Two E’s in a word – that’s got the brain cell running. All to often I don’t even realise a word has 2 e’s – they sort of like to hide behind the consonants and pretend they’re not there. But I’m sure we’ll come up with something for Cee’s Midweek Madness Challenge😎👍
Let’s begin with a very old shot of a coach belonging to respected Scottish operator, Hutchison’s of Overton…
…It’s one of their ‘Executive’ fleet and it’s an AEC Reliance 😎
Now a shot taken on Monday this week…
…It’s a view of the River Thames at Battersea – taken from Battersea Railway Bridge looking towards Battersea Bridge. The building on the right of shot beside St. Mary’s Church is the Montevetro Building – luxury apartments. On a historic note, the Battersea Railway bridge I’ve taken this shot from was known as the Cremorne Bridge.
Preserved – Something maintained in its original or existing state: 35028 ‘Clan Line’…
…Seen getting some TLC at Swindon Works in the early 1980’s.
When the vast majority of freight movements on the rail network are handled by a single class and the range of locations available to you to photograph them is limited, you have to fall back on some photographic trickery to achieve some form of variance in your shots. After all, we can all get that nice 50mm three-quarter view that was always the ideal – and we know that gets boring when the subject is always the same…
So here are some Class 66 locos (Sheds) in action – I hope I’ve got some good variance in my views…
Barking…
Stratford…
Stratford again…
Harrow & Wealdstone…
And finally, Harrow & Wealdstone once more…
Those of my followers with photographic experience will spot that I’m using a Tele-zoom for all of these. This type of lens allows you to control the light and surroundings in a way that a standard lens often can’t. The shots also tell you that I’m often seeking to show the locomotive in its environment but occasionally I will look for pure impact like in the third shot. It’s all about creating some variety to what we shoot while trying to capture the present for future transport historians.
November to February… One year ends – another begins in Osada.
The first week of November and there’s a cultivating job to do for a neighbour…
I see our Wheat crop has sprouted. that snuck up on me with all the other things going on in October and I never got to run the roller over the field, so there will be a slightly reduced yield. Unfortunately, the weeds have also sprouted so I had to deploy the weed killer…
…The Roe Deer were out nibbling crops, so the Zetor and John Deere sprayer doubled as a scarer😅
Then I had to continue the preparation of field 14. I needed to Lime the soil and, recalling the wasteful nature of a spreader like the Rausch when performing this sort of task along with its limited capacity, I decided to purchase a drop spreader. I tracked down an old John Deere LF-12 for the task…
…Look at that! Lime nice and evenly applied and very little waste👍 I could also use this for fertilizer so I will consider that over the next couple of months. Then I finished the week by cultivating the field ready for sowing.
The second week of November – I sowed Oilseed Radish to pre-fertilize field 14. I took a moment afterwards to look across the valley…
…You can see all my fields and the farmyard from here and it looks beautiful in the Autumn. By now, all the contracts on other farms have dried up and I have run out of work to do on my on land.
First week of December and there’s a brief flurry of activity – I sell most of my Wheat at a good price. The Oilseed Radish has sprouted, so I cultivate that into field 14. The soil is heavy after a lot of rain at the end of November, so I deployed the John Deere to do the work…
I spent the rest of that week doing a stock-take…
…Looks like we’re going to need some seed and fertilizer in the new year! That was that for December with nothing else I could do on my farm or anyone else’s. The only thing of note was the snow which fell in the run-up to Christmas…
From a game perspective – At the end of the year, it’s worth taking an overview of all the fields in Osada…
…Many are prepared for the next crop. Some are ploughed and probably being left to lie fallow and some have winter crops growing.
The beginning of January and I have Sorghum to sell…
…Then it’s back to the tedium of waiting out the winter some more. In the 4th week of January, with an improvement in the weather, I ventured out to the dealer and bought some seed and fertilizer…
…Now we’re ready for Spring👍 I’ll just have to wait out February first🙄
If I was a YouTuber doing video diary style coverage of the game, I might not have seasons activated – you don’t want to bore the audience with lots of sleep-trigger activations! But here, I can adjust the coverage to the time of year and still keep the farming activity to the fore. The end of winter has seen me preparing for spring but outside of the story element, I’m also thinking about the future of the farm. Another field is clearly the next priority along with a planter so that I can add Corn and Sunflowers to my range of crop types. But I am also looking at updating some equipment. The farm will slowly get dragged into a more modern era. One of the first things to change will be that old trailer – it’s way too heavy for its capacity (I think they made it out of bits of WWII tank 🤣). I’d also like to upgrade the plough to a more modern style. But for now, we have the equipment we need to operate the farm very well. March is just around the corner and we will be busy once more😎👍
Images from Finchley 