Two big pacific locomotives would take to the Welsh Marches line on the same day and both were due to pass each other around the Leominster area. The day's event had all the potential to be a memorable one but due to a tragic and unforeseen circumstance all trains were halted and the Welsh Marches Line was closed due to a person being struck and killed in the Ludlow area, this awful incident was investigated and declared a suicide. Thoughts are with the family of the deceased. All trains including the two steam trains were now close to two hours late and this would cause further delays for the return part of their trips.
In regards to our day, we first capture the Duchess at Condover on the approach to Stapleton near Dorrington, three angles capture this with 6233 looking splendid as she negotiates the reverse curves. Having moved on from filming 6233 we turned our attention to Tornado. Having dropped off my dad at Wistanstow I arrived at Onibury and no soon as I was set up I received a call from a friend who was on the train and confirmed the bad news and that they were going nowhere for the next few hours, though they could get under way as soon as the investigation work at Ludlow had finished, so we could't really up sticks and leave just in case they left sooner than anticipated.
Now stuck at Onibury and now ahead of the Duchess I was given another chance to capture her again. Tornado was currently stuck at Hereford, so I calculated I would have enough time to capture them both at opposite ends of the location once all services resumed, or did I ?? All services have now resumed two hours late, 60163 Tornado was much quicker out the blocks and had already been on the move for 10 minutes before the Duchess began to depart Craven Arms, it was a slow crawl away and the Duchess was losing time while Tornado was storming along and making up its deficit. So, the Duchess came into view, I filmed it and no soon as it passed I was off pretty quickly with my heavy gear back towards where I first arrived, not a quick walk I can tell you. Having arrived out of breath, I now attempted to set up my tripod, camera and microphone ! My camera and tripod were partly set up and ready to go and just as I turned my back to position my directional microphone which was also not plugged in I heard a light roaring sound on approach, surely not ! Yes, it was tornado bearing down on me, my camera was already on so I pushed the shutter and zoomed in as quickly as possible and I was just able to capture at least half of the intended video. My apologies for a botched result.
With Tornado sneaking up on me, there was absolutely no chance of a repeat scenario at Wistanstow, where my dad captures Tornado on the climb to Church Stretton. So that was that, we was going to chase it to Ruabon but we were rather tired and decided on a pub lunch and a slow drive to Kidderminster as we had plenty of time to kill while we awaited for the return of the Duchess. The return leg of the Welsh Marches was now heavily delayed due to earlier events and running 90 minutes late the Duchess made a fine sweeping pass through Kidderminster with a service train looped in the sidings to allow a clear run for the late, superior train, we also used up all our luck with what was coming directly behind us !
So, a sad and challenging day for all concerned but it all ended well with the dramatic passing of 6233 through Kidderminster mainline station.
If you've read this far, thank you and I hope you enjoy the coverage.
12 сен 2024
