WELCOME TO MY PHOTO GALLERY
I hope you enjoy looking round and would welcome any comments and further information you have. This blog is to help you find your way around the gallery by telling you what's new and giving you tips on using the gallery. I will continue to expand it and if there's any topic you think needs clarifying, please let me know.
I've recently completed a major update of the gallery on Pontypridd and Taff-Ely. This just concentrates on the motorbuses for now but most vehicles ever owned are there, many several times and in different liveries. There are almost 500 Pontypridd UDC/Taff-Ely photos there! In addition there are photographs of other operators on joint routes.
This comprehensive gallery would not have been possible without the willing support of quite a lot of photographers who are acknowledged against all their contributions. They have provided a diversity of both period and location that I could never have achieved.
I have also covered the evolution of the route network, but there is a lot of work to do on the route histories and they must be considered "best guesses" at the moment. There is good geographical coverage of most routes.
There will be another update in time and I would welcome any further contributions of original photographs to fill gaps in the gallery. Comprehensive it may be, but there are many gaps yet! Please contact me if you are willing to help.
I'm trying to make it an accurate reference source so please let me know when you find mistakes (as you surely will) - I welcome corrections.
I hope to gradually extend the route coverage to other parts of the Valleys, but this will take time!
I've added a smaller gallery on the trolleybuses of these two operators, the majority of the material relates to the last months of operation and features the final tour. The gallery is at http://davidbeilby.zenfolio.com/f480400271
The Christmas/New Year break has given me time to add to the gallery again, developing some new themes introduced in the last year. A second gallery from South Wales sees my tribute to Pontypridd Urban District Council, later Taff-Ely Borough Council. With 127 photos it is quite a large gallery and I was rather surprised to find I had so much material on this operator. Despite being the largest UDC operator the fleet size peaked at around fifty buses. The gallery can be found at http://davidbeilby.zenfolio.com/f533760805 and here is a sample:
Another theme developed this year is industrial railways. I visited a lot of installations (mainly collieries) in the early seventies and took a lot of photos almost exclusively of steam locos, but most have remained as negatives until now. I'm approaching it on a location-by-location basis, adding all my material relevant to the location at the same time. So far I have covered two pits in the Barnsley area with a small gallery relating to Emley Moor colliery (Skelmanthorpe) and a much larger one at North Gawber colliery (Mapplewell). Industrial steam photos are at http://davidbeilby.zenfolio.com/f817456669:
Finally, a bit more on a more familiar theme is a small selection of Rotherham trolleybuses. Some of these appeared in the recent Middleton Press book on Rotherham trolleybuses and it was only as a result of that I came to realise that the English Electric photographer captured some rarely-seen locations and workings. Enjoy a few Daimler trolleybuses at http://davidbeilby.zenfolio.com/p216309036:
I hope to add another Saddleworth Buses update before long. Thanks for looking!
For those spending some time looking at the English Electric bus photographs in particular, there is a 1937 view of the site on the Britainfromabove website which can help orientate you. The photograph attached provides a link to the specific view.
The end of a six-year project is nigh! The last planned gallery on Saddleworth's Buses has been completed tonight and new ones will only be added if there are new developments that warrant it. This last gallery focuses on the coach services which passed through Saddleworth without stopping and can be found at:
http://davidbeilby.zenfolio.com/p385437336
What will follow soon are a series of updates to complete the project, as much as a project of this nature can ever be finished!
Thank you all for your interest over the years.