Created 5-Sep-24
46 photos
Saturday 7th September 2024 featured another “Stratford Flyer” excursion from Norwich to Stratford-upon-Avon promoted by the Railway Touring Company. It turned out to be an interesting day in which several features were very disappointing but, in the end, my photographs turned out to be rather better than I anticipated. So, what went wrong? The weather forecast the night before was not good but the projected showers turned into long periods of steady drizzle with low cloud haze in the distance. Operating was very poor in several ways. On the outward journey time was lost progressively so that the train was 40 min late when it passed Leicester before my first photographs in cloud and rain on Burbage Common. No worries then. Plenty of time to get to the North Warwickshire line or so I thought. I headed to the Lakes Halt only to find when I updated my phone that it had recovered all of the time lost before Leicester and had passed three minutes early! Shame you can’t use your phone when driving! I had planned next to photograph the empty stock move around Lapworth, but decided instead to go to Dorridge where I should at least know if it had run early. I was in good time because the train had been signalled the wrong way between Hatton West and Hatton North and had to stop, reverse and go via Platform 3 at Hatton Station. After some lunch I went to the Station at Stratford to see the train return, diesel hauled from Dorridge. I was amazed, nay dumfounded, when a North Warwick Line train that was booked for Platform 2 pulled into Platform 1 with the “Stratford Flyer” excursion already at Bearley. Due to another signalling error, the excursion had to wait outside the station until the North Warwickshire Line departed to Worcester Foregate Street. I then left Stratford and headed in pouring rain to The Lakes Halt, Earlswood, where I could shelter in the waiting room with my cameras outside under the umbrella. 44871 did not disappoint and put up a great performance although the diesel 47 848 was contributing significantly. I returned to Burbage Common as my final location for the day in abysmal weather conditions; heavy drizzle and very little light. However, the train was on time and I was glad to be heading for home. As a postscript, the train lost time diesel hauled after Leicester and was 25 min late when it returned to Norwich.
© DAVID ARMITAGE