July Southwest Mainline Steam & Diesel

After a long time I've returned with some new content for everybody. Whether anybody missed me or not, I'll leave up to yourselves! I've been lucky enough to see 2 Royal Scots within a few days of each other, not been so lucky in seeing a diesel replace a steam engine (twice!) and ended the month off with a nice Sunday morning trip to a quiet, Somerset village so all in all, not a bad month. I hope you enjoy. (Full description below!)

00:00 = We start off with 46100 Royal Scot heading up the diverted Torbay Express heading from Bristol to Westbury then off to Kingswear. The was some kind of signalling fault I'm led to believe causing 46100 to slow to a crawl as she approached Bradford-On-Avon station. The train pulled up for some few minutes while connection was made to Westbury (I think!) and the train set off once again. The thing that let this clip down for me was an error on my part, bashing the tripod as 46100 approcached me! An amatuer mistake from me!

01:55 = Next up we see the tail end of the 1A07 07:45 Temple Meads to Paddington GWR/FGW HST. The reason you only see the tail end is due to me not actually pressing record when it was approaching, also being forced to make an unscheduled stop at Bradford.

02:18 = WCR 37685 is the star of this clip covering for 34046 Braunton (or 34052 as she currently maskarades) which suffered a radio fault and was unable to haul the outward leg. I didn't find this information out until I arrived at Avoncliff. I figured that it probably wouldn't be a Class 66 hauling the train so I hung around. It's always good to see a Class 37 and hear that welcoming sound.

02:50 = Following on from 46100, 46115 found herself in the Southwest hauling the West Somerset Steam Express from Paddington to Bishops Lydeard, with 53808 taking the train on to Minehead. I've never seen 46115 so I made a valiant effort to get up close and personal. Unfortinatley I was so hung up with photographing her that I overlooked the fact I didn't actually film any of this "up close and personal" so ended I do apologise for that. She sounded good as she headed away for Fairwood Jn.

06:25 = Early on a sunday morning I again find myself catching the 1A07 07:45 Temple Meads to Paddington GWR/FGW HST service whilst waiting for the Torbay Express

07:06 = Continuing from above, as I was stood waiting I was made aware (thanks to the internet!) that 46100 Royal Scot had suffered some kind of issue although I'm unclear as to exactly what, but a DB/EWS Class 66 would be hauling the train. I can't say I was overly thrilled at this prospect but after making a large round trip to cross counties to try and catch the Scot in a nice location, I figured I'd hand around and wait. The train was some 8 mins late with a ever noticeable horn of the Class 66 echoing in the Avon Valley.