Steam charters July 2010.
Steam charters July 2010.
GWR 5029 'Nunney Castle' is seen arriving at Shrub Hill Worcester on 01 July 2010 with the 'Cathedrals Express' charter from London Victoria. At this time it was deemed prudent to run with a diesel Class 37 as pilot coupled inside the train locomotive, basically to assist in case of problems with the steam locomotive which might otherwise delay scheduled services.
GWR 6024 'King Edward I' is seen arriving in Shrub Hill Worcester on 10 July 2010 with the 'Royal Oak' charter from London Paddington. Unusually, this train came in from the north and used the line via Banbury, Snow Hill and Kidderminster into Worcester and had to make another different manoeuvre from platform 2 across the main line to access platform 1 and reverse the long train into the depot, which is why the crew are leaning out of the cab to gain line of site for the small signal on the gantry. It is possible that the 'King' was out of gauge through Foregate Street station for the normal turning procedure around the triangle as this class of locomotive was 'double red' code and not permitted in this area in steam days.
The train returned via Cheltenham and Swindon and is seen later in the day powering through Eckington, en route to London Paddington
Then BR 71000 'Duke of Gloucester' is seen at speed, on 26 July 2010, working the Midland Tornado' through Bredicot. It was used instead of new build 60163 'Tornado' which was unavailable with boiler problems. The Class 66 66050 brought the train from London Victoria to Gloucester and it acted as banker over the Lickey incline with steam power in charge from Gloucester to London Waterloo via Leicester and Midland main line.
Re: Steam charters July 2010.
Lovely Tim. God's Wonderful Railway indeed!
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