On Saturday I was out on my travels again, armed once again with camera, tripod and a pack-up. I was heading towards the Peak District and the Tramway Museum at Crich, followed by a trip to The Midland Railway Centre.
After a very frustrating drive up what was once the M1 and is now, in the East Midlands, a 12 mile stretch of road cones, piles of gravel, average speed cameras and very little else I arrived at my destination. Crich Tramway Museum does trams, as you might expect, but in a way that only Britain can do museums. I’ve noticed recently, with a flurry of visits to heritage sites in the UK, that if there’s one thing we do well – better than any other nation, I believe - it’s the past. Every site I’ve visited so far has been beautifully presented, enthusiastically staffed with knowledgeable personnel, immaculate, well designed and provides value for money. So any chance of the people who run the past in Britain taking up posts in Government and applying the same treatment to Britain, here and now? We could certainly do with it.
Crich was fairly quiet on my arrival, and only three trams were running, which was a pity, but predictable as the season winds down. I was after some footage of generic British trams for a video project, so I chose the small but nicely restored town street area for the run pasts. Despite the fact that few visitors were about, they all contrived to push very large and very modern baby buggies into view on almost every shot. I wanted people in the shots to add character, and I don’t even mind if they walk in front of the camera, as it adds a dimension of fly-on-the-wall to the footage - and at Beamish some of the best shots came about this way. But baby buggies are monstrous things; bigger than the trams in some cases. And the equipment levels – they have more kit on them than my car. I have a friend with a baby, and her buggy has cupholders, for God’s sake. No doubt they’ll soon be fitted with satnavs as standard.
Crich offers a service that an increasing number of such sites have adopted recently; purchase a ticket and then receive free entry for an entire year after that. It is an excellent idea to encourage repeat visits, and presumably they make the money back with the catering and gift shops – so no one loses out. Crich is £10.50, and that represents outstanding value. I only stayed for three hours, mainly shooting video, but didn’t do the full look-round as I needed to get off a few miles down the road to the Midland Railway Centre at Butterley. I’ve been to Crich quite a few times anyway, and expect to return soon.
At Butterley I was again after some fairly generic steam-age footage, and fancied a change to the Nene Valley for variety. Butterley Station is very attractive, and I arrived just in time for the scheduled arrival of a train. 20 minutes later I was bored with waiting, and as a footpath runs down the line to nearby Swanwick Junction, set off to see what was up. On the way, I heard the train coming, some half hour late, which is pretty good going on a 3-mile long track. Still, I set up to get a lineside shot in the cutting, and this is what I got ….
I don’t believe it! Another bloody Thomas! Yes, the Jinty tank loco used as sole motive power was Thomas, in all his pale blue glory. The name and number had been removed, but there’s no disguising everything else. Fortunately I’m editing in black and white, so the worst effects can be mitigated, but I think it’s pretty poor to run one engine in steam and offer this.
Still I was here now, so continued to Swanwick Junction. The footpath takes you past several long sidings full of preserved, but not restored, railway vehicles. There are lots of these all over Swanwick, seemingly dumped and abandoned rusting derelict hulks of DMU’s, coaches and wagons. The whole area looks like a glorified scrapyard, rather than a working museum. Now, I understand that restoration is a long and expensive process, but all the vehicles dumped in the sidings next to the main line were there during my last visit in the 1990’s. It presents a poor image to the public, for whom this is their ‘Welcome to Swanwick’ presentation, whether they are arriving on foot or on the train. A long line of tatty DMU vehicles in faded Scotrail livery sitting at Swanwick station doesn’t help much, either.
My point here is that I believe that there is far too much emphasis on acquisition and not enough on restoring what they already have. I’d rather see two lovingly restored and operational DMU’s instead of nine rusting hulks. If there is no intention of restoring the vintage vehicles dumped in the sidings, it would be better to scrap them altogether and channel resources into feasible projects. This might sound like heresy from an enthusiast, but come on, be practical here and live in the real world. Alternatively, why can’t these (very) long term projects be moved to an area away from public view, and then place the restored stock next to the running lines? I’ve been to a lot of heritage sites this year, and they all manage that part of their business very well. Image is important in the modern world, and what will the casual visitor to Swanwick remember about their visit?
Consequently I made my way back to Butterley Station, which conversely, is a shining example of how a preserved railway should look. The station is beautifully restored with good attention to period detail, as seen here.
I decided to get a shot or two of Thomas in operation and depart, but despite myself, I found that I was growing to like the place and stayed until the last train. The station offered some interesting shooting possibilities and locations, and at least without a face and a name, I could disguise the loco to look like a loco. But it looks as though I’ll have to ask Ringo Star to do the voice over…..
All photos are screengrabs from the video footage, hence the less than perfect reproduction.
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