Welcome one and all to my website – Trains, Tanks and Planes. This website is a collection of photo essays of railway and military events and museums. So if you are thinking of visiting a gala at the West Somerset Railway, The Temple at War living history show in Essex or maybe even the U-Boat Story museum in Liverpool and want to get an idea of what you may see before you go, then this is the site for you.
In addition to the photographs, additional information is included such as where to go to get good photo opportunities, where to stay and what the event programme was like. The additional information varies according to the actual event / location being covered.
The site is now a over a year old and in that time the content has gradually grown and the site has evolved, most notably I now venture abroad in my Foreign Fields section. Inevitably the day job gets in the way and I have far more material than I am able to post, but still we soldier on, no pun intended!. At the time of writing I have photo essays in preparation for Blood River (South Africa), Valletta (the World Heritage Site in Malta) and a fantastic stay in a World War 2 control tower in Norfolk.
Of course as we start to think about coming into spring there will be reports from the usual crop of railway and military reenactor shows and then there’s the occasional air show as well. so plenty to keep me busy! On the Railway front the West Somerset Steam Spring Gala will be a definite addition and later on in the year the Chinnor & Princes Risborough Railway will appear.
My latest addition is from the Temple At War living history show, now in it’s fourth year this was as usual a brilliant show.
You may register to get automatic email updates about content changes on the site and I’m also happy to receive constructive comments and feedback. Complementing the site is a Facebook page on which I shall also post content updates and ‘coming soon’ information.
On the site you will come across my long standing chum and fellow anorak Tony H, my lady Diane (DD to her friends and on this site) and occasionally my longest surviving chum Brian or ‘Brain’ as we call him.
Now I’m sure you are very keen to ‘crack on’ and start browsing my content, but before you leave this page I’d like to share a mildly amusing story that occurred way back in March 2006. Tony and I are parked outside RAF Wyton in Cambridgeshire, at the main gate is a very tasty looking Canberra PR.9 and we want to take a snap or two. Knowing better than to point a camera toward the main gate of an active RAF base we amble up to the guardroom to ask permission. I approach the chap who looks as if he’s in charge (some kind of non-commissioned officer I believe, but I can’t recall the exact rank) and the conversation went like this.
Me: “Good afternoon”
Officer: “Good afternoon sir, and what can we do for you?
Me: “We [Tony and I] would like to photograph your aeroplane [never assume that a serving RAF ranker will know what type an aeroplane is]”
Officer: “And WHY would you want to do that?”
Me: “Well we are aviation enthusiasts and we like aircraft”
Officer: slight turn of head and blank look.
Me: “It’s a Canberra PR9 y’see – it’s a classic British design and we’d like a photograph or two”
Officer: continues to stare at me uncomprehendingly
Me: I stare back sadly, not knowing what more to say.
At this point Tony, who has been holding back in reserve so to speak, steps forward and fixes the officer with his steely [I used to be an estate agent] stare and says….
Tony : “We’re Anoraks”
Officer: Understanding suddenly sets in, he gives us a broad smile and says “Ok, fill yer boots!”
I should perhaps add that the officer also said [with a smile] that if we actually pointed our cameras toward the main gate [as opposed to the Canberra] he would stamp on them… but that’s another story and in the end we got away with our pictures and cameras intact and just to prove it here are two of the pictures that we took….
Trains, Tanks & Planes 