When I heard about a month ago that there was going to be a gathering of the Jaguar owner’s club at Sheffield Park Station – in the same vein as the meeting of Aston Martin owners last year – I decided I needed to head down in the hope of getting some photographs of a Jaguar E-type to compliment the photos I got last time of an Aston Martin DB5.
At the same time, as I said at the end of my last post about the Bluebell Railway, I now have the necessary training and authority to go trackside. So I decided to combine the two, and get some cool car photos, and then dip my toes into a part of the railway I’ve never been to before.
The main goal for me was finally getting over that first hurdle of going through the process and experience of going lineside. My plan was to get to the station early, complete the signing in process, take some photographs of some pretty cars, and then beat the morning train to Sharpthorne Tunnel (also known as West Hoathly Tunnel, at least on Bluebell’s maps) to photograph it emerging, then call it a day.
It did not quite work out like that. When I arrived at Sheffield Park Station the Jaguars were nowhere to be seen, having reportedly decided to stop off somewhere for breakfast, so I decided to take a stroll around the station and see what was going on.
On Platform 1, the Pullman coaches making up the Golden Arrow fine dining train were being prepared for a lunchtime service, and the morning train was on Platform 2, already on steam. Things were already looking up – I had expected one of the railway’s usual black engines, but on steam that day was 6989 Wightwick Hall, resplendent in its beautiful green livery.
Since I was now no longer quite so pressed for time, it seemed like a good opportunity to start out by getting lineside at Sheffield Park. So I donned my hi-viz jacket, walked down to the gate that separated the public viewing area from the track, and crossed the threshold.
I trekked a short way down the track to get a good angle of Wightwick Hall.
On the left side of this shot is the gate through which I entered trackside.
As you might be able to tell, I am again using some Lightroom presets to process these images. I found one in particular which did a great job of popping the green of the engine and the blue of the sky.
For this next shot, however, I found a preset that left the image reminiscent – at least in my mind – of the cover images of the original Railway Series books (that feature one Thomas the Tank Engine).
I only went as far as the first signal, so I didn’t cross the bridge just up the track from the station. The bridge itself is not a safe place, it’s narrow with two lines going across it and contains no positions of safety, so you need to be entirely confident that no trains are about to start moving before you start to cross it.
I had finally broken my duck, but with my goal still to photograph this train further up the track at a tunnel, I didn’t want to get too distracted here, so I made my way back to the platform. I did fire off a few shots as I walked back.
Just before I left lineside, I saw a batch of bluebells, which seemed like an opportune photo. I needed to close the aperture up to f/9 to get the train and bluebells mostly in focus.
I saw one of the crew sticking their head out of the cab, so I took the opportunity to inform them of my plans for the day, just so they weren’t surprised to find someone hanging out by the exit of Sharpthorne Tunnel. Soon a second member of the crew arrived.
I took another closeup of the front of the engine, partly because I liked the little lamp above its number.
I then made haste to the pedestrian crossing just by Sharpthorne Tunnel, which is one of the allocated access points for photographers.
Although it takes the train about five minutes longer to make the journey than I expected it for me to take by car, I didn’t hang around for it to depart before making my way. I wanted to get there and have the time to get set up without being rushed or risking missing the train altogether. On the drive over I came to the realisation that this day was combining many different things I enjoy: steam trains, photography, driving through the countryside on a lovely day, the world beside the railway, and of course the feeling of superiority of being given the authority to go places where the general public aren’t allowed.
I arrived a little under 10 minutes before the train, giving me enough time to get set up, and think about the sort of things I usually forget to think about, like which direction the light was coming from.
I ended up positioning myself on the down side (or eastern, at this point) of the track, on what I later discovered was the end of one of the former platforms of West Hoathly Station, long since demolished. That way the sun would be behind me, hopefully lighting up the side of the engine I’d be shooting, rather than leaving it in shade. That said, the weather was changeable enough that there would be no certainty the sun would be out when the train actually came past.
As you can see, I could see through the tunnel to the other side, so I could see the train approaching from a relatively long way away – this despite the tunnel being, according to Wikipedia at least, the longest tunnel of any heritage railway in the UK.
I also used the time to set up my phone on a mini tripod, so I could video the train at it went past.
Before too long I saw the train chugging along the track and entering the tunnel. I still had a surprising amount of time before the train tooted its whistle to announce it was about to emerge. At least, it seemed a long time to me.
After signalling to the driver that I had heard the whistle, I got to shooting.
This is the sort of in-the-zone shooting I love. The time to think has passed, and all you can do is rely on your instincts. The downside is that you end up with a batch of photos, and for something like a train coming flying past, it’s hard to pick which one is just right. I’ve been back and forth a bit on this one but below is the one I settled on. When I post the full set of these images to Flickr you can make your own choice.
I kept shooting once the locomotive had passed, shooting a few of the carriages.
I then swung around and photographed the train heading off into the distance.
As you can see, at some point instinctively I opened the aperture back up from f/4, which I was shooting in to have more of the train in focus, to f/2.8, which has caused what I was hoping to avoid.
This train had an observation car at the end, which I’ve not seen before.
You can also see the brickwork by the track above, which is the former platform of West Hoathly Station.
Like I said, I set up my phone to video the train going past too. I don’t often post video on this site but there’s always room for exceptions.
After the train passed, I took the time to sit for a moment, collect myself, and have a drink of water. I decided to explore this little area of trackside. Before I did that, though, I made doubly sure that there were no trains coming, then quickly took a picture of the tunnel from the centre of the track.
As you can see – or rather, can’t – the other end of the tunnel is no longer visible, because it’s so full of smoke. All the more reason not to spend any time on the track.
A little further up the track, away from the tunnel, were a couple of abandoned, rotting wagons, that were just sitting on the ground, not even on any rails. As I do love the textures of old rotting machinery, I spent some time photographing them from a variety of angles.
Once again I’ve generally applied a preset, one that enhances the orangey brownness of the rusty metal. I also occasionally used some others, like this one which brought out the textures of the rust.
And other times, I used one of the several monochrome presets to enhance the details.
Inside of the wagons there was some detritus, which I assume were bits of the wagons themselves, on account of them being the same materials – rotting wood, and rusty metal.
I wasn’t exactly close to the track whilst taking these photos, but all the same I needed to constantly check my surroundings and make sure I wasn’t being snuck up on by a train.
I decided it was time to move on. I took one last quick snap of the track, and then made my way back.
Just as I was heading back to the foot crossing to leave the railway and head back to Sheffield Park, I noticed a dark shape on the other side of the tunnel. There wasn’t anything timetabled to be running at that time, and when I spoke to the signalmen at Sheffield Park they weren’t aware of any other movements that day, so I hung around to wait and see what it was. It turned out to be a diesel engine pushing a brake van full of maintenance people. I have also been itching to photograph some proper diesels lately so I snapped some photos, but I wasn’t really ready for it and it came by pretty quickly.
As you can see, the men on board seemed to be a bit bemused at having their pictures taken. The diesel was one I’ve seen before, having made cameos in both of my previous posts from the Bluebell Railway.
This locomotive proved to be a good lesson in a couple of the things they teach you on the training: trains can sneak up on you (the first I heard of this engine was when it sounded its horn at me – luckily I’d noticed it long before), and don’t think that just because there’s nothing on the timetable that it means that nothing is coming.
After the diesel disappeared up the track I gave it another minute or two to be confident that nothing else was about to come along, then headed back to Sheffield Park Station to see if any decent Jags had turned up.
Disappointingly, there were still only one or two more relatively modern Jags, and no classics, so I headed into the station. The Pullman coaches were still there, although at this point guests were starting to arrive.
The engine designated to pull the Golden Arrow lunch train – No. 65 – was now out on steam and hooked up to its carriages.
A lot of the guests that were due to dine on the train were having a look at the engine, and taking pictures.
I had a quick chat with the crew and learned they were due to depart in relatively short order, but that the returning passenger service from the other end of the line was due in imminently before they could depart. Whilst waiting I took some photos of the crew at work.
And also not at work.
The shot above is one I also processed in monochrome, and it’s one of those times I struggled to pick if I liked the black and white one with more detail, or the version with colour, but elected for the one in colour.
After the incoming passenger service arrived – which was Wightwick Hall returning from its earlier journey – I decided to trek up the track from the station to get a photo of the Golden Arrow steaming off. With Wightwick Hall now on Platform 2 and the Golden Arrow on Platform 1 not set to depart for over five minutes, the bridge just outside of the station was now clear for me to safely cross.
I ventured far enough up the track to get what seemed like a good vantage point, and then waited.
This time I didn’t have the freedom to care about where the light was coming from. Where I was standing there were no positions of safety on the other side of the track that I could see, so I had to shoot into the sun. And as you can see in the shot above, there were a few unsightly piles of plastic-wrapped pipes by the track too which needed careful framing or cropping to avoid. I’d have trekked further up the track to find a better spot but didn’t want to get caught out by the Golden Arrow coming by before I was ready. I found another good spot to get up my phone to video the train going past.
Soon after I heard the familiar sound of a steam train and readied myself for another blink-and-you’ll-miss-it shooting opportunity – although it took longer than I expected to get from hearing the train to it actually coming by.
As you can see, shooting into the sun ending up working in my favour. Its effect on bringing out the steam resulted in what I think is a better shot than I probably would have gotten had I positioned where I’d originally wanted.
Like with Wightwick Hall earlier, I set up my phone to video the train going by. Here is the footage, which includes even rarer footage of me doing photographing.
I started making my way back to the station, using the opportunity to take some photographs of the lineside paraphernalia as I went (as I mentioned earlier, I do like that sort of thing).
As you can see I was deliberately shooting into the sun again, this time to get a silhouette of the signal, with the sun shining through the red and green glass. I also took a picture of the illuminated side, showing the detail of three textures.
Further up the track, closer to the station, was a larger signal.
In the background you can see Sheffield Park Station. The signal was just past where the two tracks of the station turn into the single line, which means this was also where Wightwick Hall needed to travel to in order to reconnect to the front of the train, which allowed me to get some images of the locomotive without any coaches. I was once again shooting into the sun, but I made it work.
Not long thereafter, the full train departed.
I also caught another shot of the observation car at the back of the train as it went across the second little bridge by which I was standing.
With no more trains due for a while, I made my way back towards Sheffield Park Station, stoping here and there to take a shot of some more of the lineside scenery.
I soon reached the bridge I’ve been talking about, and took a picture of the Limited Clearance sign which indicates it contains no positions of safety.
Checking there were no other trains coming, I made my way briskly across the bridge. Wanting to get a shot of the tracks on the bridge, I blindly hip-fired my camera repeatedly as I walked across. Luckily, one of the shots came out pretty nicely – although in hindsight I should have closed up the aperture a bit, as I had no idea what the camera was focussing on.
Just before I got across the bridge, I saw the signal you can see in the picture above. Still not in a position of safety, I blind-fired my camera again for the shot, and somehow managed to get it with only needing minimal straightening.
And with that, I got back to the station, turned in my hi-viz jacket, and went home.
This was an awesome experience, and obviously so much more than I was expecting when the day started. This has spawned what is currently my new obsession, and since this trip, I have already been back again for a longer visit. I’ve also developed a real soft spot for Wightwick Hall.
I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it on this website, or if I’ve only put it on social media, but I’ve declared 2024 to be my Year of Photography. It’s part of why I decided this was the year I was going to obtain a lineside permit. And it’s been announced that at the Bluebell’s Giants of Steam event in October there will be a big beautiful blue steam locomotive called Sir Nigel Gresley, which I am desperate to see and photograph, so apparently I’ve picked a good year for it. And what it means is my Year of Photography is centred around making sure I’m ready for that event in October. There’s also the Diesel Gala in September I’m looking forwards to too.
So basically, don’t be surprised if you see a lot of photos from the Bluebell Railway from me this year.
Creative Splurges 