LarryG's general album

[JimG]

I was bought a Kodak Brownie 127 as a Christmas present in 1955 and the majority of pictures I took were the family type.

I got my first camera when I was about ten years old, in the early 50s. It was an Ensign Fullview, as close as I could get to my father's Rollieflex. I remember standing on Dumbarton Central UP platform and taking my first railway picture, a K class loco on the Fort William train. That turned out to be my last railway picture for many years since my mother berated me for wasting good film, her idea being that it should only be used on family type photographs.

Jim.

 

[richard carr]

Some lovely photos Larry.

Richard

 

[LarryG]

The nights & weekend foreman 'Jock' didn't mind me ambling around the shed on my rest day. I couldn't resist this comparison of a traditional loco like 'Crab' No. 42726 with an Austerity 2-8-0. The LMS engine wasn't allocated to Lees...


LYR 3F No. 52240 was one of several of these locos based at Lees for pilot work (mostly), although in earlier years they had worked passenger on Greenfield services and football specials. If you didn't get one of these, you got an austerity!


I took this one teatime after I had left the railway to work on Oldham buses. All Newton Heath's L&Y 3F's were sent to Lees leaving the shed with the largest concentration of this class. The Fairburn 2-6-4T was one of three based at Lees for the 'Delph shunt' and parcels out of the new Clegg Street Parcel Depot....



This was a working day shot while acting Shed-Turner. I was moving Austerity No. 90123 from the disposal road onto the coaling stage and this shot is as far as one needed to go before setting back. Thinking back, it was quite a responsibility for an 18 year old. I most often got this job on nights, which also included assisting the fire lighter...

 

[LarryG]

I got my first camera when I was about ten years old, in the early 50s. It was an Ensign Fullview, as close as I could get to my father's Rollieflex. I remember standing on Dumbarton Central UP platform and taking my first railway picture, a K class loco on the Fort William train. That turned out to be my last railway picture for many years since my mother berated me for wasting good film, her idea being that it should only be used on family type photographs.

Jim.

I followed your link and had a read of it this morning. Very strange shape that's for sure. Looking down into a waist level viewfinder with magnifier was normal for me from the mid 1970's, as I bought a Mamiya 645 as soon as they came out. Thinking back, my mother paid for the developing & printing in earlier years so, like you, I would probably have got a rollicking had film been 'wasted' on buses and locos.

 

[JimG]

I followed your link and had a read of it this morning. Very strange shape that's for sure. Looking down into a waist level viewfinder with magnifier was normal for me from the mid 1970's, as I bought a Mamiya 645 as soon as they came out. Thinking back, my mother paid for the developing & printing in earlier years so, like you, I would probably have got a rollicking had film been 'wasted' on buses and locos.

I've still got a piece of it - the largish, square viewing lens. My late wife made a small pouch for it and it lives in my toolbox. My next camera, bought when I started working and could afford it, was a Rollieflex 127, the baby Rollie which shot 12 on a 127 roll film. Then I started taking railway shots - I remember visiting the Welsh narrow gauge lines in 1962 and I've still got all the transparencies from that time.

Jim.

 

[LarryG]

I cycled over the Lees one teatime to photograph light engines movements to & from the shed. L&Y 3F's nos. 52271 and 52523 were returning from the direction of Mumps, Oldham at the end of their duties...


I crossed the track for this shot. Another L&Y 'A' Class had left the shed and was Oldham-bound on the crossover opposite the signalbox. Note the heavily rivetted long wheelbase Barton-Wright Tender...


Also heading off to take up duty in Oldham was 52271 on another day. The Oldham Branch lost its passenger services in 1955, but the station here at Lees was still pretty much intact six years later...



This 4F was en route from Greenfield Junction to Oldham when photographed one bright morning passing the five-storey goods warehouse at Lees. The motive power depot was on the left of the train....

 

[Dave Holt]

Loving the old B&W photos, Larry - and not just the ones round Lees/Oldham!
My first camera was Kodak Brownie 127 and I moved on to a view finder 35 mm. Can't currently find any of the photos I took during the steam age. They're somewhere on the premises, but I don't know where.
Keep them coming.
Dave.

 

[LarryG]

Loving the old B&W photos, Larry - and not just the ones round Lees/Oldham!
My first camera was Kodak Brownie 127 and I moved on to a view finder 35 mm. Can't currently find any of the photos I took during the steam age. They're somewhere on the premises, but I don't know where.
Keep them coming.
Dave.

I hope you find those photos of yours Dave. I would go back tomorrow because I know the hardships that come with it.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

These are nice photos Larry. Although I'm more intrigued by what's in the foreground or background rather than the subject itself - being a record of the times. They all show scenes which no longer exist but are useful for modellers.

For example the cars is this one.

I was born beside the GCR Woodhead line near here in Newton, Hyde, and I think I took this shot in early 1961 while walking back to the station from my cousins home in Godley. Two DC electrics are passing with yet another mineral train. This street had looked like this since I was a small boy (bomb damage?)
View attachment 136047

And the young lad's fashion in this one.

My 1964 North Wales runabout ticket was the dearer version that extended travel eastbound beyond Shotton to Chester and Wrexham. Mary and I also took in a trip to Amlwch behind or in front of(!) BR No.84001, little knowing it would close 3 months later.

 

[LarryG]

One of the lads took this before we set off light for Clegg Street Parcels depot. It wasn't the best of shifts for me. The injector knocked off while in the Down single bore Standedge tunnel and the elderly driver was shouting in my ear while I was restarting it. It was quite dark at Mirfield and the impatient fool got a right drowning because he couldn't wait until I got the bag in the tank properly. I met him in the street a week after the event and he was still ratty!



I had left the railway by the time I took this photo of Fairburn 2-6-4T No.42115 shunting the Royal George soap factory siding in the spring of 1961. It was fortuitous because I got a lift back to Lees....



A friend asked if I would accompany him to Manchester to take photos with his bellows camera while he filmed on his 16mm cine camera. We started off at Manchester Victoria filming E.Region diversions and then drove across to Central station where I shot No.42183 on Gresley stock going I know not where...


This was my parting view of Oldham one Friday teatime in June 1965 while leaving for a new life in North Wales. Mumps pilot had been a familiar turn to me five years before although we never had anything as modern as No. 46452. The job had gone to Newton Heath men after Lees closed in 1964....

 

[LarryG]

One railway magazine referred to me as their North Wales correspondent. There were several of us dotted about the land covering the latest news. They also relied on a few mainline steam photographers who would drive miles to cover mainline steam. When it was about, I went out relaxed shooting for myself. This was the first appearance of Duke of Gloucester on the Ynys Mon Express to Holyhead, which was making a volcanic climb through Conwy on 29th December 1990....


Low winter sunlight highlights No. 45596 Bahamas and its coaches streaking across Anglesey between Bodorgan and Rhosniegr...

A panned shot of Taw Valley climbing to Conway Tubular Bridge en route to Holyhead in 1990....

 

[oldravendale]

Really nice stuff there, Larry.

I particularly like the Duke of Gloucester shot. I remember the loco at Barry as the impossible project - no-one expected it to get out - and I was a Loughborough volunteer when it arrived at the GCR. In fact Steph and I went to see it for the first day of use on passenger trains at Loughborough. After that anything in preservation was possible.

Later I saw a movie of it in the hands of Fred Lewis. He took it from a standing start "like an express train". The acceleration was unbelievable. Just shows what some further development of steam could have done even though its demise was inevitable.

Here's one of mine for comparison.....



Brian

 

[LarryG]

A field I had been going in for years after gaining the friendship of the farmer was a must for steam. The all-maroon stock behind Bahamas was the icing on the cake. So too was the fireman's efforts! I stayed away from the field when steam was around after this as it was clear some of the 'tourist' photographers had far less respect for farmland and drystone walls...



No. 777 Sir Lamiel. I just had to capture it passing through Conway Arch. The loco was coasting but at least the rods were down...

The King Arthur was a slow plodder compared with some of the locos on the North Wales coast turns, but I liked the lines of this thoroughbred. Shot at Llandudno on 14th August 1991...

 

[LarryG]

A bog-standard view of LMS 45596 Bahamas heading the final Up North Wales Coast Express of 1991 through Tal-Y-Bont near Bangor on 15th September. I had taken a pair of six-foot ladders along to obtain this viewpoint...



I knew what I wanted and so permission was obtained to move the round table further down the garden to get it reasonably sharp. 'King Arthur and the Round Table' was the caption, but the magazine that published this photo clumsily cropped off the table, so it made no sense! The train is approaching Deganwy station on the Llandudno Branch...


This shot involved climbing up a poster hoarding. I knew the Class 20's were due and so I had time to set the shot up with 20007 and 777...

 

[LarryG]

Any 35mm SLR is a big step up from a Brownie 127, yet I was still not satisfied and moved up to medium format as soon as the Mamiya 645 became available in 1977. However, the photo of LMS 6201 Princess Elizabeth crossing the junction with the Conwy Valley Branch at Llandudno Junction was shot on a 35mm Konica T3 and a Hexanon zoom lens on Tri-X. It was almost 120 film quality. 13th October 1990...


There was no denying the flexibility of 35mm and this photo was taken on a wide angle lens of No.35028 Clan Line taking water at Llandudno Junction while working the 1T34 14.05 Holyhead-Euston 'Ynys Mon Express' on 1st December 1990. This was one of the Ethels last runs...

 

[LarryG]

Black Eights, Night Owls and Clag, all post steam age inventions. Or as one irate keyboard chappy posted; Diesels clag (oily substance), but steam loco smoke. My old BR handbook instruction was to avoid unnecessary blowing off and creation of excessive smoke, but I doubt the latter was always possible in preservation with poor coal of the wrong size! 46203 below was starting off from a signal check at the end of the Up Loop out of Llandudno Junction and so much of the "clag" was in fact back-lit steam...



However, 4472 Flying Scotsman's output after suffering a stop at the same place, was mostly smoke because the fireman had filled the box. In fairness, the driver may have had the fire jumping, as the loco was accelerating really well and making the kind of noise that gets enthusiasts hearts pumping...

 

[Focalplane]

When the Union Pacific sent their heritage locos to Texas (or anywhere) the drivers and firemen put on a show, sending black oil smoke in the air on staged run bys. Apparently they don’t do this any more as it “sends the wrong message”.



That’s 3985, the 4-6-6-2 Challenger on a trip between Smithville and Houston in 1995. Scanned from a print. Steve Smith would have been in charge. He’s been retired longer than me. Happily the group continues to thrive with the Big Boy restoration.

 

[LarryG]

Photographing tea-time steam departures at Llandudno Junction was always problematic due to viewing straight into low sun. I used 'Brickworks Bridge' as a screen, which as seen here, didn't always work. The trouble with polished paintwork ....

 

[LarryG]

When I went to this location in 1976 I stood beside the tracks and my shot of a Class 40 was published in 'Amateur Photographer' of all places. High fencing was erected shortly thereafter and so I always took my ladders. Of course, a Black Five at Conway was probably a must for many photographers when none of the other steam entrants were as appropriate...



Gresley's 4771 Green Arrow couldn't fail to impress. It looked good, it sounded good and by golly it accelerated good! The lighting was it's usual tricky-normal, but I considered it a better composition from here on the shadow side than amongst the crowds on the platform side. It is taking water before returning to Crewe. I forgot to mention the Amlwch Octel Tanks in the yard....

 

[LarryG]

Wot, no telegraph poles? The Llandudno Branch provided the near perfect steam-era setting with its short-length bullhead track sections and semaphore signals. Bulleids Pacifics reintroduced mainline steam to the area in 1989. No. 34027 Taw Valley was climbing out of Llandudno town on 4th July 1989...



... And this was the first special press trip from Holyhead following official opening of the triangle at Valley on 20th June 1989; the first steam since 1967. I was attempting to emulate Maurice Earley style with this composition of No. 35028 Clan Line bursting out of Penmanemrhos Tunnel. The first public run to Holyhead commenced three days later on 27th June...


It was pretty gloomy down there and the Mamiya 150mm lens was being used at full aperture while the shutter speed was 1/500th sec. Sharpness falls off quickly with medium format (just behind the Tender in the above shot), but it didn't matter because there was no distance to worry about beyond the tunnel mouth.