English Electric Traction Tuesday - Train Three (take two) 20240813--072
20901 and 20905 are the locos at either end of 6J09 10.28 Crewe Gresty Lane Down Sidings - Woking Up Yard, pictured going very slowly at Barrow-upon-Trent as they approach a red signal.
They are moving the "Drain Train", KHA wagons 83 70 4574 013-6 and 83 70 4574 009-4 - bogie container flats modified by adding equipment for clearing lineside drains (although the wagons themselves do not display the first four digits of their UIC numbers).
My original plan had been to photograph this here, after a second attempt at the HST-powered overhead line test train (1Q92 today) south of Leicester - but 1Q92 didn't run. So I'd gone over to Elford for a 730 drag (with 37510, my first EE loco of the day - see this photo), and a couple of hours later ended up around Stenson Jn. for the scrap JHA hoppers (my second EE-powered train, with 37884 and 37800 - see this photo) and then a first attempt at this train (see this photo). However, with clouds having built up (but moving eastwards extremely slowly), I came close to forgetting the shots there and coming straight here in the hope I'd beat them... but I'm glad I didn't when they began to burn off!
Looking at the timings, with thirty-nine minutes being allowed between Stenson Jn. and Loughborough (there was no Barrow-upon-Soar time) I thought there was a good chance of getting ahead of the train, especially if, as I expected, it went onto the Castle Donington line ahead of booked time given what appeared to be errors in the schedule; I didn't expect the train to be allowed to run early up the Midland Main Line.
As I parked the car in an empty cul-de-sac I was fairly certain the train had been allowed to run early and I'd missed it. But it had been due to pass Loughborough at 13.02 and it was only 12.57, so I would have expected to have seen any photographers leaving. The absence of anyone on the footbridge (or in the car park or on the bridge behind me) also made me think it had passed a long time ago, and checking Realtime Trains revealed a report at Loughborough at 12.51 (stopping passenger trains are allowed four and a half minutes between the two stations). I got out the camera anyway, just in time to photograph 170531 coming south on the Up Slow (as booked).
But I then checked signalling maps (mostly to see how far south 6J09 had got, and if anything else was on its way) and found the train was actually sat at Loughborough: it had been stopped at a red signal on the Up Slow while 170531 (running two minutes behind schedule) overtook it and called at platform 3 (on the Down Slow, bidirectional at this point). There was time to change lenses, take a few test shots to check the exposure (I had to underexpose by two-thirds of a stop because the dark green trees fooled the light meter) and check the image sharpness (on the right-hand side - remembering my problems of the previous day). Eventually, the train appeared - and going so slowly that taking a continuous burst of frames would not have worked!
But I was amazed to be stood here alone, in lovely sunshine.
Uploaded a second time because it failed to appear in other people's Activity Feed (a problem which is still occasionally occurring). Sorry to the one person who had faved the first upload.
Visit Brian Carter's Non-Transport Pics to see my photos of landscapes, buildings, bridges, sunsets, rainbows and more.
English Electric Traction Tuesday - Train Three (take two) 20240813--072
20901 and 20905 are the locos at either end of 6J09 10.28 Crewe Gresty Lane Down Sidings - Woking Up Yard, pictured going very slowly at Barrow-upon-Trent as they approach a red signal.
They are moving the "Drain Train", KHA wagons 83 70 4574 013-6 and 83 70 4574 009-4 - bogie container flats modified by adding equipment for clearing lineside drains (although the wagons themselves do not display the first four digits of their UIC numbers).
My original plan had been to photograph this here, after a second attempt at the HST-powered overhead line test train (1Q92 today) south of Leicester - but 1Q92 didn't run. So I'd gone over to Elford for a 730 drag (with 37510, my first EE loco of the day - see this photo), and a couple of hours later ended up around Stenson Jn. for the scrap JHA hoppers (my second EE-powered train, with 37884 and 37800 - see this photo) and then a first attempt at this train (see this photo). However, with clouds having built up (but moving eastwards extremely slowly), I came close to forgetting the shots there and coming straight here in the hope I'd beat them... but I'm glad I didn't when they began to burn off!
Looking at the timings, with thirty-nine minutes being allowed between Stenson Jn. and Loughborough (there was no Barrow-upon-Soar time) I thought there was a good chance of getting ahead of the train, especially if, as I expected, it went onto the Castle Donington line ahead of booked time given what appeared to be errors in the schedule; I didn't expect the train to be allowed to run early up the Midland Main Line.
As I parked the car in an empty cul-de-sac I was fairly certain the train had been allowed to run early and I'd missed it. But it had been due to pass Loughborough at 13.02 and it was only 12.57, so I would have expected to have seen any photographers leaving. The absence of anyone on the footbridge (or in the car park or on the bridge behind me) also made me think it had passed a long time ago, and checking Realtime Trains revealed a report at Loughborough at 12.51 (stopping passenger trains are allowed four and a half minutes between the two stations). I got out the camera anyway, just in time to photograph 170531 coming south on the Up Slow (as booked).
But I then checked signalling maps (mostly to see how far south 6J09 had got, and if anything else was on its way) and found the train was actually sat at Loughborough: it had been stopped at a red signal on the Up Slow while 170531 (running two minutes behind schedule) overtook it and called at platform 3 (on the Down Slow, bidirectional at this point). There was time to change lenses, take a few test shots to check the exposure (I had to underexpose by two-thirds of a stop because the dark green trees fooled the light meter) and check the image sharpness (on the right-hand side - remembering my problems of the previous day). Eventually, the train appeared - and going so slowly that taking a continuous burst of frames would not have worked!
But I was amazed to be stood here alone, in lovely sunshine.
Uploaded a second time because it failed to appear in other people's Activity Feed (a problem which is still occasionally occurring). Sorry to the one person who had faved the first upload.
Visit Brian Carter's Non-Transport Pics to see my photos of landscapes, buildings, bridges, sunsets, rainbows and more.