Train in Spain

Lost amongst the streets of a housing estate in Murcia in southern Spain, we came across this

small preserved locomotive, sitting on a plinth in the middle of an urban roundabout. No plaque,

no explanation. I imagine it must have been rescued from an industrial concern that was

demolished to make way for housing development or beachside apartments. There wasn't a

good angle for a general view so I just took this detail shot of the side of the boiler. It has a

pleasing palette and a - for me - pleasing arrangement of bits and pieces and pipes and springs

and things.

It was the start of a fascination with steam locomotives that endures today.

It was considerably enhanced by making a film, with director Richard Piper, about a British team of

amateurs rescuing a dozen locomotives from arctic Finland. That film got the immediate

attention of the BBC when they were commissioning a new series of Great Railway Journeys, and

we were immediately recruited as a production team on the strength of our short film. Our

contribution to the series was to be Fairbanks to Anchorage in Alaska - a trip I'd actually done -

with Carrie Fisher presenting. But alas the film turned out to be a reserve project in case any

other in the series failed for whatever reason, and none did. C'est la vie.