175105 passes through Winstanstow on a chilly 25th Feb 2006 with a Crewe - Camarthen service.
I was at this location near Retford on the ECML on 5th April to capture a DRS 37 but with a deep blue sky and a warm bright sunlit scene I photographed anything that passed whilst waiting for the main subject to arrive. Here a GNER HST passes southbound with 43118 'City of Kingston upon Hull' at the helm. The grain or noise in the image was due to the 125 MPH line speed at this section, resulting in the need for a high shutter speed and ISO setting. The shot was captured at 1/1250 s at f9 ISO400.
A First Great Western HST speeds past a FGW 'Link' service on the fast line at Cholsey Manor Farm on 21st January 2006.
43197 with a midday Glasgow bound service at York Station on 5th Feb 2005.
HST Shrivenham September 2005.
The New Measurement Train was out and about on 5th April 2006 doing several turns around the Doncaster and Derby area. The diagrams were so intense that I managed five shots of the same HST in two days. This one however was the shot of the day as power cars 43013 & 43196 pass through Clay Cross.
A Midland Mainline Meridian passes Slitting Mills Farm near Chesterfield on 4th April 2006.
960011 'Pandora' the ex single car DMU converted to sandite unit and now in use with Network Rail as a track recorder passes Abbotswood working as 5Z21 Derby RTC - Cardiff Canton on 26th Feb 2007.
First Great Western Links 'Thames Turbo' 166 210 approaches Evesham station on 15th January 2006. The service is a Hereford to Oxford working and the driver has just pulled away from Evesham Signal Box where single line tokens were exchanged. FGW Link is soon to be merged into the larger integrated Greater Western franchise and these units which appeared on the Cotswold line in the early nineties will probably soon be adorned with another new livery, their previous livery being that of Network SouthEast, the unit shown wears a variation of the Thames Trains colour scheme, the franchise which was taken over by First Group during 2004.
43054 heads a Midland Mainline HST set south through Hasland on 4th April 2006.
The NMT is seen here later on the same day at Hasland.
I don't usually go for Voyager shots but on my way back from work on 14th July I passed Abbotswood to find the field had just been harvested, the Bredon hills provide a backdrop for the 'Voyager' which is heading northbound at about 25MPH as it approaches a signal set to danger.
Virgin Voyager - Water Order - November 2006.
The other units from First Great Western which ply the 'Cotswold' line are the Altstom built class 180's which have proved rather troublesome for FGW. The 180's are due to handed back to Porterbrook in December 2007. This photograph was taken at Lower Moor near Pershore again on 20th November 2006.
166 207 - Lower Moor 20th Nov 2006
170108 a unit cascaded from Midland Mainline to Central Trains struggles up the Lickey Incline at Pikes Pool at 08:25 on 1st March 2007. I was at the location to photograph a stock move involving 47703... the sun had gone in by the time that arrived some 30 minutes later.
