Back with more updates

Well, I must say I really enjoyed my week off - Rog and I managed to cram in a few outings, including an excellent Saturday in Staffordshire when we were joined by Woody. Lots of good photos which will hopefully see the light of day on WME at some stage, but in the meantime I'm still ploughing through the photo archive from the first half of 2005.

The first part of 'Operation Archive Extraction' was primarily completed a little while back - I'd been through and extracted what photos I could up to and including my outings from April 2005. I'm now somewhat bogged down in the second phase of the operation, whereby having extracted the photos I now have to try and use them on the local WME galleries. This hasn't been as straightforward as expected, I've had to do a lot of tweaking and background work to sort out photo sequences and build up a better record of what's actually in my archive.

The good news is that I am getting there. Before 'Rog Week' I had possibly my most sustained series of updates for months, and I've been able to pick up where I left off with some more additions:

• WME Wolverhampton: A victory for the sequencing solutions I mentioned as a series of views of Devils Elbow Bridge join the Wyrley & Essington collection. The collection is coming together, although Devils Elbow is rather dominant at the moment
• WME Walsall: More canal coverage as two pictures of Rayboulds Bridge join the Walsall Canal collection. The second photo had been sitting on Walstest for a while, waiting for me to check for any earlier examples. I finally got round to it, did indeed find a slightly earlier shot (only a month or so in it) and now both are tucked in nicely in their new home. Oh, and I also took the plunge and stuck the Stand K sign at Walsall Bus Station into the Stops & Stations Collection
• WME Birmingham: and yet more rail content, with an addition to Duddeston (a useful view of the station entrance) and a new collection for Sutton Coldfield. I keep harping on about WME Brum being rail dominated, but I make no apologies in this instance - Sutton Coldfield is a great station, up there with my favourites and I simply had to include it. And by sorting out the various train photos I've taken there, it now is included, so there!
• WME Dudley: nothing so exciting on Dudley unfortunately, although a platform view at Lye is not to be sniffed at, especially with the old station footbridge making an appearance. Talking about footbridges, the one on the canal by Coseley Tunnel must be the most photographed canal footbridge on WME - especially with two more views now added. That makes it four and counting now, and I'm sure there must be more recent shots I haven't even got to yet. And I don't even like the bridge that much!!
• WME Staffordshire: still on the footbridge theme, the old footbridge at Codsall appears a couple of times amongst the four new additions to the Codsall Station collection. The collection is building nicely, and there is talk of the footbridge being resurrected using some of the original material, so good news all round I think
• WME Telford: almost every photo on this gallery dates from Friday 13th August 2004, including the two new additions. We have a rather uninspiring shot of Stand D at Oakengates bus station, and a look at the old station house/ dentists surgery at Oakengates rail station. Considering I've had just the one outing's photos to go on, I don't think WME Telford is doing too badly really
• WME Solihull: only one addition, but a good 'un - a view of the frontage at Shirley Station, a nice antidote to all the ugly, modern rubbish I have to put up with at other stations.

So thats the updates, whats next on the horizon. Well, WME1 still needs some exercise and its a case of me fighting the photoflab at the moment. Looking at the gallery, I still think there's more mileage in purging the test collections and trying to shift as much as I can onto the local WMEs. WME1 has already come down from 500+ photos to 408, but I'd like to take another big chunk out of it to get it down to something approaching 350 photos or less. This process is worthwhile, as the local WME galleries are growing, whilst I'm forcing myself to deal with awkward photos that I've been stockpiling. Sorting out the photo sequences has also took me back into the archive and released a few more photos that I'd somehow ignored, so I am presenting a more complete picture of my outings as a whole. And you know what, I'm actually enjoying the challenge of tackling the long-standing problem photos.

So, its on with the WME1 clearout. Hopefully I'll have a few more updates coming quite soon, the flab will melt away and then I can concentrate on the newer stuff. And hopefully I won't have to resort to the photo equivalent of liposuction, mores the pity!