An unusual visitor to the local railway

I want to try and record the irregular trains, especially freight movements, which are travelling along our valley for the next few weeks. The reason for this is that the tunnel under the River Severn which carries the main railway line to south Wales is closed for a major upgrade to overhead electrification. All the trains that would normally travel through the tunnel now have to travel along the Severn estuary to cross the River Severn at Gloucester. Routes to London now use the Golden Valley route from Gloucester to Swindon where they rejoin the original Brunel designed route.

All the movement of the trains is controlled by a small signal box at St Mary's Mill, sited by a level crossing providing access to the mill only, about three miles up the valley from us. When I went there today I spoke to the signal box attendant and asked about how I could find the times of the unusual routings. He told me that there was no public information about them, but he mentioned that in fifteen minutes a delayed freight train with petrol tankers would be coming down the line towards Wales.

I rushed along the valley to Stroud, where I thought I could get a reasonable view and arrived just a couple of minutes before this train arrived. This picture shows it crossing Capel's Mill viaduct, which crosses both the River Frome and the adjacent canal down below. This is where I photograph kingfishers and white-throated dippers, and is only a few hundred yards from the centre of Stroud.

I may seem to be a nerd, but there is a method in my madness. Can I sell such pictures to the railway magazines for whom this news, and such  pictures, of these unusual movement might be 'interesting'? I think I may have to improve on the quality though.