Category: Industrial Landscape
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#117 – Lethal Processes
I don’t know what this building used to do at Royal Ordnance Factory (ROF) Wrexham, but I suspect it was something dangerous that involved making or processing something lethal. Either way, it’s remained unused for over 60 years, the only evidence left being the foundations for something, and a large sunken pool of water at one end…
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#116 – Grown Up Scalextric – Chassis
One I missed from the series of images that I posted from the Leyland Test Track. I’ve since been told that this is probably a wrecked computer monitor, but I saw it and noticed the word ‘chassis’ on it’s base and thought it appropriate. It’s perhaps not as prominent in the composition as I’d have…
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#115 – Pattern
Pattern found in the foundry. Note sure why, but casting patterns are often painted red (although you can’t see that in this photo). There were quite a few patterns left around the place, quite surprised they’d not gone on a bonfire when the place shut.
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#113 – 13
Huge bowl mounted on a railway wagon for transporting iron round the works. Sometimes photos work just as well in colour as they do in black and white, this is an example of that, as the rich brown texture of the image is such a dominant part of the composition. By converting to black and white,…
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#112 – Terex
This giant dumptruck had its engine removed before being dragged by a bulldozer up the hill to its current resting place. I can only imagine the strength of the guy who apparently sat in the cab and steered it while it was under tow as without an engine there’s be no power steering!
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#111 Bunker
Entrance to some kind of bunker at ROF Wrexham. This was once a huge site, but it was closed after WW2 and most of it has been cleared for the Wrexham Industrial Estate. A few buildings remain, but are often innaccesible due to the thick undergrowth that, especially in summer, prevent you getting anywhere near.
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#110 – Grown Up Scalextric – One Way
I quickly got bored of photographing tarmac. I can do that in my street outside my house, so I looked for things that made this place unique. There weren’t too many, but there one or two things that made it interesting.
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#109 – Grown Up Scalextric – Tyres
I don’t know why, but I was surprised to see piles of tyres at the test track. Turns out most of them were to indicate where manholes were, becuase the manhole covers had all been nicked. However, it did seem appropriate somehow.
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#108 – Grown Up Scalextric – Armco
I used to have a Scalextric when I was younger, complete with banked corners, cross-overs and all sorts. At around that time, this place was in full swing, testing trucks from the production lines at the nearby Leyland Motors Works. Since then, the place has gone into an irreversible decline, and like pretty much all of…
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#102 – If You Go Down In The Woods Today….
….you might just find this place. This old railway warehouse was used as a transhipment point for coal that was loaded onto a huge conveyor that bridged the valley and delivered it to the former Hartshead Power Station. By the look of this place, it was probably built before the power station, and has lasted…
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#101 – Coatham Sands 1
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#100 – Lead in lines
Railway lines are a great way to lead into a photo, although, you do normally need permission to be on them! This was taken at a charter on the Ribble Steam Railway in Preston, and I got down low, to take the shot. With an increasing number of DSLR’s having live view on them, using…
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#99 – Light Engine
Another one from Snibston, I used a telephoto to isolate the loco as it ran light engine along the sidings to meet up with the coach it was hauling for the day. I wanted to capture the diesel shunter in the background and some of the industrial backdrop, but only succeeded in getting the shunter in. …
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#98 – Horwich Loco Works
Horwich Loco Works is somewhere I’ve been meaning to look at for some time, but never got round to it. For years I’ve looked at it’s huge long brick Erecting Shop as I pass it on the M61, and last went in the early 90’s when the site was used for car boot sales on…
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#96 – Explosives!
Unlike proper heritage lines, Snibston didn’t appear to have a demonstration freight train running, at least not a steam hauled one (although there was a charter on the Friday, but I only found that out afterwards). That was a shame as they’d brought a steam train in especially from the Chasewater railway and it ended…
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#95 – Cobbles and Steam
The area around Keighley station seems pretty much as it was 50 years ago, all cobbled streets, ginnels and old stone mills. I wanted to make a feature of this landscape so I had a scout around the area on foot, which is often the best way as you see things you wouldn’t if you…
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#90 – Buxton Lime Firm 2
Another one from Buxton. As before, processed in Nik Silver Efex Pro, using the Wet Rocks filter and (I think) the Ilford Delta 100 effect.
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#89 – Buxton Lime Firm 1
Converted to black and white using the ‘Wet Rocks’ filter in Nik Silver Efex Pro, and some HP 5 film grain. Not sure why it looks slightly HDR like, it’s only one image, and it’s not seen Photomatix.
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#87 – National Coal Mining Museum
Worked quite hard to get this, the sun was quite high in the sky and at an inconvenient angle, which also resulted in the sky becoming burnt out. I used a 24mm lens to get what I could in of the diesel loco, as well as the colliery headstock, not easy as it’s quite a…
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#86 – Anglesey’s Grand Canyon
I visited the Grand Canyon in Arizona a few years ago, and was captivated by it. It’s huge, colourful, and quiet, and if anything, ‘Grand’ is an understatement. While Parys Mountain is a mere fraction of the size, it’s amazing colours were hugely reminiscent. Parys Mountain was once a huge copper mine, and so although…
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#84 – Air House
This was my reward for a gruelling trip to Pyestock back in 2007. The day had started early, leaving Lancashire at about 6, picking up two other explorers in Manchester at 6.30, and then getting to Pyestock mid morning. After getting lost in the woods we eventually found access, and made our way onto the…
Mechanical Landscapes 