The Ghost Train

I was joined by frequent companion Sharpthorne Steam, and Train Takes, another social media friend I’ve spoken to before but met in person for the first time on this evening. The brief we were given was pretty simple, photograph the event, how it fit into the railway, and the people attending and enjoying the event. We got there before the show started proper, and so could take a few shots to warm up a bit. As this was before the clocks went back, the event didn’t exactly start in darkness, but I could still get some atmospheric shots of the Sheffield Park station building.

Luckily there had been a smattering of rain, so the ground was a bit damp, adding to the look. The station bridge was also nicely decorated for the event, with Halloween lamps adorning the sides.

Soon, the show started, with the ghosts lining up on the bridge steps.

We were then greeted by the closest thing we had to a narrator for the performance.

Then the ghosts lined up on the bridge.

Soon, the ghosts left, and the Ghost Train arrived.

If you have a good set of eyes on you, you might be able to tell that behind the mask, the part of the Ghost Train is played by 73082 Camelot.

The audience filed over the bridge to board the train, and we used the opportunity to get some shots with few people around.

We also walked up to the locomotive, which had an assortment of lighting on it, including under the tender.

We then boarded the train. During the journey to Horsted Keynes, the ghosts would walk the carriages, interacting with each other and the audience members riding the train, and part of our brief was to capture aspects of this.

As you can probably see from the ISO setting I was needing to use, the big challenge of this shoot was light. We were shooting moving actors on dark carriages where a flash wasn’t really an option (not that I’d thought to bring one), necessitating ISOs up to 25,600 – and really, I could have used even higher ones, if I’d remembered that 25,600 is the limit of the AutoISO and not the camera itself.

To have a go at mitigating this, I switched from my 24-70mm f/2.8 to my 85mm f/2, in the hope that it being a slightly faster lens would help out.

Forgetting to open out the aperture would certainly have helped… luckily I realised that quite quickly.

Of course, one of the problems with an 85mm prime is not being able to zoom out when people get close.

Luckily, most of the ghosts stayed a bit further back.

Soon, however, I decided that a fixed focal length was not flexible enough, and swapped back to the 24-70mm.

At one point I tried getting a bit artistic with the Horsted Herald newspapers we were given as part of the experience.

Soon, we arrived at Horsted Keynes, where everyone – audience, and ghosts – disembarked for the main part of the show, where people would be free to wander the station, interacting with the ghosts at various points as the story played out in front of them.

Luckily I was able to nip down into the subway to get a shot of its ghostly-lit nature before anyone else had wandered down there.

Similarly, I saw one of the waiting rooms had been decorated with a lot of candles, and was able to snap that before anyone else went in.

I returned to the room a little later to find another ghost had taken up residence there, reading people’s futures. This was a tricky thing to get good shots of, because the room was so packed that I had to shoot over people’s heads using my camera’s fold-out screen.

I ventured back out onto the platforms to continue the remit of shooting the people and the location. Luckily one of the ghosts was standing perfectly still on the other platform.

Soon, my attention turned back to the Ghost Train itself, which had backed down into platforms 4 and 5, and sat there periodically blowing smoke from its mouth or sparks from its head.

The Robert Carter, the fireman’s ghost, was often to be found near the locomotive, clipboard in hand.

He would also often interact with the ghost of John Maxwell Jr, the owner of the railway.

I turned my attention back to the Ghost Train, starting with a wider shot that included some of the station and the people.

Then I got a bit closer myself.

Stopping briefly for an atmospheric shot of the station…

… I headed back into the subway, where I found the ghost of a pickpocket called Percy.

This was probably the most interesting subject, but it was a real challenge to shoot, being as it was someone moving at times quickly in a subway dimly lit in orange lighting. This is one of those times where I could have easily used an ISO above my normal cap of 25,600, had I remembered it was an option.

Still, the lovely shades of orange and black made it worth it for me, and I was very glad to see them actually come out in the edit, because I was worried the shots would end up as blurry, noisy messes.

Worrying about the challenge of the lack of light, and wanting an even more shallow depth of field – and now not being constrained by the confines of a train carriage – I decided to switch back to my 85mm for a short spell, starting with Inspector Higgins on the other platform.

I also popped back down into the subway, where this time there weren’t too many people.

As you can see, I still needed ‘max’ ISO even at f/2.

Soon it became apparent that the finale was soon to start, so there was time to grab a couple more quick snaps of the ghosts on platform 5 before I needed to head back over to platform 4. First, there was the cleaner, who had nothing to say but seemed fascinated by all the people he saw.

And finally, I better-framed shot of Inspector Higgins.

I crossed back to platform 4. As some of the finale played out, I could get some other shots of the ghosts or the station whilst the audience were distracted.

For this next shot, it took a couple of swings, as I needed to wait for the steam drifting across the platform to be just right.

The finale involved – for reasons I won’t spoil – a staged explosion, achieved with confetti.

After the conclusion of the show, the Ghost Train ran down the line to attach to the downside of the coaches to bring the audience back to Sheffield Park. This presented a great opportunity to get a shot of it shooting sparks as it passed the down signals at the end of the platforms.

Just before we set back off, I caught one of the ghosts talking to a porter under an eerie red light.

We then had an uneventful, ghost-free ride back to Sheffield Park, where we could get a quick shot of the bridge in more complete darkness after most people had cleared out.

Then, after a bit of the inevitable chat you have when seeing new and old friends, we called it a night and headed home. I, for one, was pretty knackered – this was only two days after the long Giants of Steam weekend, the photos for which will be along in a future post.

In the time since, the railway have actually ended up using a bunch of the photos from this shoot in their social media, including separate Instagram and Facebook posts containing a bunch of solely my shots. Which was nice.

---

Six days later, we were asked back to the railway because there was a suggestion the event would be featured on the local ITV News, and they wanted some footage. This time, myself and Train Takes were joined by Chailey Stowe, and all of us had basically gone there straight from work. Unfortunately, they ultimately didn’t use any of our footage on the TV (they came and shot their own stuff and did some interviews a day or two later, which is arguably better for the railway, but still – boo). Although my remit for that visit was video rather than stills, nevertheless l managed to get a handful more shots of the show.

Firstly, as by this point the clocks had gone back, when the ghosts lined up on the footbridge at the start of the show, this time it was in darkness.

Much of the train journey down was spent coordinating our plan of how to cover everything – especially since Chailey didn’t know what to expect from the show – and filming the ghosts, rather than photographing them. The one photo I took on the ride up to Horsted this time was of a mysterious parcel, which might or might not have some bearing in part of the story unfurling.

Again, most of our time at Horsted was filming video content (and it must be said, I was amazed at how well the video capabilities of my camera worked in the low light conditions, especially in the subway). I did grab a slightly slower shutter shot of the Ghost Train shooting sparks, because of course I couldn’t help myself.

I did also squeeze off a quick shot a quick shot of the fireman standing next to his locomotive, although without the smoke or sparks (because I made sure to video those).

I also grabbed a shot of the (actual) crew of the locomotive, although clearly one is better at posing for photos than the other.

This time, for the finale, I was allowed onto platform 5 to see it all from a different angle, with the crowd in the shots too (I was even allowed to pass through the footplate to get there).

At one point, I took a few steps further back, and shot the locomotive crew watching the show play out.

Because it had rained a little at some point that evening, the platform was also nice and wet, which added a nicely to the look of the photos.

Soon, the finale of the show played out again – this time, I was sure to film it – and before I knew it we were back on the train to Sheffield Park.

Not long before we arrived, we were grabbed by one of the marketing team to go take photographs of the cast, who were all hanging out in the guard’s van for the journey back. As it often the way (especially when several people are taking photos) I never quite got everyone looking the same way.

I’m obviously still not great at staged photos like this. And in hindsight, if I knew a shot like this was on the cards, I’d have brought my flash with me (and a wider angle lens).

To be honest, I prefer the more candid photo I took shortly afterwards.

And with that, my time with the Ghost Train for this year was over (probably, there’s still a couple of shows left, and you never know if I’ll get another late call).

Shooting people has always been something I enjoy. Wait, let me rephrase that – I enjoy photographing people, especially in more candid situations. I feel pretty lucky that my current association with the railway allows me to do that (I also went and photographed people at their beer festival back in September), and I’m hoping to go back there again for this sort of thing before too long.

I also really enjoyed filming video of people, something I’ve not done for quite some time. Although the footage wasn’t used on TV, the railway still has the content for future use, and I still might do something of my own with it too (I’m not sure what – my only thought it YouTube). So this also makes me feel a bit more comfortable in filming content for the railway too, should the need arise.

As always, I’ve left a few alternative shots, angles and things for the gallery below.