nature & scenery

The Shadow as seen from the footplate! Ivatt 2MT 2-6-0 46521 heads south tender-first with the 13.00 diner. We were reduced to 5mph to cross over Bridge 348 and then stopped on the reservoir for 20 minutes to let the diners enjoy their meal with a view. HFF and have a great weekend. The fence is lost in the hedge so maybe that should be HHF!

Silhouette

The final destination of our railway journey from Cusco. Machu Picchu is a 15th-century Inca citadel located in the Eastern Cordillera of southern Peru on a 2,430-meter (7,970 ft) mountain ridge. The Incas built the estate around 1450 but actually abandoned it a century later, at the time of the Spanish conquest. It was obviously a tourist site when we visited but has become much more popular since 1980. In 2007, Machu Picchu was voted one of the New Seven Wonders of the World in a worldwide internet poll & I have to say its location in the Andes is absolutely stunning.

On Chesil Beach! The view looking west from Portland Heights over Chesil Beach, Wyke Regis top right. Chesil Beach links Portland Island to the mainland and the shingle bank runs for 18 miles to the west on Lyme Bay.

A view looking west across the Rocky Mountain Trench along which the Columbia River flows northwards (to the right). I'm not 100% sure which peaks are seen but they are in the Dogtooth Range at the northern end of the Purcell Mountains west of Golden. The trench is cut into Cambro-Ordovician McKay Slates and is bounded on this side by the Purcell Thrust dipping west under the Dogtooth Range. The mountain range consists of a series of folds and thrust plates involving Proterozoic and Lower Cambrian rocks. Obviously it's not the main point of interest in this scene but there is a fence (& a railway!!) in there.... HFF & have a great weekend.

The Sunset of Steam. Well no actually...just a normal sunset with steam! We had just returned light engine from Swithland on BR 9F 92214 and were standing in platform 2 at Loughborough waiting for the relief crew when the sky lit up.

Pure geology. An absolute classic outcrop example to show the difference between sedimentary dip (almost vertical) and cleavage (almost horizontal) in deformed metamorphic rocks, Devonian Polzeath Slates in this case. Seen on Polzeath beach.

Tintagel beach on the rocky north coast of Cornwall. On the hilltop island, off shot to the left, is the mythic site of King Arthur’s Castle and Merlin’s Cave is in the shadows on the left. The legend of Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table at Camelot is deeply engrained in Cornish history. Unfortunately the winds today were so strong that the bridge across to the island was closed. We must return later. HFF & have great and peaceful weekend.

Contre-Jour by Swithland reservoir.