I couldn’t resist.
After its appearance at Giants of Steam, 60007 Sir Nigel Gresley stuck around for another week at the Bluebell Railway. Originally this was just to pull a couple of Golden Arrow dining trains, but thanks to the success of Giants, it was added to a few normal running services as well.
I had intended to photograph Sir Nigel whilst pulling its Sunday lunchtime Golden Arrow service, as I wanted to get some shots of it pulling the very pretty Pullman dining coaches (and it was at first only scheduled to pull a post-sunset evening service on Saturday). However, the weather was not in my favour, and it was clear by Saturday morning that Sunday would be a bit of a washout. So instead, I went down on the Saturday afternoon, when it was forecast to be clear and sunny.
This weekend was the same weekend that I went down to the railway to photograph a replica the Ectomobile from Ghostbusters, which is why the onlooker in this first photo is not what you’d normally expect from a steam railway.
Sir Nigel Gresley undoubtedly drew some big crowds to the Bluebell Railway during its visit. Even on the Friday of Giants of Steam you could barely move on the platforms for the people around, and on the Saturday the main car park was full before I arrived that morning, and in the end reportedly even the overflow car park was full. It’ll be interesting to see what visiting engines we’ll have to the railway for their various events next year. This being a Saturday, however, those crowds did make for a bit of a challenge in getting clean photographs of Sir Nigel, so in the end I just embraced them. For this next shot I went onto the footbridge to get above them.
Even the crew were stopping to take pictures.
As busy as it was, if I found the right spot I could get some decent angles, and make the place at least not look too busy.
With the train stationary on a platform, it have me the opportunity to get some interesting closeups, which it isn’t exactly easy to do when either you’re standing lineside or the train is moving past you.
As you can see, the late afternoon autumnal sun was shining right at me causing some lens flare. Not being able to do much about it I chose to just accept it – and a little later on, you’ll see I tried to make use of it.
I could also get a much closer view of the plaque commemorating Sir Nigel’s record-breaking speed run.
Sadly it doesn’t get to run that fast any more, but being mainline certified it does at least get to reach 75mph out on the Other Railway, and not just the 25mph most heritage railways are limited to.
Before long, Sir Nigel was full of water and headed off to join the head of its train.
There’s that lens flare again, but I quite like the look.
When Sir Nigel had finished its light engine movements and was connected to its coaches, I headed lineside. The light was still behind it, but luckily from some angles I could catch it shining through a tree and illuminating the steam.
Turns out in this light the train is quite reflective.
I had spoken to the signalman before heading onto the railway, so I knew another train was due in before Sir Nigel Gresley departed. This did mean I needed to wait until it arrived before making my way across the bridges. Eventually, the southbound service arrived. Luckily for the photos, it was a south-facing engine – 80151 pulling the Wealden Rambler dining train.
Once that train had gone by, I had precious little time to make it up the track before Sir Nigel set off. I hadn’t put a lot of thought into where I was going to go, and my options were limited by the time I had available. Given the strength of the light, I decided the spot I’ve used many times in the past wouldn’t be a good idea as the sun would be behind the train. Instead I decided to head a little bit further up and sit on the inside of that curve of track, which means I’d be on the lit side of the train. My next challenge was making it there in time.
I did, just about. And to bring my lineside experience for the year full circle, the photographer I found already standing there was someone I got speaking to at the training course at the start of the year. Luckily there was room for both of us. It was only a minute or two before Sir Nigel Gresley came by.
Once again, everything has come together to get a shot I’m really happy with.
With there being only some Christmas services left to run, this post likely marks the end of my 2024 shooting trains at the Bluebell Railway with my lineside permit. It has been an absolute blast and I’ve had a lot of fun doing it, and I still have some ideas of photographs I didn’t get this year and learned lessons I want to put into practise, so I’ve already signed up for the course to renew my pass next year.
With the catalogue of train photos I now have in my library, I’ve also launched a new Instagram account to share those to a more niche audience. RobDoesTrains, almost depressingly, amassed more followers in its first three weeks than my original Instagram account, which I set up when Instagram was only a couple of months old, has in 14 years.
As is often the case with posts involving trains passing by, I’ve selected a few choice shots in the post above, but there is a fuller collection in the gallery below.
