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Ok – Back on timetable with this entry for Cee’s Midweek Madness Challenge 🙂

Places can be handy for this sort of challenge, so lets start with Mitcham Junction…

…A photo I took back in 1987. The station has changed a bit since then with the introduction of the Croydon Tramlink, so I really must visit to get an up to date photo 🙂

Buildings are useful too. This is the headquarters of the International Maritime Organisation…

…It is located on Albert Embankment, London.

Another London location, Commercial Street…

…It passes outside the City of London to the east connecting Shoreditch to Whitechapel via Spitalfields and was an important area for industry.

Finally, here’s a Chiltern Queens coach. An AEC Reliance that entered service with Frames in 1963…

…The bodywork is an example of the Duple Commodore, a model that was only produced in 1963/4, so a very rare vehicle. It was still in daily use in 1980 when I took this photo 🙂

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It’s that time of the month again when Clare asks us to Share our Desktop. This month I am using a shot that I took back on 24th June this year…

…Taken with the Fujifilm X-Pro2 and the 55-200mm zoom lens, it shows Class 66 locomotive 66596 hauling an intermodal service through Ealing Broadway on an overcast, typically English, summer day. The train is travelling from Wentloog near Cardiff to Felixstowe North freightliner terminal where the containers will mainly be loaded onto ships for international destinations. To get from West London to the east coast, the train will route over the North London Line and has slowed to around 30mph in preparation for diversion into Acton yard where it will await its slot between passenger services on that busy route. You may notice that the containers are sitting on wagons that sit very low to the track. This is because larger containers were introduced some years ago and wagon designers had to come up with a solution to allow them to be transported within the restricted British Railways loading gauge. Some routes are being re-engineered to overcome this issue but on others it is not viable to carry out such work in the short term.