October
October wasn’t as productive as I’d hoped, but I did make the target of 60 images for the month, slightly exceeding it with a total of 61. This has resulted in the overall target for the year being obtained, with the year-to-date total being 675 by the end of the month. Having not done the Severn Valley Railway’s steam gala in September, I did do the “65 Years of Class 37” event instead. I did the Saturday, and in hindsight, I wished I’d done the Sunday as well; too many class 37s, and not enough time to photograph them all in one day. I’m just glad I didn’t book the Friday off to do this; it was wet, and I had other plans for my holiday entitlement during the month.
The next weekend was a bust. I went down with a cold and didn’t feel like doing much, and the weather wasn’t all that good anyway. Fortunately, I was able to shake off the worst of the cold before the next weekend, which saw me return to Somerset for the West Somerset Railway’s Autumn Gala, staying on the same site as I did in June. I had considered coming back for a WSR gala at some point, but I’d initially been thinking about the Swanage Railway’s Autumn Gala instead. However, this got moved back to September, which didn’t fit in with North Wales holiday, and when I realised that the LSWR T3 class no. 563 was going to be a guest at the WSR’s event, I decided to make a long weekend of it, and do all three days.
For the most part, the weather for the event was overcast, although the forecast rain on the Sunday wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be (I ended up driving back in rain on the Monday). As I’d been expecting bad weather for the event, I chose to only take the A7III on the trip, which was probably the correct choice; I don’t think the A77 would have done as good a job. There were a couple of brief moments of sunshine: one on the first morning at Blue Anchor as I was getting started, and another at Williton as I was finishing up on the last day (with a final shot of the other major guest locomotive 5029 “Nunney Castle” being taken from my accommodation as the sun set).
However, I really needed a National Trust visit in order to make the total and ended up with a short session at Croome on the last day of British Summer time, which did the job, and with some sunshine as well. Just as well, because although I had planned to visit the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway’s “Autumn Showcase” on the Sunday, in the end I didn’t feel like going, and the weather that day was wet, so I probably wouldn’t have got much photography done, anyway.
November-December
There is a combined production target of 50 images for the last two months of year. This is probably going to involve several low-production sessions fairly locally, as I don’t really want to travel too far at this time of year. I am also expecting to work two days between Christmas and New Year; the trip to the West Somerset Railway gala in October meant that I would have to work at least one day during that period, and other commitments meant I needed 1 day of holiday elsewhere.
I am booked for one day at the upcoming Dean Forest Railway gala, and I would like to try and get at least one more National Trust visit in, as this will break the record for the number of visits in one year (at the moment the score is 12; the same score as 2011).
Ultimately, what happens for the remainder of the year will depend on the weather. I would like to use the A77 if conditions permit, but if not, then the A7III will be deployed.
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