A Mixed Weekend

It should have been a good weekend for photographing and getting some video of steam train specials. It didn't quite turn out that way due to the rather wayward timing of Sunday's Tin Bath Special. 

Saturday's trip out was to see The Valentine White Rose running from London Kings Cross to York.

I'd got the timing from Real Time Trains just about spot on for our 45 minute trip out to Colton Junction near York. There were a good number of enthusiasts already in their chosen spots as we arrived. I think 34067 Tangmere was third choice locomotive for this tour behind 70000 Britannia and 60009 Union of South Africa. Actually it's a bit of a treat to see an Ex Southern Region locomotive working in this part of the country. 

 Tangmere sped by running a few minutes early but with a rather disappointing amount of smoke.

Sunday's plan was to capture The Tin Bath in Wakefield our local station. I've blogged before about the special charter steam train called the Tin Bath named after the Last of the Summer Wine television programme. On Sunday it was due to travel through Wakefield. This was too good an opportunity to miss so my plan was to pop down to the station to grab a quick video clip as it passed through. I knew from the Internet the train was running almost an hour late and so tried to judge our arrival time accordingly. Then at the last minute I decided more of an action packed video would be better rather than the train passing slowly through the station and decided on a spot out towards Horbury Junction. The trouble was I got the timing all wrong and we arrived just as smoke billowed over the bridge parapets. So as you've probably guessed there are no photographs of The Tin Bath.

To finish off this post the video of Tangmere heading The Valentine White Rose is included below.

Copyright: Original post from http://steamdaysblog.blogspot.co.uk/author M Garrett

More Visits to Colton Junction

I've been a bit slow at keeping my blog up to date but we've made a couple more trips to Colton Junction to photograph a couple of steam locomotives that we hadn't seen before.

The first of these was 60019 or 4464 Bittern with The Cathedral Express to Scotland. Bittern was in charge of the train from Kings Cross to York where 60009 Union of South Africa would take over for the remainder of the journey to Edinburgh.

Bittern at Colton Junction on 14-06-2013

This weekend 70013 Oliver Cromwell stood in for 60009 Union of South Africa which was unavailable. It was in charge of The White Rose from Kings Cross to York. It was wet and windy as the train arrived 20 minutes down at Colton Junction. Not the best of conditions for good photography.

70013 Oliver Cromwell at Colton Junction 22 June 2013

Copyright: Original post from http://steamdaysblog.blogspot.co.uk/author M Garrett

LMS Coronation Class 4-6-2 No. 46233 'Duchess of Sutherland'

A short trip out to Colton Junction near York to take some pictures of The Duchess working the "North Eastern" tour to Newcastle.

Leaving her scheduled water stop at Milford around 9 minutes early she was brought to a halt at Colton Junction to allow an East Coast Main Line service the route to York before the North Eastern took the Main line into York itself.

Copyright: Original post from http://steamdaysblog.blogspot.co.uk/author M Garrett

I saw the notifications concerning the support move for 60009 Union of South Africa from The National Railway Museum to Carnforth. This move was in order for UoSA to work this Saturday's Winter Cumbrian Mountain Express for The Railway Touring Company. The steam hauled section is planned from Carnforth to Carlisle over Shap summit with the return leg via the famous Settle to Carlisle line. The tour starts and ends at Euston station (London) but is hauled up and down to Carnforth by an electric locomotive.

I supposed this would be an opportunity to get our first main line steam photographs of the year. We made our way to a spot near Colton Junction just South of York where UoSA should have made an appearance at about 14:15 if all had gone to plan.

Of course you're seeing this picture because everything didn't go to plan. After an hours wait there wasn't any hint of steam just lots of diesels. It was blowing a gale and quite difficult to stand up at times so in the end we decided to give it up as a bad job and head for home.

It turned out that UoSA's support coach had been derailed in York so I suppose its none appearance will have to be forgiven.

Copyright: Original post from http://steamdaysblog.blogspot.co.uk/author M Garrett

Christmas White Rose

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.