Loose_Grip/Pete's photos with the keyword: British Rail

Bangor railway Station, North Wales. Diesel Class 24 5039 on a west-bound sheeted freight waits on the signal while 5030 shunts a parcels train past the London & North Western Railway signal box at Whit 1973. The semaphore signals are still active but the platform-end water tank had just been felled. The remains can be seen to the left of the railwayman. Bangor station is located between two tunnels, the one seen here takes the line westwards towards Holyhead.

Aberdeen Station Class 47 diesel 47251 departs past the fabulous signal gantries that used to grace this line. I was returning from supervising a VSP velocity survey on Mobil's Beryl oil production platform & an exploration well in the same block in April 1977. After a helicopter ride from the offshore rig to Sulom Voe in the Shetlands the onward flight to Aberdeen was by DC3 Dakota - brilliant. I then took the train from Aberdeen to Kings Cross changing at Waverley but because I hadn't slept for 48 hours I missed most of the journey south of Edinburgh being slumped in my seat asleep.

Carnforth shed, Lancashire. British Railways Britannia Class 4-6-2 70013 Oliver Cromwell & an unidentified Stanier Black 5 in light steam at the north end of the shed blacken the late afternoon atmosphere as they await their next duties. I visited the shed in the evening en route back to Manchester Victoria on a Northern Railfans trip. The tall concrete building is the ash lift, an efficient way to clear away the piles of ash & char from engine disposals which could quickly accumulate in a large shed like Carnforth. Small tubs were filled by hand and then hoist up the tower & tipped into waiting 16 ton wagons for onward disposal. The much larger concrete coaling tower is just out of shot. 70013 has now (May 2008) been restored at the Great Central Railway at Loughborough after spending most of the time since August 1968 at Bressingham in Norfolk. The plan is to run-in the loco on the Great Central ready for main line train duty in 2008 to commemorate 40 years since the end of steam on BR.