7029 Clun Castle races along the Great Western Mainline | Cathedrals Express to Salisbury | 2/3/24

Описание: Today’s video is of GWR Castle Class 4-6-0 7029 Clun Castle on Vintage Trains’ first tour of 2024, “The Cathedrals Express to Salisbury”; complete with a Cathedrals Express headboard. The tour originated at Birmingham Snow Hill, steam hauled in both directions via Leamington, Banbury, Oxford, Didcot, then along the GWML to skirt Reading, and then to Basingstoke and along the old LSWR mainline to Salisbury. The weather was very mixed, being quite cold but with sunny spells, rain showers and even snow in some places.

I started out from my local at 06:59, meeting my friends ‪@blackcountrysteamvideos8021‬ and Charlie, before alighting at Leamington for a shot of 7029 accelerating up the hill from Warwick. Despite the dull conditions and concern of potential bowlage, this shot turned out very well for me. I then headed down to Banbury and Oxford, meeting ‪@adtrainvids9569‬ for the trip to Basingstoke on an XC Vomiter, also meeting ‪@harrymorris5748‬ once I alighted. As I arrived, Basingstoke station as in a bit of chaos with a broken down train on the mainline platform, so I had to wait an additional 20 minutes for my service to Andover. Unfortunately this also meant that the SWR service in front of 7029 was running 6 late, which meant she only really cantered through Andover as fairly low speed following a single caution aspect. At that I travelled back to Basingstoke to meet @Luke Alford's UK Steam, ‪@harrymorris5748‬ and ‪@adtrainvids9569‬ for a few hours in the spoons there.

After that we took the 14:48 XC service up to Reading and took a train to Goring & Streatley where we set up for 7029. She was due, rather unusually, on the fast lines from Reading, so we were expecting a fast run, and that’s exactly what we got, as she absolutely blasted through on the down fast, really pushing her 75mph limit. This shot felt very authentic, as a Castle at high speed on the GWML with such a headboard would have been a regular sight in the 1950s. I was very happy about this shot so in high spirits I headed back to Reading and took an XC train northwards to my next shot. A quick interlude on the video is a clip from my friend Luke from Hatton Bank, so a massive thanks to him! Meanwhile, I alighted at Dorridge and headed to Bentley Heath Crossing for the final shot, where 7029 powered nicely through bathed in the crossing lights. After that I headed home.

A massive thanks too all who made today possible, to my friends, XC, Chiltern, SWR, NR, Vintage Trains and the mighty 7029 and her crew. Thank you also to my secondary planner who helped choose some shots! Today was a very fun day out indeed. I hope you enjoy as much as you did!