After a 15 month gap, I'm back at Loughborough for a photo charter.  The loco?  A Black 5 - and not just any Black 5 - a Kingmoor Black Five. 

In 1967 as a twelve year old I looked down in awe from Etterby Bridge at the lines of workstained locomotives lined up outside Kingmoor shed.  Black 5s, 8Fs, Britannas and 9Fs dominated. 

We spent a whole afternoon wandering around the shed gathering numbers.  Kingmoor closed to steam some months later at the end of 1967.  It left a memory with me that's remained ever since.

As a part of the site updating, the Great Central Railway Galleries have been updated and many new pictures added.

The GCR is one of may favourites.  It’s also the closest real heritage railway to home.  And Russ Hillier organises loads of photo charters there. 

‘Leander’ is very much a personal favourite, but it’s also one that’s evaded me for years. 

Last time I took pictures of her was in 1975 when she hauled a special on the main line through Oxford.  Spectacular she looked then, and spectacular she looks now.

‘Oliver Cromwell’ is a personal favourite.

I remember it from living in Carlisle in 1967 as a Kingmoor loco, and then of course it achieved stardom on 11 August 1968 hauling the famous ‘15 Guinea Special’.

I was there, and I’ve still got the battered Kodachrome slide!

 It's that time – looking back across an old year done and wondering what the next will bring.  So I’ve been looking back across the crop of railway pictures I took in 2008.

I’ve been following the ‘Spawn of the Devil’ style digital debate in Steam Railway, and think it’s a lot of arrant nonsense.

It doesn’t matter what camera you use, provided you can use it. Your eyes and your feelings come first, the camera is only a recording tool.

Did a Russ Hillier Charter at the GCR on 19 October with GWR 56xx 0-6-2T no. 5643. A really good session and a lot of fun.

The early morning light was spot on - a cloudless blue sky combined with cold and damp conditions brought out the best of the steam.