Not Oliver Cromwell

I had been given the information that this morning the Oliver Cromwell steam engine, (Cathedral Express and Steam Dreams) would be coming through Newport, leaving Broxbourne (about half an hour away) at 1020 hours. Wrong. I went onto the station just after 1000 hours only to be told that she had already gone through and that it was not the Oliver Cromwell; she and Britannia have both been taken out of service. Another train enthusiast telephoned someone to check that there was not another one later. He also told me that she would be returning through Newport just before 1830 hours; next time I will check for myself.

However, being a disbelieving sod sort of person I stood in my garden, for an hour, camera in hand watching the train line; she had indeed gone. The trains pass by the bottom of my garden and neither the GOG nor I heard her; unusual as they are usually quite noisy.

I pottered about during the day, planting the Christmas tree and filling bird feeders. We had a very late lunch and then I watched the second Harry Potter film, as if I have not seen it enough times. I decided that I would not go out in the cold and watch her come back this evening, but it got the better of me and along with some other stupid people train enthusiasts, we stood on the platform and watched her pass; the coaches were being pulled by two ‘Black Fives’, not a named engine.

There used to be a lot of steam trains, up and down this line at weekends and I have a lot of photographs of them, but we get very few these days, there is another one coming through early on Thursday morning; hopefully that will be my blip for the day.

I make no apologises for the poor quality of this picture. I took several as she thundered through at what seemed like a hundred miles and hour. The railway line joins my two small ‘One Streets’ so this is another one to add to my collection.