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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 | 'MetrpTrain' branded Class 110 DMU 51815 is in a ;long train of scrap dmu's for Snailwell. | THE FALL AND RISE OF WHITEMOOR YARD. | (4) |
| 2 | Class 105 Cravens dmu's 51255 and 51273 lay over in the Down Yard en route for scrap. | MARCH STATION YARDS | (3) |
| 3 | Class 110 dmu 52068 hardly looks ready for scrap. | THE FALL AND RISE OF WHITEMOOR YARD. | (3) |
| 4 | 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) |
| 5 | Looking south from the northern end of the Up Reception Sidings - nothing left! | THE FALL AND RISE OF WHITEMOOR YARD. | (3) |
| 6 | This moonscape was once the Up Reception Sidings, the last working part of Whitemoor. The prison is visible to the north. Brake van kip to the right. | THE FALL AND RISE OF WHITEMOOR YARD. | (3) |
| 7 | The old water tower in the Down Yard, much vandalised but totally reborn just 3 years later, to supply water to the dust suppresion system | THE FALL AND RISE OF WHITEMOOR YARD. | (3) |
| 8 | Class 111 DMU 78974/78724 is weekending on depot en route to Works. | MARCH DEPOT | (2) |
| 9 | The foundations of the diesel depot are still visible. The new depot is due to go here, more or less anyway. | THE FALL AND RISE OF WHITEMOOR YARD. | (2) |
| 10 | 40 153 has a long rake of open steel ermpties ready to head for Whitemoor. The mighty steed leaning on the buffer was my sole mode of transport. | THE WISBECH BRANCH. | (2) |
| 11 | 45 133 was another loco that never went into the Steam Shed sidings and passed into preservation. | MARCH DEPOT | (2) |
| 12 | We evntually had 4 'Generators' in store at March, 47 410 being the first of them. | MARCH DEPOT | (2) |
| 13 | The test coach 'Mentor' looks as though it's been driven under a low bridge | MARCH STATION | (2) |
| 14 | March East 46 controls access to Whitemoor via the relaid east curve, visible just behind. | THE FALL AND RISE OF WHITEMOOR YARD. | (2) |
| 15 | The only genuine article in this picture is the fence in the foreground. This 'station' was built of plywood and plastic for an ITV PD James detective show filmed in Chatteris in about 1990. | STONEA | (2) |
| 16 | 020 was a Stores Unit made of DT's from 2HAP and 4EPB units. The rest are a Hastings DEMU and what looks like a Class 101. | THE FALL AND RISE OF WHITEMOOR YARD. | (2) |
| 17 | Lost in a forest of silver birches, this board once controlled access to/from the Norwood Yard. | THE FALL AND RISE OF WHITEMOOR YARD. | (2) |
| 18 | 08 631 (nearest), 08 936, 08 859, 08 868 and 08 511 have all stopped off for a breather en route to Doncaster Works. | MARCH DEPOT | (2) |
| 19 | 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. | (2) |
| 20 | It seemed that someone had 'dibs' on 45 138 and for a time it was kept apart from the rest but eventually was broken up in 1994. | MARCH DEPOT | (2) |
| 21 | He was a fairly brave man who ventured into the box at this time as it was decidedly unsound structurally. | THE FALL AND RISE OF WHITEMOOR YARD. | (1) |
| 22 | Dumped in the steam shed sidings were a number of these steam heat generator vans, b uilt on old LNER wagon frames. ADE321072 has been done up into BR livery very nicely. | MARCH DEPOT | (1) |
| 23 | Standing on the old Joint line, Up Yard to the left, Norwood Yard to the right, looking south. The signal has been weighted with concrete blocks by some wag. | THE FALL AND RISE OF WHITEMOOR YARD. | (1) |
| 24 | Another shot of Grassmoor and its Distant with the derelict Up Hump Control Tower behind. As I saw no one on my walk, I assume they were there the day before me. | THE FALL AND RISE OF WHITEMOOR YARD. | (1) |
| 25 | 03 399 sits in the yard en route from Ipswich to Doncastef Works. | THE FALL AND RISE OF WHITEMOOR YARD. | (1) |
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