Technology, Books and Other Neat Stuff

After yesterday's foul weather, today was clear and cold. Ideal weather for a little photography, and as luck would have it UK Steam Info showed that a mainline steam excursion was going to be passing through Putney at lunch time.

So I wandered out to the footbridge down the road (actually, more hobbled and limped as I'm still recovering from dislocating my knee in a nasty fall a couple of weeks back) and waited for the Orient Express to come down the line from Clapham. It was a little late, and as I waited I got to see a Windhoff MPV running as a de-icing train at work, spraying the tracks up the line to London. It's not often we see modern plant at work on our line in the middle of the commuting day.



But then in the distance came a whistle, and the distinctive sound of a steam locomotive. In the cold, crisp air the steam rose higher than usual, filling the Putney Station cutting as the Clan Line came round the curve from Wandsworth pulling a rake of Orient Express Pullman carriages full of business folk on a lunchtime corporate jolly...



Clan Line is temporarily running as Belgian Marine, hence the change in number from my photograph of one its the summer runs through Putney.



And in a cloud of steam and smoke it was gone, racing through the station and heading on out towards Windsor.



Black and white seemed appropriate...

Putney, London
December 2011

I had to miss last week's Dorset Coast Express to go to a BlackBerry launch, so I wandered along to the footbridge at the end of the street this morning to see what was pulling it out of Victoria, on the way down to the coast and to Weymouth.

As it cam around the curve from Wandsworth I could see the familiar shape of a Gresley A4, streamlined curves and shining blue paint. It was Bittern again, in its current guise as Dominion of New Zealand. This time I moved down the bridge a bit, looking to get a different view of the train - and perhaps glimpse its red driving wheels.



There's something special about an A4 at steam...



And there they are! The red wheels!



Looking at this picture I think I found a good spot, and a good angle that shows off Bittern's streamlined curves, reflections in its shining blue paint finish.



Out from under the footbridge and the locomotive is shrouded by steam and smoke.



And then it was gone, off through the station and down to the coast.

Somewhere in my head there's a small boy, standing on a bridge watching the trains.

What if the inside of your computer was an anthropomorphic Brio train set?



As blogged elsewhere, but now found on YouTube.