Thought I'd also post the train that I drew in Flash to use in some scenes (though in others the train's a more of a sillhouette with a boil on it, because that seemed more dynamic).
Tis, in fact, a very faithful drawing of a Fire Fly engine and Great Western Railway carriages, which research told me would have been the train crossing that bridge. The Fire Fly had been around for about eight years by 1844 (which is the estimated date of Turner's painting). Maidenhead Bridge I took more artistic license with because the actual structure, with its two, low brick arches may be one of Brunel's early miracles of engineering, but just wasn't dramatic enough for my tastes :)
In any case the train and the bridge were both very new in the 1840s: Turner was depicting absolute modernity. It's hard to get past the image of the steam train as romantic, but that's why I used the brash, limited palette inspired by 30s railway posters (which were screenprinted, I believe). The plan is to have plenty of smoke and steam - after all, the painting is called 'Rain, Steam and Speed' - and have the engine perpetually emerging from it. Sort of demonic.
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