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Welcome to The Caledonian Gallery.
As the name suggests, this is a site primarily dedicated to the incomparable West Coast Main Line. It features mainly Class 86 and Class 87 power, with some Class 81 and 85 'Roarers' in their dying years, and even a few skodas, on freight where they belong.....(!)
The WCML Gallery collections are arranged geographically, from south to north, each collection including a description of the principal features of that part of the line.
Virtually all the pre-2007 pictures herein were taken on Agfa CT200 slide film, and subsequently scanned by my brother Bob, to whom my thanks are due. The lack of dates with most of the older photos is something I aim to recitfy eventually, but it will take time!
Photos taken from 2007 onwards are the product of the digital revolution, to which I was a somewhat late convert, and are taken with a Nikon D80 (excellent kit), with all relevant details.
As to me personally, I am a 42-year-old devotee of the WCML, and of any locomotive class which starts with an '8' ! During some 20 years and half-a-million miles bashing these fine machines (of which 86224 'Caledonian' was always my favourite.....) I resolved that as well as mileage bashing, a photographic record of them had to be made.
As soon as I had a car, lineside photting expeditions were juggled with bashing trips - a tricky balance at times!
I've lost count of the number of excellent locations visited over the years, but none gives me more pleasure to this day than Scotchman's Bridge, on Shap. A few hours sitting there on a sunny day, amid stunning scenery with half of the four mile climb to Shap Summit visible as the railway snakes up the hillside, is time well spent.
But enough! I hope you enjoy what you find here; I'll be pleased to receive any comments.
Caledonian (86224 / E3134) |
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| 1 | Portrait of a Seven doing what it does best - blazing along with the speedo deep into three figures. 87024 Lord of the Isles at full stretch, tearing past the camera not far from the site of Bulkington station. A storming machine. RIP :-( | WCML 2: Rugby - Crewe | (804) |
| 2 | The end of another AL6 - 86239 L S Lowry lies wrecked after colliding with a derailed soutbound freight at Rickerscote. Minutes behind, 87007 was stopped in time on 1N17.... | WCML 6: West Midlands | (619) |
| 3 | Probably my favourite shot ever of the West Coast Main Line - despite being taken through a telephoto lens which reveals the limitations of the film's definition.... At a time when Class 87 reliability left much to be desired, with EWS skodas being drafted in to make up the numbers, they were rare north of the border. After a long wait in the car, with the weather changing by the minute, patience was rewarded as the sun broke through just as 87007 City of Manchester appeared on 1S75, in August 2003. The location is just north of Crawford, in the Clyde Valley - a quite magnificent vista which to me typifies this incomparable railway. | WCML 5: Carlisle - Glasgow & Edinburgh | (553) |
| 4 | How I shall remember the West Coast - 87001 STEPHENSON, heading 1S55, cruises round the curve at Beckfoot, towards Low Gill, prior to a flat-out thrash through the Lune Gorge, followed by the assault on Shap. Superb traction, beautiful scenery - the Premier Line indeed. | WCML 4: Preston - Carlisle | (503) |
| 5 | 86224 Caledonian, on its first run ex-works in 1992, sets out from Crewe with 1S76. | WCML 3: Crewe - Manchester / Liverpool / Preston | (379) |
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