5029 Nunney Castle on 'The Torbay Express' - 14/07/13

Описание: For the first time in nearly two years, Great Western motive power was to return to the Bristol - Kingswear - Bristol 'Torbay Express'. Coming in the form of 4073 'Castle' Class 4-6-0 no.5029 'Nunney Castle' who had recently returned to the mainline following an intermediate overhaul. Incidentally I believe this is also the first time a Castle has been seen on the 'Torbay Express' since 2004 (correct me if I'm wrong) when 5051 'Earl Bathurst' was at the helm. Due to a high fire risk Nunney to spend the day in company with BR Class 47 no.47812 (D1916), although because it was a BR Two Tone Green 47 I didn't mind. I spent most of the day with some good mates, James (NwsNoaaChaser), Tom (BristolCastle) and James (JSBVideoProductions) where we had a good laugh and plenty of banter.

The first shot of the day takes me to the classic location of Dawlish, although I was limited to the station as even catching the earliest train from Swindon (09:15 straight to Dawlish) I got there with only 10 minutes to spare. A fairly sedate performance from the pair in terms of noise, although the whistles from 5029 were quite good. My only complaints were the helicopter and the oblivious group of old people who left their car engine running (It would be a diesel engine too!) throughout the whole shot. After Dawlish it was off to Paignton to see Nunney being serviced, where we were all able to get some detailed close ups of her and I even managed to catch the return reporting numbers being fitted.

After Paignton our little group split, with the two James' heading off elsewhere and Tom and I heading to Newton Abbot, although I only went to Newton Abbot because it meant I could get a third shot, which I'll come to later. They must have only just seen the green signal as the came around the corner as they weren't actually spritely, although Nunney did open up a bit, as did the 47! We also see two forms of Great Western motive power as Nunney passes a departing First Great Western HST bound for the west. After Newton Abbot, Tom and I split at Exeter and I was on my own for the final shot at Yatton. Another tight arrival, having arrived into Yatton 10 minutes before Nunney was due. I think it's safe to say that Yatton was the best performance of the day, with both speed and lovely whistles and to top it off, I narrowly missed getting bowled by a pesky Voyager, phew!

All in all a very good day out, gorgeous weather, steam along the Devon Coast and in the company of good mates.

Filmed on a Panasonic HDC-HS900 with Pro Sound L92AA and Panasonic VW-VM2SE (Paignton only) microphones.

Enjoy.