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Welcome to my new gallery. You may know my 'Eurospotter' gallery of Continental pictures. I've created this one to show British stuff specifically shot between Whittlesea (sic) in the west and Ely North Junction in the east, giving details of locations etc., so rather than being chronological, I aim to make it location specific. Good photographic vantage points are few and far between in the Fens due to a marked lack of bridges (only two road overbridges and two footbridges between Whittlesea and Ely!) and bends (three, 2 through March and a kink at Three Horseshoes) but we do have a plethora of level crossings (about 40 by my (amended) reckoning between those same two points) so I hope to give some idea of where good spots are on what is fast becoming a very busy stretch of railway line, particularly on a Saturday afternoon, when it may even be the busiest freight route in the country.
24/01/06: I have just bought a scanner and so I am putting some of my old pictures onto the gallery. You might think they are bit odd datewise but there are two reasons fot that: the first is that family problems kept me more or less away from all railways between 1990 and 1995 and the pictures published here are virtually all I have from this period, secondly, when I bought my first Praktica MTL3 in about 1984, a 'friend' who was 'in the know' convinced me that slides were better than prints and, knowing nothing, I went along until about 1989 and then I saw the light. I only took prints when I couldn't afford expensive slide film. I have about 2500 slides of March from 1984 to 1989 which I have no idea what to do with - anyone got any ideas?
20:02:07 I have just bought a slide scanner and have 2641 slides to scan and add. Many are elsewhere than the Fens and I am doing them just at random. It will take me years, I hope. Checkout my British Rail Rover site for the first ones, Rugby in July 1986. Some are none too sharp but I was using 65ASA Perutz on an MTL 4 in those days - loads of 1//125th! |
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I am a 56 year old retired schoolteacher, still almost sane, who has never grown up and quite pleased about it too. I have been interested in railways for at least 49 of those years. I used to love UK railways but what's to love anymore? I do still photograph in this country, mainly in my own locality, but I do find endless parades of Yings a little depressing.
| Location: | March, Home of Whitemoor Yard |
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| 1 | 08 166 is a Whitemoor pilot. Nothing whatever exists of the background scene anymore. I had taken some kids on school trip - good idea, eh? | THE FALL AND RISE OF WHITEMOOR YARD. | (7) |
| 2 | A rake of LNER-built Class 306 EMU's awaits despatch to the flame tunnel at Snailwell in the old steam shed sidings. | MARCH DEPOT | (5) |
| 3 | Lost in a forest of silver birches, this board once controlled access to/from the Norwood Yard. | THE FALL AND RISE OF WHITEMOOR YARD. | (5) |
| 4 | 31 171 and 31 229 round the bend with the loaded sand. This scene is completely different now. | BADGENEY ROAD LEVEL CROSSING | (4) |
| 5 | One of only three surviving buildings. This is the generator house behind the depot, where the depot pilots used to be parked, just off Hundred Road. | THE FALL AND RISE OF WHITEMOOR YARD. | (4) |
| 6 | This meant that they all sloped downhill and so an old scrap brakevan was placed at the end of each to act as a buffer stop. These 3 shots show the result of this experiment! | THE FALL AND RISE OF WHITEMOOR YARD. | (4) |
| 7 | 45 104 leads 56 065/58 020/20 030/55 016 past March South's down signals en route to an Open Day, I think it may have been at Stratford. | BADGENEY ROAD LEVEL CROSSING | (4) |
| 8 | The whole convoy leans into the curve, Horsemoor's distant still on. | BADGENEY ROAD LEVEL CROSSING | (4) |
| 9 | 47 280 leaves the Wisbech Branch with a very small petfood train, this being the factory's holiday week. | THE WISBECH BRANCH. | (3) |
| 10 | Cravens Class 105 53368/54416 heads east on a local passenger and must have been one of the last left in passenger traffic. | BADGENEY ROAD LEVEL CROSSING | (3) |
| 11 | Norwood Yard, previously home of the 100 wagon coal trains, now deserted and soon to disappear in a birch forest - there were some lovely apple trees on this bank! | THE FALL AND RISE OF WHITEMOOR YARD. | (3) |
| 12 | The petfood still ran round in Whitemoor at this time but time was running already short. | THE WISBECH BRANCH. | (3) |
| 13 | Landscaping continues apace, the banks now huge. Already, the NIMBY's who complained about the noise are complaining that they can't see what's going on! | THE FALL AND RISE OF WHITEMOOR YARD. | (3) |
| 14 | A view from the Up Hump Control Tower showing what was more or less the full extent of Whitemoor by that time. The only thing still there in this picture is the water tower. | THE FALL AND RISE OF WHITEMOOR YARD. | (3) |
| 15 | A view across the Up Yard from the Norwood Hump bank, cripple sidings on the right, brakevan kip at the rear. | THE FALL AND RISE OF WHITEMOOR YARD. | (3) |
| 16 | The shunters hut at Norwood Yard. The sign says 'RIP Norwood Yard, 1909 - 1982, murdered by BR Management' - a picture I never thought to take although I passed it by hundreds of times. | THE FALL AND RISE OF WHITEMOOR YARD. | (3) |
| 17 | Stonea level crossing and bridge as a 170 speeds east. The gatebox is just out of shot to the right. | STONEA | (3) |
| 18 | You can see the actual Portakabin signalbox inside this rather handsome structure they have clad it in. The date is a complete guess. A Cravens unit was used and filmed during a Sunday possession. | STONEA | (3) |
| 19 | 31 271 looks as though it's seen some sction recently. | MARCH DEPOT | (2) |
| 20 | 37031 leads 37107 as they pollute the atmosphere on 4L97 Leeds - Felixstowe. | BADGENEY ROAD LEVEL CROSSING | (2) |
| 21 | 31461 is returning to Whitemoor from Cambridge as it rounds the curve between Silt Road and Badgeney crossings. | BADGENEY ROAD LEVEL CROSSING | (2) |
| 22 | 37 167 appraoches the croosing with 6M09 Colchester Hythe - Toton housecoal emoties. This train ran for many years and was often a 37 turn. | BADGENEY ROAD LEVEL CROSSING | (2) |
| 23 | 31159 approaches the crossing with 6N84 Duxford - Tees Yard, whci went into Whitemoor but only for an engine change. | BADGENEY ROAD LEVEL CROSSING | (2) |
| 24 | 47 125 has just pulled out of the up loop with a train of tanks. | BADGENEY ROAD LEVEL CROSSING | (2) |
| 25 | 47 016 is headed for Kings Lynn with the second Speedlink feeder train. | BADGENEY ROAD LEVEL CROSSING | (2) |
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| Hits (today): | 1 |
| Hits (this week): | 1027 |
| Hits (this month): | 1027 |
| Hits (this year): | 13720 |
| Hits (all-time): | 132535 |
| Collections: | 38 |
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