After some lovely winter light to start off this year it was decidedly grey today but that would not be a problem for what I had planned. It has been a while since my last night phot and today’s target looked like it would fit the bill. I had noted there was a VSOE trip to Bath Spa today running via the Thames Valley but looking at the timings I noticed it was booked a few minutes at Didcot in both the morning and evening, this immediately suggested to me that it was for a crew change so come early evening I packed up my camera gear and tripod and set off expectantly.

I arrived early just in case but unfortunately the prior HST was running 20 mins late for some reason so I had a chilly wait in the windy conditions but just a couple of minutes behind the HST 67017 turned up on the 1Z93 Bath Spa – London Victoria VSOE stock and stopped for the crew change as I had expected. The stock had gone down top and tailed with 67025 but the return was just 67017 up front so not sure if a problem with 67025 or a planned move to leave it at Bristol?