York Steam Museum

York Steam Museum

After visiting the Heritage Motor Centre in Gaydon we continued our Journey to York with another slight detour to the Midland Railway, Butterley only to find that the trains only ran on a Sunday. With two stops we arrived later than planned and decided to check in to the hotel and explore the city centre and York Minster as we would require more time at the National Railway Museum to ensure we saw all the exhibits and trains.

Friday morning we arrived at the Museum which is free admission and started to explore and take 

photographs. The variety of trains from all eras was on display including a replica of Stevenson Rocket, a Japanese bullet train and a Euro Tunnel train. The Museum was full of people including a local primary schools event with hundreds of children learning about the history of the trains. One of my favourite trains was the Mallard that recorded the speed record of 126 mph in 1933 and next to her was a Chinese locomotive which towered above all others. The size and weight of the trains was incredible with the majority driven by steam. Again this was another great museum to visit which I would recommend.

Gaydon Motor Museum

Gaydon Motor Museum

Having decided to visit the National Railway Museum in York we started the long four hour journey on the Thursday morning. Whilst on the M42 approximately halfway to York I noticed a sign for the Heritage Motor Centre in Gaydon, Warwickshire and we decided to investigate as this would allow us to take a break. 

After a quick investigation of their website while sat in the car park we discovered that they were home to a vast number of cars and motor vehicles and decided to enter. The place was amazing and the collection of cars was wonderful ranging from family cars from all eras of transport to vehicles used in movies such as the back to the future DeLorean. I would recommend everyone spend time and visit this great museum. A sample of the many photographs I took is below.

Black out curtain

Black Out Curtain

Setting up the blackout curtain experiment was more time consuming than actually taking the photographs. Using black PVC rubble bags and joined together with duct tape I attached them to our French doors and windows to ensure no sunlight was entering the room. I can only image what our inquisitive neighbours thought was happening. Once attached to the frames I made a small hole into the curtain to allow the sun to shine through.

The first photographs were too dark with only the coffee table casting a shadow on the floor. I then sealed the hole with duct tape and made another hole in a new position. The sun with passing clouds could be seen as an image on the carpet and more photographs were taken. Unfortunately there was no other scenery from the garden as our garden archway in front of the French doors was blown over and damaged by the high winds.

During the experiment I changed the camera setting adjusting the ISO settings and aperture time and this resulted in different photograph brightness. When I repeat this experiment I will reduce the size of the hole to see whether the resulting image is clearer.

The only negative point of the experiment was the heat within the room caused by blocking the windows with black PVC rubble bags.