The Limbo Connection's photos with the keyword: Mendip Vale

End of the line - Mendip Vale. We get out and mill around a bit. There does not seem to be a waiting room or restaurant. No lavatories. No magazine stand. No announcements about when the next train is expected. The engine driver waits for the fireman to uncouple the locomotive and undertake switching the points, so that he can couple at the other end. Sometimes the footplate personnel includes ladies. That was hardly ever the case in the 1950s. Fujifilm FinePix S3 Pro with a Tokina 50-135mm f/2.8 lens.

From the passengers' point of view these corridor train carriages were greatly superior to the foetid open plan types we suffer today.

Nikon D2Xs and AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm lens.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 20mm f/3.5 AI-S lens.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor AF-S 70-300mm f4.5-5.6 VR lens.

Mendip Vale station. Nikon D700 + Nikkor 20mm f/3.5 AI-S lens.

I visited the East Somerset Railway near Cranmore in Somerset on 1st July, a hot day such as Edward Thomas immortalised in 'Adlestrop'. I reflected on what enables preserved railways such as this to thrive. Enthusiasm, of course - of volunteers and visitors alike. And the availability of locomotives and rolling stock, thanks to Dai Woodham at Barry not being in a rush to break up the scrapped BR locomotives. But - paradoxically perhaps - it is the motor car which makes preserved steam possible, for it often operates in the back of beyond, and is accessible only by private transport for all practical purposes. Nikon D2Xs and Tamron Di II SP AF 17-50mm f/2.8 XR LD Aspherical (IF) lens.