The engine was No. 60019 ‘Bittern’ with ‘The Bath Christmas Market’ special from Haywards Heath to Bath Spa, the tour being organised by The Railway Touring Company (http://www.railwaytouring.co.uk/) and the crew for ‘Bittern’ being supplied by the English, Welsh & Scottish Railway (http://www.ews-railway.co.uk/), this outward working was diagram number IZ92. I gathered my details from this very useful site www.uksteam.info.
I had timed my arrival at my usual spot, which is halfway between Ford and Lake Lane level crossing, for 0835 so that I could check out the different angles and see how the lighting would affect my video and/or pics. This spot allows me to get up close to the lineside, as well as get a long stretch of un-obscured line before it curves into Ford station. It is rather out of the way, so it is usually just myself at this spot and the local birds twittering away peacefully. Plus it is easy to get to by bike (my mode of transport for this journey) and on foot.
I arrived slightly early, and the first casualty of the day was trapping my finger in the swinging, sprung loaded, gate which stops cattle from finding their way onto this busy commuter line.
I had some time to eat up, so I took some pics of passing trains. On this line 377 Electrostar units built by Bombardier Transportation are the mainstay of the services, with a 158/150/153 DMU operating a First Great Western Brighton to Worcester Shrub Hill service.
At this time of year, Network Rail put their Windhoff MPV’s/Rail Head Treatment Trains into service and they make for an unusual sight.
It was nearly 0900, and I knew something was wrong. Luckily, I had an ‘informant’ who was getting on this train at Chichester so I rang him up to find out what was going on. Apparently ‘Bittern’ had been trapped in an engineer’s siding at Three Bridges and the train was going to be an hour late, although he said that the train was currently between Hassocks and Hove so I thought it should only be about 40 minutes before it gets to me.
A few more 377’s passed either way, then the Worcester Shrub Hill service passed from Brighton and I instinctively knew that ’Bittern’ would be next.
As the air was cold, I knew that there would be a lot of steam effects, then this tell-tale sign that something was coming appeared on the horizon.
The signal behind me changed to green, and as I could tell ‘Bittern’ was travelling slowly through Ford I knew I was in for a treat.
Then, the distinctive sound of an LNER chime whistle echoed around and then the chuff of three cylinders grew louder and ‘Bittern’ was gathering speed. I wasn’t let down by her, and here is the footage to prove it.
<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/omFrfmJbb6g&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed>
To watch in high quality (recommended), click here: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=omFrfmJbb6g then click 'watch in high quality'.
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