Tag: “Great Central Railway”

One of my favourite events of the year is happening this weekend – 7th, 8th and 9th June 2013.  The 1940s event at the Great Central Railway in 2007 was one of the very first re-enactment events that I ever went to and this event is still one of the highlights of my photography calendar.

I shall hopefully be posting photos from this year’s event in due course but before I do that I just wanted to show you the 2013 Great Central Railway Timetable and also the Wartime Weekend Flyer, both of which feature one of my photos on the front cover, the young soldier and the land army girl looking out of the railway carriage window.

I’m really pleased to see this photo taking pride of place on the front of these two brochures, I just hope I can take some photos of a similar quality over the coming weekend.  This shot was the best of a series of similar shots that I took just as the train was arriving at Rothley Station.

Here’s the original in case you missed it before:

***Update***Photos from the 2013 1940s event have been posted here

My photos from the GCR 1940s event in 2012 can still be seen here, and from the 2011 event here.

Photos from the first event I covered, back in 2007, can still be found here

Have a great weekend!

Geoff

Before I talk about my visit to the Great Central Railway 1940s weekend, I want to share some good news about two photos that I took at this event in 2010.  I recently entered these two image in the Great Central Railway Print section of the annual exhibition run by Leicester and Leicestershire Photographic Society.

This picture of an engine driver looking out of his cab was commended:

This picture featuring a young soldier and a beautiful land army girl, which was a grab shot taken as a steam train was drawing into Rothley Station, was awarded second place in the same competition:

This year (2012) was the fifth time that my good friend Barry and I have photographed this event in the last 6 years.  Not only is it a great event for photographers, but it is a great day out with plenty to see and enjoy, good food and interesting people to meet and share experiences.

The weather turned out so much better than expected with the forecast for Sunday being wet and windy.  As it turned out, it was a beautiful day for re-enactors and visitors alike.

I don’t think there were quite as many period costume “characters” as there were last year but there was still plenty going on, certainly on the Sunday when we were there.  The Das Heer re-enactment group were on patrol at Rothley Station as in previous years.

At Quorn and Loughborough Stations we encountered the Pitsford Home Guard Living History Group who carried out various exercises, parades and drills throughout the weekend.  There was also a rarade featuring members of the Royal British Legion and guest dignitaries including Montgomery among others.

This was my first re-enactment of the year following a long lay-off due to my back problem earlier in the year.  It was great to be out taking photos again and I hope to be able to cover more events through the remainder of the year now that my back is improving.

All the photos here were taken with my Canon EOS 5D (Classic) and EF 80-200mm F2.8L lens.  All photos were shot in RAW format and processed using Lightroom Version 3.6.  I’m still using Windows XP and so I am unable to upgrade to the latest version of Lightroom but to be honest it doesn’t concern me that much.

As always, credit must go to the event organisers, especially everyone connected with the Great Central Railway, including all the volunteers.

Also thanks to all the living history groups and re-enactors, both military and civilian, who make these events such a great photo opportunity for the many enthusiast photographers like myself.

Geoff