- For Sou'wester
scan1076 Citybus 2629
I think that this must have been my third visit to Belfast and this was the last shot of a Citybus vehicle on the trip. It was taken near Belfast City Airport just around the corner from Sydenham NIR station, in fact, the location looks like this today. The suburb is called Sydenham and this is Station Road, now bedecked with Union Jack bunting and a mural I note. The destination is Holywood Road, spelt with one "L" but pronounced the same as the place they make all those bad films.
I rather liked these Tigers since they had Gardner engines which made them rather like a Seddon Pennine 7. They had exhaust brakes fitted which made a rather fearsome noise and added interest to any ride. Until I dig out my old notebooks, I don't know whether I had just arrived on this for my flight on a "super shoebox" back to Liverpool. I rather suspect I'd arrived by train as there is a photo of one of the whistling NIR sets on the same negative strip. It is twenty years ago, after all.
2629 was new in 1989 and it appears it later ran in Ulsterbus colours and has since been preserved at the Kells transport museum near Cork. There is a photograph of it here being blessed by the Virgin Mary.
Comments and faves
Sou'wester (29 months ago | reply)
For some reason I always seem to think other people's black and white pictures look better than any of mine! This is certainly a nice composition - I wouldn't expect anything else from you! I do, however, find my eyes being drawn to that darned lamp post on the left.
Northern Ireland is one place I've never got to, but, along with the Channel Islands, is on the to-do list (as well as a return visit to IOM).
Seen in Bus Photo Critique Community
ɹnoɯɹɐdsıɹɔ (29 months ago | reply)
Well, I don't know what excuse I can offer for the pole. Perhaps I dashed across from the railway station seeing the bus from afar; perhaps I didn't want to be seen conspicuously photographing the gable end of the row on the left, which may well have had a political mural even then. When it's as ingrained in the photo as this one, you just have to live with it! My gut instinct is that, but I suppose you could get away with a closer crop and less background, though that goes against the grain for me.
As far as my black and white photos are concerned, each gets contrast tweaks in Curves adjustment layers, sometimes several layers to bring wayward exposure or cack-handed development under control, and many get local contrast adjustment with Dodge and Burn tools set to very low levels, usually 1 or 2 percent, to accentuate highlight and shadow detail.
Sou'wester (29 months ago | reply)
I think it would lose something if it was more closely cropped. It's a nice scene as it is, and you really can't avoid some of these annoying features no matter how hard you try. Sometimes, though, you just don't notice them when you're taking the photo, especially if it is in a hurry, or if you;re walking from A to B.
ɹnoɯɹɐdsıɹɔ (29 months ago | reply)
I can't bear poles which emerge from the roof of a bus. They have to go. As for the remainder, if I find them invasive I get rid if I can do so realistically. If I can live with them, I do.
As far as this view goes, I don't remember how hurriedly it was taken. It doesn't really have enough landscape features for me to justify putting it in Scenic Bus (the houses are uninteresting - a mural or some bunting would have been great) but I reckon it's a fair enough record of the bus in service. It seems that the lamp post has since been replaced and moved out of the frame!
Zippy's Revenge added this photo to his favorites. (29 months ago)
Zippy's Revenge (29 months ago | reply)
Faved for the simple reason being that I love these Tigers, having driven their Cummins / ZF bretheren for Timeline which went like shit off a shovel. When we went over to Belfast for the RE running day we managed to bag a Tiger on the 300 back to the Airport for our flight back to Liverpool, no easy feat as the Airport service was by this time operated by brand new state of the art Wright bodied Swedish things. Said Tiger was suffering from a broken rear spring which meant we felt every pothole on the moulded fibreglass seats but was a very fitting end to a day riding on proper buses.
Alefilobus and Tocqe added this photo to their favorites.
This photo was invited and added to the Citybus Belfast group.
This photo was invited and added to the Belfast Corporation Transport/Citybus Belfast group.
This photo was invited and added to the Bus UK: Northern Ireland group.