The Watercress Line
Lockdown eases and some heritage sites slowly reopen to the public. So Tina and I booked in for a ride on the Watercress Line, one of Hampshire's absolute gems of yesteryear!
Tina had asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday and I had no idea about a month or so back, as it solely depended on whether we would ease lockdown restrictions here in the UK as planned. Hence, literally two days before my birthday in April, we booked a couple of seats aboard the “Austen Climber”.
Halide II & Darkroom
To avoid carrying too much, I made the decision to leave the bigger camera gear at home and roll with just my iPhone and the two apps I really love using and they are Halide and Darkroom respectively. What I love most about Darkroom is that it exists across all iOS devices and MacOS. So when editing images I can save my modifications along with the files for synchronisation everywhere. Now that is quite a big deal indeed!
I edited the above image based on it’s RAW file and used one of Darkroom’s filters which I then boosted a little more in terms of it’s contrast. The shadows on the platform and the reflections on the steam engine just go to show how much detail you can get out of such a small sensor. It boggles the mind.
Halide II gives you plenty of power over your photo’s exposure, as I needed here. I was drawn to the picture within the picture and the personality of the people enjoying their cuppa on the sunny platform. I later ran the image through an XPRO feature in Darkroom, as I felt it had a certain Parr-esque look about it. A study of Britishness, it’s quirkiness and our endless love for our heritage, not to mention a nice cuppa and a little slice of what you fancy. Nothing wrong with that of course and you’ll see plenty more of that here on this blog!
My amazing wife Tina thankfully also enjoys all of this stuff that I do and is a big fan of Rambling Photographer. Yes wearing masks on days out is something we would rather not need to do but they’ve become second nature. We chose a pair of seats rather than a group of four or a compartment because I figured that compartments were for groups of 6 only, mostly families, same for the 4 seaters. So we chose ours via the website as part of the booking process. It was easy and we could see how busy the carriage would be (or not).
Our section of the carriage was indeed empty but other parts of the train were busier plus we went on one of the last trips of the afternoon.
I love the interior of this carriage, it has been beautifully restored and maintained. The seats are in my opinion, more comfortable than their modern counterparts.
Arlesford
We are now at Arlesford watching the train swap ends in readiness for the run back to Ropley. Tina grabbed a couple of coffees that were in paper Christmas cups, which just goes to show how long we’ve been locked down for! Second time we’ve been disappointed by hot drinks whilst out recently. A clear indication that we need to fish out our thermos flasks!
The staff were great and it was clear to see that they were excited to be back and there was a real buzz in the air.
Ropley
Kings Cross Bridge
This bridge once spanned the platforms (1 to 8) of Kings Cross Station in London, built in 1892 (the same age as my house as it so happens) by the famous Andrew Handyside and Company. Also known as the Handyside Bridge, it featured in a number of films - “The Thirty Nine Steps”, “Elizabethan Express” and in the “Harry Potter” series.
It was relocated from London to it’s new home by Mid-Hants Railway Ltd whom acknowledge the support of Network Rail and the Railway Heritage Trust for moving this listed footbridge from its original home of Kings Cross Station.
