Happy 50th to the HST

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I just learned that it has been fifty years since the in High Speed Train was introduced in the UK. Known by the brand InterCity 125, in the industry it was just the HST. I worked on these a lot in a previous role and remember them being introduced when I was a kid. At that time, living on the Island, I thought of the idea of travelling on one as almost as exotic as plane travel – something I didn’t envisage. Over the years, I ended up travelling on them frequently and often in the nice carriages too!

There are some still in service including one I saw bringing a charter service to RailLive earlier this year. Unless I head to Scotland or get on a charter, I doubt I will be riding on one again, but they are definitely a train that I have a soft spot for. Consequently, while I don’t have many images of them, here are a few.

The Smithsonian’s Blackbird

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As you enter the NASM building at Dulles, you are greeted by an SR-71 Blackbird. It is in the centre of the building facing the entrance and the elevated position of the entrance gives you a view down on it. It was in the same place on my previous visit so, on this trip, I didn’t give it as much attention as I might otherwise do. So many things to see so I did rather skip by. However, I wasn’t going to fail to photograph it at all!

A Cruise Ship Departs Fowey

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We spent a few days in Fowey, Cornwall during a recent holiday. Fowey is situated on one side of the harbour formed where the river Fowey reaches the sea. Polruan sits on the opposite side of the harbour. The harbour is quite deep and accommodates both passenger and freight traffic. The local china clay business loads shipments just up the river. Cruise ships also make an appearance and, when we arrived, there was a moderately sized ship moored up.

Called Le Laperouse, it was dominating the harbour when I was walking back from the car park and I grabbed a few photos. What I didn’t realise was that it was due to head out shortly. We headed down to the deck area at the back of our hotel for a drink and, before too long, it was clear that the ship was heading out. They were running water through the anchor chain and had cast of from the rear moorings. A tug had also shown up which, although it wasn’t attached, was presumably to provide support in the narrow harbour if anything didn’t go to plan.

A pilot boat showed up as well. In that case, my assumption is that they would take the pilot off after the ship had safely navigated its way out to the open sea. There was nothing speedy about the process which, when manoeuvring a large vessel like this in confined space seems reasonable. I was surprised how few passengers were up on deck. I would be out watching everything but maybe there was plenty of food and drink inside that was keeping the rest occupied. We watched them head out while relaxing with our beverages before diverting our attention to dinner plans!

The Better Way to Get to Padstow

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We had a holiday in Cornwall which included a few days in Padstow. I was in our room when I heard a helicopter. I figured it wasn’t going to be too visible so, rather than grab the camera, I just walked to the window to look out. As it happened, an A109 was descending across the harbour to land just out of sight to my right. The light was rather lovely on the airframe as it passed in front of me. I was rather annoyed that I hadn’t grabbed the camera.

However, I figured that it was likely either dropping someone off or picking someone up so was unlikely to be staying on the ground. Would it come back out the way it had come, or would it depart in a direction I couldn’t see? Only one way to find out. Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait long. They were retracing their route back out over the water so came nicely in range. Sadly, the light had faded a touch, but it was still pretty good. I had driven for a number of hours to get to Padstow. This looks like a far more convenient way to make the trip.

A Few Trains in the Neighbourhood

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Trains are more a feature of work than my spare time, but this blog might suggest otherwise since a bunch of posts have included trains. I live right by the south-west mainline, so we have plenty of trains coming by and I rarely pay any attention to them. Periodically, we get something a little unusual come by and, when I see that from home, it gets me thinking about whether there is somewhere good to get photos.

I had seen a location just south of Winchester that seemed like it might be a good photo location and figured I would check it out at some point. One Saturday morning, I was kicking my heels trying to think of something to do and this spot came into my mind. I only had a relatively short time before I had some other stuff planned but I decided to go and try it out.

We had the regular traffic coming through but there was some freight movement and the weekly transit of the Chiltern unit that has deeper maintenance done at Eastleigh and then heads back up to is home base. I can often hear it pass the house since the loco is quite a distinctive sound compared to the other diesels that pass regularly. Here are a few shots of the trains.

Unusual German WWII Planes

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The Steve Udvar-Hazy Center has aircraft from across the world and eras but does have some very unusual Second World War aircraft. The US acquired a variety of types at the end of the war from the German programmes which were taken home to evaluate. Some of these ended up in the hands of the Smithsonian when they were no longer needed. Two interesting examples are now on display at Dulles. These include a jet powered bomber and a puss-pull fighter.

The Arado AR234 Blitz is a conventional looking plane if you set aside the engine pods under the wings. To a modern eye, it looks very tame, but I imagine it was something special at the time. Next to it is the Dornier DO335 Pfeil – a push-pull configuration piston engined fighter. This was not a unique design idea for Germany. The US had a similar concept – an example of which I saw in Kalamazoo. So much innovative aerospace concepts were developed in the heat of war and these two are very rare examples of what was underway at that time.

Dawlish Seafront

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The beginning of our holiday to Cornwall and Devon included a stop in Exeter for lunch and then, since we were so close to Dawlish, I decided to take a diversion down there. I had seen numerous pictures of Dawlish over the years with waves crashing against the wall and spray covering passing trains. Seemed a no-brainer to check it out – admittedly on a rather calmer day. We parked up along the seafront and took one of the footbridges over the tracks to the walkway along the shore. This whole area had a significant rebuild in recent years as a result of some storm damage. The tide was out and people were down walking on the beach.

I was a little surprised to find that, beyond the station, the fencing ended and there was quite a drop off the edge of the path down to the beach. I guess people just take care. I was trying to work out what some of the shapes of concrete were on the beach. At first, I thought they might be the remains of previous structures but, after looking at them further, I decided that they were sewer drainage pipes. If anyone knows differently, please let me know.

After walking for a while, we backtracked at went under the tracks at the station. Time to grab an ice cream because were were on holiday. Then we sat on a bench along the river as it comes into the shore. Apparently, Dawlish has an association with black swans and there were several down in the river. Not sure of the story on that one. It was only a brief stop, but it was nice to see this place for myself after all of these years.

Air Peace Almost Catches Me Out

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During my visit to Heathrow for the Cathay special, I was looking at the list of inbound types to see if there was anything else that would be of interest. An Air Peace 777 was listed but it didn’t show its departure time so I figured that it might have been cancelled. Consequently, I wasn’t expecting it to show up. Consequently, when I saw it appear on approach using FR24, I was delighted and rather surprised. Here is is – another new operator to see in person.

Sheep Have Replaced the Cattle

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During the summer, I have been taking a lot of opportunities to be out on the bike – not least because I was training for the Ride the Route charity ride. This meant I didn’t go walking around the reserve near the house at Barton Meadows. When I had last been there, the cattle had gone and the area was reverting to a meadow. I did finally get to walk around the trail recently and was surprised to see that some sheep had been introduced. I couldn’t resist getting some photos of the new residents and also took some video of them. They are way more mobile than I expected. Always on the move!

Even a Gloomy Day Can Yield Some Aviation

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Sometimes, my aviation explorations take me to lower key locations. Snohomish is about 20 minutes north of where we lived in Woodinville and it has a small airfield, named Harvey Field. I was interested in the skydiving operations that they undertake there using a Cessna 208 and went up to have a look around. It was not a particularly nice day but still good enough for some flying to be underway – but not the skydiving! There was a Cessna 152 doing some pattern work and a Super Decathlon came in while I was there. These shots remind me of how much aviation takes place that might not normally get much attention.