LMS Coronation Class 8P 4-6-2 no 46233 Duchess of Sutherland heads The Christmas White Rose to York from Cambridge. The Duchess joined the train at Peterborough for the run to York on the East Coast Main Line.
GWR Castle Class 4-6-0 no 5043 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe makes a great sound as she heads for York with The Christmas White Rose from Tyseley Warwick Rd to York. Filmed at Hillam lane near Milford Junction
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.
