Welcome back to the finest day of 2010 bar none. I know your thinking this is not difficult by going on the weather for the last few months but quality workings plus cracking weather with a little help from a volcano in Iceland made today excellent!
I decided to start the day out a Oxford with a couple of liners, virtually mirroring my shot from the last update a few weeks ago my first shot in the bag was 66237 working the 4O53 Wakefield – Southampton Intermodal although this time with a nice healthy load in tow. If you compare the shots you can see how the trees have started to shoot since then and a nice green covering is starting to appear.
Next up is a first for this site, my first steam photo! 
I’m not a huge steam fan but as this is the GWR 175 celebration year and FGW had organised a charter featuring 5043 ‘Earl of Mount Edgcumbe’ from London Paddington – Bristol and return I thought I should make an effort seeing as the Western mainline is my home. I opted for the the shot at Shrivenham and so did everyone else, the bridge was wedged with probably 30-40 photographers dotted all over the place and running bang to time 5043 rolled 1Z22 past the huge gallery!
Finally to round up the days adventures a charter had been organised from Skegness – Oxford featuring WCRC 47s though I’m not sure there is huge demand in Skegness to go to Oxford! 
I had seen the outward working at Shrivenham but not got a shot so decided to get the return working at Kings Sutton in the afternoon. It was running just a couple of minutes late as 47787 on 1Z52 return to Skegness passed the spire at Kings Sutton.
Promise of some good weather lured me out again today to have a crack at a couple of the Saturday morning liner workings. I decided to head over to the Walton Well Road over bridge just north of Oxford station which had the undergrowth cleared right back a couple of years ago really opening up the view.
As I had just parked the car and was just walking up to the bridge 66517 pulled into the down loop with a sparsely loaded liner, checking the tables there is no record of this working so presume this was an extremely late running liner. Just 10 minutes later 66154 appeared in the distance on the also lightly loaded 4O53 Wakefield – Southampton DBS Intermodal and eased past me at slow speed. I waited a bit longer to see 66587 hauling the 4O14 Birch Coppice – Southampton before making a dash for home to see the F1 qualifying!
Time for another week off and this time starting with some glorious weather, it all seemed too perfect and it was, as today I learnt the second rule of digital photography! Lesson 1 was learned very shortly after acquiring a digital camera which is to make sure you check you have a memory card before you leave the house. Lesson 2 however wasn’t learnt until today when I discovered you should also check the amount of charge in your battery! This one hurt a lot more as I had a whole days worth of workings and shots planned on the Berks & Hants line but was scuppered after just my first shot. Grrrr!
Thankfully I did manage one shot and it is one I have wanted to do for a while, the classic curve at Crofton pumping house. The first up working I had planned was the 7A09 Merehead – Acton ‘Jumbo’ train and a quick check before hand showed me the recently re liveried 59005 ‘Kenneth J Painter’ would be in charge and running bang on time 59005 rounded the curve with a lengthy rake behind.
