Loose_Grip/Pete's photos with the keyword: &

Going, going.................... within another 200m new-build LNER A1 pacific 60163 Tornado on the North Briton steam railtour will plunge into the darkness of Blea Moor Tunnel under the Yorkshire fells on the Settle & Carlisle Line. HWW to everyone. Enjoy the day. Best seen large!

We visited the City of Arts & Sciences in Valencia to view the Ninot exhibition which was on as part of the Falles festival. The museum area is a state-of-the-art science complex set within a landscaped park with a huge aquarium & IMAX screen. The buildings are very modern and impressive.

The beautiful gold and silver of the Denver & Rio Grande Railway on the locomotives and baggage car contrasts with the light covering of snow on the approach to Glenwood Canyon in the Rocky Mountains west of Denver. The conductor allowed me to take this view from the open door of our passenger train travelling from Denver to Salt Lake City (where we changed in the middle of the night to an Amtrak train to San Francisco). The lead locomotive is F9 diesel 5771. This was the last private long distance passenger train in the USA but it has long since been taken over by Amtrak. We were moving homes via San Francisco & Australia after a 2 year assignment in New Orleans to live in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia.

We visited the City of Arts & Sciences in Valencia to view the Ninot exhibition which was on as part of the Falles festival. The museum area is a state-of-the-art science complex set within a landscaped park with a huge aquarium & IMAX screen. The buildings are very modern and impressive. HBM to everyone. Continue enjoying the Easter weekend!

The other end of the train seen in the previous post! Denver & Rio Grande Railroad "first generation" F9 diesel 5771 up front with Budd stainless steel observation car "Silver Sky" visible on the tail-end of the Rio Grande Zephyr at Grand Junction station, an intermediate stop on from Denver to Salt Lake City. This train was the last non-Amtrak long distance train in the USA after the Southern Railway stopped running the Southern Crescent from New Orleans. It was a great railroading experience and had a brilliant 1940s-50s atmosphere. We changed at Salt Lake City during the night but the Amtrak train bore no comparison although the journey through the mountains & onward to San Francisco was certainly spectacular.

Denver & Rio Grande Railroad Budd stainless steel observation car "Silver Sky" on the tail-end of the Rio Grande Zephyr at Grand Junction station, an intermediate stop on from Denver to Salt Lake City. D&RG "first generation" F9 diesel 5771 is at the front. This train was the last non-Amtrak long distance train in the USA after the Southern Railway stopped running the Southern Crescent from New Orleans. It was a great railroading experience and had a brilliant 1940s-50s atmosphere. We changed at Salt Lake City during the night but the Amtrak train bore no comparison although the journey through the mountains & onward to San Francisco was certainly spectacular. The train & engine were withdrawn in 1984 & the locomotive is now preserved at the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden. We were en route from New Orleans to San Francisco, Australia & ultimately Medan in Indonesia where I worked for 2 years for Mobil Oil Corp. I booked the journey myself through Mobil's travel department & they took some convincing that I really wanted to travel by train. "But it is so much slower & I could be in San Francisco within hours by plane & anyway who in America, especially working for an oil company, would even want to travel by train and anyway we don't know how to book it, it's not in our system!"

Say what you will about "Polar Express" trains you can't deny that they really bring in the punters as the hordes on the platform at Kingsley & Froghall station in Staffordshire yesterday prove. Lots of happy pyjama-ed kids. I don't know what cut the franchise takes but the Churnet Valley Railway must be minting it over the Christmas period with all trains fully booked. USATC S160 2-8-0 5197 was heading the train with an unidentified Class 20 diesel on the tail. As this is the southern terminus of the CVR the configuration was reversed when they set off back towards Leek.

Another visit to The National Trust's only house in Leicestershire! Stoneywell was built by Earnest Gimson for his brother, a Leicester industrialist, as a summer holiday home in the late 1890s. It was built in the Arts & Crafts tradition and style with much of the original furniture hand-made by Barnsley. In keeping with the back-to-nature style it was built over an outcrop of volcanic rock but of course this means the house is damp.

Great Western Railway 57xx pannier tank 0-6-0PT 4612 climbs the final 100 metres into Bodmin General station arriving from Boscarne Junction. The combination of steep gradient and tight curve brought the loco down to walking pace as she was blasting her way up.

Heading east GB RailFreight Class 60 diesel 60056 with 6E36 the 01.45 Liverpool Tuebrook Sidings to Drax biomass train has just passed Heaton Lodge Junction north of Huddersfield on the ex-Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Calder Valley line at 06.54. The shot was taken from the footbridge over the ex-LNWR New Line which now joins the Calder Valley line at Heaton Lodge East Junction off left. The footpath continues under the LYR line in a very low tunnel and up the hill past the stone building. HFF & have a great weekend.