Saturday 11th May was one of those days where the mainline would be plastered with steam locomotive action, and with three of them meeting London Termini, it was certainly a must!
Beginning in the early morning, the Steam Dreams Excursion to Chester from London Euston would set out with 60007 Sir Nigel Gresley. This was to be the A4's last appearence in the south before returning to LSL's base at Crewe after hauling the tour to Chester, with the return being diesel hauled. The A4 is captured powering away from Wembley at Northwick Park near South Kenton.
The next tour was 35028 Clan Line, hauling her first Belmond British Pullman Kent circular since returning from overhaul, travelling from London Victoria to Dover and back. The Merchant Navy is captured from the footbridge near Shortlands station as she gets away from the capital to head for the Kent coast.
The final tour and arguably the main attraction for the day would be the second day of Vintage Trains 'The Great Western 1Z48' railtour from Plymouth to Paddington. The tour, having started the previous day from Birmingham to Plymouth, was to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Ian Allen Great Western High Speed Railtour, allowing the castle to retrace it's former stomping ground along the Devon banks and the Great Western Mainline to Paddington, running non stop from Plymouth to Bristol, and then Bristol to London. The tour is captured at Swindon, where 7029 gives a whistling salute to Swindon works which can be seen in the shot, before heading through the station.
Finally, we end the action at London Paddington, witnessing a Castle Class enter the terminus for the first time in a number of years, with 7029 very much looking at home at the buffers of the Great Western Terminus, having not been the station herself since 1965. Having sat in the paltform for just under an hour, the tour is then hauled out the station to return to Birmingham diesel hauled.
Incidentally, a fourth steam engine would be running on the mainline in the form of Black 5 44871 on a Cumbrian Mountain Express up north. While it wasn't possible to capture this as well, this meant that there was one steam locomotive from each of the Big Four companies running on the mainline all on the same day. Who would've thought such a thing could happen and it would be possible to see three of them in one go?
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10 май 2024
