Horse

It is the 75th anniversary, this year, of the world speed record for a steam train. This was set by the Mallard in 1938 and has never been broken. It reached 126 mph. The Mallard and 5 of its sister locomotives are currently on exhibition at the York Railway Museum just down the road from where we're staying. I had the idea today that we woud go and look for some lovely horses trotting around their paddocks. I could then photograph them for today's challenge. But I find instead that I'm off to a museum to see some trains!!

The six engines on show are the only Gressley A4 Pacific locomotives left in the world so the Museum arranged for them to be shown together as a celebration of the anniversary of the record breaking. One of them came over from Canada and one from the USA. They did look very impressive and between them have a huge potential horse power. This was going to be my (second choice) blip but there were so many people around wanting to photograph and admire the trains that it was impossible to get a good shot.

Wandering round the rest of the museum we came across this horse in his Dandy Cart. In the 1800's horses were used to pull trucks along the railway. When the carriages were going downhill and needed no horse power the horses were put into these carts to give them a rest. We were wondering if this was the origin of the term 'fine and dandy' but couldn't find any evidence for this. Even so I'm sure the horses felt 'fine and dandy' whilst riding in their special carts.

Sorry you didn't get a real horse blip!!