Symbolic Forest » steam engine http://www.symbolicforest.com/blog "A cornucopia of restlessness, whinging, perversity, opinion and bad jokes" - Me. Tue, 06 Jul 2010 17:07:38 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Photo Post Of The Week http://www.symbolicforest.com/blog/2009/07/17/photo-post-of-the-week-26/ http://www.symbolicforest.com/blog/2009/07/17/photo-post-of-the-week-26/#comments Fri, 17 Jul 2009 11:18:36 +0000 Forest Pines http://www.symbolicforest.com/blog/?p=2334 Another thing I mentioned that I hadn’t posted really: some pictures of old trains. Which, I know, isn’t something unusual for this site. But I did rather like this one:

Hymek passing Washford, West Somerset Railway

Which, I like to think, could almost be a Western Region publicity poster – or rail safety poster, maybe – from around 1964. The impressive new Hymek diesel-hydraulic, made in Britain with the latest German mechanical technology, sweeping past Washford with a non-stop express to Minehead. Here’s some more, and a rather newer steam engine.

Carriage window, West Somerset Railway
Track circuit indicators in "Midford Signalbox", Washford, West Somerset Railway
60163 "Tornado", Washford, West Somerset Railway

]]> http://www.symbolicforest.com/blog/2009/07/17/photo-post-of-the-week-26/feed/ 2 Photo post of the week http://www.symbolicforest.com/blog/2008/11/30/photo-post-of-the-week-4/ http://www.symbolicforest.com/blog/2008/11/30/photo-post-of-the-week-4/#comments Sun, 30 Nov 2008 10:30:31 +0000 Forest Pines http://www.symbolicforest.com/blog/?p=776 This week: it’s mostly trains.

Bodmin General engine shed, Bodmin & Wenford Railway Bodmin General station, Bodmin & Wenford Railway 4247 running on to its train, Bodmin General, Bodmin & Wenford Railway
4247 leaving Bodmin General, Bodmin & Wenford Railway Cab of 4247, Bodmin & Wenford Railway 33110 on shed, Bodmin & Wenford Railway

]]> http://www.symbolicforest.com/blog/2008/11/30/photo-post-of-the-week-4/feed/ 0 Photo Special (part one) http://www.symbolicforest.com/blog/2006/12/27/photo-special-part-one/ http://www.symbolicforest.com/blog/2006/12/27/photo-special-part-one/#comments Wed, 27 Dec 2006 20:39:41 +0000 Forest Pines http://www.symbolicforest.com/blog/2006/12/27/photo-special-part-one/ Time for a winter holiday photo special, as I’ve spent the day with The Parents, looking at steam trains. Much like I did last Christmas, in fact; except last Christmas I was still using a film-powered camera, so the pictures didn’t make it online for quite a while.* It’s high time I did more photo posts purely for the sake of posting photos. Future ones will not all be of steam trains, I promise.

Winter sunlight Steam Valve gear Platform scene Evening Under the bridge

* and I don’t think it was ever even mentioned here.

]]> http://www.symbolicforest.com/blog/2006/12/27/photo-special-part-one/feed/ 1 Old romantic http://www.symbolicforest.com/blog/2006/03/12/old-romantic/ http://www.symbolicforest.com/blog/2006/03/12/old-romantic/#comments Sun, 12 Mar 2006 20:35:22 +0000 Forest Pines http://www.symbolicforest.com/blog/2006/03/12/old-romantic/ I was a little doubtful when I saw, on the front page of Friday’s Guardian, the tagline “Steam trains – the great aphrodisiac”. I like trains, but I wouldn’t say that about them.

It turned out to be subeditor’s hyperbolae. The article turned out to be about the radical romanticism of the steam engine, and eroticism was only briefly mentioned. I’m rather glad. Train-into-tunnel might be a classic visual metaphor, but I don’t think very many people would say that the train itself is what gets them going. There are people out there who haven’t just had sex on the train, but can remember the numbers of the trains they’ve had sex on – but I somehow don’t think it was the train itself that was turning them on.*

What I do like about trains is what that article calls “the rigmarole of trains”. The ritual surrounding the railway. The little bits of peculiar terminology that you don’t get anywhere else.** The natural romanticism of rail travel, and the community feeling that can spring up around the line.

* but if it was – on balance, I think I’d rather not know!

** phrases like “not to be used outside possessions”, or “not to be loose or hump shunted”.

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