sorry i ain't been posting lately, i've had a lot being done.
i start off with what i've done and copped (since my last post)
first off i've seen 67025 again, after that i saw 2 DRS class 47s hauling a northern belle through peterborough along with the regular workings through peterborough. After all that was the turn of 34067 Tangmere after her overhaul to mainline standard again, unfortunately the stupid wcrc diesel made her run late on both inward and outer legs and eventually she suffered a hot box at connington fen. I then went for another anglia rover, we copped plenty of 90s & sheds along with some winning track for me and 70008 again. i then had another weekend of railtours through the local, to start off with i had 67005 on a UKRailtour, 60019 bittern posing as 4492 Dominion of Newealand on The Great Briton IV & 67027 on 6L15. unfortunately i had to miss 0Z56 with 47580 hauling 3 class 56 locomotives. as for this week, i've had the caledonian sleeper through my local (i got both NB and SB workings), the EMT hire in now debranded, 67027 on a UKRailtour, the 4 GBRF hired class 20s, a test train with 31106 at the helm, saw a land rover on wheels spraying the NVR with weedkiller, 67018/67019 on a Rail Blue railtour, 97303, 92005, an ex freightliner 66 now working for GBRF, a DRS 37 hauled test train and 6201 Princess Eliabeth becoming the first Princess Royal locomotive to work between Kings Cross and York.
the 23rd of April was a very symbolic day as for the first time in around 47 years 2 GWR King class locomotives were seen together in the same place and running/double heading in the same place. The locos were 6023 King Edward II & King Edward I. 6023 suffered a minor problem in the morning but was fit to run by the afternoon going for a spin on the turntable then posing on shed with 6024 and 5051 Earl Bathurst.
other attractions on the day were the GWR Railcar no. 22 and GWR Broadgauge Replica Fire Fly.
Overall the day was a fantastic day out and was well worth while.
As an added bonus i stopped off at Oxford on the way home to watch 70000 Britania (minus nameplates) pass on a cathedrals express railtour
after a sunday of barely checking emails or anything else online i got a message off mappman1000 about a lineside spot i've been to before, he said some 20s were due my way and would i care to join him and nxea170202 at this mini meet at this lineside spot, i opted to bike to the meet due to me knowing where to go and having little money. this lineside spot in question is eastrea near whittlesea (atleast 8.8 miles from my house). on the day of the meet up (11/04/11) i checked my mail and found out 37423 and caroline were due via the lineside spot and my town so i opted to head over to eastrea early to see it. after i saw caroline and 37423 i headed to whittlesea station to meet mappman1000 & 170202 and had the nice surprise to see lee scott 37518 with them too. we then headed back to eastrea to wait for the 20s. before long we found out they hadn't left peterborough yet, fortunately they soon headed our way towards whitemoor. we had loads of time to kill so photted/filmed all the local passenger and freight workings. unfortunately things were being delayed due to a signal fault in the ely area, eventually the 20s came the other way towards tallington. after which the punters decided to head home, i stayed at whittlesea station a little longer before biking off myself. when i got home i found out there were some rare contenders for 6L15 toton - whitemoor so went out to see that. much to my surprise there were 3 class 66s on it in 3 different TOC liveries 66146 in EWS red, 66432 in DRS blue & 66303 in fastline grey.
The Gloucestershire & Warickshire Railway have recently suffered a bad winter season and 2 land slips, thankfully the preservation era and many preserved railways have stepped in to help the honeybourne line in their time of need. The Great Central Railway at Loughborough are no different as they decided to hold a huge gala which was called the GR8 escape due to the large amount of 2-8-0s that would be on site and in steam/display over the weekend. first up making the gala even more special was the in steam appearance of 3 LMS 8F 2-8-0 locomotives turkish 8F 48160, LMS red 8624 & BR 48305 all appearing on the double track mainline. close on the 8F's heals were 2 GWR 2-8-0s of churchward and collet pedigree nos. 2807 and 3850 represented GWR 2-8-0s at this event looking even nicer when passing due to 2807 facing loughborough. the final 2-8-0 on site was 63601 which was out of action but on display at loughborough sheds. another visitor to this event was small prarie no. 5542 which was paired up with the auto coach which is still in leicestershire. making up the numbers were jinty tank 47406 and class 47 D1705.
all engines made an appearance on both passenger, freight, TPO and auto train workings. at the most the event ran about 15 minutes late but throught most the day the line was either on time or making it up with the last train arriving about 6 minutes late meaning i arrived home an hour late, i didn't mind though because 70013 (which was running a railtour through peterborough had already been reported as broken down and diesel hauled.
overall the GR8 escape was a fantastic gala which shows the amaing power the preservation era has to help each other in times of great need
i have beeb kept pretty busy this week with little happening on the scene and having to take loads of time to finish up some important work in the 6form. this week was important because this week we needed to finalise the studio for tuesday's filming of our live TV show which is being done as live, wednesday and thursday were kept capturing and editing with all editing on friday. so far i've been the sole editor of a group of 6 and have managed to edit up to the commercial break slot, i've had loads of fun doing this show unfortunately on friday afternoon there were distractions from an event that happened earlier in the day and a fire drill in the afternoon but i stayed behind after to complete what needed to be complete.
