Spotting 2024 – Week 44

This has been a weird week to close out quite a busy October and make a start to November’s spotting activities. After last week’s visit to Didcot this was always going to be a bit of an anti-climax and the early part of the week was going to be tied up with football as we had a London Senior Cup match on Tuesday against Erith & Belvedere. Lets quickly talk about that.

Erith & Belvedere are two divisions below us so this ought to be an easy game – shouldn’t it? The reality, of course, is different. Lower division sides are always up for a cup game and a chance to beat the higher level team – we knew they’d put heart and soul into everything – And so it proved! Our Manager decided to rest a couple of players and give 19yo defender Bobby Webb a full 90 minutes and the Captain’s armband…

..The match was a real delight to watch with the sides battling well and creating scoring opportunities throughout the game. Wingate could have taken the lead several times in the first half and Erith could have won the game with around 10 minutes to go when they forced two smart saves from our keeper. It took until the dying seconds of injury time and Wingate mounting a final effort; A shot from distance that was blocked became a looping clearance that Bobby intended to chip back into the area except he mistimed his kick and the ball instead went low into the path of Jaiden who smacked it low and hard from the edge of the box past Erith’s keeper…

…There was just time for Erith to kick off before the Ref blew the final whistle. There was overwhelming sympathy for the visitors among the majority of our fans – they at least deserved to fight a penalty shootout but it wasn’t to be and we progress to the next round.

The weather for the rest of the week was grey overcast with occasional drizzle – In the circumstances I decided that I’d do a North London Line freight outing on Thursday. I started at Hampstead Heath where I had to wait a bit longer than expected because both the freights I was expecting where running late. The cutting at the west end of the station makes for an interesting shot. I photographed one of ‘Overground’s 378 units on a Stratford service and then 66518 on the Basford Hall to London Gateway intermodal. It’s interesting to compare the two shots…

…as it gives an impression of how much smog a diesel locomotive creates. It is a steady climb eastbound through the tunnel to the line’s summit at Hampstead Heath, so the power has to be on all the way.

At the other end of the tunnel is Finchley Road & Frognal station where I caught 66425 ‘Nigel J Kirchstein 1957-2021’ working the Tilbury to Daventry Tescoliner…

…An interesting mix of graffiti and new retail / residential construction forms the backdrop.

I found my way to Willesden Junction where I caught up with one of the Whitemoor yard engineers trains – just repositioning a locomotive on this occasion – and then hopped back to Kensal Rise where I photographed 59203 on a Purfleet to Merehead Quarry aggregates run…

Then it was time to head down to Baker Street via West Hampstead for lunch. There were several photographers taking shots on Baker Street station – I wonder if it was a club outing or tourists in a group? I paused briefly to capture TfL S7 Stock unit 21405 arriving on a westbound service for Hammersmith…

…with, as luck would have it, a nice piece of arcing from the collector shoes. It’s very dark in Baker Street’s 1863 built platforms – I had to use ISO10000 at f4 to achieve 1/30th for this shot!

Then I headed home via West Hampstead & Gospel Oak catching a shot of 66592 on the way at Upper Holloway – The unedited version appears in my Last on the Card post for Brian’s Challenge. Tally for the day: 105 logged of which I needed 6. I picked up 4 new for haulage.

Friday and Saturday saw me open my November spotting in a minimalist way. I was a man on a mission on the 1st. I’ve been planning on getting a more suitable lens for my football photography as the Fujifilm XF55-200mm f3.5-f4.8 doesn’t transmit enough light for night games. With such a wide zoom range it is also difficult to quickly adjust from close to far in the time necessary during games. So off I went to Park Cameras. Of course I didn’t go directly there, choosing to route via New Southgate to Moorgate and then around via the Underground to Goodge Street. It proved to be a fortuitous choice as I picked up 717003 for haulage at New Southgate – That’s the last but one 717. I just need 717006 now for the set😎 A quick stop at Euston also produced an opportunity for get my first photograph of a Class 805 unit…

I was hoping to buy a Fujifilm XF50-140mmF2.8 R LM OIS WR – This is a top of the range lens and it doesn’t come cheap although comparing the £1450 with the £2500 that the Canon L Series 70-200mm F2.8 cost back in 2011, it’s probably a bargain! There was an issue though – Park’s had none in stock and weren’t sure when they would be getting any. This seems to be the tale everywhere (I had looked at some other photography outlets that also didn’t have stock). I guess these lenses are a rare purchase and Fujifilm probably don’t make many of them.

Park’s did have a solution – would I consider secondhand? I examined closely at the one they had in stock and it appeared to be in good condition. I tested it in the shop and it seemed to function correctly too. I decided that at half the price of a new one and with a 6 month warranty, I’d take the chance! Time to head home and have a beer to calm my nerves😅 Tally: 57 logged of which I needed 2 and I picked up 2 new for haulage.

On Saturday I decided to take the new lens out for a basic test – A trip down to King’s Cross. Here, on a murky day, I photographed Driving Van Trailer 82208 arriving on a service from York…

…with 91105 providing the motive power at the rear. I also caught 800106 ‘You Belong’ coming out of Gasworks Tunnel…

Initial impressions of the lens are very good. The optics are clearly superior to my 55-200mm although the depth of field drops off quite markedly. If I was going to use this lens for trains I’d need to be stopping it down to around f11 to counter that but for football photography shallow DoF is a desirable thing most of the time. It won’t replace my existing lenses for my spotting expeditions as I value the flexibility of the wider zoom range at the expense of a small drop in quality.

We’re about to enter an extremely busy month of football with games every Tuesday and Saturday starting on the 5th. The 50-140mm is going to be working hard, so I’ve updated its firmware in readiness. I’ll be trying to fit in some trainspotting between the games and subsequent processing of photos – Lets see what the coming week brings 😎👍