STEAM - the Great Western Railway museum

I mentioned visiting STEAM in Swindon in my bank holiday sports round up. Here are a few more bits and pieces that caught my eye there.

STEAM is housed in one of the Great Western Railway's former foundry buildings. The railway engineering works was pivotal to the growth of Swindon as a large town, although that industry has disappeared now. Most of the former locomotive works is now the outlet shopping village next door.

The museum starts with several exhibits explaining how the foundry worked and its importance in the area. I went through those parts fairly quickly to get to the more exciting stuff - the steam engines.

There were several locos in the museum, including no.6000 King George V. Fun fact: my Dad had a model of this on his model railway when we were kids and I think my brother still has it.

Dad also had a pannier tank engine, and so did the museum. Different scales of course.

One of the highlights was going underneath a loco and being able to look up and see the interior workings.

I thought this Wickham inspection trolley was a fun, unusual item.

The Welsh connection to the GWR is huge because the railway absorbed almost all the Welsh railway companies. Four of the companies are on these plaques.

And there were several other Welsh themed exhibits.

The GWR did a lot to publicise Wales and the West Country as a tourist destination. 

The GWR also owned several road vehicles. The museum had restored this old fire engine.

And I liked this Scammell tractor unit.

STEAM is also the venue for several Lego events during the course of the year and so, naturally, there was a Lego train too.

All in all a decent way to spend a morning in Swindon.

Giant July - a review of the month

Everyone, meet Darwin. He's a giant tortoise.

I met Darwin on one of my best work days ever, filming behind the scenes at Cotswold Wildlife Park. 

In the same week I visited Warrington to help support team members doing some filming there. The office is very near the Warrington Wolves rugby league stadium. (I took a pic but it's mainly of the car park so I'll spare you.)

Warrington wasn't my only northerly trip this month. Cathy and I went to see comedian Taylor Tomlinson in Manchester. We also had a look round the National Football Museum and met up with Connor. 

No photos allowed during the show

Another "giant" step, at least it feels like it for me, was joining a political party for the first time. I've blogged about becoming a member of Plaid Cymru and am enjoying getting stuck in. I also attended a Yes Cymru protest at the Senedd that was asking for the Crown Estate land in Wales to be devolved to the Welsh Government, to match the situation in Scotland where the Scottish Government has responsibility for it.

In between protests and political canvassing, I also got out on the Keep Grangetown Tidy litter pick (where a couple of lost footballs made it into my latest post about Lost Footballs) and went to the Penarth Model Railway show.

Speaking of footballs... I enjoyed watching the Women's Euros and England's gutsy underdog win. The new football season is starting up and I went to four games, including two trips across the border to see Barry play friendlies in England, Penybont's UEFA Conference League qualifier against Kauno Zalgiris, and Cardiff Draconians' first game in the Cymru South (the Welsh second tier).

Futbology badge!

The Dracs have had to make some improvements to their ground and now have a new "supporter's entrance".

I've also invested in a Dracs season ticket, so you can expect to hear them mentioned quite a few times as the season goes on.

Penarth Model Railway Show

It's a heatwave, so what better way to stay out of the sun than looking at some model trains? Bryan joined me at the Barry and Penarth Model Railway Club's annual show.

There were a mix of lay-outs ranging from early twentieth century through to modern image. 

Narrow-guage railways were also represented.

There were a few micro-layouts, including one built inside a brie cheese box!

But there were two that really stood out. The first was a monochrome layout paying tribute to the classic film Brief Encounter. It was a very clever lay-out made to look like a black and white movie.

The creator, Rachel Quest, has her own YouTube channel. She also clearly has a sense of humour!

And Bryan and I both really liked Karolina Falls, an American frontier town with a waterfall featuring real water (!) and lots of funny little features including a curious moose!

So, lots of inspiration for if I ever get round to reviving my model railway.