21 May 2016

The Flying Scotsman visits Hampshire

Originally I was scheduled to be elsewhere on the day The Flying Scotsman visited Hampshire, but the day before I had to re-schedule my Durdle Door PED on account of rain forecast.  So it was of course no surprise when on the day it started to rain, and not stop.

The location, nicely scouted the day before by a friend (thanks Ben!), found us parked opposite St John's Church Of England in the little village of Lockerley, a few miles north west of Romsey.

When I arrived, a couple of hours before the train was due, there were only a few cars there, and it seemed like it might be a nice quiet place to photograph from.   Yeh, that peace didn't last long as close to the time there were probably a hundred cars, and several hundred people.   Most of them standing patiently in the cold and wet for an hour (they'd put the schedule back an hour).

All of this for just ten seconds of watching the national icon that is The Flying Scotsman whiz by at break-neck speed.   Blink and you nearly missed it.

Ten minutes later, and all but the most hardcore (or stupid), had gone.  Presumably to dry off and warm up.  Me, I put the kettle on and sat chatting in the van with a friend, waiting for the return run from Romsey back to Salisbury a couple of hours later.

Our location for the return visit was on the public footpath next to the track, and when it turned up 20 minutes early (since when do trains ever run early?!), I was glad we'd assumed the position in the rain early.  As I only had at most 10 seconds to prepare and take the photos before the train had gone, I was really quite pleased with a couple of the closer up photos.








King King & Dan Patlansky in Salisbury

I had the pleasure of meeting up with both bands at Cupcake Heaven, where they were given cakes with a very nicely printed copy of their album covers on.

Dan Patlansky was supporting King King at City Hall in Salisbury, which is without doubt one of the friendliest venues in the verse.  All of the staff from the manager down are really rather wonderful, keeping things low key and friendly, just as they should.

The only downside of the venue, at least in its fully seated configuration, is that its a bugger to shoot at.  You have to stand at the sides, even then I was told off by one member of the audience for blocking his view of Dan for a few seconds.

The lighting, at least for this evening, was, how should I say this nicely...  Suboptimal. 

The music though, was rather wonderful, but as always I'll let those more qualified talk about that.

Some photos...