September 2020 - Steam Engines

The Malden Camera Club had our first weekend away for about 30 years (!), staying in a hotel outside Eastbourne and visiting Sheffield Park, the Bluebell Railway, Eastbourne itself and Bodiam Castle. We were lucky that the weather largely held out for us. There was some rain on the Sunday while we were at Bodiam, but that soon passed. 

We probably took about 5000 photos between us – I know that I took well over 600 – and some of them (maybe about 5 of my take) were good pictures that are worth remembering. 

We didn’t have time to go on the Bluebell Railway but were able to spend an hour or so photographing the trains and the sheds. I took this picture of one of the steam engines getting ready to haul the coaches on their journey. Now, I do like steam engines – don’t know much about them, and I’m definitely not a train spotter! – but their power and size are awesome. And they bring back memories of my childhood … for a couple of years, we used to spend a week at a camping coach in Barmouth Junction (Morfa Mawddach now) and my brother and our friends would open the railway gates to cars, hoping to get a sixpence tip from the drivers. I doubt that we were that successful, but I do remember that the Ice Cream van always used to give us an ice lolly! And the smell of the engines – that wet, sooty smell as they go past is very evocative.

I have converted the picture to black and white as it adds more drama to it without the distraction of colour; there is some colour of course in the original, but not a lot, and there is nothing lost by removing it. To me, this picture captures the power of the engine waiting to set off with it’s haul of coaches; the steam coming from the side, the coupling rods getting ready to start moving the wheels and, in the right of the picture, the driving cab where the driver and coal man are ready to go. 

Like I said, it brings back memories!