Saturday 18 October 2014

Grangemouth and Bo'ness

A collection of photographs taken in and around Grangemouth and Bo'ness.

Grangemouth refinery
Mud flats at Bo'ness Nature Reserve
Longannet power station
Wagon used to remove clay fron the abandoned Birkhill Clay Mine
Woodland walk at Birkhill
Grangemouth refinery at night
Grangemouth refinery at night

Bo'ness & Kinneil Railway Steam Gala Day

With a name like Bo'ness & Kinneil railway steam gala day, this was an event that I had to see.

Locos 62712 Morayshire and 75242 ran up and down the line with a variety of carriages and wagons from the preservations society's stock.

75254 with two 1921 Calledonian railways carriages at Kinneil halt
1921 Caledonian Railway carriages
62712 Morayshire approaching Birkhill station
62712 Morayshire sits beside the engine shed at Bo'ness station
62712 Morayshire prepares for a trip at Bo'ness railway station
The train departing from platform 1 at Bo'ness.....has just departed!

Sunday 12 October 2014

Flyboarding

Flyboarding was a word and a sport that I had not heard of until this afternoon.

It's a bit like a skateboard without wheels. A strong jet of water is fed from a boat or jet-ski through an umbilical and comes out of two nozzles on the bottom of the board.

It looks to be immense fun and experienced flyboarders can perform dives and somersaults in mid air.

Perhaps the best way to describe it is to look at the pictures of the two boys demonstrating their manoeuvres below.


Sunday 5 October 2014

Operation Joint Warrior 142

The second NATO Joint Warrior exercise of 2014 has brought participants from the participating navies to the west of Scotland once again.

After an early start on Thursday morning we were disappointed to hear that many of the ships had gone to anchor instead of berthing at Faslane naval base.

Only 3 foreign ships came into Gareloch with many hours spent waiting in vain for the anchored vessels to take shelter in the base.

Only 2 ships headed for Glasgow, with KDM Peter Willemoes going up on Friday morning to join fellow Danish ship HDMS Hvidbjørnen which arrived the previous day.

With news over the weekend of impending bad weather, the departures were delayed from the usual Sunday till Monday, meaning I would not be around for them sailing.

After hearing on Sunday of the American oiler planning to leave ahead of the remainder of the ships, we headed for Cumbrae to catch her sailing down the Firth of Clyde from Loch Striven.

USS Vicksburg is the first arrival in Gareloch
The crew are all presented on deck
USS Vicksburg making her way to Faslane
USS Jason Dunham, an Arleigh Burke class destroyer is the next visitor
Looking forward to getting into port
Royal Navy minehunter HMS Blyth being followed by SD Eva, a SERCO personnel carrier
Spanish frigate SPS Cristobal Colon arriving on Thursday afternoon
SPS Cristobal Colon
KDM Peter Willemoes, an Iver Huitfeldt class frigate of the Royal Danish Navy passing Greenock on Friday
KDM Peter Willemoes heading to Glasgow
US support oiler USNS Kanawha
USNS Kanawha passing through the Cumbrae Gap