Cathedrals Express to Sherborne with 60163 Tornado 14-12-11

Wednesday 14th December, and another pre-Christmas Cathedrals Express, this time to Sherborne.
Tornado was running almost to time passing Egham, unfortunately neither this nor the sunny weather would last.
With the new tunnel at Hindhead knocking ten minutes off the journey time down the A3, it was easy to get to one of our favourite locations, Liss. In the meantime, Tornado had made an unscheduled water stop at Haslemere and was now running about twenty minutes late.
From Liss it was a quick dash across to the outskirts of Romsey for a third shot. Here the late running had been cut to ten minutes.
On leaving Romsey we found that none of our planned locations west of Salisbury could be realistically reached in time, and so we decided to head for Yeovil Junction in the hope of catching the turning and servicing of the loco, but as we passed Sherborne the sight of people standing on bridges, peering into the distance, showed that the train had yet to reach there.
At Yeovil there was still no sign of Tornado and an announcement over the PA at the railway centre informed the waiting photographers that the train had just passed Templecombe. Further announcements tracked the progress until, finally, 60163 appeared and came slowly into the yard alongside the railway centre.
There then followed some shunting to clear the points before loco and support coach took off for a siding on the up side of the station to top up the coal.
Although the coaling didn't take long, it was almost dark before Tornado entered the Yeovil Railway Centre and made it onto the turntable. Having seen the loco turned, we returned to Sherborne.
Departure from Sherborne was supposed to be at 16:54, but it was almost an hour later that the train rolled into the platform. It took ten minutes to load the passengers and for most of that time the safety valves were cheerfully emptying the boiler into the night sky. It was a long time before our hearing returned to normal.
With only station platforms to provide light we moved on to Farncombe and then home to Isleworth. Here we got lucky as, at Woking, it had been decided to re-route the train straight up the main line to Waterloo, but, due to some kind of misunderstanding, it was sent back through Isleworth as originally planned. Good news for us, not so good for the long suffering passengers who now had to crawl all the way to Barnes behind the up local, and even worse for those who had de-trained at Woking in order to make their own way back to their starting point at Staines.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Cathedrals
• Express
• Sherborne
• 60163
• Tornado

[robmasterman]

No matter if the sun's shinning or it's dark Martyn, you still manage to produce outstanding images from your days out...Very enjoyable indeed....Bob

[1Z64]

@robmasterman I haven't been able to do as much I would have liked in the past couple of years for one reason or another, but I am now enjoying making up for lost time. I will carry on producing these films so loyal supporters like you can carry on enjoying them. Maybe one day we'll meet on the lineside. I wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a steam filled New Year.

[190857]

Absolutely outstanding video WELL DONE!!

Greg

Durban

South Africa

[1Z64]

@190857 Thanks Greg you're most welcome.

[hercmike]

Another amazing video Martyn. You don't half cover some miles in your quest to bring us the best. Are you going to tell me your brother was responsible. I remember the video of 70000 on the VSOE at Sydney Gardens on 12 October and how brilliant that shot was. Then you admitted your brother was responsible for that. A very merry christmas to you both and a happy and steamy New Year. Mike.

[1Z64]

@hercmike We have been clocking up the miles recently. This was another joint effort. All the passing shots are mine, and the shots at Yeovil Jct are my Brother's. Thanks as always Mike and a Merry Christmas to you.

[EMuksteam]

Very good video packed in a lot of the action & a very long day for you.

[balmesh]

Great stuff - but I'm glad I wasn't attempting it! You do a wonderful job of passing the time whole waiting - loved the shoht of the guy with the enormous telephoto lens, when all he had to do was walk up to the line!

[collieultimo]

A first-class video of a great steam railway day. There you have some great shots succeeded. By framing the scenes you have created a wonderful documentary.

At 3:28 you can rarely observe how the axes move laterally. Even it was so nice for your ears, the departure from Sherborne, from 13:22, is simply spectacular.

[HughFromAlice]

You obviously had a great day out! Good vid - along with the star, Tornado, really liked your character shots of the passengers waiting to board the train. Nice one....

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