Cee’s Which Way Challenge 2015: Week #5 – Steam Train

It powers over the viaduct, a metallic monster with fire in its belly, breathing steam and smoke into the air in pungent billows; a marvel of Victorian engineering. Its passage is accompanied by the roaring clatter of metal against metal. Behind the engine trail carriages, filled with passengers enjoying a touch of old-fashioned luxury as they journey towards their destinations. Within the space of bare minutes the train has vanished from sight, a distant whistle and the drifting hints of smoke the only remnants of its presence.

This is my entry into this week’s Cee’s Which Way Challenge. The picture was taken last summer at the Ribblehead Viaduct in North Yorkshire, a Grade 2 listed structure that was built between 1870-74. The engine pictured is the 48151, with The Waverley tour, on the Settle and Carlisle Railway. I’m not actually a particular fan of trains myself, though you’d never guess it from the number of pictures of them I have in my archives and the number of random facts I know about different engines! My nephew, however, has been obsessed with them since he was a toddler. He’s now 15. Any holiday we go on always includes at least one day of steam train watching.