The BLS ran a tour to Barrow Hill and Oxcroft Colliery on 4th March. There are shots of the train at BH and on its way to Oxcroft, along with a number of shots at BH later in the day - highlight was 56061 in full sun!

This was the weekend of EVR diesel gala with 37075, 31414 and Gatwick Express Stock, 03084 and 03-D2158 in action. Weather was poor to start with, but with some excellent thrash up the Ravenstor Incline, this was of little consequence!

The Southern Electric Group, in conjunction with Southern, ran a railtour from London Victoria to Littlehampton, Brighton and Newhaven Marine via East Grinstead, to commemorate the last weeks of slam door 3rd rail electric units on the mainline. the units were CIG 1866, VEP3415 and CIG1805. the weather stayed fine but cold all day. Verdict: One the best tours travelled on in the last 25+ years!

Class 40 40 145 was operating a tour from Liverpool to London and return on 5th November. The weather looked promising, so I set out for a few photos. Enjoy.

A visit was made to Chasewater Light Railway for their Autumn Gala. They had the majority of their working loco's in action along with a visitor GWR 0-6-0 Tank 813 from Severn Valley Railway. For me it had to be the DMU's and 73128!

MRC hosted a DMU Gala with Class 127, 114, 101 and Derby Lightweight 'IRIS' in use. However, the 127 unit failed on its first run, throwing the timetable out. The 114 unit was bought into service early!

After overnighting in Newhaven, I and the family took the ferry over to Dieppe. We were staying in the Loire Valley for a couple of weeks. At the junction of the N175 and N138 South west of Rouen, I chanced upon 2001 ex - 20035 on a Heanors low-loader at a truck stop. It's one of those surreal moments when your brian recognises the shape but not the colour!
Quick stop the car! Get the camera out! Ignore the French giving you a funny look!

I had booked an overnight in Newhaven in March 2005 prior to catching a ferry on the 20th August. Surprise, surprise, Southern announced its was the last booked slam on that day - imagine justifying that to the wife!

Anyway we all boarded for a run to Seaford and back with a slap up fish and chip supper thrown in!

I know how to push the boat out!

Theres also a few shots from the ferry of 377 type units running from Newhaven to Seaford thrown in for good measure.

A visit to the Rhymney Valley was in order on 30th July, as the Class 37 hauled passenger trains are due to come out of service in December. Later in the day, a brief visit was made to the nearby Pontypool and Blaenavon Railway, Thumper 205018 and Class 108 and 117 DMU's were on site.

All photos were taken on public rights of way, those at Pontypool and Blaenavon are courtesy P&BR and John Down.

My picture improved slightly in 1978! I started to take more photo's, since I had been more interested in 'line bashing' up to then. There are pics of 31/0 and 71's to name a few.

A small selection of photographs from 1977 - the year I started 'spotting' in earnest. Most photos are of variable quality, I didn't own a camera at the time and had to borrow my fathers '126'!

A small collection of coaching stock photos from the early 1980's.

A selection of departmental vehicle photographs taken over the last 20 years. More recent departmental photos of mine can normally be found at http://www.departmentals.com, just enter Martin Barnsdall in the search box.

A trip along the C&PRR in a Bubble car, photos of the pannier Tank and Bubble car hunting at Aylesbury! 12th June 2005

A collection of photos from Hastings Station and Hastings Diesels Limited facility at St Leonards. All photos at St Leonards are courtesy of Hastings Diesels Limited. We then travelled to Isfield to see 205033 and 1123, and then on to Tunbridge Wells to see 1317 and its ongoing restoration. Many thanks are due to Mike Pannel and his team at Hastings Diesels, staff at Isfield for showing us around - and to buffet staff for a great lunch!, and not least to Janet and team at Tunbridge for the guided tour of 1317.

A small collection of photographs. 1001 was on a tour from Hastings to Lincoln, and time spent on the ECML at South Muskham (North of Newark) and then catching 1001 on its way home.

Ac Electrics at Stafford and Stratford.

Pictures of Slam door stock taken over the last 20 of so years, but the emphasis on the last 3 years.

With new DMU's making their presence felt both North and South of the border, we though it time to pay a return visit to Ireland. We flew to Belfast on 15th February and spent a day chasing '80' class and 'Castle' class DEMU's.

The following day was spent mostly at Kildare - in atrocious weather - seeing what we could see.

Highlight of the day were the 2 remaining 121 class locomotives on separate cement trains.

A couple of hours spent at Clay Cross South Junction, some 5 miles south of Chesterfield. Theres a nice mixture to passenger and freight!

The long awaited Class 101 Farewell Tour. Justified to my wife so close to Xmas, as 'the rail equivalent of Concorde being retired!'

The excuse worked and a good day was had by all. Full marks to First North Western for an excellent day out.

A mixture of thumper photos, mostly taken within the last couple of years. There are some 'heritage' shots in for good measure!

A brief visit to Peak Rail, mainly to travel on the Tuesdays only DMU service.
There were, at that time, a number of stored locos at Darley Dale, these have since moved to pastures new.