Heathrow Express

I've done many things such the relaunch of my interest in railways that i never achieved in my youth when i was just another spotty train spotter including seeing engineering trains and entering a few cabs, but i haven't been to a working depot... until yesterday. The Siemens Heathrow Express Depot at Old Oak Common held an open day in conjunction with the London Transport Museum (of whom i am a friend) and very interesting it was too.

Highlights included another cab visit (and a mainline working train for once, not a preserved one) and also walking along the inspection pit under a raised train. You can see my photos from the depot visit here.

Crewe Heritage Centre

I went to Crewe Heritage Centre yesterday, a superb railway engineering attraction in the old railway town of Crewe. Highlight for me was being able to sit in the cab of a class 87, a rather simple "office" considering these trains can go up to 110mph and haul hundreds of tons whilst doing so! But then again as long as you have the controls to go and stop you have most bases covered. You can see my photos here along some some photos taken at Crewe station too.

Model railway videos

Something i do like to do now and then is to record short videos of operation on my model railway. I only use my iPhone and it is usually a bit shakey (its not that easy to control a locomotive and hold a phone at the same time!) You can see the videos on my Youtube channel. One of the latest is below:

Lapworth

I've been meaning to go to Lapworth for some time, having travelled through it a lot on the train. Well finally i stopped off at this North Warwickshire village at the weekend and what a lovely place it is too.

I went mainly for a canal walk, its where the Stratford and Grand Union Canals meet so there are plenty of locks, junctions and other waterway items of interest. You can see my canal photos here, plus some photos taken at the railway station too.

Chromebook

For the last few years the pattern has been for me to do all of my serious stuff like Photoshop on my Macbook and use an iPad as a truly personal computer for surfing and the like. However as my iPad has aged i have found fewer and fewer of the websites i use regularly such as the Guardian worked satisfactorily on it. I was also finding an onscreen keyboard a bit of a pain to use for major text entry. So i switched instead to using my older Macbook, however this was only a temporary solution.

Ever since my Mum book a Chromebook i have thought about getting one for myself and i have finally made the plunge. Because i wanted something that would be relevant for a few years at least i plumped for the high end Pixel from Google, which in some ways has a superior spec to my main Macbook...

And very nice Katie the Chromebook is too. I am still getting used to the different way in working but i think it will be a pleasing adventure.