Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2011/01/27
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Douglas, It is not uncommon to see reconditioned steam engines used as industrial boilers here. Cheers Jayanand On Thu, Jan 27, 2011 at 4:46 AM, Douglas Sharp <douglas.sharp at gmx.de> wrote: > Thanks Jayanand, > > the narrow gauge line to Simla must be a real adventure - the descriptions > of Simla in the Kipling books always fascinated me as a child. > > Ah well - maybe some day when I'm rich and famous;-) > > Dyed in the wool railway freaks (aka "anoraks") can really be a PITA -I > just take pictures of trains and have to look up what class they are;-) > > The preserved railway where I usually shoot has about 16 miles of track and > generally runs three different steam locos every day in the > spring-summer-autumn season. They have about a dozen of their own steam > locomotives, quite a few diesels and often have guest engines (like the > Great Marquess). > > The steam traction units are all in the sheds at the moment, undergoing > winter servicing. > > As the line has no facilities for turning the engines around, they have to > regular exchange the wheels from one side to the other to compensate for > wear on the running surfaces caused by friction in curves. > > Two or three are in for boiler refits and one for a complete rebuild, so > they are currently looking at bills amounting to about 1 million pounds. > > A large part of this came from donations last year, the rest of the sum > donated - 850,000 GBP - went into replacing one of the bridges along the > line. The bridge had served the line since 1865 without any problems but > had > begun to show weaknesses that threatened to close down services. > > Cheers > Douglas > > On 26.01.2011 18:56, Jayanand Govindaraj wrote: > >> Douglas, >> Nice shot. How many times a year can you take these out for a spin, >> anyway? >> I once knew a guy working in a money management firm in Glasgow who part >> owned a steam engine. He told me they were allowed to take it on public >> tracks once a year. Whenever he visited India - this was in the mid to >> late >> 1980s - he was a PITA because we had to get complex permissions to enable >> him to photograph steam engines that were still functioning at that time >> in >> the Mumbai Docks! Alternatively I had to send him off to the three narrow >> gauge hill trains that even function to this day - from the plains to the >> big colonial hill stations of Darjeeling, Simla and Ooty, all at various >> other ends of India from Mumbai, thousands of kilometres away. New Delhi >> has >> a lovely and pretty comprehensive train museum, if anyone is headed that >> way. >> Cheers >> Jayanand >> >> >> On Wed, Jan 26, 2011 at 10:51 PM, Douglas Sharp<douglas.sharp at gmx.de >> >wrote: >> >> I sometimes think that bad weather IS good enough for photography - I >>> think >>> this shot captures the wetness of it all and the rather different >>> saturation >>> of the colours in wet weather. >>> >>> Hope you like it - the locomotive is an ex-LNER K4 class 2-6-0 built in >>> 1937 for work on steep grades in Scotland and is seen here in British >>> Railways livery at the station in Grosmont on the North Yorkshire Moors >>> Railway, the most successful preserved railway in the UK. >>> >>> >>> >>> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/DMS/Transport/Railways/NYMR/20080904-_MG_8776-Edit-1.jpg.html >>> >>> Cheers >>> Douglas >>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Leica Users Group. >>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >> Leica Users Group. >> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >> >> > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >