On Saturday 19th June 2010, class 201 'Hastings' DEMU No. 1001 worked Hastings Diesels Limited's third tour of the year, the 'West Somerset Limited', which took the 'Thumper' from Hastings to Minehead on the West Somerset Railway, the longest preserved railway in the UK.
The tour started at Hastings and travelled via Battle, Tunbridge Wells, Tonbridge and Guildford to get to Reading. From here, the 'Thumper' took the 'Berks & Hants' line down to Newbury and Westbury. After Westbury, the tour was supposed to run via the Frome avoiding line, however, due to early running and presumably no available path, the train took the Frome station line to get out of the way of FGW HSTs. The route was then to Taunton and on to the West Somerset Railway.
The return from Minehead saw the 'Hastings' unit retrace its steps along the West Somerset Railway and on to Fairwood Junction where the tour took the Westbury avoiding line instead of the Westbury station line as per the outward route. From Heywood Road Junction, the 6-car DEMU was back on the outward route, running via Reading, Guildford, Redhill, Tonbridge and down to Hastings.
This is part 3, depicting the rest of the tour's journey back to Hastings.
Some photos @ http://craigrailpics.fotopic.net/c1862793.html
A fantastic conclusion to the series Craig...marvellous camera work throughout....Bob
robmasterman 1 year ago
Nice video mate :) 4:30 that's me in the window lol
violinings 1 year ago