The beauty of decay.

I've always been fascinated by decay. Even as a child, I was drawn to crumbling structures, dilapidated buildings and rusty objects. Not to mention old cemeteries and relics of the past, like ancient monuments, gardens, and even the forgotten, disused railway tracks that were to be found in some parts of the city where I was born.

I believe that there is beauty in decay; there is art to it, and there is a certain emotional charge to it too, perhaps not for everyone to see, yet it's definitely there. I feel truly blessed to be able to appreciate this beauty that gives 'character' to inanimate objects, like in this case, my vintage toy trains.

Some collectors pay huge sums of money to buy items in pristine condition; items that look as if they came straight out of the factory, even when they were made many decades ago. As much as I love those objects also, to me they do not possess the natural beauty -not to mention the 'mystery'- of a train or wagon that saw heavy use in the hands of a child of a bygone era.

Yesterday I bought a vintage clockwork locomotive made by Hornby in the United Kingdom. She is in rather poor condition, missing some parts, like the front bogey and one of the buffers. Not to mention her wheels.... they will definitely not able to run on metal tracks ever again, even if the clockwork engine would be operational. They would simply disintegrate! But doesn't she look great!? I got so excited that I decided to celebrate the acquisition with this blog, ahead of her arrival. I selected the few pictures from the seller's ad that were 'presentable', and worked on them using photo editing techniques to bring them up to Rust & Steel blog standards as much as possible.

I can't wait for the old locomotive to arrive! She'll be a great addition to my collection, and I'm sure she'll star in many a photo shoot. The camera loves her, that much is clear!

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