Matt Ditch Photography Blog

Ribble Steam Railway & Museum steam gala 25/03/23 I felt like the steam gala was a good excuse to make my first visit to the railway. I arrived the night before and stayed in the local Premier Inn, which was quite nice and reasonably priced. My trip down was plagued with cancellations and overcrowded trains, so it wasn't the best ride down! The walk from the City Centre to the railway was very pleasant. And I even managed to find several Geocaches on the way.  Grant Ritchie No.272 of 1894 & Hawthorn Leslie 3931 of 1938 "Linda" cross the level crossing at Lockside road with a mid-afternoon train. The railway itself is just over a mile long and runs through the redeveloped Preston Dock area. It isn't the most scenic of lines. But, it's nice to see Industrial steam locos working in an industrial setting. And that was one of the things that made me want to visit. I found the line very reminiscent of my local railway, the North Tyneside Steam Railway. FR.No.20

The Owd Ratty - History & the line to Boot History of the “Owd Ratty” I’ve long been fascinated with the history of the orignal Ravenglass & Eskdale railway, or “Owd Ratty” as it is now known. Originally the line was built to 3 foot gauge and opened in May 1875 to transport Iron Ore from mines around Boot to the Furness Railway at Ravenglass, a distance of around 7 miles. During the winter of 1876 a passenger service was added after the locals campaigned for it. This made the railway the first public narrow gauge railway in England. Unfortunately the cost of upgrading the line for passenger use left the railway in serious debt, which resulted the railway declaring itself bankrupt a year later in 1877. This, however wasn’t the end of the “Owd Ratty”. The railway continued on under the control of the the receivers. The railway was dealt another setback when the Iron Ore mines it was built to serve closed. Thankfully local traffic (passengers and local goods) managed to keep th