The Dominion of Canada and..................... The Dwight D Eisenhower

These two grand old steam engines are at Shildon's Locomotion Museum at the moment.

They are in for refurbishment and fresh livery so that they can join all the surviving A4s for a 75th Anniversary Party some time in 2013. These two came back over from USA and Canada to have their finery fixed at Shildon. The A4s were designed by Sir Nigel Gresley and these were built in Doncaster in 1937. The more famous Mallard was built there the next year and broke the world record for steam locomotives on 3rd July 1938 doing 125.88 mph on its maiden run, somewhere north of Peterborough. This record still stands!

We had popped over to the museum because they were meant to be staging a "Vintage Vehicle Show" the next day and we were checking it out. The vehicle show had been cancelled because the two massive engines had just arrived from North America and the Dominion of Canada was still being unloaded.

We arrived by chance, just in time to watch the tender and engine being slowly re-connected. A grand sight.

Trains are a very "bloke" thing. There were hundreds of blokes with their cameras watching the manoeuvres. And I could count the women on one hand. It was a fine day and a small piece of history happened in front of us.
I missed my art class while we were away last week but I finished off the painting from the week before.

It's more of a "still life" than the "landscapes" we usually do and I enjoyed it. So maybe I 'll set up some more. I'm still trying anything that comes my way.
Cheers Gillian