Train Spotting

Following on from the train painting I did a few weeks back I searched the web to find some locations where I could photograph steam on a mainline. I came across a website and learnt of a steam special running from London Waterloo to Weymouth, being pulled by an old Southern Railway Bulleid air smoothed pacific locomotive 'Tangmere' one of the Battle of Britain class, appropriate in this the 90th anniversary of the Royal Air Force. I decided that a good vantage point would be to the west of Southampton Central station, unfortunately the weather hadn't taken any notice of the name of the train, 'Sunny Coast Special' and I ended up getting soaked, and what was worse was that after drying out all my gear including my mobile phone, I didn't get one shot worth keeping. The rain gave all the pictures a very grainy quality like something taken with an old box brownie.

Not to be deterred I found an old photograph taken on the Torbay - Kingswear line in Devon whilst on holiday with my son many years ago and this painting is the result.