Matt Ditch Photography Blog

  Keighley & Worth Valley Railway Steam Gala. 10/03/23 This was my 4th trip to the railway for their annual steam gala. And, my first visit with snow! I haven't had too much experience with photographing steam trains in the snow. And, I was very excited at the prospect of doing that. Although that did bring some challenges. Namely getting to some of the more remote photography locations. And, I'll openly admit I did fall on my arse several times! ha. The bad weather had affected the day's timetables so trains were either running late or canceled, which was an understandable shame. However, it was still an enjoyable event and a railway I would highly recommend and visit again. Below are some of my favorite images from the day. LMS Jubilee "Leander" crosses Mytholmes viaduct with a mid-morning service to Oxenhope. "Bahamas" shortly after leaving Haworth 52044 & No.85 double head a train away from Haworth. The full gallery can be found here YouTube...

A trip to Lakeside I recently had a trip down to the bottom of lake Windermere to the Lakeside & Haverthwaite Railway. I was fortunate that on the day of my visit, Bagnall "Victor" was in steam. This was a nice change for me as every time I visit it seems to be "Repulse" or "Princess" out.  "Victor" was built in 1951 for Steel Company of Wales and was used at their  Abbey, Margam and Port Talbot works. 3 locos were built, "Victor" (2996), "Vulcan" (2994) and "Valiant" (2995). The 3 were replaced by diesels in 1957 and "Victor" & "Vulcan" were sold to the Austin Motor Company in Birmingham. "Valiant" ended up with the NCB in South Wales, but was sadly scraped in 1967. Both  "Victor" & "Vulcan" worked at Longbridge till 1973 when they were again replaced by diesels. Both engines were preserved and moved to the West Somerset Railway. "Vulcan" was so...

For this weeks "Throwback Thursday" I thought we'd take a look back to the Bowes Railway in 2017. The 2nd of April marked the last operating day for orignal Bowes locomotive, Andrew Barclay 0-4-ST No.22. Along with W.S.T both engines need overhauls before they can run again. The event also marked the first public display of Ruston 165s “Pink” & “Perky” from the Port Of Sunderland.  Link to full gallery

 

 The Green Dragon Railway Fowler Saccharine being pulled up the incline by Fiji at the Statfold Barn Railway in March 2017.THTRail2013. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Several years ago there were plans to build a narrow gauge railway near Kielder Reservoir in Northumberland. The project was to be named "The Green Dragon" and would have been built on part of the trackbed of the Border Counties railway. A new terminus was planned near to Kielder castle (pictured below) with the railway rejoining the former Border Counties trackbed a short distance from there. Unfortunately the project never came to fruition. But, it is possible to walk the majority of the planned route. A grainy map of the proposed route does exist but it is difficult to make out some of the details of the route. The line would have ran for just under 2 miles to a terminus at Gowanburn, near the site of Lewiefield Halt on the edge of Kiel...

  Tanfields Railways 2017 "Legends of Industry" gala. featuring visiting locomotives, Hawthorn Leslie 3931/1938 ‘Linda’ and Robert Stephenson and Hawthorns 7673/1950 “Ugly” "Linda" and a mixed train leave Marley Hill yard. "Ugly" at Bowes Bridge with a demonstration coal train The full gallery can be found here Please consider supporting this website on Patreon. Their are exclusive perks for those who do. Or alternatively visit my Ko-Fi page by clicking here.

South Tynedale Railway - Narrow gauge in the Pennines Hunslet 0-4-2 "Green Dragon" at Alston The South Tynedale railway is built on the trackbed of the standard gauge "Alston branch", which opened in sections between 1851-1852. The Alston branch ran from Haltwhistle on the Newcastle-Carlisle line and was closed in 1976. Although a preservation society was set up to preserve the branch and run it in its original standard gauge state, they were sadly unsuccessful in this and the line was taken up. In 1977 they turned their attention to reopening as a narrow gauge railway. By 1983 the South Tynedale railway officially opened to the public and by 1986 they had reached Gilderdale halt, which lies on the boundary between Cumbria and Northumbria. Since then the railway has opened extensions to Kirkhaugh (1999), Lintley Halt (2012) and to Slaggyford station (2018). This gives the railway a total distance of around 5 miles. The extension to Slaggyford comes on the back of ...

  Pictures Hawthorn Leslie "No.2" storms up East Tanfield bank. Click here for the full gallery YouTube video