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Bartholemews Walk, ELY, CB7 4EH

Closed bowling alley near Ely station.

This new site for Cambridgeshire Archives (replacing one in Shire Hall, Cambridge) was opened in February 2020: at the time of this photograph the official opening ceremony was still a few days away, although the building was already functioning. The building was previously a bowling alley and a small display in the foyer records this.

Looking in the up (south) direction from the south end of Ely railway station. The main running lines through the station are on the left of the photo. The train (a Class 365 electric unit) is stabled on the relief line between services. The sidings in the foreground (right of photo) are part of Network Rail's Ely maintenance depot.

The morning Bury St Edmunds to Whitemoor freight is looped at Ely for a passenger service.All the signal boxes and signals have gone when Ely was modernised and the railway was electrified to Kings Lynn.This was a cold place to hang about when the wind blew from the East.

Tamping machines > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1604048 are used by engineers on the railway to pack (or tamp) the stone ballast which supports the track. The ballast needs to be firmly packed to avoid unwanted track movements; however, even tightly-packed ballast allows some flexibility. Before the introduction of mechanical tamping machines, the job had to be done by manual labour. This only partly consolidated the ballast so speed had to be restricted over renewed track until the passage of trains had bedded-in the ballast: track which has been mechanically tamped can be operated at full line speed much sooner. The machine was built in 2004/05 by Plasser & Theurer who are based in Linz, Austria, where most of the parts used in the work units, hydraulic elements or bogies are being manufactured.

Tamping machines > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1604048 are used by engineers on the railway to pack (or tamp) the stone ballast which supports the track. The ballast needs to be firmly packed to avoid unwanted track movements; however, even tightly-packed ballast allows some flexibility. Before the introduction of mechanical tamping machines, the job had to be done by manual labour. This only partly consolidated the ballast so speed had to be restricted over renewed track until the passage of trains had bedded-in the ballast: track which has been mechanically tamped can be operated at full line speed much sooner. The machine was built in 2004/05 by Plasser & Theurer who are based in Linz, Austria, where most of the parts used in the work units, hydraulic elements or bogies are being manufactured.

EMD Class 66/0 diesel locomotive in EWS livery, hauling freight past Ely station. EWS (English Welsh & Scottish Railway Ltd) is Britain’s largest rail freight operator and part of the DB (Deutsche Bundesbahn/German Federal Railways) Schenker organisation. After the sale of the three ex-BR freight businesses (Loadhaul, Transrail and Mainline Freight) to the American Wisconsin Company, the latter formed a British operation called EWS. After EWS's purchase of BR's mail and parcels operation, Rail Express Systems and Railfreight Distribution, new locomotives were needed to meet the projected upturn in British freight traffic. An order for 250 machines, designated 'Class 66', was placed in 1997 and construction contracted to General Motor's loco production facility in London, Ontario (Canada). The first locomotive of this type, with the number 66001, was shipped to England via Immingham Docks in April 1998. The Class 66s, allocated to Toton but operating throughout the country, are painted in the standard EWS maroon and gold livery