A weeks holiday and a toss up between Barnetby or Ipswich, well it had to be the lure North!! a 5am start and two and a half hours later and a full bladder i arrived!!

A very cold day ranging between 6 and 11 degress and anyone who knows Barnetby knows its an open space and the winds due cause it to be cold. Weather was cloudy to start with, sunny by lunchtime and pissing down by 15.00 which caused me to take cover in a shelter!! Just to make the pics more interesting i took shots from different areas of the station.

Highlights included 4 (yes 4!!) class 60's in 4 different liveries, 66709 on a coal train and 66612 which ive never seen before (belive me there aint a lot i need!) It was very busy freight wise up till lunch time, but it seriuosly went quiet after 13.00 with only 2 to 3 freights an hour, but on the whole im glad i went the 126 miles North!!

a 'get away from it all' trip to Peterborough, although not very busy, i copped 66730 which cleared my GBRF class 66's and also a Grand Central class 180

An invite to Barrow Hill to join the lads on 56101 for the gala was well recieved and off i set at 05.00 for the trip up to Staveley. First job of the day was drain off 125 litres of engine oil that had soaked the bed plate of 56101 as a crank case door came off during Saturdays (thanks Gareth!!) yours truly spent the best part of an hour underneath the loco draining the oil out!! once that was done a new seal was placed on the offending door seal and the whole thing was refitted, Gareth placed fresh oil into 56101 and we spent a day on site, 56101 did three turns on the shuttle run with 47818, later in the day i coupled 56098 up to 56101 and we opened them up in multiple.....my Lordzzzzz!!!!!

During the gala and at the end of the day i went round and took as many pics as i could, here are 46 pics taken during the Sunday!!!

A visit to the annual Lowestoft air Festival and for me disapointing, not the aircraft participating but how far out the displaying aircraft were, even with my 300mm lens on full whack, i struggled to get sharp crisp images and have had to crop pics to get the feel of an airshow,i seriuosly felt sorry for people who had compact cameras who prob only have minute specs of aircraft on thier camera displays, also the people at the North end of the beach missed out a lot of the action as aircraft coming in from the sea banked left and missed the thousands of people that were at the north end. The Vulcan did two passes but again the aircraft was way to far out to get good pics.

I was very Disapointed to be honest, yes its free (although i did donate a chunk of cash for charity) but the display line should have been further forward, most people were using binoculars to view the displays (if they had them)

Yes i know its not trains (call it an intermission) but a photographic trip to Duxford came up, so armed with various cameras i attended the 'Flying Legends 2009' firstly many thanks to the staff at Duxford for thier assistance and the re-enactment groups who posed for pictures, i think you will agree there are some superb shots in this gallery!!

Thanks to gen from Oli Smith (cheers mate) the word spread that 90019 was to be on the 14.18 drag to Yarmouth, now 90019 in First livery and a DRS 47802 together would make an excellent phot, so armed with my Nikon and Canon compact i braved the sweltering 26 heat and took a batch of phots focusing on 47802 and 90019.

Thanks once again Oli for the heads up and the up to the min gen as it happened!!

Me and a few of the lads decided to hire a car and visit Toton to bag the stored 60's that are around the depot, plus me needing 3 loco's that ive never seen and knowing they are there was an opportunity not be missed, firstly the depot was rammed with locos, 60's everywhere most can be picked off from the bank or the A52 bridge, secondly the three locos i needed where there so i have now seen the whole fleet!! thirdly it was bloody hot!! on the bank it had to be close to 30 degrees, we had flies and midges all over us!! all in all a bloody good haul with over 100 locos copped at Toton

47501 was rostered on the 'drags' today so a visit to Norwich station to capture the home action was the order of the day, firstly a big thank you to the NATEX station staff and ticket barrier staff who kindly let me onto the platforms without a ticket to photograph (seems if you are polite enough you can gain access to the platforms)

Back to the action this afternoon 47501 arrived on time with the ex 13.06 Yarmouth service, but she never took the 14.18 'drag' back to Yarmouth, the service was substituted for 2 x class 170's as 501 developed operating faults, so 501 was left on the blocks ticking over until 15.05 when she left light engine for Crown point.

seems the 14.18 service to Yarmouth has caught the 'gremlins' again as it does most years, be interesting to see whats on the drags next weekend!!!

Day 2 of the trip took us to Doncaster, we found a car park behind the power signal box and an unbelivable price of 2.00 per day!! now there is a barrier at Doncaster station so you ask at the info desk that you want to take pictures/spotting, they will tell you to go to the barrier and ask to gain permission from the station manager on platform 3b, but the chaps on the barrier just asked us for proof of our aim i:e camera/books etc and let us straight through with no problems (thank you NATEX and the kind staff at Doncaster station who were very friendly towards us)

it was a very busy and sweltering day (26 degrees) freight was busy and two rail tours really made the day, but the highlight was 66841 (66406) which came from the south and stabled in the works sidings, a fantastic day i recommend Doncaster station still to anybody!!

The Annual 130 mile trip North to Barnetby/Doncaster, the first day was spent at Barnetby station, a very cloudy start with low light but mid afternoon the clouds dispersed and the sun gave good results from the east. A busy day with 8-9 freight workings per hour, inc a GBRF coal train. The day was started at 9.00 and finished at 18.30 then a few pints and a meal before heading back to the Holcombe guest house.

Thanks to my 'gen bear' Oli i got the word on 47832 working the summer Saturday 'Drags' so armed with my trusty Nikon DSLR i hotfooted to Whitlingham Junc to phot the service ex Norwich, then on way back to Norwich 47760 was spotted shunting Norwich lower sidings, so two 47's captured today, cant be bad!!

A sunny day, a day off and lure of the ECML, on a total whim, i went to Norwich stn bought a 'off peak' return to PB, i was warned it could be hit and miss at PB on a Sat, but it was a Hellfire few hours with 2 rail tours, 2 loco convoys and varied freights and L/E moves, i certainly picked a good day, well worth 16 quid of anyones money

An off duty visit to Dereham for a ride down the line on the 'cushions' 31438 was the rostered loco today with 47580 doing 'shunt' realease at Dereham stn

30 images from the month of March, i found an assortment of images on a memory card i thought i'd mislaid last week, in this gallery we see pics from Ipswich, London and the MNR

A few more pics from our Spring gala at the MNR, these were taken early on Sunday morning before the first train, headed by 37425, i thought i'd add these as they were taken by my Nikon D70's

The annual 3 day MNR March gala was a massive success for us, hosting the event were DB Schenker (EWS) who supplied 4 locos (37425-60059-66144-6700  plus the home and residence fleet 20069-31438-50019-73210 and 56040 which made its passenger debut. The event was prob the most anticipated gala this year, Saturday was a washout for most of the day but that did not keep the crowds away with a record 502 people on one train, what with the visititing DBS locos and the yards being open to the public on Sunday inbetween trains, this has to be the best gala i have worked with.

I would like to thank my collegues at the MNR for a great weekend they include: the Ops and Shunt team who made it all work on the day with positioning of locos and all the drivers from the MNR/DRS/DBS and GBRF who put on a great show for the public, i would also like to thank everybody at the MNR who took part in anyway large or small, im proud of you all!!

Here are 50 shots taken over the three days which show us at work at Dereham Station.

Its been a sad month so far for the Class 60 with only 15 locos remaining in service, DBS has admitted this week that the class 60 fleet is to be axed, which is sad news, so as a tribute i have been through my class 60 pics over the last few years and produced a gallery of 66 of the best class 60 pics i have taken over the last few years, so if you are a class 60 fan like me please enjoy.

I also run a class 60 enthusiast site on facebook with daily class 60 news and gen, if you are on facebook please join and keep up to date.

A warm sunny winters afternoon, so the first trip of the year was well awaited, with a nice gaggle of Freightliner 66's inc a new 66954, a very nice afternoon was had, many thanks to the Freightliner driver who spoke to me a nice chat was had!!

A morning out in the damp rain to 3 photographic locations to hunt RHTT trains and grab what was stabled for the weekend, first stop was Stowmarket to see if any locos were stabled at the DRS sidings, we found 37607/087/261 57011 and 57009 Then onto Ipswich which was a feast of class 66's stabled a total of ten along with 3 class 90's

i then got word from my 'gen bear' Oli Smith that a few class 66/7's were on engineering duties between Norwich and Diss after following the track from Diss to Norwich through muddy roads, tracks etc, i finally found a top and tail GBRF autoballaster working at Lower Tasborough, the location was horrendous to get to and only loco copped which was 66712, it was such a bad location i darent even take a camera to get a picture (sorry, but by this time my boots were covered in thick mud, my missus is gonna kill me when she gets home!)

Finally a visit to Norwich and 47818 was in the center road stabled with 57012 and 57007 stabled near platform 6 with an RHTT train!!

all in all a total of 23 locos seen inc 3 x 37's and a class 47, with only a 66/7 awaiting i.d

Many thanks to Oli Smith for the heads up gen at Stowmarket, i owe you buddy, buy you a pint when im next at Dereham

The second gala in two weeks, this time featuring our new star atraction of 73210 and GBRF 73210 of course 20069 08631 and 31438 put in fine performances on the line.

Myself and Tim had to learn how to shunt with the new loco as she is possesed with buckeye couplings and thanks to Pete from GBRF who not only trained us on all aspects of coupling/uncoupling but also started training our home drivers on the 73.

An excellent turn out by the public and i'd like to thank everybody who took the tme to join us over the last two weekends esp the people who took the time and came and spoke to us, your kind comments are very welcome.

Again many thanks to my ops collegues for a great weekend esp Roger/Tim/Pete/Mark/Andy/Pete C and Suz for for the cheese toasties!!!