This weekend marked the return of the Bluebell Railway’s Branch Line Gala. Last year’s gala marked one of my first excursions lineside. This time I’ve gotten a lot more practise in photographing steam trains, and it’s also the first weekend-long gala since I’ve been actively sharing my train photography on Instagram when I’ve gotten an idea of what resonates more with people (and been looking at a lot of other people’s work for inspiration too).
| Kit List |
|---|
| Canon EOS R6 Mk II |
| Canon RF 24-70mm f/2.8 L IS USM |
| Canon RF 15-35mm f/2.8 L ІЅ UЅМ |
| Canon RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1 L IS USM |
This is also the first time I’ve been out on a long shoot since the start of the year, when I went out shooting trains and then landscapes on consecutive days, and was left with a sudden yearning need for a better wide angle lens than the 16mm prime I’ve got currently. So for this weekend I decided to hire the RF 15-35mm f/2.8 L lens to scratch the itch and give it a go, even though I’m currently 2/2 when it comes to eventually buying lenses I’ve hired.
The Branch Line Gala is a standard Friday-Sunday gala, so I decided to follow what I did for Giants of Steam last October and attend on Friday and Saturday, and use the Sunday to recover and edit photos.
My plan for Friday was to spend some of the day at the northern entrance to Sharpthorne Tunnel, one of the spots where I first went lineside, but haven’t spent much time at since. Given that the first train of the day would be pulled by visiting locomotive 41313, which was facing southwards and so not particularly interesting to shoot on an outward run, I decided to ride the train up to Kingscote Station and then walk south to the tunnel. I arrived at Sheffield Park early enough to get some shots of the loco, to find it was running a bit late anyway.
41313 is a delightfully steamy engine.
I was soon on the ride up to Kingscote. From there I began the lineside trek south, hoping to find a decent spot before the next train came up the track. I knew from the last time I explored this part of the line that trains heading north tend to ease off on their approach to the station, meaning there isn’t much steam to speak of, so I wanted to get a decent way out of the station before the next train came up.
The next train up was 32424 Beachy Head. The sunlight was mostly behind it which wasn’t ideal, but I was still able to position myself on the sun side of the track.
I stayed in this spot for 41313 to come back down the line. This time it would be facing forwards, making for a more traditional photo, although this time the sun was not in my favour.
My plan was to then head down the line to Sharpthorne Tunnel in time for the next service of the day, which had originally been visiting saddle tank 68067. Unfortunately that locomotive failed prior to the event and was replaced by my favourite of the Bluebell home fleet, 34059 Sir Archibald Sinclair. In the end though, I didn’t make it in time. A section of the walk to the tunnel is very narrow, not somewhere you want to be when a train comes by. It became apparent that I’d not have enough time to comfortably make it though this part before the next service came through, so I waited at the start.
(I know this shot makes it look like I can use that path to the right of this photo, but it is gated off and private land, and so inaccessible.)
It’s not that far to the tunnel from here so I arrived in good time for the next train to come through. My plan for the tunnel this time was to make use of my telephoto and get some much closer shots of the trains leaving the tunnel. First up was № 65 who cooperated beautifully.
I hung around at the tunnel waiting for the next service. Luckily I had company, as I met up with someone from Instagram who was also shooting and filming.
The next service up the line was Beachy Head on its second run of the day. The tunnel essentially runs north to south (or rather vice-versa, at least for trains exiting the tunnel here) and by this point the sun had moved to the other side of the track, so I followed suit.
I haven’t shot at the tunnel much, and never from this side of the track, so this allowed me to get some slightly different compositions.
The last train I photographed at the tunnel was 41313 heading back south.
After 41313 came by I made my way back north, hoping to get to Kingscote in time to catch the train pulled by Beachy Head coming back south. Truth be told I’d hoped to get there in time to see Sir Archie coming north too, but but I got caught up on the walk. To be honest the spot I was in ended up being pretty nice, and the sun cooperated too. I had enough warning to switch to the hired 15-35mm lens for the shot – but ended up picking a frame that was captured at a focal length I already have covered.
I made it to Kingscote with seconds to spare, and headed back to Sheffield Park. When I got there I found the engine shed was more open than normal, so I took a wander around. The first thing I saw was 34023 Blackmore Vale and D6570 Ashford, both at varying stages of restoration, having a chinwag.
Having the wide angle lens really helped in this tight spot. It also helped getting some shots of the outside areas too.
Blackmore Vale looks in a bit of a state at the moment, but that’s mainly because its boiler has been taken out and sent away for repair. Even so, hopefully you can see some of the family resemblance to Sir Archibald Sinclair.
Also parked up in the engine shed – visible to the right of the frame above – was the failed 68067, on display. Even with the wide angle lens it was tricky to get enough space for some flattering shots, so I ended up grabbing a shot of its cab.
With that, I headed home, knowing I’d be back the next day.
My plan for the Saturday was a bit different – and yet, in many ways, not. One of my little Instagram train photographing circle, a man known as Sharpthorne Steam, had secured a lineside pass for the first time this year, and I offered to take them out and show them the ropes. The plan we came up with was very simple, because it was the exact same thing I did on the Saturday of the Branch Line gala last year: make the trek up the line from Sheffield Park to Horsted Keynes. It is a great way to get used to going lineside and there is a variety of shots to be had if you keep walking. In a selfish way I also know that I often benefit from having another photographer by my side when I’m out shooting, so I hoped I’d get some interesting shots as well. My companion is very used to shooting the Bluebell Railway, but has only ever done so from the other side of the fence.
Much like the previous day, the first train of the morning would be 41313 going backwards. Still, it was a nice engine to break the duck, and as it was low stakes I elected to use the hired wide angle again.
With 41313 on its way up the line, we continued trekking on, until we got to the corner where the track leaves Ketches Wood and heads on up to Freshfield Bank. This has been a very productive spot for me, mainly because it’s a point where the speed limit changes from 10mph to 25mph and the track starts up an incline, so the locomotives have to put some effort in, resulting in some wonderful smoke. The next train out this morning was Beachy Head, and it did not disappoint.
I’ll have to make sure I make good use of this spot this year. The plan for the next winter shutdown is to re-lay the old section of track leaving Sheffield Park, which would see the abandonment of the 10mph speed limit, and potentially with it some of the impressiveness of the locomotives on this corner.
We carried on up the line to another spot I’ve used in the past. Here we decided to briefly split up for the next train. My companion decided to stay in the spot where you can get a good view of the trains coming round the corner and up the hill. I moved on a little bit to a distant signal that I’ve shot at before, hoping to use that as a framing device.
We continued on to Town Place Bridge, a spot I used last year, but this time as the next train would be 41313 evading back south I was shooting from the opposite side.
This bridge also marks Freshfield Bank, which is a spot popular with photographers limited to public areas. We stood up at the bridge facing back south and waited for the next train up, which was № 65.
We carried on. As you have probably realised, we never stopped in the same place twice, we shot and moved on.
Our next stop on the line was Rock Cutting, although I learned that people not familiar with the Bluebell’s own maps may know the spot as Tremaines, after a foot crossing a short way up the line. Here we took pause for the next train, which was 72 Fenchurch heading south pulling the goods demonstration set.
We briefly considered staying here, but this was a very exposed area, and despite the number of layers I was wearing I was turning into a popsicle, so we moved on again.
We soon found ourselves in Lindfield Wood where we encountered another photographer. It seemed like a nice spot, so we waited for the next train, Beachy Head heading north.
And on we went.
Just past Waterworks Bridge we stopped to wait for Fenchurch to come back with the goods set. It wasn’t ideal, as we were shooting into the sun due to there not being a clear position of safety on the other side of the track, but I quite like the result – especially the shot mid-train where you can see more of the wagons.
We continued on once again. This time we stopped just round the curve leading onto the straight that runs up to Three Arch Bridge, another area I’ve not used before. There was waited for the next train, Sir Archie heading north.
We walked up a bit closer to Three Arch Bridge. Here we waited for 41313 to come south.
Here I let myself down. Before 41313 could get any closer, my camera flashed up a warning that my SD card was full. This was very odd as the card I was shooting on was empty that morning and so good for over 1,500 shots, and I’d not taken anywhere near that many. By the time I’d processed what was going on, the moment, and the train, has passed. Turns out I’d accidentally hit the record button at some point whilst stowing my camera and it had recorded a 30 minute video of the inside of its own lens cap, which had used up the bulk of the remaining space. My main complaint about the EOS R6 Mk II is the overly prominent video record button which I have pushed by accident more often than on purpose. Because I wasn’t expecting to be running light on available card space I wasn’t watching the remaining image count, and I got caught out. That said, I usually have my camera set up in relay mode with its dual SD card slots, so I need to figure out how it can swap over to the next card when the first runs out of space. Ah well.
We headed under the bridge and found another spot used by people on the public side of the fence, ready to shoot № 65 coming under the bridge.
We continued on, ultimately getting to Horsted Keynes in time for me to catch a train back to Sheffield Park. The trek is about 4 hours; last year on my own I made that in 4 hours. This time it took us over 6 hours, but I feel like we stoped more and got some better shots for it, so it was a good trade off (also, last year I was meeting my family waiting patiently for me, this time I had no such pressures).
All in all it was a great weekend. I got to meet quite a few keen train photographers, got some fantastic shots, and found a bunch of new spots to shoot in. I also really enjoyed meeting some of the people I’ve talked to on Instagram, and in fact am already making plans to get back out on the rails with my Saturday companion some time in April.
And what of the hired lens? Am I going to go three for three with hired lenses and add the 15-35mm f/2.8 L to my kit bag? The answer, perhaps surprisingly, is no. As much as I think I have a need for a wide zoom in that sort of range, I don’t need that sort of aperture, which makes the lens basically the same size and weight as my 24-70mm. Most of what I would be shooting would be probably f/4 and up. So instead, I am now eyeing up the 14-35mm f/4 L, which is smaller, lighter and cheaper.
As always, the shots above are a bit of a highlight reel. Below is a fuller set, including some colour and monochrome variations of some of the images above.
