Swanage by steam - A Birthday treat
As the title suggest this was a special trip for me and care of Mrs Catpaw, not only did we have a lovely trip on the train with a chance to take plenty of Pictures but we had a nice walk round Swanage and visited a few places we hadn’t seen before.
As I have said before my love of photography came from my late Grandfather and especially my love of steam railways and photography of them.
I am always trying to recreate the sort of photo’s that he was an expert in long before the luxury of digital photography and almost unlimited image counts.
One thing my grandfather was an expert in was post production of images, he would spend hours in the dark room bring out or stopping back parts of images to bring out details almost hidden in an image. Things like smoke against a sky or parts of a locomotive hidden in the shadows.
While all of my images are take in RAW format and colour some I think look better in black and white, this image just reminded me of my days with a film camera loaded with black and white film trying to get the perfect balance of light and dark as well as contract against the sky
Norden Station
One thing I always look for is that extra detail, in this case the guard operating the points frame, this image could have been taken any time in the last 100 years were it not for the fact that Norden is a new station.
Despite its relative newness the team at the Swanage Steam Railway have built and dressed Nordon Station to look and feel like the other stations on the line, in including dressing the station with cases and in this case a milk churn.
Corfe Castle
The next station down the line and a mere few hundred yards from Nordon is Corfe castle and while we didn’t alight at Corfe we did get a stunning view across the village to the ruined castle. Like Nordon Corfe is dressed as it would have been in its heyday, including some amazing posters as seen here.
Swanage
The Swanage railway terminates at Swanage which is a small but interesting station once boasting 3 platforms it was and still is a meca for holiday makers although most come by car or bus now. As usual we hung around to see the locomotive run round the train which for a relatively large loco is an interesting shunt. But once past he points she runs back along what was once a main platform up past the signal box.
Some images are just crying out for that vintage look as with this one.
As a photographer I am always looking for an atmospheric element to a photograph. This is why I love steam engines they come with atmosphere built in.
Another atmospheric shot of the loco awaiting departure from swanage the injectors haveing been opend to draw the fire
This intesting shot was spotted by Mrs Catpaw and captured by both of us sometimes reflection can paint intereing pictures
Views from Swanage
I suppose this section should be titled views from the pier, as both the photographs were taken from the end of the pier. The first, looking east shows Old Harry rocks looking towards Bournemouth.
The second image, looking west shows the old stone pier and the Wellington clock tower.
Leaving Swanage
As we arrived back at Swanage station, as the down train had just pulled into the station.
This shot taken as the engine prepared to run forward to pass the points just looked cluttered and the engine was lost, so with a bit of post-production work I have made the loco the star of the show once more.
There is something magical about a live steam locomotive and it doesn’t matter how old or young you are. This you lady is a steam lover in the making.
Although Swanage boasted 3 platforms it has a relatively short run space for trains to run forward past the points but as you see here our locomotive makes it with jus enough room.
Want to see more?
As always there are far more photographs than I have space for here so why not check out my Flickr album where you can find images from my various trips to Swanage by steam
