Beautiful Photo From The 1960s

[Andy873]

The link below shows a rare beautiful photo taken around 1964. Please remember this is someone else's photograph and please respect copyright.

Source - REAL Trainspotting facebook group, Great Harwood Loop Line photo posted by Steven Hearne

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The photo described:

Taken in what I believe was 1964, Black 5 No. 45229 pulls a passenger excursion west towards Great Harwood Junction and the East Lancashire main line. The photo was taken from the Whitebirk Drive road bridge and shows the train passing a bridge who's central span has been removed, the bridge in the far right hand side and in the distance was a footbridge leading down to the Leeds and Liverpool canal. With considerably fewer freight trains using this branch line, (the Gt. Harwood loop aka the Padiham branch) and only a handful of excursion trains you can clearly see the rails have turned a rusty red.

About the bridge being passed:

Source - Email from Bernard Bond to myself.

Bernard told me this bridge was called Blow Up bridge, named after the former colliery which was close by but closed in 1842. There was a steam boiler explosion at the colliery in 1819 hence the name Blow Up.

My personal opinion:

This photo to me is a beautiful and rare colour photo, I knew about the two bridges but had never seen a photograph of them before and it confirms the footbridge in the distance had a metal central span. This is the only true colour photograph of a train on the loop line I know about and have ever seen prior to closure of the Harwood section.

Thankyou Mr. Hearne for sharing your rare colour photograph.

Beautiful photograph, what do you think?

 

[Big Jumby 74]

Nice photo. Looks like the partially demolished bridge was one of many (in the country) originally built as occupation bridges (is that the correct description?) built to keep two sides of farm land connected when the railway was built through the middle of same?

 

[Andy873]

originally built as occupation bridges (is that the correct description?)

Yes, it was an original occupation road bridge which allowed access to a block of cottages know as Blow Up cottages. Looking at the OS maps, the central span seems to have been removed between 1929 and 1937, and by the mid 1950s it was all gone, but the footbridge was still there even after the line closed and the track removed due to the cutting still being extant.

 

[Ashley Hill]

That remaining abutment brickwork looks awfully clean seeing that the arch was removed at least 27 years ago.

 

[gg1]

That remaining abutment brickwork looks awfully clean seeing that the arch was removed at least 27 years ago.

It could be a colourised B&W photo, not uncommon for the process to exagerate bright patches and the colours do look very vivid generally.

 

[AlterEgo]

It could be a colourised B&W photo, not uncommon for the process to exagerate bright patches and the colours do look very vivid generally.

It does look colourised to be, but if it is it's good colourisation.

 

[Merle Haggard]

I suggest that it is a genuine colour slide, taken on Agfa CT35 film.
Agfa CT film made the greens very vivid, as in this photo. It also washed out greys, as in the ballast. I took quite a few with similar results - Agfa was overall the best slide film at the time, in my opinion, after poor experience with the others. Did produce very dark shadows, though, so you had to be aware of the sun's position.

 

[WesternLancer]

I suggest that it is a genuine colour slide, taken on Agfa CT35 film.
Agfa CT film made the greens very vivid, as in this photo. It also washed out greys, as in the ballast. I took quite a few with similar results - Agfa was overall the best slide film at the time, in my opinion, after poor experience with the others. Did produce very dark shadows, though, so you had to be aware of the sun's position.

I too think it’s genuine. Though I can’t back that up with this sort of useful detail.