Jones The Steam

Here's a super steam powered model railway layout, that was on show yesterday as part of the heritage weekend celebrations.

I think everyone loves watching trains of all sizes, especially the steam ones, as they portray the romance of a bygone age.  Although for me, I think I prefer old cars.

It was a big layout and took up quite a lot of the space in the hall that it had been set up in.  The enthusiasts had a couple of engines on the go, and the town that they had created was really quite quaint with a few houses, some cars and of course a station.

I watched them go round the track a few times and enjoyed looking at the small plume of steam every time the locos started up. Sometimes there was a bit of water on the tracks, and one of the owners had to rub the track with a cloth.  No wrong leaves on the line in the model world!

It's All Stacked Up

On the way home from London, I had to change at the East Midlands Parkway station.  When I got off the train, I heard an announcement that some trains had been delayed, including one that I was planning to get. Mind you the train that I caught from St Pancras was delayed by 20 minutes, as they couldn't get it to go. So we all had to move to another platform before climbing onto another train, which fortunately worked properly.

So I am stuck at this rather soulless station. It was only built about three years ago, looking for something to do. And what better, than to try shooting the Radcliffe on Soar power station from different angles.

I knew that I was going to stop at the station a little while, so I had my fisheye lens with me. I took this one from the bridge that spans the four platforms. While the one below is my attempt at making the chimneys more industrial, even though it's only steam that's drifting up into the atmosphere.

Letting Off A Little Steam

I was planning to spin one of my fantastical yarns about these two photographs. Of how a team of Nottingham University scientists have discovered a way into the centre of the Earth and that molten lava is slowly seeping to the surface. But I don't think you'd fall for it, right!

So the truth is that one of the main roads into the city centre is presently closed to traffic whilst repairs are being undertaken to mend the pipes that pump steam to buildings connected to the district heating scheme. Reality is a bit boring eh.

Steaming Ahead

Gail has got herself a new camera. Something a little smaller and neater for her to carry around on a daily basis. It is an Olympus OMD. The one that Damian McGillycuddy let us have a go with the other week. So as a change to my hefty Nikon, I took the little DSLR for a stroll around the city centre. As it is a micro 4/3rds camera, my Panasonic lenses fitted it. So I had a go with the 20mm pancake lens. Although it came with an small zoom lens. The small buttons took some getting used to, as I'm more familiar with the chunkier Nikon ones. The weather wasn't very good, so I didn't really see anything exciting to snap. Except this scene of some council workers steam cleaning the pavement. Removing chewing gum I think. The one thing that I do like about the OMD, is it's ability to take a photo and record it using several different art filters at the same time. There are at least twelve. This is one of my favourite filters, as it gives the picture a slight HDR appearance, without it looking too unrealistic.

In The Driving Seat

Here's the view that the driver of the traction engine sees, whilst operating the giant beast.

All those levers. A bit like driving a steam train only on the road and at about 10mph.

Just keep your eye on the steam pressure gauge!

Puffing Billy

Thank you to those that replied to my photo puzzle the other day. Hope you all did some head scratching.

Alas, none of you got the right answer. Onzc and Tom were heading in the right direction; but nothing to do with lock gates or clocks.

They were gears, but from this traction engine that I saw on Wollaton Park the other week at a show there.

The owners had got it going, as you can see the smoke from the boiler disappearing into the sky. It was an impressive looking vehicle, and must have been quite a sight when they used to chug up and down the roads of England before the motor car took precidence.