Home»All Photographs»Year Albums»2019»May»2019_05_05 Great Britain XII

My only attempt at photography of Great Britain XII was on the final day as the train ran from Scarborough to Paddington with 60103 FLYING SCOTSMAN. I had three locations planned, Elford, Banbury and Culham. I could see from realtimetrains.co.uk that time was being lost in the north but hoped for some recovery after Sheffield. Rumours began to circulate about broken rails but as soon as I arrived at the bridges near Elford the real reason became apparent. Widespread trespass by the general public of all ages and gender made the railway impossible to operate. Service trains crawled from bridge to bridge with staff remonstrating with the offenders to leave the railway property. Most did but near my chosen location a cyclist in full Lycra attire complete with his bicycle hid in vegetation and resisted all attempts to make him leave the scene. Eventually it must have been decided to let the steam run and in due course SCOTSMAN passed. There was no question of FLYING! After the train had gone Police arrived and, while they were involved in heated discussion with a group that had been on the lineside earlier, the cyclist calmly climbed over the railway boundary and cycled away at speed. I did go south to Banbury but, as further delays developed, I decided to cut my losses and returned home for dinner.