Royal Scot 46100 passing Stroud station at dusk

This seems to be one of the last chances this year to see a steam engine at speed near us. The train was supposed to pass through the station at exactly the time of sunset, but since the day has been quite cloudy, it was going to be hard to get much light for a photograph.

So I decided the best place would be at the station and I positioned myself where there would be a modicum of electric light from the fluorescent tubes on the platforms.

I've had to use maximum ISO and a slow than ideal shutter speed, and as feared the image is not very sharp. The contrasting light with the red and blue sky was another factor which has made balancing the image a little tricky.

But here is Royal Scot, the eponymous engine of the Royal Scot class famed for taking the express trains from London's Euston terminus to Scotland on the west coast line to Glasgow. I've never seen it before but I was very impressed with its performance, as it steamed through the station even faster than a high speed InterCity 125 that passed through a few minutes earlier. The passengers were in for an exciting, noisy and lively ride for the next few miles as the engine attacked the famous Sapperton Bank climbing up to the tunnel through the Cotswolds hills and on to the flat land of Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Wiltshire and then Berkshire as it returned to London Paddington at the end of its circular trip around the Cotswolds.