Blog :: Industrial Heritage - Saturday 29th January

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Industrial Heritage - Saturday 29th January

Derby Industrial Museum is to close for an unspecified period at the end of March 2011 and this date was quite possibly the penultimate chance to see the grasshopper beam engine in motion. I went with a friend who has been doing this for much longer than me and who is much better at interacting with the various people we meet out and about.

After wrestling with Derby's roads we eventually got a parking space nearby and put the maximum two hours on the pay and display. The buildings and adjoining River Derwent are rather fine - . The purpose of our visit was ticking over very smoothly in steam and my colleague engaged the adjoining staff member for quite some time. The museum also houses some very fine Rolls-Royce aero engines, including this monster - . Eventually we realised we had somewhat lost track of time and rushed back to find a parking ticket that only been there about three minutes - oh drat!

From Derby we went to Shardlow as I had never seen the inland port and was quite keen to do so. These are a couple or three representative views - . On the way out we spotted some fine buildings and felt compelled to stop for photographs - . Later digging has revealed that this is the long since closed Cavendish Bridge Brewery. I later discovered that while we were at Shardlow a large lump of crud attached itself to my sensor and appeared in all subsequent pictures. I have cloned it out of my submissions and fortunately got it off the sensor with no damage.

Ashley Dace had tipped me off about a Great Central Railway steam gala but I felt there was insufficient day for the high fees to ride the trains. My friend though is a keen lineside'gricer' and persuaded me that we should try for a few shots for free (something I wouldn't have come up with independently). We had some luck near Swithland Reservoir - .

We then drove a little further to investigate Swithland Pumping Station but found the main buildings obscured by trees. There were a few worthwhile details to photograph - .

Finally we found a lineside spot north of Loughborough in the gathering gloom for one last train - .

It was then time to head for home after a generally satisfying day with the odd glitch.

For more information on stationary steam engines see Link