Author Archives: Thames Rail

Saturday 11th February 2012

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After last Saturdays snow was a complete washout in Oxfordshire we had a second attempt on Thursday night when a little more snow although still not masses it made things look nice and wintry for awhile. The forecast was good for Saturday and a quick scan of the gen lists showed that a Tug had dropped on the tanks again.

The snow we had was vanishing fast and I wanted a shot that made the most of what there was left so I checked out a few locations until I came across the view at Knighton crossing near Uffington where there was nice patch of snow in the corner of the field. Although Sunny it was still pretty cold with the car showing -2 Degrees as I parked up and made keeping a check on the gen tricky as my fingers froze up. Luckily it was running to time today as 60071 did the honours on the 6B33 Theale – Margam tanks in faded EWS livery.

Saturday 4th February 2012

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Despite the forecast for snow later in the afternoon the day dawned sunny and bright. A quick skim of the gen lists showed that a 70 was allocated to one of the normal Saturday southbound Freightliners and a short trip to Oxford looked ideal to bag the shot.

En route to Oxford I noticed a large bank of cloud moving in from the West which I presumed would be bring the snow later in the day and luckily I had left it quite last minute before setting off so I would not have long to wait. 70001 was running to schedule as it eased the 4O27 Garston – Southampton out of the loop and back on to the main line at Oxford North Junction and the signal cleared for the centre road just seconds before I fired the shutter as shown by the exhaust as power was applied.

Tuesday 31st January 2012

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Hmmm, more choppers? Why not. The hired in Class 20s I had photographed on the Underground stock movement last week had been replaced with GBRF Class 20s for this weeks movements which was a welcome excuse to go back and photograph the same working again.

Again it was bitterly cold but this time I waited in the warmth of the car until nearer the time the choppers were due as I had learned they followed a Chiltern unit along the branch from Princes Risbrough. Shortly afterwards 20301/305 rolled into Platform 2 with the Underground stock with 20304/302 on the rear. Luckily the near platform was completely empty for tonight’s shot enabling a clearer shot and plenty of time to grab some shots before 20304 eventually departed solo making plenty of thrash, nice!