The Age of Steam…revisited…this is a photograph taken yesterday at the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway (GWSR).  The GWSR had a steam festival weekend, though we didn’t go to that.  We saw a couple of trains from a bridge and again here, after walking the dog up Nottingham Hill, at Gotherington Halt – the line runs from Cheltenham Race Course up to Toddington – the line continues to Laverton currently, but they have just raised the funding to complete the line as far as Broadway – they are in steam most weekends of the year – I fully intend to head back on a better weekend (it was rather wet yesterday – Saturday or Sunday would have been a better time to visit…oh, the joy and predictability of the English weather!)

While you can’t make it out from this photograph, this is 2-8-0T 42xx class tank locomotive – from the GWSR website, I see that it was built in Swindon (probably in the workshops that are now the Outlet Mall) in 1919 – mainly used in the coalfields of South Wales for heavy freight work (as demonstrated here, though probably far less heavy that she would have been used to!) – she was withdrawn from service in 1962.  After a restoration that started in 2003, she has been in use at the GWSR since 2013.

While the original photograph was in colour, I decided to convert to Black and White to give a more nostalgic feel.

A glorious locomotive – surprisingly quiet (considering she was accelerating after passing through the Halt)…and the smell! (And no, I don’t remember it from that last time round!)

Technical Details:

55mm(XF18-55mmF2.8-4 R LM OIS); 1/60s@f2; ISO200 – handheld – post process in Lightroom and SilverFX Pro

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