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I wanted to bake a loaf but found that the battery on the scales had died so I needed to go out to get one. I decided that I might as well get some diesel and go for a pootle to find some blipfodder.
Getting the battery and diesel were easy enough but getting any distance from Maidstone was a nightmare. Operation Brock means that the M20 eastbound is closed to through traffic from junction 8 to junction 11; that stretch is used to hold HGVs heading for the tunnel or Dover. This pushes traffic out onto the local roads and they are soon grid-locked too. I knew to avoid the main ones but it's more widespread than I've seen it in ages - I heard later that traffic is queuing back to J7 so those who know the area will come off there and those who don't will get to J8 where they are funnelled onto the A20.
Anyway, I'll not let traffic problems stand in the way of a bit of decent blippage so I sat in queues and took country lanes to get you a shot of this visitor. I'm sure that you have all immediately spotted that this is a GWR engine and wouldn't have worked this far east. This engine was built in 1946 in Swindon and worked as the Severn Tunnel banker until being retired in 1965 and sent for scrap. It was saved by the Didcot Railway Centre and they own it.
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