© Geoff’s Rail Diaries 2014

Planning a railtour can’t be easy - even more so when it’s steam-hauled. So many eventualities can lead to locomotive

substitutions. Must be even more difficult when the tour is to run over nine consecutive days - the “what might have been” list on UK Steaminfo makes interesting reading. This one - day 3 of the tour - was going to be a Britannia (I forget which one), then it was would be 46233 “Duchess of Sutherland” Great! She’s been avoiding me since the repaint into BR green. Sadly, the Duchess ran a hot box - instead, we’d be having Black 5 44932. The time of day would be tricky too - it was due through Craven Arms at mid-day - with the sun (if it shone) directly behind the train. We opted for the hillside a little way south of Stokesay, Shropshire - a good place to see steam in the landscape.