I had seen that the forecast was good for the weekend so I checked the gen boards before leaving work at lunchtime to see that the Theale tanks were running today. I grabbed my camera and set off towards Swindon to find a location to phot the working. I had a look in the Baulking area before deciding on a shot near Uffington.
I had only just got out of the car when I saw a Freightliner 66 sweeping around the curve in the distance which was a bit of a surprise as I wasn’t expecting any Freightliner working along this strech of line today. 66576 powered past me on what a I presume to be a Southampton – Wentloog additional working.
I only had to wait another ten minutes before a tug rounded the curve on the Theale tanks, 60043 was the power up front for 6B33 Theale – Robeston today. It had clouded up between the two workings and as the tug rounded the curve the sun followed the tug along the line allowing me to grab this shot, if only it always worked like that!
I have two shots for you today including a completely new location for me and the site. Infact there would have been an update last week when I went out to phot the tug working 6C23 Hayes – East Usk, however I had left my camera in self timer in error and ended up with nothing! I got in from work today to find there were two charters booked out of Victoria – Cardiff for the Six Nations today, luckily kickoff was 17:30 which meant I still had time to get out lineside.
The first was being hauled by 67029 and it was my first chance to phot the silver skip, after missing the tug at Shrivenham last week it was nice to be able to bag the shot this time at the same location. The skip looked nice with the Pullman stock in tow and was nice to have a full rake all in the same livery for once!
I knew the second one was running about forty minutes behind the first one so I decided to move further down the line for a change of view and settled on a new shot at Bourton. 67021 was in charge of the second ruggex and I think it was hauling the Northern Belle coaching stock which was also a matching set!
I have something a bit unusual for you today, earlier in the week DRS 66419 was hired in by Freightliner for a two week spell and immediately made its debut by working to Southampton. It did a couple of workings to and from the port during the week and I was hoping it might put in an appearance when I had some free time and luckily enough it did!
I had been at work during the morning and as the weather was good I decided to check the email straight away to see if anything was happening, good job I did as I found out 66419 was working 4O02 Lawley Street – Southampton which was due in the Didcot area around 2pm. I decided to try my luck at Lower Basildon and within 5 minutes of arriving the Dred came belting through on the relief running over half an hour early! 
