Yearly Archives: 2007

Saturday 29th December 2007

Posted on by
Reply

This will probably be my last update from 2007 so I will wish you a Happy New Year. I am finishing the year with something rather unusual. The Warrington – Willesden mail that operates via the WCML was diverted via the Thames Valley for the last few days of December due to the WCML being closed. I received gen that is was running again today although about 50 mins late but the sun was shining.

I decided to head out to Culham for the shot across the fields, it is a bit of a trek and probably a 25-30 minute walk when its dry but add another 10 when your trying not to fall over in all the mud so I wasn’t impressed when a bank of cloud rolled in. Despite the conditions I decided to carry on due to the rarity factor of seeing Class 325 mail units on my home patch. I had a 50 minute wait in pretty chilly conditions but thankfully the sun broke out as 47805 rounded the curve on 1A84 Warrington – Willesden with 325011/008 in tow, nice! :-)

Saturday 3rd November 2007

Posted on by
Reply

I’m back again with another update although not quite what I had hoped for. Due to yet another series of weekend blockades in the Basingstoke area the freight is being diverted via Swindon and Westbury to reach the south coast. The blockades runs for five weekends with this being the first and as the weather was nice I decided to have a look.

The trees have some lovely autumn colours at the moment so I was hoping to try and bag some shots to show them off and the shot out near Grove offers a nice backdrop so decided to try that. I tested a few views on the HSTs bombing up and down and I’m glad I did as 10 minutes before the first freightliner turned up the cloud rolled in and spoiled all the lovely colours. I quite like the contrast bewteen the HST and the trees anyway so I think it was worth the trip out.

Saturday 6th October 2007

Posted on by
Reply

I ventured outside of the Thames Rail area today to visit the Llangollen diesel gala and in particular Slug 1 (37901). As it was a 3oo~ mile round trip it meant an early start leaving home at 6am to make the first train of the day. I made the first train with 10 minutes to spare. The first run was a DMU return trip with a 109 +104 which gave an excellent first view of the line which is absolutley fantastic as it winds its way alongside the River Dee giving excellent views throughout.

Slug 1 put in an excellent performance with a superb thrash through Berwyn tunnel and the rest of the fleet also performed well. One of the highlights was the final trip of the day featuring D5401 with an auto coach in tow. It was definitely worth the early start for both the line and the traction. I have put of my favourite shot of the day as D8142 climbs the 1 in 80 on the approach to Berwyn station.