Before the Santa Special

I've photographed Chasewater a number of times, including the railway that runs around more than half of the reservoir. At Christmas they run a Santa Special for the kids. I was there just before 8 am and captured this early scene before rail movements started. The Santa Special is on the right of the image, to the right of the signal box . I was speaking to the engineer and he told me it took 2 and a half hours to ready the steam engine (and that is from a warm state, not cold). You might just pick out the smoke from its stack, centre image.

It would have been great to have it centre image but it wasn't to be. I purposely under exposed the image to give it a gritty feel and to let the reflection of the dawn light stand out on the track.

I have added a few extra shots on my Flickr account.