Home»All Photographs»Year Albums»2024»August»2024_08_18 Shakespeare Express

My visit to photograph “The Shakespeare Express” on Sunday 18th August 2024 was a little different to many. For the lunch-time train I visited a location between Bentley Heath and Widney Manor where I had not been for many years. More overgrown than I remembered of course but still a high speed location for an action sequence. After lunch I walked to Stratford-upon-Avon Station to investigate other possibilities for shooting the locomotive running round the train. I was very surprised to find that the train had run without the diesel locomotive on this date but the coaches were still to far down the platform to achieve the correct angle. It was on the return journey with the afternoon train that I experienced a problem, not of my making. I planned to photograph from the down side approaching Widney Manor Station but found the view blocked by vegetation. I decided to move to a footbridge I know on the far side of Solihull and arrived in good time. As soon as I reached the bridge the train appeared in the cutting below, travelling fast and I had no time to remove a camera from my bag. It was 13 min early according to the times given on RTT.