Photography Course at Nene Valley Railway

Last Saturday I attended a Photography course that was held at Nene Valley Railway in Peterborough and was run by PM-iMAGES. We arrived at 9.15am for a cup of tea or coffee prior to formalities starting at 9.30am. Pete and Jackie welcomed us to the course and the as there were 6 of us on the course and 3 of us had SLRs and 3 had compact cameras we were split into respective groups for some of the sessions during the day.

At 9.30 we had the introduction and safety briefing (including distribution of hi vis jackets) and then a brief slideshow of the types of shots that we would try and capture during the day. These included views of the station, trains leaving and arriving, close ups of the trains and station and then interiors such as going on a footplate, mail train and the signal box.

It was then time to take start off with some general work around the station and in particular using the footbridge as a base to take some photographs. Advice was given at around this point as to what not to include in a photograph with plenty of items in the vicinity that could spoil your picture. The plan was then to split into our groups and get ready for the 10.30 departure to Yarwell but as there was some shunting action taking place in the station then we took advantage of that opportunity with the Royal Mail train and then proceded to our point at the Coal Yard for the late departure to Yarwell.

Following that opportunity we then concentrated on the static trains in the sidings for some interesting photos outdoors. On the way their we had a go at photographing the footplate of Thomas so that we could get an idea as to what we do later in the day when we got on the footplate of 44422 which was operating during the day.

It was now time for a coffee break with some fabulous flapjack that Pete and Jackie had brought along (bang goes the diet!). At 11.50 we went to photograph the arrival of the train from Peterborough which was ultimately 10 minutes late. But nevertheless this was a good opportunity to photograph the incoming train. Sadly I got my light settings all wrong for this so I didn't make the most of the opportunity.

One of the highlights of the day was then scheduled and that was to visit the signal box. The 270 degree windows on the box provided plenty of light and with the levers having many colours there was a great shot to be had by all. The signalman was also in the box and seemingly with little effort he changing the signals with the levers so when he offered up the chance for someone to have a go I thought it would be churlish to refuse. At that moment it just didn't occur to me that he may be setting up a laugh at my expense but that was the case. Signal 22 is 976 yards away and you need a lot of effort to pull that lever and get it into a locking position and despite me getting the lever all the way down I just couldn't lock it. Needless to say I got a fail for that. Despite that I was glad I got to have a go as that was not something I could have foreseen when I drove to NVR earlier that morning.

We then had time to take shots of the train departing to Peterborough from the side of the engine sheds prior to the lunch break.During lunch I reviewed some of my photos on my laptop and had a bit more flapjack and then in no time at all it was time to go and spend some time in the Loco sheds and workshops. There are 3 sheds with a workshop, a shed for some work in progress and a shed for work that was almost complete. We had the opportunity to go visit them all but the work shed had an important job on so it was important not to get in the way of the work in there. There was such a variety of items here that you could photograph from the spanners on the rack to loco's being worked on to those waiting to be worked on and a crane in the final workshop.

It would be fair to say that our group had to leg it over to the picnic site to catch the train coming back from Peterborough. There was virtually no time for tripods or really to think about it so it was a quick decision to find a spot and then get ready for the shot. After the train had arrived we made our way back to the platform where quite a crowd had gathered around the 4F loco 44422. We were allowed to go onto the footplate and take some photos from inside the cab but unfortunately the driver didn't quite get the bacon sandwiches onto the pan whilst it was my turn!

After the driver and fireman had finished their bacon sandwiches it was time to take the train to Peterborough. We got ourselves into position by the engine shed and got ready for our shot of the train leaving the station. The engine started to make a noise and then gently move out of the platform releasing clouds of steam as it moved. The speed started to increase and then there were some large exhalations of gas from the the front of the engine which gave the impression of a dragon!

It was now getting near the end of the course so had some time to take some more shots of the station or have a look at the mail van that they have there. I must admit that I thought that there wouldn't be much going on in the mail van but Pete suggested that we do an action shot in the van. We set our camera setting to Night Picture and got the tripod ready whilst Pete had a bundle of letters that he started to throw into the pigeon holes once the camera flash had gone off. This setting sets the flash off to capture the foreground and then runs the exposure on to capture the background and it is therefore possible to achieve some interesting effects with this setting.

Once we had finished in the mail van we retreated back to our room where everyone was given the opportunity to review their photos on a laptop and discuss the day. All in all this was a fantastic day out and having been to Nene Valley Railway many times it was great to be able to go to places that are normally off limits to the public. If you would to take part in this course then there are 2 events provisionally scheduled for early next year next with a maximum of 8 persons per course. click here for more details