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Stations to Photograph at

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TackerUK

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Hi well just got back in to taking railway photos after 30 years. Im on holiday in a few weeks time and staying with family who live near Tamworth. I need help in finding places to go photograph locos. Any help please. Iv'e got on my list so far . Tamworth, Stafford,Doncaster and Crewe. Any more idear's. I want places i can take me gran kid so don't want any hassel from staff. Plus is it a good idear to see station manager and sign in
Many Thanks
 
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alexdodds

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29 Jul 2009
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Chester-le-Street
Hi well just got back in to taking railway photos after 30 years. Im on holiday in a few weeks time and staying with family who live near Tamworth. I need help in finding places to go photograph locos. Any help please. Iv'e got on my list so far . Tamworth, Stafford,Doncaster and Crewe. Any more idear's. I want places i can take me gran kid so don't want any hassel from staff. Plus is it a good idear to see station manager and sign in
Many Thanks

No need to sign in at these stations infact at Stafford and Doncaster you can just turn up and begin straight away. Crewe just pop into customer services but only if you are there for a long time.

No idea about Tamworth. But i think it has friendly staff.
 

Mr Spock

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No need to sign in at these stations infact at Stafford and Doncaster you can just turn up and begin straight away. Crewe just pop into customer services but only if you are there for a long time.

No idea about Tamworth. But i think it has friendly staff.

Personally I have never signed in at Crewe and never had any problems, staff and BT Police often walk (patrol) the length of the platforms and most will stop and say hi and ask how things are going.

You should be able to just walk onto Tamworth and start, again staff are friendly.

The only thing is to be sensible, stay within the safe bounds of the platform and do not use flash.
 

YorkshireBear

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ive never had problems at crewe doncaster or tamworth before i just go on and tend not to get bothered :) all very good. Favourite is tamworth though.
 

TackerUK

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Many Thanks any idears on other stations to go to. Ive got 2 weeks to kill
 

chrismid259

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1 Nov 2009
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Liverpool
I quite like Stafford and Rugeley. Rugeley is very good for wide-angle photos, whereas Stafford is not. The only problem with Rugeley - it's a very quiet station in terms of passengers.
 

alexdodds

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Rugeley is very good for wide-angle photos, whereas Stafford is not. The only problem with Rugeley - it's a very quiet station in terms of passengers.

Except when the Poole brothers are on it.:lol:

Only joking.

I have seen some of their clips of both stations in Rugeley. Trent Valley station looks like a good station to photo with trains going through fast.
 

chrismid259

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Water Orton always seems a popular choice and is unmanned so no chance of staff hassle.

Another reason why I like Rugeley. The station is also an unmanned. Another unmanned station is Lichfield. I've only visited there once though, not the best station to trainspot at.
 

Techniquest

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19 Jun 2005
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Nowhere Heath
An excellent station to snap away at is Atherstone, easily accessible by rail from Tamworth with an hourly service (xx:47 for most of the day, trains come back at xx:23 for most of the day) and only a short ride on a 350 away. Annoyingly I've not uploaded my photos from my day out including a trip to Atherstone yet, however I'll return and edit this post with an example of what you can get there.

Be forewarned though, the footbridge has been out of use for quite a while for replacement works. December 2009 the work apparently started, but it's a long way from completion! So it takes a couple of minutes to use the alternative route to change platforms.

If you're willing to go a bit further north, Kidsgrove is also pretty good for photography. Again, an example of what you can get there will follow soon. Alsager's quite a nice station to get photos at, also un-manned. Not terribly busy though with just an hourly EMT service from Crewe to Derby and vice-versa and an hourly London Midland Crewe to London and vice-versa service, operated by EMT 153s and LM 350s.

As for Crewe, there's some decent opportunities there, most of which that come to mind are at the north end of the station shooting stuff coming from the north. Don't forget though that the vast majority of the freight uses the dive-under to the north of Crewe which re-surfaces to the west of Crewe station, so you won't get to see much of that. Stafford is far, far superior for that as everything has to pass through the station.

Rugeley, never been there for a photography session although I'm keen to try it. Lichfield, again not been there for long before but it looks limited for opportunities. Tamworth is good in my book, as is Nuneaton. Water Orton, a good place to go for shots but I prefer to go to the footbridge a very short distance east of the station for photography. I didn't see much freight when I went there, but different days mean different levels of freight at different times, so do some research if freight traffic is important to you.

Doncaster, not been there for years but I seem to recall it wasn't bad for photography last time I went there. None of the stations mentioned in this post will give you any problems, so long as your grandchild and yourself behave sensibly.

Welcome back to the hobby and enjoy your trip/trips out :)

EDIT: Some of the photos I was going to link to this morning follow.

Kidsgrove, with a southbound 390

DSCN5833.jpg


Longport, with a southbound 323

DSCN5843.jpg


Tamworth Low Level, with a southbound DRS working

DSCN5870.jpg


Atherstone, northbound 70004

DSCN5880.jpg


Atherstone, northbound 390

DSCN5884.jpg


Atherstone, southbound 379s on test

379003Atherstoneontest20thJune2011.jpg


Lichfield Trent Valley, with a northbound 350 seen from the stairs to the High Level station (it's my best and almost only shot from Lichfield I've got online)

DSCN5891.jpg


Hope this helps!
 
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