Bristol Temple Meads 15.6.2016

BRISTOL TEMPLE MEADS

All pics 15.6.2016 copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing

A few random shots from my regular monthly visit to Temple Meads yesterday. A little more variety than usual, on top of the regular main line, branch and stopping passenger trains there were also 3 locomotives including a class 37. Still all diesel of course, but that will be changing soon enough. At the moment there are no physical signs of the coming electrification, but if you look closely there are some signs of the change - posters etc.

Black and White Bristol Temple Meads

(All 24.8.2015 Copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing)

FACEBOOK - RAIL THING - BRISTOL TEMPLE MEADS STATION

Something a little different this time! I am a regular visitor to Bristol Temple Meads station, as my son comes up from Sway every month to visit, and I pick him up from the station. I always try to arrive an hour or so early so I can take some pictures, mainly to record the changes prior to electrification.

Monday this week was wet and miserable, so I decided to switch to black and white for a change. I LOVE black and white, but the light and texture needs to be right to make it work. I'm very influenced by classic photographers like Ansel Adams and Bill Brandt, and try to capture a little bit of what they did, though I fear today's subject matter just isn't as punchy as it was! But I'm reasonably pleased with these, especially the exteriors. This simply wouldn't have worked had it been sunny!

I did switch to colour after the two shots I took on the platform mind!

Bristol Temple Meads 1.6.2015

Surviving tram tracks at the station approach.

66 507

 

150 123

150 123

66 516

(All copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing 1.6.2015)

FACEBOOK - BRISTOL TEMPLE MEADS STATION

Another hour or so at Bristol Temple Meads on the 1st of June, an hour or so later than I'm usually there. Took the opportunity to snap the surviving tram tracks on the station approach as whispers and buzzes about trams for Bristol are getting louder!

There was a class 66 parked nicely at the north end of the station so I got some shots of that - first time there's been a light engine around whilst I've been later. Had the added bonus of another 66 on a Freightliner heading north - and as it just got out of a shot a second freight was also heading north behind a class 70. Had I not been feeling rough, and/or a bit more sprightly, I could have raced along the platform a bit and got a shot of 3 locos in frame - but it was not to be!

So Temple Meads is still in a state of pre-change, no sign of electrification yet.

As an aside after meeting my son on the station we went into town not by bus or taxi (or on foot) but by boat courtesy of the brilliant Bristol Ferry Company which offer a commuter service right into the heart of the city which at £2 must be one of the best transport bargains in the UK - highly recommended!

Bristol Temple Meads 1st April 2015

66 756 

66 756

43 004

158 956

150 106

150 106

All 1.4.2015 copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing

FACEBOOK  BRISTOL TEMPLE MEADS STATION

Once a month I get to wait an hour or so at Bristol Temple Meads to meet my son off the train to Sway. He's blind so gets assistance on the trains, and I must say the service is fantastic. He loves travelling by train and gets all over the country. We sometimes forget that the railways are still a service, no matter how much they pretend to be 'just' a business, and they should be applauded for this.

So I get to record the station every time and even in the last six months a lot has happened. The vile parcels conveyor has gone and the towers that it connected are now beginning to go as well. The magnificence of Brunel's roof is now visible from that end of the station. Soon we'll also be seeing the physical signs of the electrification, and then of course the trains themselves. I also understand the original Brunel station, currently a car park, is also going to see tracks relaid, increasing the capacity of the station for trains if not cars!

I even got to see a class 66 hauled train, a nice bonus!

The Rail Thing (and the rest) 2014

(Villars, Switzerland, 1987 pic copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing)

FACEBOOK RAIL THING

Right, it's all winding down for Christmas now and this is my very last piece of work before I take a break!

2014 has been an amazing year for the Rail Thing Facebook groups (and also Flashback and Reversing Beeching groups) with about 400 groups now, most added this year. Many now have well over 1000 members and the biggest (Disused Railways) is  not far off 10,000! 

I'd like to thanks all the various admins and, of course, the members who have been so kind sending in their photos and memories. It's the content (plus the fairly strict rules!) that make the groups what they are. 

I've had a busy year with all this explosion of Facebook activity - I suspect 2015 will be a year for consolidation rather than rapid expansion.

Out in the real world we only managed to take two holidays this year, the first in Lisbon and the second in Dawlish Warren. Both, of course, have loads of rail interest! In fact I took my first ever railway photograph at Dawlish Warren on 9 July 1971.

The other place I've been to a lot this year is Bristol Temple Meads. My son Wulfric moved to Sway in September and since then has regularly come up to visit by train. No big deal for a 20 year old you'd think, but before he moved he rarely went more than 10 feet by himself! He's blind and the railway has been fantastic with their support services giving him a confidence I thought he'd never gain!

So a big Christmas thanks to the railway companies for doing this, to all of you who have joined the Facebook groups and to everyone (even non-members!) who have worked like demons to keep our railways and tramways moving, whether of the national network type or the heritage type!

See you again after the festivities!

Lisbon Elevador Gloria March 2014

Dawlish September 2014

Bristol Temple Meads 15.12.2014

(All pics copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing)

Brief Encounter

(All 23.11.2014 BTM copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing)

FACEBOOK - BRISTOL TEMPLE MEADS

We'd been on a sten night on Saturday and took the train in to Bath for obvious reasons. We caught a fairly late train back to Bristol and got in a few minutes after midnight. Surprisingly on the opposite platform there was a long train in maroon.

I managed to talk the rest of the group into strolling to the end of the platform just in case!

Bristol Temple Meads is long and curved so from the middle of the platforms you can't see the end of the trains. 

Eventually when I'd walked far enough there it was - steam! And as I got closer I realised it wasn't just one loco but two!

Now when steam finished on the network we lost the ability to have chance encounters with steam. In steam days it was something I only ever saw once, somewhere in London - when completely by surprise a small loco passed on the adjacent line. I did see other steam on BR but I always knew it was going to be there.

So when steam gradually reappeared on the network there was always the very slight chance of a surprise encounter. It's happened to me twice now in Britain. The first was about ten years ago when I was bringing in the horses back in Frome. The field lay alongside the Frome bypass line and just as it was getting dark, deep in the winter, and the mist was down a steam loco with a single coach ran past on the embankment. My second event was of course on Sunday morning.

It's also happened to me once in Switzerland (of all places!) when a steam train appeared at Chamby station on the MOB.

(Chamby 6 BC 8.6.1987 Copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing)