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!

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.

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