…or not as it happens.
On Saturday morning, I headed over towards Stratford to catch a steam train passing through the area, and hopefully to get some photos or video of the train with the Olympic Stadium in the background.
I thought it might make for a nice photo.
Getting off at Pudding Mill Lane about 20 minutes before the train was due to arrive and there was already a small huddle of people who looked perfectly ordinary, and yet somehow, just screamed “train nerd”. Just as I did as well.
I am currently playing with a Nokia N8 phone which has been loaned to me by the former tire manufacturer and thought that as part of the thrill of steam trains is the noise they make, a short video experiment would be better than a static photo.
I don’t actually like long video’s online – especially tutorials as I can read faster than most people on videos can talk – but a quick clip of something interesting happening is always good.
Rather later than expected, a diesel train came past dragging the carriages and at the back, the steam train down towards Liverpool Street, and some 15 minutes later out they came again under full steam.
Taking photos/videos of steam trains is a high-risk strategy as you never know quite which track the train will be on – although educated guesses are usually accurate – and there is always the risk of other trains getting between you and the target of your photographic desires.
Today, we had the risk of a DLR train pulling into the station, or mainline trains being on the tracks between us and the expected steam train.
Oh, and your correspondent totally screwing up how to use a mobile phone as a video camera.
Along comes the steam train; No other trains in view; Clicks the button to record the video; Train goes past the Olympic Stadium; A perfect, perfect video recorded.
…or not.
Somehow I didn’t press the button hard enough, so all I actually got was a couple of seconds of footage when I thought I was pressing the button to stop recording.
Half an hour of waiting for a two second video clip of my feet.
You can however see the test video I made of the train being taken into Liverpool Street Station – just imagine the video running backwards, with more steam and noise.
LOL. It’s very brave to admit that. If you’d just told us you had seen the steamtrain, we would still like the post and would have been none the wiser!