Home»All Photographs»Year Albums»2025»May»2025_05_10 Chester

On Saturday 10th May 2025 Steam Dreams promoted an excursion from Horsham to Chester and return entitled simply “The Chester”. I have included it in the group named “The Cheshireman to make it easier for site users to locate it in the future. It was routed on the Brighton line then round west London to gain the West Coast Main-Line north from Willesden. I went first to Clifton Road, Rugby where I had photographed stem many times in the past. I could see immediately that the layout had changed almost beyond recognition but hoped I could get photographs in a similar way to previous occasions. No such luck! The approach was in a deep tree lined cutting that I could not have used even if I had known the new route. I went next to Atherstone, a familiar location, to play it safe. The usual shots obtained I headed north to Wardle as normal, arriving just in time. Here the train was significantly late having been held when approaching and while in the station at Crewe. I and others expected BRITANNIA to return from Chester to Crewe light engine, but wiser council with past experience of a run earlier in the year confirmed the entire empty train would come back to Crewe for service with the diesel leading and steam attached at the back. That was indeed what occurred as recorded in my photographs.