Notes

My father and I expected 52 1360 of the Eisenbahnfreunde (railroad friends) Vienenburg, which had just recently passed it’s large inspection and should have been on the return from it’s test run (although with paying passengers) to the village of Klein Mahner, were another local historic (and horribly underfunded) railroad is sitting. What we got instead was this privately-owned V60.

Apparently, the 52’s ash pan had opened a little, which meant that it left long trails of minor fires on almost the entire way there. While the engineers did not notice, the local fire departments (all manned by volunteers) most certainly did. It wasn’t major, but most of the regions large fire engines were away on a training mission, so they had to make do with the ones with smaller water tanks. To add to that, the fire fighters of Vienenburg were just showing off their fire trucks at a local festival (the Vienenburger Seefest) and had to have three cars towed away before they could get out. In Salzgitter-Ringelheim station, they finally noticed it, made a temporary fix and were allowed to continue the short rest of their journey, but either due to the locomotive owner’s choice or because the district fire chief forbade it (there are conflicting reports), the return journey was done by diesel.

For those looking at the EXIF data, I tested my parents’ Canon Ixus 80 IS here, because I am considering replacing my PowerShot A530 for the times when the EOS 1000D is just too large. So far the verdict is that it’s smaller and lighter than the old and has a larger screen and a proprietary battery (which I prefer), but it lacks a button to set exposure. Just like the old, it’s bad with low light, zooms slowly and doesn’t do RAW, but it does seem to make good pictures. Does anyone know a good Canon compact that has the same advantages, but less disadvantages and is free? I’m rather reluctant to switch to another company and in their extreme lineup there should be something suitable.