



DB Cargo Locomotive Class 66130 at Banbury

Charles Moorhen Photo:

Trainspotting Class 66130 Locomotive

Class 66/0 66130, built in July 1999 and allocated to Toton TMD (Notts), waits at a red light, while heading towards Oxford at around 22:40 hrs., for a number of timetabled

's to clear the line at

on 13th April 2018.





This image, and the one below, was one of the hardest that I have ever tried to capture. The available light was minimal to say the least. To the naked eye it seemed as though it was not much better than candlelight. I'd left my tripod in the car and knew that if I went back to collect it, Class 66130 would be gone by the time I returned to the platform.





With no other options left open to me I decided to try for a hand-held shot. At the far end of the platform there was nothing to support the camera on, so it was a matter of hold and pray.





I set my Nikon D3200 to 6400 ISO, a shutter speed of 1/30th of a second and an f-stop of 5.6. Not an ideal combination, but better than nothing...if it worked.





I manually focussed, as naturally the auto focus would not operate in this amount of light, tucked my elbows into my sides, held my breath and pressed the shutter button.





Looking at the screen after taking the photo I wondered if, with a bit of editing, I might, with a lot of luck, be able to produce some sort of passable image.





As it turned out things were not too bad in the end.





After an hour of messing about with the editing, (not my favourite pastime) I ended up with a picture that, apart from the amount of film grain and noise, I was reasonably happy to have - given the circumstances.





Next time I'll try to remember to take my tripod with me!

DB Cargo Class 66/0 66130 at Banbury 2018 Photo: Charles Moorhen

'Along These Tracks' - blog update:



Previous photos posts are now easier to find.



All blog posts are now listed alphabetically on the right side of your screen; under the heading, 'Previous Photo Posts UK Trains'.





" I hope this makes your search easier ".