Technology, Books and Other Neat Stuff

I've just switched to a new LJ icon, taken from this Flickr image. I love the textures and reflections.

Oh, and the engineering.

The plate comes from a Shay Patent locomotive (Roaring Camp Railroads Number 7) - an articulated design developed for use on logging railroads in the US. It's a solution to the same problem - getting maximum power in limited loading gauges and on tight curve radii - as the famous Fairlies Patent engines developed for the Ffestiniog in Wales. I've always had a thing for articulated locomotives, be they monstrously complex beasts like the US Big Boy, or simple solutions like the Beyer-Garrett.