Trainspotting!

Having lived in Scotland for 15 years, I have seen the Forth Rail Bridge many, many times... I've driven past it in my car, driven past it in an ambulance, been driven past it on a bus, flown beside it when landing or taking off from Edinburgh Airport, and yes, I've even been over it on the train... I've looked up at it from South Queensferry while eating fish & chips on the prom, and I've looked up at it from North Queensferry while drinking coffee in the cafe at the Deep Sea World Aquarium.

But, in all those 15 years of ogling at it, marvelling at it, and being generally jolly well and truly completely awed by it, I've never, until now, taken any photos of it!!



Even while sitting and eating fish and chips, when you'd think there was all the time in the world to get a photo, I've never done it. I've always thought about it, and always regretted that I never had the camera with me, or that there wasn't time, or it was howling with rain or a myriad of other reasons or no reasons for not getting a photo, but now, at last, I can say that I've done it!!

Probably the reason that I've finally got round to it is that I don't live in Scotland any more. While I was there, and thought I'd be there forever, there was always going to be another time. It's the classic case of the locals not knowing half so much or having been to half so many places in their area as the tourist who just pops by for a week or two! There's always another time to go and do the nice but unnecessary things.

It was never necessary to get a photo of the bridge, but it was always a nice idea. Getting home to start the tea or go to Tesco or do the washing or whatever was always the not so nice but necessary reason for not stopping, for just sailing past (actually, that's the one view I never had... never sailed past on the water!!) and just looking.

I even remember once driving over the Forth Road Bridge (which runs alongside the Rail Bridge, about 1 mile upriver) and watching HMS Ark Royal sail majestically beneath the bridge... what a photo opportunity that would have been! But, I was in my works van, in the days when I was a plant lady on my way back from watering the plants of some of Edinburgh's hotels and boutique shops, doing 50mph (honest guv!!) over the bridge and not in any way nor shape of position to be able to stop, even if I'd had a camera with me - which I didn't!

I've seen sunsets and sunrises at the Bridge, I've seen it in snow, I've seen it lit up and in the moonlight. I've seen trains rattling over it and through those magnificent arches, but I've never, ever stopped for a photo... until now! Now, of course, when I'm about 400 miles away and not in any kind of position to do much about it, I want to go back and try again. I want to go and get some more dramatic angles, different views, better photos... ah well, I'll just have to return some day!

My good friends, my fellow intrepids, live within a few miles of the bridge so I'm quite sure a visit will be on the cards sooner rather than later. I just hope they fancy a bit of trainspotting with me and want to spend an evening down by the bridge. South Queensferry is rather a pretty wee place to spend a couple of hours anyway, and of course I know a very good fish & chip shop that also sells tea, coffee and hot chocolate (hint, hint... you know who you are!!!).



I'm not entirely sure they sell apple pie, but I'm sure we can ... er... cross that bridge when we come to it, ho ho!!!!



The white crosses on the bridge aren't Scot Rail's answer to the Saltire by the way, they're actually scaffolding and covers to protect the workmen currently working on the bridge. They just also happen to be a lovely, and rather apt, sculptural form that bears a striking resemblance to the St Andrew's Cross (the Saltire of the Scottish flag).

So my first efforts of photographing the Forth Rail Bridge are well enough for a tourist, but I will be back for more!

Rebecca, x
www.rtphotographics.co.uk
rebecca@rtphotographics.co.uk