mid-hants S&D style

(All Mark Warr 09/09)

Four excellent shots from Mark Warr which show steam on the Mid-Hants, recreating the S&D, which is now being rebuilt. Hopefully within ten years these scenes will be repeated on the real S&D as more and more of the route is restored!

sunny buxted

BUXTED

(All 12.6.1989 copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing)

FACEBOOK - BRITISH RAILWAY STATIONS AND BUILDINGS

Buxted, on the Uckfield line in Sussex, on a lovely June day back in 1989. I'm hoping this summer brings lots of hot and sunny weather!

Links

Sussex Transport History
Southern Region Scene 1980s
Down the Line - Oxted to Lewes
Rail Thing Routes - Rails of Sussex

a western at Truro

TRURO

(Copyright 18.8.1972 Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing)

FACEBOOK - RAIL THING - WESTERN REGION DIESEL HYDRAULIC LOCOMOTIVES

RAIL THING WEBSITE

I've never been a great loco fan but the Western Region diesel hydraulics were distinctive even to me! Family holidays spent at Dawlish Warren in the early 70s introduced these exotic locos to me, and I did manage to capture a few of them on film before they disappeared. This one was at Truro on 18 August 1972.

an essex branch in 1984

SOUTHMINSTER

(All 29.5.1984 copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing)

FACEBOOK - RAIL THING ROUTES - BRITISH BRANCH LINES

The Southminster branch always seemed a rather surprising branch survival to me considering that Southminster had a population of under 2000 in the 1980s. True, the line serves the march larger town of Burnham-on-Crouch, but it would have been just as easy to retain the route to the far larger town of Maldon. Perhaps someone can enlighten me as to why the branch ended at the smaller town?

Back in 1984 the line was operated by DMUs, and retained a lot of original railway infrastructure. This was my only visit to this line - has anybody more up to date shots?

LINKS

Rail Thing - Eastern and North Eastern Regions

Rail Thing - 80s UK Railscene

Rail Thing - British Railway Stations and Buildings

Rail Thing - Classic British Rail

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(20.5.1987)

This is Suhr on the Wynenthal-Suhrenthal Bahn in Switzerland. It has one of the highest percentage of street running of any Swiss metre gauge line, and whizzes along the roads at high speed! Being a mainly street-based route it does tend to serve the middle of communities rather than the outskirts and hopefully will serve as an excellent model for future narrow gauge light railways in the UK. This line of course still thrives and has recently taken over a former SBB standard gauge route and converted it to metre gauge.

bristol at night

(All 26.4.2010)

A surprise trip to Bristol Temple Meads last night to pick Abby up from the Plymouth train. I took the camera on the off chance I'd get a few shots. With film cameras night shots used to be really difficult, normally needing a tripod and cable release. But digital cameras do a much better job, maing it possible to get almost sharp shots without needing either.

Railways at night are always atmospheric and hopefully I'll get a lot more in the future - and with a better camera, tripod and cable release I may even get them super sharp!

class 33s

Two shots of class 33s at Basingstoke on 28.10.1983. Top is 33 017, bottom is 33 048 on probably a Salisbury passenger train. This was (and no doubt still is) an excellent ocation for record shots, with a lot of traffic coming through.