Leigh984, The creative portfolio of Leigh Spencer

I visited the Great Central Railway`s Quorn & Woodhouse station to step back in time and experience a traditional country steam fayre at the Easter Vintage Festival. The event features traction engines, traditional fairground rides like the steam powered Gallopers, Ferris wheel, fairground organs, classic and hot rod cars. My film aims to give a taste of the events atmosphere and features a look around the event ending with a performance by "Greengrass" on his banjo.

In my first film of 2019 I take a trip to the Abbey Pumping Station in Leicester for a look at the LMTA (Leicester Museums Technology Association) Steam Toys In Action event. In the 29th year of this popular event various toys and engines could be seen in steam including Formula Mamod (a steam powered slot car style race track featuring miniature steam roller racers)  Also in steam was the narrow gauge railway giving rides pulled by Leonard the Steam engine. My film starts by taking a look at a traction engine with traditional gas lamp headlights before following Leonard as he`s taken for the last run of the day and the boiler is cleared.

The Leicester Riverside Festival takes place annually along the mile straight of the River Soar featuring music,arts,crafts and activities both on and off the water, for the whole family it`s a great day out for everyone. With a toot of the whistle from the Abbey Pumping Stations traction engine, my film shows some of the many highlights from Sunday at the festival. Look for Bill Bailey`s band playing toe tapping jazz as they travel along the river, the beautiful sound of the sing for water choir and tales of the canals of old England with the Bonnet And Belt theater company among other attractions. There is even an appearance from a strange yellow character not dissimilar to a Muppet riding his tricycle into castle gardens.

Various adaptations of an event branding created by myself for print and screen usage. Designed for the Great Central Railway Vintage Vehicle Summer Festival the event takes The Steam Miniatures and Commercial events (see previous posts GCR Commercial event  and Steam Miniatures  ) and combines them into one big festival to which all vintage vehicles are invited and welcome to attend. The design itself borrows from the well known vintage rail posters on display at the heritage railways stations and features a Commercial Truck, Traction Engine and Vintage Bus taken from the posters for events that this event replaces. The poster also features a Steam Engine "Bridging The Gap" which is a nod to the railways plans to re-unite the two halves of the "Old Great Central Railway", The planes reference the Hurricane, Spitfire and Dakota flypast that will also be part of the festival.       The branding is continued into a banner image for use on the home page sl...

The festival started life at the Criterion Pub and tonight marks its first migration to Phoenix Square. My nerves rise as the lights go down, what will they think of my film ?, how will it look on such a big screen ?, I wonder if this is how the big Hollywood directors feel at the big Leicester square events !. A few minutes in and There's been an eclectic mix of films so far, A film about a ticket collector featuring a person dressed as a polar bear and a fantastic film by Ben Jacobson called Air Mail precede mine and then it begins, the screen s mine for 2:21, my fears of the picture quality quickly dissipate as the beat box soundtrack blasts out from the speakers "Interesting idea" I hear someone say from the row in front of me. My film ends and is followed by Summer Ice a film about a Lady down on her luck and a number of other shorts form various filmmakers all tied together by a comedic take on the history of cinema. The night ends with an inter...

A Short film about a traction engine at The Abbey Road Pumping Station in Leicester, This was filmed during one of the steam days held regularly there. The steam days feature a variety of steam based vehicles and technology from the past and is a fantastic opportunity for photos and is well worth a visit even if your not into steam technology. The Station also has a small steam engine called Lenard who I featured in an earlier video which you can also see below.