This gallery will illustrate some of the rarer train movements on the network, for which advance notice is often very useful. It will show not only special passenger workings (railtours and possibly sporting specials) but also any unusual engineering / test / monitoring / track conditioning train workings.

On Tuesday 6th January, the sixth in a series of workings from Eastleigh serving the former Pullman shed site at Preston Park, which has been demolished and it seems is now being fettled for further railway use, ran carrying ballast in Falcon JNA wagons with some empty OBA wagons for use on the return working. These workings have all been contracted to GBRf and this one was entrusted to 66726 and 66717 in top-n-tail mode. I caught this outward move at Angmering station with the return Thursday 8th run, carrying equipment in some of the OBAs and general rubble / scrap in the JNAs, pictured at the next overbridge westbound from Angmering station. Monday 19th January saw another Eastleigh - Preston Park, in rather worse weather, with 66707 and 66705 in charge, sadly the return ran an hour late on Wednesday 21st in rather better weather again. Saturday 24th sees an unusual sight for this collection, an FGW HST, usually to be seen in my National passenger collection, this example however was well off the beaten track, running to Portsmouth empty in order to collect football supporters from Swansea and take them home after their triumph over Portsmouth in the FA cup. This was only the second HST to visit Portsmouth, the first being back on Saturday 3rd January for another foot-ex, since Virgin switched to Voyagers for their now-defunct service, these used to run from Reading via Eastleigh or via Guildford, it is not known when the last HST ran from Westbury through Salisbury and Romsey. We see 43016 lead with 43176 on the tail through Botley just as the light is really starting to fade at 16:45, the pictures were taken at 1000ISO and it does show but worth it for the record.

Thursday 12th February brought a welcome return to the West Coastway for DRS 37s with a track condition monitoring train, the first I've photographed in the area since August 2007, one has appeared since but at very short notice. The days running, as 1Q12, consisted of Eastleigh - Portsmouth Harbour - Chichester - Botley - Barnham - Fratton - Guildford - (Havant) - Eastleigh. The working was particularly notable for using no fewer than three locomotives for a two-coach train, one at each end, 37605 & 37609, with an extra on one end due to a fault with the inside loco, 37259's, speedometer. Rather than unhook it at the rescue location (Woking on the previous Tuesday) or tow it dead inside, all three locos were under power when seen, and heard .... Shame I don't have a soundtrack to upload as well ! The working was encountered at Portsmouth & Southsea, Botley, Farlington Junction (both directions) and Chalton near Petersfield as the light drew in. Sunday 15th brings a sole view of an even rarer event, a Class 59 east of Chichester, as 59001 was used on a returning engineer's train from a weekend worksite at Wivelsfield, one of eight that served that site, all others were reported of course as red Class 66s. An MPV also visited the area, seen from the river Arun bank.

Saturday 14th March sees 66084 run through Earlswood with 6N07 Billingshurst - Eastleigh, taking spoil from a track relay on the Mid-Sussex line. It is then seen again at Redhill, running round before proceeding via Guildford and Reading. This manouevre wasn't the simplest as all Brighton Main line services were running through Redhill, due to works on the Quarry line, and there was a degree of congestion with services waiting. Wednesday 25th brings a 4-coach track monitoring train to the South Coast, running as 1Q12 from Brighton to Eastleigh via various reversals en-route, formed of 31285, 977969, 977868, 977869 and driving car 9701, which I caught running eastbound from Barnham to Hove at Worthing road bridge, Angmering, then returning westbound over the River Arun at Ford followed by its westbound departure from Barnham after a short recess.

Saturday 4th April brings views from Fairwater yard, Taunton, of the equipment brought in to deal with the derailment of a heavy engineering wagon earlier in the week, this includes 3 heavy-lift 75T rail cranes, two of which are needed to deal with an incident of this nature but one of the first arrivals had an unfortunate encounter with the 132kVAC overhead power line passing over the southern end of the yard when its jib was raised during the first lift attempt on Tuesday 31st March, meaning another had to be brought quickly. A fair proportion of the english BTU equipment was therefore here ! The Margam / Newport set, ADRC96714 with QVA ADB 975612, QQA ADB 975494 & QPA ADB 975573 was the first arrival, followed by Toton's BTU ADRC96715 with QVA ADB 975613, QPA ABD 975574 & QVA ABD 976611. ADRC96713, from Wigan, was brought on its own after 96715s incident. Thanks to tauntontrains.co.uk for this info. Sunday 19th sees a returning foot-ex from Wembley Central, for Everton supporters, on the WCML at South Kenton, using the stand-by push-pull Mark 3 loco-hauled set powered by 90036, a freight machine. Saturday 25th brings a view of the crippled flat wagon at Redhill being prepared for removal by a gang.

Saturday 2nd May sees 37706 bring a returning charter from Swanage to London towards Brockenhurst. A view of 'Loopy Lou' the Northam depot shunter on Saturday 23rd May is followed by 37602 & 37069 working 1Z44 Crewe - Weymouth 'The Wessexman' for Spitfire railtours at Mount Pleasant crossing, Southampton, then later at Branksome, also 47760 working 0Z70 Norwich - Poole light engine, ahead of the 'Dorset Coast Express' railtour with 70013 'Oliver Cromwell', passing Poole harbourside, then 37069 & 37602 climbing through Upwey with the returning 1Z45 Weymouth - Crewe. This was followed by Class 67s and an HST both working towards Bristol, unusual in itself but both on 'service' trains, for these see my National rail 2009 collection. Friday 29th May sees Royal 67005 working 1Y91 Victoria - Victoria VSOE via Hove and Eastleigh past Kingston Gorse near Angmering, West Sussex.

Thursday 11th June sees 66730 stabled in Taunton's down bay, the old platform 1, having brought D1062 from the Severn Valley Railway for the WSR gala. Sunday 21st finds new-build steam 60163 'Tornado' working 1Z97 Waterloo - Waterloo via Eastleigh and Haslemere, with the other Royal 67006 on the rear, passing New Malden.

Saturday 25th July brings 47786 to the Brighton line, tailing Flamboyant train's 'Brighton Rocks' railtour from Doncaster, hauled by 73205 & 73209 from Wembley for which see my 'third-rail' folder, then later the same train returning to Doncaster is seen at Brondesbury Park after its traction change at Wembley with the ACLG's 87002 in charge. Thursday 30th July brings a steam-hauled railtour to West Coastway, 70013 'Oliver Cromwell' hauled the London Victoria - Portsmouth Harbour and return 'Cathedrals Express', seen outwards crossing the Adur viaduct at Shoreham-by-sea and returning at Bedhampton, it would have been nice to see it at the Harbour but I had other things to do in between ...

Monday 3rd August brings the third locomotive to traverse the Mid-Sussex line in three days, after Saturday 1st's 'Weymouth Seaside special' with a pair of 73s (see my third-rail collection), 47727 'Rebecca' was despatched at short notice from Ashford to Eastleigh, presumably for unscheduled repairs of some nature, unusually via a reversal at Redhill then Horsham and Havant, rather than the usual reversal at Kensington for these kinds of moves. With 40 minutes notice I was able to encounter the move at the Arun bridge at Ford.Tuesday 11th sees the same Class 47 returning to Ashford via the same route, again encountered at Ford.
Monday 17th brings views of two unusual movements, the first features EWS, now DBS's, management train (effectively an 'officers special'), formed as always of 67029, three Mark 3 carriages and DVT 82146 all painted in their special colours, exiting the Eastern Docks at Southampton past Siemen's Northam train maintenance depot as 1Z06 to Victoria, it had run down from Toton specially but the reason for the run is yet unclear. Later in the day the UK-railtour's operated 'Ocean Liner Express' was encountered, running over the viaduct at Fareham on its way from Eastleigh to London Victoria, this should have been the debut of DRS's new luxury train set, as previewed at Eastleigh open day, with Class 47s providing the power, instead it was a Mark 1 rake top-and-tailed by 67008 and 67003. Saturday 22nd sees another top-and-tail Class 67-operated railtour on West Coastway, this time the VSOE rake on a return trip from Chichester to Bournemouth, seen at Bedhampton on its outward run and Angmering on its returning empty run to Stewarts Lane, with power provided by 67008 and 67001.

Saturday 12th September has the VSOE returning again to the West Coastway route, seen here on its run south at Haywards Heath with 67003 in charge, unfortunately the onwards run from Hove via Eastleigh back to Victoria ran slightly early and I missed it ... The next Saturday, the 19th, saw another VSOE working, this time with 67008 running via the Mid-Sussex route to Chichester for the Goodwood revival, captured here approaching Arundel. Saturday 26th brings a pair of Class 37s, WCRCs 37516 & 37706 working Spitfire Railtour's 'Purbeck Growler', to the SWML, working 1Z49 Crewe - Swanage past Eastleigh and the returning 1Z50 through Hamworthy, near Poole.

Saturday 3rd October brings Class 47s to the Portsmouth Direct line, with 47786 'Roy Castle OBE' and 47851 top-and-tailing Railtourer's 1Z47 Chesterfield - Portsmouth Harbour charter, seen passing Mill Lane bridge, Bedhampton.

See my 'third-rail' trains for views of Class 73-hauled engineering workings.

On the weekend of September 19th and 20th, the East Kent Light Railway held their annual EMU gala, celebrating the largest collection of serviceable historic EMU vehicles in the country. Since my last visit in 2007, two more vehicles, both MLVs, have arrived from the Colne Valley Railway, making this also the largest collection of ex-BR battery power in the UK, although not all will ever operate as intended again. 4CEP 7105 continues its slow restoration work and 2EPB 5759 has had a recoat of BR green, whilst group-owned ex-Connex Class 09 EE shunter 09025 now has a full side in green.
I visited on the Saturday, a day that stayed a bit grey unfortunately, and was able to witness three of the departures with variations in the consists, all pushed/hauled by 09025, the final run I saw would have some mileage under battery power courtesy of 68001, this should have happened at the spot I went to, North Bank crossing, at the top of the grade from Shepherdswell station but for some reason the crew decided to keep 09025 attached across the crossing and through to Eythorne. I had to leave them to it to catch my train home, on a day where the journey took over 4 hours each way via Hastings due to buses between Lewes and Brighton and poor connections elsewhere. I would like to help out on occasions, they need all hands, but the journey is quite long ....
Full image captions to be loaded at a later time.

This gallery contains images of third-rail powered vehicles running on the erstwhile Southern region, my locality. Day-to-day shots will not be listed out, only unusual sights for the type of vehicle will be highlighted here.

After a couple of views from Portchester (whilst waiting for the first 4T02 intermodal from Fratton, see freight) on Friday 16th January, we move on to the Brighton Main line for my first views of the ex-South Western Class 442s in Gatwick Express service on Friday 30th, which on that day also saw some diagrams covered by 377s. Both refurbished units paired 442424 / 2419, 442414 / 2417 and the sole operating unrefurbished pair 2405 / 2413 were encountered during a day of some service disruption on this route. Saturday 31st brings some views from Ford and Redhill of 'usual' workings, also pantograph - fitted 377201 at Angmering, before the December timetable change this would have been quite unusual but this small batch of units (16) have been seen over a wider area with the influx of 442s and delay to the extended Milton Keynes service leading to this. It remains to be seen whether these units will continue to be seen anywhere from Southampton to Hastings or this is just a temporary period of exploration for them.

Saturday 7th February brings views from Horley with a 10-car 442, 2419 & 2424, deputising for a Class 460 on Victoria - Gatwick diagrams. I missed another 442 formation that only worked until 10:30ish, but was lucky with this one as it was taken out of service with a fault after the 14:50 from Gatwick, the northbound working I photographed. Five 460s were in use on this day, most seen here, so the services were being stepped-up, seven being required to allow lay-over for boarding in the two stations. Tuesday 10th sees the eight and apparently final 6G30 Eastleigh - Preston Park working, carrying ballast to the demolition site, unusually this last working was formed of all 4-wheel wagons where previous runs used bogie JNA 'Falcons' for the ballast, 73206 'Lisa' and 73205 'Jeanette' performed seen at Goring-by-Sea. Thursday 12th brings a day off work to witness the returning 6G30 along with a Class 37-operated Serco test train, soon to arrive in my 'railtours and one-offs' collection, in south Hampshire, views here are from Botley, Farlington Junction and Cosham. Friday 20th February brings views of a staff train naming ceremony, or even two, at Brighton, with two retiring Network rail employees being invited to unveil their cast names on the sides of 73141. Ron Westwood is retiring from the control office at East Croydon whilst David Gay is retiring from his signaller training post, both long-served employees. The loco was prepared and the plates fitted at St Leonards, the loco ran via an overnight stop at Tonbridge with 73107 also along for the ride. the move ran as 0Z73 outward and 0Z74 returning. I believe this naming delivery run was also used as a test for 73107 after maintenance at St Leonards.

Saturday 14th March brings views from the Gatwick / Redhill area, with Southern-liveried 319008 now working for FCC and branded accordingly, Gatwick Express services running on the slow lines through Salfords due to work on the fast lines and 73205 'Jeanette' and 73209 'Alison' working 6G14 Hoo Junction - Earlswood train of concrete sleepers, seen twice at Salfords southbound and Earlswood northbound as it had to reverse at Three Bridges in order to access the worksite from the south. Saturday 21st March sees the first new train for FCC, 377501, very similar to Southern's 377/2s but in FCC blue, make its first run to the West Coastway area, via the Arun Valley line, believed to be a mileage accumulation run and scheduled to run to Littlehampton before returning to Horsham to run to Bognor Regis twice. In the event this didn't happen due to reported faults on the unit so one return run, to Littlehampton, was all that happened before the set limped back to Selhurst depot. We see it passing Arundel with 5Z90 Selhurst - Littlehampton then on the Littlehampton branch with 5Z91 return.

Saturday 4th April brings a few views of 73133 in its accustomed spot in Fairwater yard, Taunton, well away from the third rail, then some views from Kensington Olympia on Thursday 23rd, including the new London Midland Class 350-operated service between Milton Keynes and East Croydon, also a non-pantograph equipped 377 on a Shepherds Bush shuttle. Saturday 25th sees a Gatwick Express overtaking a freight working at Salfords then later Southern meeting South-Eastern at Tonbridge.

On Saturday 2nd May, I made my way to the New Forest, to see both a returning charter with a 37 (see my railtours collection) and the Lymington branch with the 'heritage' CIG unit, the blue/grey 1497 'Freshwater' being in operation on this day. Views of this are from the moorland at Setley plain and from the bridge over the branch junction. I observed the unit's workings from 15:15 until 18:00, which covers a crew change-over, the replacement crew were more enthusiastic with the headboard emerging and the blinds displaying the route code on each journey. 1497 was encountered again on Saturday 16th on one of the turning moves round the Southampton / Fareham / Eastleigh triangle at Botley, unfortunately, although booked for both Lymington units only the blue-grey one appeared. Saturday 23rd brings a few SWT Class 444 views from Dorset.

Saturday 11th July sees Class 442s in service with the high-summer relief working between London Victoria & Eastbourne, 2411 & 2412 at the stops at Victoria before departure. Two weeks later sees views from Salfords and South Croydon including the Flamboyant Train's 'Brighton Rocks' railtour from Doncaster to Brighton, worked south from and to Wembley by 73205 & 73209, as well as the Eastbourne relief again with 2408 & 2421 alongside more day-to-day views, including my first run down the Caterham branch.

Saturday 1st August sees a rare loco-hauled train up the Mid-Sussex line, in between regular Class 377 workings, with GBRf's 73204 'Janice' and recently-acquired and repainted 73141 'Charlotte' hauling 1Z93 'Weymouth Seaside Special' returning from Weymouth to London Victoria, operated by UK Railtours. 73141, of course, was only named in February, seen here, honouring retiring NR staff at Brighton but since then Network Rail have given over their 73s to GBRf. HDL have done well out of it, they prepared the loco for both occasions .... Monday 17th sees some passenger service activity at Mount Pleasant crossing in Southampton. Saturday 22nd sees 73141 in action again, this time paired with BR blue 73208 on an engineers working from Sutton to Eastleigh at Havant, along with some of the usual passenger workings. Monday 31st saw a blockade on the Mid-Sussex route between Arundel and Pulborough, for replacement of two bridges over the River Arun, the south end had a set of buffer stops installed on the 'up' line and a shuttle ran between Bognor Regis and Arundel via Littlehampton, a service that ran in years past into the now-lifted down-side bay at Arundel, here we see a Class 377 in front of the buffers with the road cranes for the bridge works visible in the distance.

Tuesday 16th September brings a view of a Class 442 peak-hour service approaching Burgess Hill, then on Saturday 19th at Ashford I get my first photographable view of a new Hitachi Class 395 for South-Easterns high-speed commuter service through Ebsfleet and Ashford whilst it is on a test run, followed by a Class 375 under semaphores at Shepherdswell. On Saturday 26th, after a few Class 444 views at Shawford, I encountered SWTs blue/grey 3CIG once again, at Brockenhurst, during the 'Desiro day' promotion with the Modern Locomotives Illustrated magazine.

See also my '4VEP Gordon bows out ...' collection for views of 4VEP 3417 being delivered to East Grinstead by 73109 on Saturday 17th January.

This gallery will illustrate freight workings encountered. There is a fair degree of variety in these workings, albeit maybe not with the locomotives up front, but in the consists and materials carried. They may be carrying containers, bulk materials in solid or liquid form, engineering materials for use on or off the railway, waste products from industry or indeed households, or indeed many other possibilities.

On Friday 2nd January we see 60004 and 59204 stabled at Westbury whilst a fortnight later we see a surprise in the form of the first workings for the new freight facility constructed in the yard at Fratton between the fuel-point and carriage shed, which comprises a siding against a hardstanding area, presumably with improved road access too. The scheme has been driven by the Portsmouth harbourmaster, interviewed by the local media in previous months, who has gained development grants in order to transfer particular traffics in containers to onwards or inwards rail movement. The movements provided a flat wagon pair, type FIA, from the Wednesday which was then retrieved on this Friday, 16th, by 66207 for return to Eastleigh. The wagon was brought in to allow training of the road loader operators for the road-rail-road transfers. As well as the basic equipment at this start of operations we also see 66207 en-route back to Eastleigh with 4T02 ex-Fratton at Portchester. Saturday 31st brings one of the semi-regular flows to/from Crawley new yard, aggregate from the Peak district, which returns north empty as 6M34, departing just after 11:00, to either Peak Forest or Toton and is a favourite for producing a Class 60, an endangered species at this point in time. This was to prove no exception as 60096 performed, seen passing Redhill.

On Thursday 12th February, whilst out to catch two engineers specials in the Portsmouth area, we also see the new Fratton flow again, 4T01/2, outbound at Botley and returning at Cosham in the charge of 66187, it seems to be running a bit strangely as the same two refrigerated containers have been pootling back-n-forth ever since the commencement of the flow. I was fortunate to see the return, it had been held outside Cosham due to a problem with an 8-car 450 in the platform and rolled about 4 minutes after I arrived ... Wednesday 25th February brings my first view of the new DB Schenker colours, the new name for EWS now owned by Deutsche Bahn, with 59206 'John F Yeoman' putting in its first appearance in its new garb on the regular stone delivery to Chichester, 7O52 from Westbury returning empty as 7V07, with thanks to Kevin in Chichester I was able to grab some views as the train was unloaded in Chichester yard whilst en-route elsewhere.

Saturday 14th March brings another view of 6M34 returning from Crawley to the north, this time with 60065, seen at Gatwick Airport.

Saturday 4th April sees 66556 stabled in Fairwater yard, Taunton. On Thursday 23rd I made my way to Kensington Olympia to see two workings after info received, the first was SNCFs subsidiary Freight Europe (UK)'s new cross-channel service, the curtain-sided steel empties, running as 6Z48 from Burton-on-Trent to Dunkerque, operated by Colas with two of its Class 47s, 47749 & 47739, with 6M95 Dungeness - Willesden nuclear flasks passing 45 minutes later with a mixed pair of 37609 & 20309. Saturday 25th brings news of another 6M34 running, this time with faded Loadhaul-liveried 60059, so in bright sunshine this was captured at Salfords. Later in the day, the Colas 47s were spied on Tonbridge OTP depot through the train window.

Tuesday 19th May sees 59005 in its Aggregates Industries livery working 6V07 Chichester - Merehead empty stone approaching Havant. Saturday 23rd May brings a view of a DBS-operated intermodal at Mount Pleasant level crossing in Southampton.

Monday 17th August revives this gallery with another intermodal at Mount Pleasant crossing, this time Freightliner-operated. Sadly, another three freights were also seen but not photographable during my time in the area.

Saturday 12th September sees 6M34 Crawley - Peak Forest empties again worked by a Class 60, 60009, which I caught up with at East Croydon (not by choice but I missed the optimal connection to catch it elsewhere). Saturday 26th brings two Freightliner intermodals and a DBS Hinckley - Eastleigh scheduled engineer's working at Shawford.

On Saturday 5th September, a new railtour company, Joint-Line railtours, ran a trip from Barrow Hill to London Marylebone and back, the Merry-le-bone, with an add-on return trip to the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre at Quainton Road north of Aylesbury, handy for those down-south. The tour was operated by WCRC with 33207 'Jim Dent' and 37516 in top-and-tail mode and with reasonable fares, especially for the add-on, was popular for the 50-mile loco-hauled run over this DMU-dominated network.
The run-through to Quainton road provided an easy way to get a taster of this heritage site, recently improved with the re-erection of Oxford's Rewley Road station building that, I'm told, has vastly improved the visitor experience. The tour's participants did have a rather rapid experience, with slightly late northbound running shortening the time there to only forty minutes but it was sufficient to see most of the rolling stock present and get a 'feel' of the place. The museum's collection is varied, mostly with a Metropolitan / London feel but with the addition of the Sentinel / Cammell, Birmingham-built articulated 3-car steam railcar that had been exported to Egypt, saw 11 years service and 23 years withdrawn, and was re-imported in 1985, as well as a 3-foot gauge South African Garrett steam loco built in Glasgow. A return visit could be on the cards, with rail shuttles regularly operated by Chiltern's sole passenger 'heritage' DMU, 55020, on Bank Holidays from Aylesbury to the centre, the line through Quainton Road is usually only used by containerised waste trains to Calvert land-fill site. The tour actually carried on to Claydon Junction for reversal, although why isn't clear, and passengers were permitted on this leg after some confusion, but having bought my entry ticket to the centre I stuck with that option.
As well as views of the tour at London and Quainton Road, we also see the depot at Aylesbury with its collection of heritage DMUs, mostly used on Sandite / de-icing workings but also including 55020, stabled outside and the withdrawn units stored by Aylesbury platforms..
Captions to be uploaded soon, I need to sleep at this point (been a long day...)

In the main, this collection will contain images of non-third-rail passenger trains from the South of Britain, generally this will mean SWT DMUs (The established Class 159/0s alongside their sister 159/1s), Southern DMUs (Class 171s and that's it) and the odd FGW (ex-Wessex or Thames) unit or HST along with perhaps a few ex-Virgin Voyagers, Class 220s and 221s.

My first notable update in this collection is from Saturday 23rd May, when Weymouth saw two unusual FGW 'service' trains in a short period, firstly the relief summer-only 16:55 departure with the top-and-tailed Class 67s, 67016 and 67017 on this occasion, the same train set as is used between Taunton and Cardiff on weekdays that we saw in December 2008, followed by a 2+7 HST, power cars 43041 and 43124, which ran south on the 14:49 ex-Bristol and returned north on the 17:30 ex-Weymouth. HSTs are occasionally seen on the section north of Yeovil, when diverted off the main route through Taunton, but this was a very rare appearance at the south coast resort. Both train workings were seen at the overbridge south of Upwey halt, along with a Class 37-operated railtour, see elsewhere for this.

On Monday 15th June I again encountered the FGW loco-hauled set on my way home from the WSR gala, travelling on the 11:02 Taunton - Cardiff as far as Bristol Temple Meads with 67017 'Arrow' providing the power.

Saturday 22nd August brings views of both FGW Brighton workings, with the morning turn formed of a Class 150 vice the usual 158, a not unusual occurence.

Saturday 5th September sees 67012 & 82303 in action for WSMR at Marylebone and Dollis Hill on the 17:25 - Wrexham.

As an active volunteer at the Wiiliton base of the Diesel & Electric Preservation Group I get to see (and participate) in some of the work that goes on.
Of course, I also see some of the regular running, special events, incoming charters from 'the big railway' etc. too.

The gallery for 2009 includes:

Site-work on Saturday 14th February along with views of D7017 & D3462 undergoing attention

Shunting the yard on 4th April to release D1661 & D7017 for a forthcoming test run, see http://www.youtube.com/user/DandEPG for footage from the run with the Hymek pushing the 47 up Washford bank, followed by views the next day of D1661 working a 4-coach ECS from Minehead to Bishops Lydeard passing Watchet paper mill, the weekend's worksite for the cutting-back gang.

D1661 and D6566 in use on 15th August, D6566 having been requested specially and prepared to 'Bath Road' standards to work the service train with additional carriages added for a wedding party, celebrating two WSR staff members matrimonial.

On the weekend of the 9th/10th August, the Spa Valley Railway at Tunbridge Wells held their regular summer diesel gala featuring resident traction, this time Class 33 33063 'R J Mitchell', Class 37 37254 'Driver Robin Prince MBE', and Class 73 E6047 (ex-73140) featured, along with resident Thumper 1317 (207017) in 2-car formation and on-hire Class 20 20110 from the South Devon Railway, staying here for most of the rest of the year, making three locomotives from Totnes that have so far made the journey over the years to Tunbridge Wells. Class 12 15224 also made an appearance on a shuttle to High Rocks with 1317, the previously-resident Class 09 09004 has now left the railway leaving it with two 350hp shunters. One of the resident Class 115 DMU power cars was receiving some attention in the shed, albeit not pictured here, possibly indicating some new power to be sampled in due course ?
I attended on the Saturday, again with glorious weather, and made my acquaintance with 1317 operating, this being the first opportunity I'd had to have a ride with it although it has worked on a few previous occasions. The interior has had most work, particularly the motor coach, but the exterior is still a work-in-progress as can be seen. The extension to Eridge is still awaited but progress is ongoing there too, I hear, with much work completed on the station platform and its facilities.

On Sunday 19th July, being in the area, I decided to take a brief trip to the private railway operator at Okehampton, the Dartmoor Railway. One of the main reasons for doing this jaunt is the FGW-operated summer Sundays 2-hourly shuttle from St James Park, a suburban halt near Exmouth Junction in Exeter, to Okehampton, a service which I believe is unique in that it takes a franchised train operator (FGW) over non-Network Rail tracks regularly. The service meets the Dartmoor Railway trains side-by-side in Okehampton station, a well-restored example of a Southern Railway country junction station.
Unfortunately, my train from Taunton to connect at Exeter was 30-odd minutes late, meaning I missed the 11:12 departure out to Okehampton and had to wait for the 13:12, making the trip briefer than intended. The service is operated by ex-Northern Pacer DMUs, which makes for a lively run at line-speed, 60mph?, down the tree-lined tunnel that is most of the usually freight-only branch from Coleford Junction to Okehampton, owned by Aggregate Industries from the junction. The connecting Dartmoor Railway service onwards to Meldon is at the minute formed of 2-car Southern Region DEMU 1132, and isn't really much to get excited about on its short level run but it was good to be re-acquainted with the unit. The railway operation has been under management changes, and indeed had closed for a year, and is now owned by an American outfit, British American Railways, who have also taken on the troubled Weardale railway as part of the same deal. Much stock has recently been removed from the site, many of which was Fragonset-owned before its collapse in 2006, and the operation is now at a basic level. The remaining stock, which includes another non-operational DEMU 205028, a Weymouth line 4TC 417, ex-Lymington 3CEP 1198 and recent arrival 47701 'Waverley' is stored around the quarry loading area. The line runs alongside a footpath/cycle-track, which carries on along the redundant trackbed towards Tavistock over Meldon viaduct, it would have been nice to had a walk over the viaduct but it wasn't really the weather for this.

On Saturday 4th July I made my way to London Liverpool Street to join the 10:00 service running through to Great Yarmouth, a loco-hauled service that only runs through in the high summer, worked by a Class 90 as far as Norwich with a Class 47 dragging it forward for the final 35 minutes or so. The corresponding 13:10 return is also dragged back, along with the 12:00 departure from Liverpool Street which then returns empty to Norwich.
On this occasion DRS's 47802 'Pride of Cumbria' was in charge on the diesel leg, in previous years Class 47s operated by Cotswold rail have been used but this is the first year of DRS being involved. The first run had 90013 in tow, with its rake of eight Mark 3s and DVT, the second run had on-hire 90019, in First Scotrail (!) colours. The 'Wherry lines', as the network around Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth is known, had some timekeeping troubles on this day and I ended up getting stuck at Great Yarmouth in between the two loco workings, if one wants to catch the second run en-route by train then you must catch the 13:17 out of Great Yarmouth but an error by the Yarmouth signaller saw this and the delayed 13:10 loco-hauled service leave within a couple of minutes of each other. After my enforced wait at Yarmouth, seeing the service depart and later return, I did manage to photograph the empty stock run at Brundall, an attractive small junction station en-route back to Norwich. We also see one of the NXEA-liveried locos and carriage sets at Norwich, with the recent news of NXECs defaulting on payments these colours could disappear completely ....