We Got Our Hogwarts Letter :)

Back in the half term holiday, we had a jolly excursion down to the Harry Potter Studio Tour, courtesy of my (Ben's) sister who got us a family ticket as an xmas pressie.  It had actually been on our to-do list anyway, so the tickets finally gave us the chance to go.

We started with the Great Hall...

Being as we're both creative types, it was amazing to see so many practical builds and things.  And stuff we'd quite like in our house to be honest, though the above might look a little out of place in our suburban terrace...

Naturally I was drawn to all the supporting stuff; the concept model of the great hall was stunning, and a taster of what was to come later...

Something else we'd like in the house, if the house was replaced with a castle...

We both loved the Ministry of Magic design in the films; basically we'd love green and red tiles somewhere.  More surprising to realise not only was it all polished wood, but that the interior contents were consequently made from card and other lightweight materials because of the wooden set construction.  It all looks completely convincing, and a testament to the skill of the production team.

Yep, I can get in some train photography anywhere...

Actually this completed an ambition from a few years ago; the first year the kids moved in we were meant to see the loco run near the house on a railtour, we turned out with The Childs in tow, stood by the lineside... and the loco had been withdrawn as a fire-risk so we never got to see it.  Very impressively displayed and lit here.  Managed to avoid the temptation to buy a toy of it... though didn't manage to avoid buying a mug and a tea towel however. 

Down Diagon Alley, which was pleasantly like York (one of the inspirations).

The bit which The Childs were least interested in, and consequently less than amused at how enthralled we were.  The recreation of one of the design offices...

...the plans and blueprints...

...and the works of art which were the concept models.

Which paled into insignificance when presented with the absolute belter of a model which ends the tour.  It's beautiful, and a simply superb bit of miniature work.  I tend to dislike CGI in films, but do slightly more approve of them building models to shoot and use as the basis.  This model is utterly amazing and very, very large.

So thoughts on it all?  The tour was brilliant, very interesting to people like us interested in all the behind-the-scenes production and design aspects.  It's terrific that so much of this stuff was saved after the films were made and put on display.  The Childs were entertained and madly into it all, and the quality of stuff in the gift shops very good indeed.  All in all a very nice day out indeed... thanks Sis for the tickets :)

York Station for a Steam Excursion

A Christmas shopping excursion to York the other week incorporated a little bit of railway photography at the end of the day; with a railtour featuring two steam locomotives on a cold, clear, crisp day it would have been rude not to have popped along for a look...

Arriving at the station with half an hour to kill, the nice sunset wasn't illuminating anything more exciting than a soon-to-be-scrapped Pacer unfortunately.

HST under the very impressive roof.

6233 "Duchess of Sutherland" (which had earlier bought the train in from That London) arrived with the empty stock for the return to Ealing Broadway.  Interesting in that it was the steamer working it, and not an assisting diesel loco in sight which made a nice change.

A4 Pacific "Union of South Africa" was hauling the return leg, and arrived a little bit late.

Sadly by this time the sun had dipped below the horizon, but there were still some nice reflections possible in the streamlined cladding.

I mainly went for shots along the side of the loco; there was a proper scrum in the restricted space at the end of the platform, there must have been over a hundred photographers plus other interested passengers and families... I only managed the one shot from the front before being elbowed out of the way.

I was pleased by how the shots came out; after a disappointing week of photography under a Tupperware-lid sky, it was nice to get some slightly abstract shots of the A4; doubly so, as this is an engine I used to see a fair bit as a kid, but after next year it is apparently being permanently retired to a museum in eastern Scotland, so this will probably be the last time I'll get chance to photograph it.