Being the first weekend of December, last Saturday was the first day of Santa Specials on preserved lines around the country.  Eager to take some pictures for the Locoyard Advent Calendar entries, I made my way to the Watercress Line to capture some festive steam.  So far, only one image has been used for the Advent Calendar (see below).So that no advent calendar posts are spoiled, the more Christmasy (yes I know that’s not a real word!) pictures will be published at later dates.  However, there was (as usual) plenty to see at to warrant a blog post or two on top of that!  In today’s post we see U class 31806 at Alresford.  Most of these pictures were taken on a tripod, due to the low light necessitating some stability.

A happy consequence of the low light means that the steam can create some interesting effects.  It’s one of the things that makes pictures of steam locomotives in the winter look so special!

It is for this reason that at Locoyard we have a Christmas photo competition.  I’m pleased to say that there have already been some entries to this, but there’s still space for plenty more!  Click here for more details!