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66007 passes Leaton, just north of Shrewsbury, with the afternoon Dee Marsh - Llanwern, seen here at 16:31 on Saturday 7th October 2006.
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This train was waiting at the signal on the up main when I arrived back at Bescot after a quick shopping trip to Walsall on
Saturday 23rd September 2006. As the sun was out I hung on for a few minutes to photograph it when it was eventually allowed
into the Down Yard at 13:13. 66037 was working 6M13, a Portbury - Rugeley coal train diverted via Hereford and Shrewsbury due
to engineering work on the Gloucester route. Easily the best shot available from a public place at Bescot, this spot suffers
from a severe lack of trains. Even when WCML traffic is routed this way on Saturdays there are next to no freight trains at the
right time of day.
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66055 rolls past Walsall cement terminal as it approaches Pleck Jct with the 6G22 Washwood Heath RMC - Bescot trip. This picture
was taken at 17:27 on Friday 9th June 2006.
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66127 passes Whittlesea with the 6L39 Mountsorrel - Trowse stone train. This shot was taken at 12:19 on Friday 8th September 2006, and it
wasn't the photo I was after. What I really wanted was 47703 on the Oxley - Norwich ECS which passed at 12:27, making serious clag, but with
the sun behind a cloud (and back out at 12:28). This was a frustrating day with regards to the weather. In a climate like Britain's I can
forgive the forecasters for getting the forecast wrong, but driving around the Fens at 10:30 under near complete cloud cover is
seriously annoying when the weatherman on the radio is telling you how wonderfully sunny it is all over England right now. By noon the
cloud had begun to break, and I thought it was going to be OK for the ECS - but no such luck. It was a close call with 6L39 too, the
10:57 Norwich - Liverpool only just got out of the way in time.
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66157 hauls a uniform rake of SPAs loaded with steel wire around the curves on the approach to Whitacre Jct. This pic was taken at
11:27 on Friday 6th April 2007, and I presume the train is 6Z58 Cardiff - Rotherham which had been a regular runner at this time.
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66168 negotiates Whitacre Jct with what I suspect is a Bescot - Mountsorrel train. This was taken at 10:03 on Friday 2nd March 2007.
For those not familiar with the location the church-like building in the background is Severn Trent's Whitacre Water Works.
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This shot was from a test session with a new 24-105L lens on Thursday 9th November 2006. The best of the batch was this one of 66185
hauling southbound coal empties past Elford at 14.20. In no small part the result was down to some lovely autumn sunshine set off by
a background of dark clouds.
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66219 winds around the reverse curves at Whitacre Jct in this picture taken at 12:24 on Saturday 11th February 2006. The distinctive red
"Petroplus" tanks are used on the Port Clarence - Bedworth circuit, and these are empties from Bedworth I believe. The train had
been to Hams Hall to run-round, this no longer being possible at Nuneaton. The route indicator on SY304 shows "D" (Down) for the
main line to Water Orton, and "H" for trains going into Hams Hall. I was actually at Whitacre for 47145 on a Hams Hall -
Peterborough special, and fell on the tanks by chance. In the end they made a better picture than the flat wagons behind the 47,
particularly in the less-than-ideal light.
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Freightliner hired two locos from DRS during 2006, at the time this picture was taken they had 66407 and 66409. The latter is seen passing
Elford at 17:08 on Friday 14th April with the 6M51 Hull - Rugeley coal, a train it had also worked on Tuesday 11th April.
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This shot shows 66414 passing Rugeley Trent Valley with 4M44 Mossend - Daventry. It was taken at 15:12 on Thursday 5th April 2007. The
signal on the down fast is at red because the road was set off the branch for the 14:12 New St - Stafford. Meantime the green on the slow
was for a northbound liner.
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66504 heads a southbound liner through Hamstead at 11:26 on Saturday 19th February 2005. On the down line 170515 forming 2H44, the
11:12 New St - Rugeley has just got out of the way in time. Saturday morning is traditionally the best time for freight trains on this
stretch of line, as long as there is a Trent Valley diversion is in progress. On this particular day the period from 10:30 until 13:20
produced the following northbound freights: 60072 (engineers train); 92031 (intermodal); 86501 (liner) and 57001 (liner). Southbound
trains were headed by: 66169 (intermodal) and 66504 (liner). Unfortunately the autumn 2005 diversion has seen fewer southbound freights
running on Saturday mornings, and tree growth now throws shadows onto the line during autumn and winter.
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Something of a lucky shot this. I'd gone out to this spot in Wylde Green (on the Sutton Park line) for 67018 hauling 507001 as 5X61
Birkenhead - Eastleigh. The weather consisted of dark cloud with small, but usable, patches of blue sky. One of those days when you'll
be lucky to get a moving target in the sun, but if you do it'll probably have a lovely dark-sky backdrop. The sun was behind a cloud when
5X61 arrived, but while I was waiting 66513 came past with the colourful Jarvis engineers train, probably en-route to its base at Washwood
Heath. The sun just peeked out as it passed, which was at 16:18 on Monday 30th August 2004.
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66522 climbs past Leamore (Bloxwich) with the 6M49 Hull - Rugeley coal train. The time is 16:13, and the date is Thursday 5th April 2007, and
the hybrid "Shanks" livery carried by the loco is a mess.
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66555 re-starts the 6M14 Harlow - Bardon Hill stone empties out of the loop at March. This shot was taken at 15:19 on Friday 8th September 2006.
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66614 passes Elford with the 6M00 Humber - Kingsbury tanks. This shot was taken at 15:51 on Friday 14th April 2006, the same afternoon as
the shot of 66409 above.
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66615 winds across Ryecroft Jct with a Rugeley-bound coal train at 08:42 on Tuesday 25th July 2006. This path is often used by 6M53 from
Immingham, but I'm not sure whether that was the case on this occasion. The shot was taken from the apex of the junction, a spot once
occupied by the engine shed, but which is now a small wood. It's a rarely used angle, but accessible to the public from Mill Lane or Coalpool
Lane. Despite the weather there are some surprising wet spots in the wood, so take care if you venture that way. However the fence adjacent
to the Bloxwich line is of modest height and not spiked, so the picture is not hard to take once you've scrambled through the undergrowth.
It was no surprise when I disturbed a fox, they're quite common in this area and often seen on the railway lines in my experience.
Incidentally I've cloned out a lamp post which was growing out of the loco roof (in the exhaust haze).
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66620 passes Bagworth at 16:24 on Wednesday 19th July 2006. The train is, I think, 6M54 Thorney Mill - Bardon Hill stone empties.
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66708 departs from the up loop at March South Jct with a short engineer's service from Whitemoor Yard. The picture was taken at 16:10 on
Friday 8th September 2006, but I've no idea where the train was bound (I suspect it was a "Z"). This is another grab shot of
sorts, I was at March East when 66708 crept out of Whitemoor Yard and slipped into the loop to allow a unit to pass. I'd originally tried
to make a dash to Manea for it, but the tea-time traffic was so heavy, and my knowledge of the locality so poor, that I ended up at March
South by accident.
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This shot was taken at 11.54 on Saturday 4th November 2006, and shows 66712 passing underneath the M42 with 4M21 Felixstowe - Hams Hall.
In the week this train runs up the WCML via Nuneaton, but when that route is unavailable on Saturdays it usually runs via Reading, Banbury
and Birmingham.
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