Stafford spotting

Well lets start a week off with a bout of trainspotting at Stafford, though strictly speaking i don't "trainspot" as i don't write down the numbers but i do photograph the trains of course (and this proves handy to elderly spotters who ask me if i saw the number of the train that just passed and i can look it up on the camera!)

I've been to Stafford twice before but not on a week day until now. I was especially keen to come on a week day as i wanted to see one of the Royal Mail liveried units and also the new Gatwick Express units on test and these are generally only to be seen on a week day (the latter only on Mondays along this line apparently). Happily i was able to see both as well as a lot of freight (something else much more common on a weekday). You can see my photos here.

Stafford rails

The first railway photoshoot of 2016 was a return to Stafford which i visited in May 2015 but haven't been back since.

After a slow start things certainly hotted up with some interesting trains including a Class 37 hauled ECS and a couple of Class 66s on a light engine trip plus a few freight trains and the usual passenger services. My photos can be seen here. I also continued my experiments with railway video, my latest can be seen below.

A nice surprise in Tamworth

These days, with so much information accessible via the internet, you can go out on a photo shoot and know exactly what you are going to see and hopefully photograph. However its nice sometimes to have a bit of a surprise. I went to Tamworth at the weekend to do some railway photography and knew there was going to be a rail tour going through the station, however what i didn't know or expect was that it was steam hauled! So that was a nice surprise when i first heard the whistle and Mayflower soon came thundering through on its way to Chester. The fact there were a lot more people with cameras on the platform than is usual however did make me suspect something special was coming! You can see my photos here.

Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal

The Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal is not one i have walked along (yet) but it is one i regularly travel over when i visit the Severn Valley Railway as the line crosses the canal via the Falling Sands viaduct in Kidderminster. The canal is 46 miles long and was opened in the early 1770s. The canal links up with the river Severn at Stourport and the Trent & Mersey Canal at Great Haywood.

The canal's strength was that it linked up the Severn to the Trent and was a major North-South link through the West Midlands, much of the trade being coal. Traffic from Birmingham and the Black Country used the canal as part of the route up to the Mersey. Later canal openings such as the Worcester & Birmingham Canal did take away much of its trade however it remained profitable until the end of the 19th century which is more than could have been said for a lot of canals. It remained independent until canal nationalisation in 1948 with commercial coal traffic continuing up until then.

The Southern terminus of the canal is at Stourport which was built as an inland port to serve the new transport link to the Severn. Stourport was the only town in Britain built because of the canals.

Broad Eye Windmill

The Broad Eye Windmill is one of the landmarks of Stafford, though these days it is home to a radio station and the sails have long been removed. The windmill was built in the early 1800s in order to help provide flour for the population of the town which was rising fast. The windmill is the highest in the Midlands though only the upper floors were used for flour production.

The original sails were augmented by a steam engine in 1835 and production continued until 1886 with the sails removed in 1897. New transport links meant flour could be bought into the town more cheaply than the windmill could provide plus people wanted finer grade flour which the windmill could not provide. In the 20th century the windmill was used as a shop and for storage but eventually lay derelict. It became a listed building and was restored in the 1960s. Since 2011 it has been the home of Stafford Radio, there is the hope also that a heritage centre can be set up in the windmill.

Stafford

After a period of illness i was desperate to visit somewhere, and somewhere new at that. So today i went to Stafford and very nice it is too, you can't fault somewhere that has a windmill at its town centre! Naturally the focus of my visit was railway related and that included one of the class 92s in the new Caledonian Sleeper livery for sleeper trains between London and Scotland. Very nice it looked too though not sure why it was in a siding in Stafford but i wasn't complaining. My railway photos can be seen here.

The Coventry Canal

The Coventry Canal is a 38 mile long canal that stretches from Fradley Junction near Lichfield, where it is connected to the Trent & Mersey Canal, to Coventry.

The canal terminates at Coventry basin just North of the city centre though before that there are connections to the Lichfield (originally the Wyrley & Essington), Ashby, Birmingham & Fazeley and Oxford canals along the way. Work on the canal began in 1868 with Coventry Basin opened the following year. Construction was rapid though of a high standard and the canal reached Atherstone within a year. However financial troubles began to dog the project and the final connection to the Trent and Mersey was not completed until 1789.

One complication with the Coventry Canal is that while in reality it is a continuous stretch of waterway some maps treat it as two separate sections connected by part of the Birmingham & Fazeley canal. This confusion dates from the days of private ownership of the canals, but now the canals are all owned by British Waterways the canal should really be treated as it physically is.

Tamworth station

Back to Tamworth but this time for some rail photography. To be honest i found the station a bit frustrating with its high and low levels. It seemed like i was frequently in the wrong place at the wrong time and missed a few interesting trains.

I still managed to catch a fair number including a lot of freight. I guess once i have been a few times i'll start to get the hang of it and find the best angles. Having said that some of the pics i took today arn't bad at all (even if i say so myself!) My photos can be seen here.

Tamworth street

A street in the fine old town on Tamworth.

Tamworth

Tamworth as seen from the battlements of the castle!

Canal crane

Cranes have many uses at waterside though these days those along the canal are often for decorative purposes. This is one at Fradley Junction on the Trent & Mersey Canal.

Tamworth redux

You wait ages to go to Tamworth (and as i could not remember ever going before maybe thats a long time) and like buses you end up going again a few weeks later. My wife came with me this time, i had a chance to explore the interesting riverside scene with seemingly bridges in in all directions.  I think i need to come again and do a proper photo survey of the town. My course at the moment is discussing how towns changed over times and as they became more affluent then this was reflected in new facilities for recreation and leisure. My barely trained eye can see some examples of this already. My original Tamworth photo set from January has been augmented with the extra shots from yesterday.