Approaching Campbell's Platform (1) 20250313--0615
Festiniog Railway no. 4 Palmerston approaches Campbell's Platform at the head of a short passenger train. Taken during a David Williams photo charter.
After spending a little over two hours on the hillside near the southern end of Moelwyn Tunnel, we walked back to Dduallt to rejoin the train and travel to the next location. As forecast, the cloud had filled in completely but it was supposed to break up again early in the afternoon. So we took the opportunity for some shots of the train coming into Dduallt station from the Tan-y-bwlch direction, which would be looking directly into the sun if it were out, as well as a few posed shots in the station with the crew.
We spent about twenty minutes doing that before reboarding the train for the short journey to Campbell's Platform. There are some brilliant shots from the halt itself of trains coming round the curve, but the railway does not own the land (other than a small strip beside the line) and the owner of the nearby house (and surrounding land) does not entertain railway photographers; indeed, as soon as our train stopped and we all alighted onto the platform, he was out of the house asking what was going on! The plan was actually to access the land on the other side of the line (where there is a public footpath), which meant walking back along the track to a footpath crossing. From there we'd take the path beside the railway boundary.
But we quickly found this path was blocked by gorse bushes, and we had to take a different path - part of the way up the hill and then back down: actually walking half way back to Dduallt in the process (we could see the station and the spiral)! The sun had come back out again as we'd set off from the train and, of course, went behind a big cloud as we arrived in position... Thankfully we didn't have to wait too long for the sun to reappear and we managed three run-pasts in sun in about ten minutes before having to wait five minutes or so for the next cloud to clear. There were a number of different angles to try, all shooting across from the outside of the curve, although many of us (including me) didn't initially realise that at one of the better ones (from a lower position than this) the telegraph wires on the nearer part of the curve were right across the train.
Visit Brian Carter's Non-Transport Pics to see my photos of landscapes, buildings, bridges, sunsets, rainbows and more.
Approaching Campbell's Platform (1) 20250313--0615
Festiniog Railway no. 4 Palmerston approaches Campbell's Platform at the head of a short passenger train. Taken during a David Williams photo charter.
After spending a little over two hours on the hillside near the southern end of Moelwyn Tunnel, we walked back to Dduallt to rejoin the train and travel to the next location. As forecast, the cloud had filled in completely but it was supposed to break up again early in the afternoon. So we took the opportunity for some shots of the train coming into Dduallt station from the Tan-y-bwlch direction, which would be looking directly into the sun if it were out, as well as a few posed shots in the station with the crew.
We spent about twenty minutes doing that before reboarding the train for the short journey to Campbell's Platform. There are some brilliant shots from the halt itself of trains coming round the curve, but the railway does not own the land (other than a small strip beside the line) and the owner of the nearby house (and surrounding land) does not entertain railway photographers; indeed, as soon as our train stopped and we all alighted onto the platform, he was out of the house asking what was going on! The plan was actually to access the land on the other side of the line (where there is a public footpath), which meant walking back along the track to a footpath crossing. From there we'd take the path beside the railway boundary.
But we quickly found this path was blocked by gorse bushes, and we had to take a different path - part of the way up the hill and then back down: actually walking half way back to Dduallt in the process (we could see the station and the spiral)! The sun had come back out again as we'd set off from the train and, of course, went behind a big cloud as we arrived in position... Thankfully we didn't have to wait too long for the sun to reappear and we managed three run-pasts in sun in about ten minutes before having to wait five minutes or so for the next cloud to clear. There were a number of different angles to try, all shooting across from the outside of the curve, although many of us (including me) didn't initially realise that at one of the better ones (from a lower position than this) the telegraph wires on the nearer part of the curve were right across the train.
Visit Brian Carter's Non-Transport Pics to see my photos of landscapes, buildings, bridges, sunsets, rainbows and more.