Below and besides an old bridge

February 17, 2021February 17, 2021 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

Part of the network of disused and dismantled railway lines that used to run where the Trans Pennine Trail and Rother Valley now reside. This metal bridge is derelict with much of it’s bed missing and it’s brickwork coated with graffiti. It makes for interesting photographs though.

I’m unsure of when it was constructed but it appears to have been after 1910 and before 1945 from examining old maps of the area. While I suspect that, from an environmental angle, it left something to be desired, I expect it would have been an impressive and dramatic sight to behold steam locomotives about their business in the area.

Steam locomotives
Steam and smoke filling the air
Passed this way before

Yashica Mat 124G & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.

Taken on 1 February 2021

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Bridge ends

February 13, 2021 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

A couple of photos today showing two ends of the same bridge. I’d like to say what these brick structures are officially called but Googling didn’t turn anything up other than “parapet” and that doesn’t feel right. The bridge in question is brick-built, but the edges of the deck are metal railings rather than a completely formed of bricks.

Whatever they might be called, I liked the way they looked in the light.

Names of things unknown
I know there must be a term
But it’s out of reach

Yashica Mat 124G & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.

Taken on 21 January 2021

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Corrosion

February 11, 2021 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

This photo was taken atop one of the many disused railway bridges in the area. This particular bridge is a solid brick-built structure (with metal railings), but there a few around that are steel-built that have gradually decayed. Probably not to the extent that they’re likely to collapse (and I’m sure that they must be surveyed, if just for the safety of people walking nearby), but probably enough that I wouldn’t want to walk across them. One bridge (of which I have some, yet to be developed, photos ) has been fenced off to prevent people crossing it, but that one’s definitely in a poor state with most of it’s surface having long since disappeared.

Peeling cracked paint
Atop the old railway bridge
Looks like reptile skin

Yashica Mat 124G & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.

Taken on 21 January 2021

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Just to be contrary

February 6, 2021 fishyfisharcade5 Comments

I know that some people do “fence Friday” where they publish pictures of fences on, as you might have guessed, Fridays. It’s not something I’ve really felt inclined to do, although I think I was member of a couple of Flickr groups for such themes in the past. Anyway, limited to my blog, and probably for today only, it’s “fence Saturday”. 🙂

The fence in the picture is atop the bridge that I shared a photo of yesterday. It’s a fairly new fence that I think was installed not long before the COVID-19 pandemic hit and I’ve wondered if there were plans to expand the network of footpaths in this area, with the top of the brige included. I suppose it could just be a health-and-safety thing though.

Wooden fence atop
A brick-built bridge from times past
Perhaps a new route?

Yashica Mat 124G & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.

Taken on 21 January 2021

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Beneath the old bridge

February 5, 2021 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

Re-visiting locations once more. I didn’t think I’d made a photo of this side of this old disused bridge before, but I have and I posted about it here.

A slippery slope
Pool of debris choked water
I hope I don’t fall

Yashica Mat 124G & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.

Taken on 21 January 2021

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Former railway bridges in the snow

February 3, 2021February 5, 2021 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

The penultimate image from the roll I put through the Holga in the snow. Taken at Rother Valley Country PArk, looking back towards two former railway bridges, remnants of the time when this was an area dedicated to coal mining. The foreground bridge is disused and, while you can get up on top of it without any restrictions, it just carries a track through the trees, the stonechippings on the ground a reminder that it once bore railway tracks.

The bridge in the background now carries the Trans Pennine Trail on the section heading south towards Chesterfield.

Many locos once
Carried coal across these spans
An industry lost

Holga & Ilford HP5+ (@800). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°.

Taken on 14 January 2021

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

The bridge near the scrapyard

January 27, 2021 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

I’m sure I’ve posted other versions of this scene on the blog previously but can’t seem to locate them at the moment. Never mind.

This bridge crosses one of two sets of railway lines between the Trans Pennine Trail at Beighton and Rother Valley Country Park. You can see a photo of the other bridge here. In the space between them is a metal reclamation business and, just outside this, an area of open ground where the empty skips used by the business are kept. I’ve shown a number of pictures of this area recently.

The metal reclamation business used to be a traditional scrapyard, full of old junked cars stood atop one another in piles. It was possible to enter the scrapyard, find a vehicle that had useable parts, and then remove them and pay for what you’d recovered in the office beside the entrance. There used to be lots of scrapyards like this, but there seem to be very few of them around any longer. Whether this is down to the nature of modern vehicles, or some form of regulation / change in the law, I don’t know. They would make for a lot of interesting photos though, were I able to find one that allows access.

Nice little runners
Consigned to metal graveyards
Scavengers delight

Yashica Mat 124G & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.

Taken on 10 January 2020

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Reflected skips

January 14, 2021January 15, 2021 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

I’ve made a considerable number of shots of these skips recently. Some on this roll, and others on the following couple of rolls too. Part of this is down to lockdown restrictions reducing the number of places I can make pictures, but also because I think there are a number of interesting photos to be had in this location. There are maybe two or three dozen skips of varying sizes on an area of land outside a metal recovery firm and, after rain, large puddles form and create further compositional options. The skips are in a number of different colors and, as is the way with such objects, all have varying degrees of rust, dents, and other interesting patina. It’s an industrial “edgelands” type location that may not be to all tastes, but beauty and interest lies in the eye of the beholder.

Lunchtime walk in snow
Approaching the nearby lake
The sound of some geese

Pentax P30T, TSMC Pentax 35mm f/3.5 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.

Taken on 27 December 2020

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Feeling grey

January 13, 2021 fishyfisharcade1 Comment

I have a sense of aimlessness today. A struggle to focus. The feeling that I’m doing things for the sake of it and that I’m missing something important. I’m sure it will pass, but I’ll certainly be glad when it does.

I’ll still write my amateurish haikus though. 🙂

I’m wandering aimlessly
With things still to do
Procrastinating

I’ve walked near and crossed over this footbridge on many, many occasions, and have made the odd photo of it. This was the first time I had a telephoto lens on the camera though and it gave a whole new perspective.

Pentax P30T, Takumar-F Zoom 70-200mm f/4-5.6 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.

Taken on 27 December 2020

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Love locks

December 10, 2020December 10, 2020 fishyfisharcade2 Comments

Padlocks denoting couples love hang afixed to the mesh fence over the railway line. It’s hardly the Seine, but the sentiment will still stand. I see these locks when I cross this bridge on occasion and wonder about their origins. Some of them have been there for years and now are gaining more and more rust. Some are engraved. Others have the names of their originators written upon them in ink, and those are fading away in some cases. How many of the couples are still together, I wonder? And do those who didn’t make the distance remember making their mark in this way? Have any been removed by those spurned? Little monuments to people’s lives.