[Nigel G]

Having made a bit of a thing of steam locomotives recently and got images I'm reasonably happy with for most of the regular vistors to my part of the country I thought this morning I would try and add a bit more movement to the image as Dominion of New Zealand left Poole on the run to Bath.

As they start this trip from Poole they have to pick up momentum and puff nicely. My spot is about 1/2 mile out of the station and you can stand at the fence right by the side of the track so they pass about 5yds away.

The effect I hoped to achieve was a clean image of the loco but with motion blur on the runnning gear. I set to full manual - opted for 160th at f5 and an appropriate iso. IS on and pre-focussed on the track at a point where the second (small) wheel is on the image and then keeping the camera still and fired a sequence as the train passed.

There is clearly motion blur on the front of the loco suggesting my guess of 160th was too slow but what surprises me is that the main drive wheels are, if anything, sharper than the front of the engine. Surely the wheels must be going round faster than the body is going forward so why is this so.

Any ideas on settings to achieve the desired effect.