On Thursday 13th December 60009 Union of South Africa was in charge of the RYTC's York Yuletide Express from Norwich. My plan was to take photographs of the train heading up the East Coast Main line nearing its destination of York but unfortunately Thursday morning dawned foggy.
This was the motorway camera not far from the ECML and as the fog was forecast to hang around all day there seemed little point in making a foggy journey along the motorway.
Here's a picture of 60009 Union of South Africa in Carlisle earlier in the autumn waiting to make the return trip with RYTC's The Hadrian.
We were out and about again on Saturday in Lincolnshire with the hope of managing to capture a couple of steam charter trains on the same day. Both trains were heading to Lincoln for the Christmas market or Lindum Fayre.
Although both trains were heading from the south they were making their way into Lincoln along two different stretches of track. The first special was headed by GWR 4-6-0 4965 Rood Ashton Hall which we hadn't any pictures of so we considered catching this train to be our main aim of the day.
4965 Rood Ashton Hall with The Lincoln Christmas Market at Swinderby Road crossing
The location for our photographs was chosen using street view on Google maps. As we arrived at the location there was already a group of enthusiasts waiting for the arrival of the charter train. This was an indication that the spot chosen wasn't too bad and that we hadn't missed the main event.
4965 Rood Ashton Hall at Swinderby Road crossing
4965 Rood Ashton Hall put on a good display as it headed for Lincoln with plenty of smoke left trailing behind the train.
As 4965 was on time this left us with around 40 minutes to find a location for photographing 60009 Union of South Africa also heading into Lincoln with the Lindum Fayre. Again with the help of Google maps we had a spot by a level crossing at Rowston as our chosen location. I didn't think the location was quite as good as our first spot but it would have to do.
60009 Union of South Africa with The Lindum Fayre at Rowston crossing
Union of South Africa seemed to be in cruise mode at this point with little smoke making for a rather disappointing picture.
It was freezing cold waiting at Colton Junction just outside York to see 60009 Union of South Africa in charge of the Railway Touring Company's Christmas White Rose on route from Cambridge to York.
In the bright sunshine both photography and videoing were pretty challenging. It was more or less aim and shoot and hope the locomotive was in the view finder. The timings for the journey had recently been updated with the route switched to the East Coast Main Line between Doncaster and York from the slower Doncaster - Church Fenton - York line. These timings made the biggest changes to the route further south with the train arriving in York around noon which had always been the intention.
In the end the results weren't too bad and we had our first pictures on 60009 Union of South Africa in serious action as it approached York. As you can see, from all the parked cars on the opposite side of the track, it proved to be a popular spot for railway enthusiasts to capture their shots of 60009 at speed.
The rather blustery wind from the north tended to blow the exhaust gases in the wrong direction which had a rather detrimental effect on the video soundtrack. It's the first time we visited this popular location for capturing steam charters on the East Coast Main Line.
