This photo misses the two details it was meant to capture. The carriages on the left are pulled by an 80 ton steam locomotive called the Galatea: built in 1936, restored to working order in 2013 and capable of reaching 75 mph. The police officers on the right are firearms officers, carrying what – after brief research – may or may not be Heckler and Koch G36 assault rifles. The passengers on the Galatea waved to the officers and the officers took their left hands off their machine guns and waved back.

I’ve been trying to put my finger on what exactly is interesting about this juxtaposition. I kept mulling over the out-of-placeness of deadly weaponry toted through York railway station. But I was getting the wrong end of the stick – it was the Galatea that was out-of-place. The steam train was far more unexpected a sight than the Heckler and Kochs. It was a relic of the past steaming its way into a present in which heavily armed officers patrol a railway station in a small, peaceful, rural city.