I have to say this has been the most active I have been with my Rail Photography for quite a time and that is mainly due to the glorious weather we have be experiencing. Yet another cracking day with wall to wall sunshine and a few photos to share with you including another brand new location for the site. Good Friday is a bit of a strange bank holiday as it is it bit of a cross between a normal weekday and Saturday workings which is a bit hotch potch!

I started the day with a drive up to Oxford North Junction for a morning liner but I had woken up late as was sure I would have missed it but was pleasantly surprised to find the centre road cleared southbound upon arrival which indicated a freight working as all passenger trains stop at Oxford and would receive a yellow plus feather across to the platform. Then literally within a couple of minutes of arrival 66576 came storming through with the 4O14 Birch Coppice – Southampton making an impressive sight as it flew down the centre road!

Next up I retired to the car and studied the gen lists to see what was running today and noted that the Wentloog liner was running today, I had a shot at Bourton in mind that I have wanted to try on this working for a while so set off. Unfortunately things did not go to plan as it never showed! Not sure if it was cancelled or just very late but I had to move on as my next target was a Class 60 which is an opportunity not to be missed these days. 60015 was allocated the 6E55 Theale – Lindsey tanks so I hot footed it to Moreton cutting so bag myself a shot and bang on time it rumbled in to view!

A quick scan of the lists showed nothing of interest so I headed for home, no sooner had I got in then I saw a message that a Freightliner coal was headed South to Didcot Power Station. Any coal into Didcot is pretty rare these days let alone a Freightliner working so thought I would make the effort and go back out. There aren’t too many afternoon shots on the section of line around Oxford but new of one at Appleford I wanted to try so decided to give it ago. Shortly after the coal working had been reported a diverted scrap metal working was reported heading South as well, looking at the timings I expected it show up at least an hour after the coal but was surprised to see 66187 first on the 6V06 Handsworth – Cardiff Tidal Scrap!

No sooner had I photographed the scrap the coal showed up literally running a couple of minutes behind 66545 showed up on the 6Z98 Daw Mill – Didcot Power Station. It is quite a nice shot at Appleford framed by a lovely brick bridge I thought and rounded off a pretty good day in the end with a nice bit of variety.