The old saying goes, start as you mean to go on. While I’m not the biggest proponent of that saying – the most important thing is starting in the first place – it never hurts to get your year off on the right foot. For some that’s eating healthier, drinking less, or giving up meat for the month. For me, life is too short to deliberately make it worse, so for the last couple of years I’ve started out January in one of my happy places: lineside at the Bluebell Railway, for their annual New Year’s Day gala.
Last year the weather was diabolical – this part of the country was under a weather warning, and I was one of the few (if not the only) lineside photographers brave enough to venture out. This year, the weather was much better – not as sunny as we were hoping, admittedly, and for a little while in the days leading up to the event there was even a slight chance of snow, which ultimately showed up a day late to be of any use, but at least there was no rain, not much wind, and for the first few runs of the day, we even had some sun. I was also not alone, as I again ventured out with Sharpthorne Steam and 72b Photography.
Our day (after signing on at Sheffield Park) started at Freshfield Bank ready for the first train of the day, headed by 34059 Sir Archibald Sinclair. Although Sharpthorne and 72b elected to stay lineside by the bridge for a more front-on angle, I decided I wanted to venture out into the public field for a side-on angle in the morning light, something I had tried the week before on our warmup outing (which I admittedly haven’t posted yet).
I’m not sure I can say it was the best choice, because I’ve seen 72b and Sharpthorne’s results from their spot, but the shot I got was also one of the best ways to start the day.
You can always rely on Archie for some deeply textured exhaust, and on this day it was helped by the near-freezing conditions. It was one of those runs where I wish I could have been in multiple locations at once to shoot it from multiple angles.
The shot above had been edited a little stylistically – the next frame is edited a little more traditionally. Sometimes I struggle to choose.
I wasn’t the only person in the field. As I panned my camera, ended up getting a couple of them in frame – but I like the result.
I stayed in this spot for the next run, and Sharpthorne and 72b came out to join me. The next train was a curious consist made up of 72 Fenchurch and 73082 Camelot, smokebox to smokebox, with the observation coach in the middle.
This configuration came about because Camelot needed to get up to Horsted Keynes to collect the goods demonstration set which she’d be pulling throughout the day, so shared a path with Fenchurch. It made for a unique sight.
Camelot pulling the goods set was a rare treat, so was our priority to shoot on the day. As she’d be picking up the set from Horsted Keynes then heading north, we headed to the north of there, just south of Horsted House Bridge, to capture her first run.
For over a year now, my daily lens has been my 24-70mm f/2.8. That’s proven itself to be a great lens for me in just about everything I want to shoot – apart from trains. For train photography, that 70mm upper zoom has proven to be a bit limiting, and I’ve found myself cropping shots quite a lot lately. For this gala, I decided to try using my old 24-105mm f/4 to see how much of a change the extra reach gave me. Pretty much from here on out, I was shooting with the 24-105 over the 24-70.
We held this spot for the next train, which would be Fenchurch coming back with the observation coach. I had switched to my telephoto lens in order to experiment with taking video, but the train was on us sooner than I had anticipated and so I had to resort to shooting video.
We ventured further north under Horsted House Bridge for the next train, which would be 6989 Wightwick Hall, still looking stunning in her red Hogwarts livery for the upcoming Harry Potter TV series.
We continued north. Originally I had intended to shoot the next train, Archie on her second run of the day, further south, on the s-shaped bend near Waterworks Bridge that had worked nicely for me during the Giants of Steam gala. Unfortunately, time did not really allow us to get there, but luckily, we found a similar – albeit not quite as pronounced – s-bend on the approach to the southern portal of Sharpthorne Tunnel, and we decided to make use of that instead. Here, we encountered another familiar lineside face, The Southerner, who we’ve been out with before.
Luckily Archie put in another spectacular run.
We headed back south towards Horsted Keynes. We stopped by the gate on the public footpath to see Fenchurch coming back north with the observation coach.
We carried on south, our next port of call being just north of Three Arch Bridge to see Camelot bringing up the goods set on her second run.
Like many of the other times I was here, I also framed a shot with the old foot crossing sign.
We headed south of the bridge to catch Wightwick Hall coming out of the woods.
The timetable had Wightwick Hall waiting at Horsted Keynes for half an hour before setting off again. This gave us – just about – enough time to double dip this run and photograph her again.
We ended up being a little short of time – partly my fault as I had misread the timetable and thought we had an extra ten minutes – so positioned ourselves by the track just past Leamland Bridge, not daring to venture any further (and to make sure we didn’t get into the Southerner’s shot).
It turned out to be very lucky for us, as it was a gloriously, beautifully smoky departure.
Based on this image, I’d like to try to get a shot of a locomotive going under a bridge with the exhaust going everywhere like it is above, but from a lot closer to the bridge, looking up at the bridge and engine. Something to think about for my next journey lineside.
The steam hitting the bridge, combined with all the steam leaking from the front of the locomotive, added the perfect atmosphere for an engine now associated with Harry Potter.
After that – save for Camelot bringing the goods set back south – there was only one service left, Archie making one last run north. We positioned ourselves further up the line to get a nice long view of the line, and as I usually do for this spot, I elected to use my telephoto.
As you can see, the light was fading, necessitating a pretty high ISO to get the shot. It’s remarkable how nonchalantly I shoot at an ISO of 20,000 these days – although I have put this shot through Lightroom’s very good denoiser.
The AutoISO had already halved by the time Archie passed the signal halfway up the hill.
We did have a hint of a nice sunset for the background of this run, but sadly nothing too dramatic.
With the last service of the day safely on its way north, and us needing to depart the lineside before nightfall, we made our way back to Horsted Keynes. As we approached Leamland Bridge, we saw Camelot, which was in the process of shunting the goods set back into a siding. In the faint glow of the dying embers of the day it made for a lovely but slightly ghostly sight.
Wen walked up onto the bridge for a higher view, and I caught one of the crew standing at the cab door, complete with the golden glow of the fire.
I also took a wider shot which I thought was nicely atmospheric.
And then it was time to go back to Sheffield Park to sign out.
All in all, another very successful gala. Although it would have been nice if the sun had stayed out all day – or if we’d had a smattering of snow – the cold conditions and hints of sun made for some great shooting. Thanks the company, the conditions, and the weather (compared to last year which was very wet and windy) this was a much more successful gala.
So, what of me shooting with the old EF mount 24-105mm f/4 rather than the RF 24-70mm f/2.8? It definitely showed me I want to change up the glass I use for shooting trains, especially on the wide zoom. Whether that means using my 24-105mm going forwards, or looking into other superzooms with a wider range, remains to be seen – but I’ll likely have made a decision by the time the Bluebell reopens after its winter shutdown in mid-February.
As always, I’ve put a few alternate takes and extra shots in the gallery below.
Creative Splurges 