More 'Alternatives' (26)

I'm struggling to keep up with the number of shots you are sending in for this 'Alternatives' theme. So, here are ten, yes ten more pics for today's post, 5th November 2011, to cut down on the backlog. Nine contributors are represented. Keep sending them in though.


The first pic is from David Quayle. His visit to India was rewarded with this pic taken at Agra Station. He was waiting to catch a train to Jhansi after visiting the Taj Mahal. The date was 2007.






Next up is a shot from Dave Harris. Taken in July 2006, DRS class 37, 37602 is shown heading a yellow, Network Rail Test Train along the coast at Dawlish. No info is provided about the loco on the tail.

Colin Platt has supplied pic number three, taken at the North Yorkshire Moors Gala on 1st October 2011. Ex  LNWR 'Super D' 0-8-0, No. 49395, is seen working a rake of freight wagons for the assmebled photographers. The working is photographed leaving Grosmont Station.

'The Royal Scots Grey' special, of Spitfire Railtours, ran Kings Cross - Edinburgh and return on 5th March 20011. Deltic 55022/D9000, Royal Scots Grey, headed the train with WCRC class 57, 57601 on the tail. Matthew Chambers photographed the train at Grantham.




New-build Peppercorn 'A1' 4-6-2, No.60163 Tornado, hauled a Crewe - Glasgow 'Caledonian Tornado' special through Greenholme on 21st September 2011 and Alan Rigby was there to photograph the event. Looks very bleak up there Alan. The special ran Crewe - Glasgow Central and return.





A BR 'Standard' class '7' is the subject of pic number six, from Bob McClellan. Riddles designed 4-6-2, No.70013 Oliver Cromwell, is shown heading another railtour through Helsby on 21st August 2011. The tour ran Liverpool - Chester - Holyhead and return.




Shot number seven is from Colin Irwin. Colin took a super, vertical shot from an unusual vantage point in Runcorn of one of Charles Collett's 4-6-0 'Castle' class locos, No.5043 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe, heading the 'Ticket to Ride' railtour, Birminghan New Street Liverpool, and return. The pic is dated 1st October 2011.





The eighth pic has been sent in by John Smith and is another of his superb shots of the industrial saddle tank locos of the Foxfield Railway. A photographer's freight special is shown, headed by two of the 0-4-0 saddle tanks on 15th October 2011.

Pic number nine features a shot from Norwegian Railways taken by Bob McClellan. An iron ore train is shown at Narvik, nearing its destination hauling 8,000 tons of high grade ore. The pic is dated 2nd July 2011.






Last, but certainly not least, is another of Jeff Nicholl's fine vertical format pics. The broad gauge of Isambard Kingdom Brunel was acknowledged by a Royal Commission in 1845 as being superior on haulage qualities and cost efficiency compared with  George Stephenson's standard gauge. The committee, however, bowed to commercial interests and adjudicated in favour of the standard gauge whilst, at the same time, acknowledging the technical superiority and potential of the broad gauge. The Gauge Act was passed in 1846. What a travesty. We could be travelling at 200mph in double-decked carriages now if this decision had been based on scientific facts and not the commercial interests of colliery owners, canal builders, land owners and financial speculators. Getting off my high horse now, this pic was taken at Didcot of a replica broad gauge 'Iron Duke' class 4-2-2 locomotive designed by Daniel Gooch, and fittingly named Iron Duke.