monday the 31st of may i went to york and the national railway museum to see recently restored 4472 in wartime black livery. as soon as i got to york i was graced by a class 47 from colas rail so copped it and then scooted to the NRM where i was 2nd in after opening. during this time i vegged round the flying scotsman and looked at all the other exhibits. i also got a small steam ride behind a pecket 0-4-0 called teddy after it's owner, in the over flow car park near the museum looking towards the works i also saw the NRM's class 37 and 47 (bonus). after lunch i popped back to the mainline station to bash a grand central, this turned out to be a HST much to my pleasure. i went to northallerton for a bit, after my previous experience with this terrible location i didn't want to stay long so get the next TPE back to york where i went back to the museum for a bit. when 4 o'clock ticked i was off again, this time on another HST in the shape of VP185s owned by east coast (formerly EMT) with new east coast brandings back to peterborough. another brilliant day and i can't wait to see 4472 again

saturday the 28th of may marked another outing for me but none like any other. i got up early to head to the isle of wight steam railway on none other than the isle of wight. started well by getting my FCC to london to get the piccadilly line and the northern line to waterloo station where i made my way to portsmouth harbour to catch the ferry to ryde on the isle of wight where i got 1938 stock to smallbrook junction where steam engine no. 24 Calbourne was waiting for us. from there i got on the steam railway where 8 Freshwater, E4 473 and Beatie Well Tank 30858 were also running. havenstreet had the most action and is also where the railway's HQ is. despite late running i had a pretty good time on this nice little railway, on my visit they were celebrating their 40th aniversary which was really nice. the return followed the same route to london however i decided to go via shanklin on the island to clear all it's lines. in london i took the bakerloo line then got on the victoria line where i was lucky enough to catch 1967 stock back to king's cross where because of signalling problems my home bound train turned out to be the 20:00 to newcastle with a HST rather than what i'd originally planned.
despite of this and the gig afterwards being slightly poor i still had a brilliant time

today saw the re-launch of The Flying Scotsman service on the ECML. sadly now it's only one direction and stops at newcastle en-route. to celebrate 91101 and 82205 have been specially painted east coast purple. and the service started on the 23rd of may in coincidence of the new east coast timetable and gave the loco a diagram of edinburgh - london - leeds - london - edinburgh. the next day however it was off diagram and hasn't been back since due to the icelandic volcano but it didn't stop me riding it from peterborough - newark northgate which was very worth while as i also got 43305 home

things have been on the up again with recent activities.
a day after my previous post we start off with a railtour from london to carlisle with class 67 haulage on the ECML by 67029, following this 66737 was lurking about on a container train so i stayed for that. thursday morning concluded by seeing the tilbury - westburton freight running a day late. in the afternoon i got tip off that i'd missed a class 37 in the morning just after i left for home but luckily it was returning in the afternoon (just before the 92) so i stooped down to get the 37 which was in the company of an NXEA DVT, a few minutes after 92001 passed with the steel, i returned in the evening to see the tour return and  i waited about for the class 92 to return. friday saw the northern belle visiting peterborough now in the charge of DRS haulage we had 2 47s on this working and it's fair to say northern belle ain't the most sociable with starting times but there you go i went for it anyway with good results in the morning also scoring a winning euro shed. the evening however was to be better, the tour arrived and left early and i got some decent night shots, not only that but i was allowed to cab 47810 which was on the northern belle tour.
saturday morning was an early starter again this time going out to see 2 DRS class 37s on a test train, after this due to the same old boring west coast crap being on the diesel leg of the tour to the north i didn't bother with that in favour of getting some deserved rest.

yesterday (tuesday) marked a busy day being a veg. the day before was good in the afternoon as we had the 4 class 20s on hire to GBRF heading to peterborough GBRF depot with their barrier tanks and 37409 with caroline was to stop at the DB depot over night as ECS in prep for tuesday, also 67018 was present on the DB depot. tuesday came around and 67018 stayed on it's perch all day. first thing 37409 came in with caroline for the southern end of the ECML. following this was a national express 321 around mid day however due to early running i missed this, around 2 o'clock things picked up again with 37409 returning with caroline a few minutes early and leaving 2 minutes later. next 4492 dominion of newzealand (60019 bittern) was due at 5 minutes to 3 however this ended up arriving an hour late. inspite of this i still got the bittern in the original intention just before the stills camera battery ran out of juice. as an added bonus i copped 43484 with it's new name plates honoring Peter Fox the platform 5 man.
wednesday on the other hand has been dead, there was a class 67 draging a 91 that failed and another natex 321 but i couldn't be bothered to get them + 67018 has now gone to toton

starting off with saturday the 15th i had an early start. another loco was due to traverse the fletton loop. this time in the form of a GBRF class 66. today 66716 was visiting the nene valley railway to be named. i started by getting a glimpse of the loco coming down the fletton loop before joining forces with a good friend where we chased the loco to orton mere and watched it head to wansford. after this we took a break from nene valley items to head over to bainton to see the HST Railtour to the mid norfolk railway for their drags weekend. we then headed back to wansford to see the naming ceramony. while we waited for the event to start we photted the class 66 again and watched the 4F 44422 and class 31 31108 on normal nene valley activities. back to the class 66 it's been named locomotive & carriage institution 1911 - 2011 on a nice very detailed circle name plate to commemorate the locomotive and carriage institution's 100th birthday itself an incredible acheivement. the institute itself has been run by many people including henry folwer and sir nigel gresley. for more info visit www.lococarriage.org.uk
after the naming me and my mate went home and parted ways. i went back out to nvr to see the 66 and the 4F again then headed to the mainline station where i nearly got caught out by a class 67 hauling new MK4 sets from doncaster works. i then saw 66716 yet again heading to the GB depot this time. had i not accepted a phone call i could've got a decent shot of 67018 (on the enbankment on my way to the place i wanted to film the return of the HST tour) thankfully though 67018 was on peterborough depot so i saw it after i saw the return of the HST railtour on the enbankment

to conclude i have been upgraded to modorator of ECML Gen on Yahoo, to visit this group go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ECML-Gen/

today marked the final day of the class 40 D306 on the Nene Valley Railway. there were mixed emotions from everyone on the one hand it's a shame to lose the engine but on the plus speculation of new engines arriving on the valley (that's another story we won't go into)
after work in the morning i scooted down to orton mere where 31190 arrived off the mainline to take the 40 away. this was around 15 late as was the return. after seeing the 31 at orton mere heading to wansford i went down to longville junction for the official sending off of the class 40 inevitably for good off the nene valley. finally i chased it to the mainline station to see the 31 thrashing away towards washford heath where the class 40 will stay until further notice

the past few weeks have been faily quiet with not much going on. there have been a few things to keep my busy on the mainline when 67018 and 60074 came in on the same day. i also was fortunate in after a minor soaking at school (helping out a fit friend with her media advert) i sped off to see 6201 princess elizabeth again this time hauling the first leg of the cathedrals explorer a new multiday tour starting this year. a day later saw me teaming up with jason (34027) again getting a lift up to oakham to see 70013 oliver cromwell hauling the white rose railtour after returning to peterborough we went out seperate ways 34027 staying at his house and i on the hire in cycling to the north of peterborough to see GBRF owned 66401 now in it's new colours and guise of 66737 lesia hauling an LMS observation carriage on a GBRF special. as an added bonus there were 2 different class 66 convoys, i don't think i've ever seen that many 66s in my life! the day concluded with seeing 67017 stabled at peterborough and seeing a class 66 hauled railtour from the norfolk broads after which i went to a gig. the next day i would've seen 47580 on an ECS move but it was 3 hours early. this didn't stop me from seeing 67017 head back to bounds green