Victoria to Hastings: 22/06/19

Couple of shots from Hooley (take a set of steps with you to capture shots from here, I stood on my motorcycle after the step stool I had with me proved inadequate)
Oh and could have done with her running 5mins late as the sun would have been on the overbridge if she had been... doh!

 

now just imagine that, there was an Southern U Class at the head , and if my memory is right, were some shedded at Eastbourne ?

 

A few from me taken between work commitments. Glad to have some sun after a positively damp week, the result was a lack of exhaust but you can't have everything! Shots (in order) are Purley Downs Road, Crowhurst Lane crossing, and Redhill.

 

Thanks for posting. It was great to see some main line steam in this part of the world and a big thanks to everyone who made it happen. If you wanted exhaust - and sound - the place to have been was the bank from Etchingham to Wadhurst Tunnel on the return leg. It is a bit of a green tunnel, but I found one fairly open spot at a foot crossing about two miles south of Wadhurst and was quite surprised not to have any company. The sound was utterly amazing. In fact, when I first heard a noise in the distance, I thought there was a helicopter around as it was SO loud. Then I realised it was 44871. I've never heard a Black Five being worked so hard (even though 33207 was giving a shove from the rear) and as for the exhaust - incredible! Regrettably, I'm one of those types that still enjoys my film camera otherwise I would have posted the picture here. There was also a decent exhaust at Southerham Bridge just south of Lewes although I was not surpised to be on my own here - the constant sound of traffic on the A27 Lewes Bypass means that it's not the best of places for sound recordists, to put it mildly!

Wadhust may not have the same ring with enthusiasts as Sapperton, Shap or Ais Gill, but it's a pretty fierce climb from the Rother Valley up into the heights of the East Sussex High Weald. It makes you realise just what good engines the Schools must have been and also how competent the Bricklayers arms and St Leonard's crews must have been to work this curving, steeply graded route day in day out with large-wheeled 4-4-0s.

 

Some photos and videos from the day, what a sound it made at St Leonards






More photos at https://railwaygalleries.smugmug.com/MainlineSteam/Steam-Tours-in-2019/

 

Very belatedly, here is 44871 on the climb to Wadhurst Tunnel on 22nd June . , taken from a footpath crossing about a mile south of the southern portal.