Share Your Desktop – February 2022

It’s time to join in with Clare’s Share Your Desktop challenge once more. I’ve been out and about on the rails quite a bit over the past few weeks and my current desktop is a photograph I took on 1st of February…

Often photographs of trains are devoid of human life – Just the driver maybe, if they aren’t hidden by the reflection on the windscreen. But sometimes there is an opportunity to enhance the photo with people. In this shot it was nice to juxtapose the young lady with the passing train. I posted the shot on Twitter with the caption ‘Beauty and The Beasts’.

The shot was taken at Stratford – a busy station in east London. Quite a lot of freight passes through the station on its way to or from East Anglia and the Port of Felixstowe. This is a Trafford Park (Manchester) to Felixstowe North Freightliner Terminal Intermodal service. It is being hauled by a pair of Class 90 electric locomotives owned by, and wearing the latest paint scheme of, Freightliner. These locomotives, 90008 and 90010, are back on home territory having previously worked Greater Anglia passenger expresses between London and Norwich, through Stratford, until they were replaced in March 2020. Each is capable of producing 5000hp.

The odd looking building above and behind the lead locomotive is the ArcelorMittal Orbit – an attraction in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. There’s also a lot of post-Olympic Games building going on which will house cultural and educational facilities.

The photo was taken using my Fujifilm X-Pro2 with the XF35mmF1.4 R lens set to f8. Shutter speed was 1/1700th at ISO800.