Letting off steam, Epping and Ongar Railway

Letting off steam shows a steam engine doing just that! I don’t often go to places to take pictures of steam engines, however yesterday I went to the Epping and Ongar railway, in Essex. They had a Victorian weekend and one of the engines was actually Victorian. That engine was metropolitan 1.

The other engine is the one in the picture. It had just pulled into North Weald Station and making a tremendous roar it vented steam for a few minutes. I don’t know why the driver or fireman climbed up on the tender, but there they are. 

The diagonal plume of white steam cuts forcefully across the image almost tearing it in two. This is what makes the image special. Without the steam it’s just a picture of a black engine. The red signals add a colour contrast to the image. 

The engine was number 5187, for those who like that sort of thing. Built for the UK War Department this class of engines entered service in 1943 for war service. It is known as an “Austerity” 2-8-0 heavy freight steam locomotive. The fact that the War Department built 935 of these engines, makes this one of the most-produced classes of British steam locomotive.

Equipment: Sony SLT-A65V, Tamron 16-300mm

Settings: F8 1/500 ISO 100