I'd made a note of Saturday 14th June in my diary early in the year as no less than three steam locomotives were heading for York on the same day and it must surely provide a good photo opportunity. Of course it all depended on the timing of each train as I'm not the sort of person who can hang around for hours waiting for a train. I haven't got the patience.
The timings for each train didn't appear until a few days before the scheduled event. It wasn't good news as a couple of hours separated each train. I settled on Sherburn in Elemet for pictures of LMS Princess Coronation Class 4-6-2 Pacific 46233 Duchess of Sutherland hauling the Yorkshire Coronation from Derby to Scarborough. I thought about also photographing it before it stopped at Milford Loop to take on water but as it would probably be coasting at that point I decided on the one location. The locomotive should be working hard at Sherburn as it gets away from the water stop at Milford Loop.
After this I thought we had time to travel to Fenwick Lane near Doncaster to capture Rebuilt Bulleid Light Pacific Locomotive No 34046 Braunton which I’d discovered on Saturday morning was replacing LNER A4 Class 4464 Bittern. It was a chance I didn't want to miss as it’s one of the steam locomotives I haven't seen making a rare trip up north. However on the way to Doncaster there had been a bad traffic accident and the road was closed. The route around the closure was far too long and by the time we would have got there 34046 Braunton would be in York. We headed for the small village of Great Heck which is situated on the East Coast Main Line and hoped to find a suitable spot there.
We didn't have long to wait before 34046 Braunton raced past on its way to York from Kings Cross with The White Rose II. I even managed a little bit of video at Great Heck which is included below.
The rain which had fallen on and off throughout the morning held off whilst we photographed both trains. The locomotive we didn't get round to seeing was LNER A4 Class 60009 Union of South Africa with The Cathedrals Express.
