my train lurched forward and I fell back onto my seat.  My camera hit me in the chest, the suitcase that had been perched precariously on the edge of the opposite seat fell to the floor, spilling the well-folded contents onto the floor amongst the cigarette ends and the little piles of ash.  

The platforms of Waterloo East slipped out of sight as the River Thames came in to view and the train soon began to meander through the suburbs of south London.  All I could do now was to sit and wonder about what I had seen.  

Arriving at my prefab home a couple of hours later my father, who was no doubt overjoyed to see me home again after six weeks of peace and quiet, gave me an old fashioned look as I told him the story of the unusual train.  

“Sorry son I’ve never heard of that train”, he said.  Perhaps he regarded my tale as yet another product of my active imagination.  “I’ll ask at work" he said.  

He worked for British Railways at Dover Marine station.  "I'll see if anybody knows anything about it”.  As it turned out nobody had heard of my mystery train...or perhaps he had simply forgotten to ask. 

The years rolled by, I grew up, started work, took up smoking ‘to be a man’, learned to drink beer, did a spell in the Army and got married.  

As my childhood stretched a long way behind me, the encounter with the double-decker became nothing more than a fading boyhood memory.  

However, unexpectedly in 1995 all that was to change! 

During that year I happened to be visiting the Northampton & Lamport Railway, (N&LR), following an article that I had read in my local newspaper about their latest acquisition - a Belgian steam tram named Yvonne.

After spending a pleasant and productive afternoon photographing the unusual tram, and hearing from its driver the story of how he had rescued the locomotive from a scrap-yard in Belgium, and brought it back to England, I struck up a conversation with one of the N&LR volunteers.  

We talked about the various items of rolling stock and locomotives that the railway had accumulated over the years, when for no apparent reason the ‘double-decker EMU’ came to mind.  I mentioned what I had seen as a boy and waited for the inevitable blank look that would say, “I don’t know what you are talking about”.

To my great surprise I was wrong about his response.  “Oh yes”, he said, nodding knowingly.  “I can tell you a bit about that train”.

Sitting in the volunteers’ canteen drinking tea from the inevitable chipped mug, I learned that two experimental 4-car sets, numbers 4001 and 4002, had been built in the late 1940’s to help alleviate the chronic overcrowding on the Charing Cross – Gravesend line in Kent.  

Designed by Oliver Bullied, who was also responsible for designing the steam locomotives that would often be seen hauling the 'Golden Arrow’ Pullman train between Dover and London’s Victoria station in the 1950’s, the double-decker was able to carry up to 552 passengers.  

“This was quite an astonishing feat”, the volunteer went on to tell me, puffing on a hand-rolled cigarette, “bearing in mind that the conventional electric trains of the time only had a maximum capacity of 400”.   I was impressed.

But, as I soon learned, the venture was doomed from the outset.

"Apart from the numerous teething troubles after entering service on 2 November 1949", he went on to tell me, "when it was withdrawn twice in the first month, it proved to be extremely unpopular with the travelling public.  Also, it took up twice as much loading time at stations and cost 50% more to build.  Despite these problems however, the two trains soldiered on in service until October 1971 when they were finally withdrawn."  

I couldn’t believe my luck.  My mystery had been solved at last!

“What became of them?" I asked.

Before he could answer we were interrupted by the driver-owner of Yvonne, offering me a footplate ride on the tram which was about to leave the station.  I didn’t need to be asked twice, this was too good an opportunity to miss.  

Thanking the volunteer, and promising to meet him after the ride to find out what happened to the ‘double-decker’, I left the canteen and climbed aboard the simmering locomotive.   

Soon we were rattling and swaying along the track.  I was in my element.  I had never been in the cab of a steam locomotive and now I was living every schoolboy’s dream.

Double-Decker at Lamport Railway, Northampton

All too soon the ride was over.  I climbed down from the cab intending to take a few photographs as the driver prepared to make the return trip, but as I turned this way and that to get a proper reading from my camera’s light meter an astonishing sight grabbed my attention.  I couldn’t believe what it was I was looking at.  Standing against a set of buffers, vandalised and neglected, was the ‘double-decker’ from my childhood – number 4002!  Or at least the driving-trailer carriage of it.

The body panels were rusted, virtually every window had been smashed and the once pristine livery had faded considerably.  It was difficult for me to accept that this unique example of railway history could end up in such a pitiful state, so far from its Southern Region home.  While at the same time I was delighted to know that it had survived the years, and was ‘over the moon’ to see it once again.

Double-Decker Train Compartment in dilapidated condition

On my return to the station I was disappointed to hear that my helpful friend had, by this time, gone home; and no-one else could shed any further light on the fate of the other train. I was now left with more questions than answers.

What had become of sister train 4001?  Where were the other carriages from 4002?  Are they lying somewhere abandoned and forgotten?  Did they fall prey to the scrapyard cutting torch, or were any of them rescued and returned to their former glory?  

 

In my heart of hearts I would like to believe that it was the latter.

Just as those two trains were doomed to failure, so unfortunately was my childhood snap of 4002 taken on that Waterloo East platform all those years ago.  

When I collected my prints from the chemist a few weeks later, that particular image turned out to be, ironically, a double exposure.  I had forgotten to wind on the film after my previous snap!

Double-Decker EMU Train on YouTube:

 

Southern Railway Double-Decker Train at Waterloo.

 
Double-Decker Train at Marylebone station.

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