© Geoff’s Rail Diaries 2014

We were out last Saturday too, hoping to see them southbound. The weather wasn’t promising - it was already practising, and would rain properly soon. Then we heard the news, from a fellow linesider armed with mobile internet - “It’s running two hours late”. We went home, to discover that 45407 had failed, and 44871 had hauled the train alone (in the rain), with some banking assistance from the diesel at the rear. Today they were together again, hauling the “Heart of Wales” from Cardiff to Llandrindod Wells, then, after a 3-hour break, onwards to Shrewsbury. We probably won’t see much steam this side of Llangunllo - let’s go for the main line, just north of Craven Arms - they should be working hard, and not going too quickly... They’re due off at 18.10 - should be plenty of light. We’d hoped for some sunshine too - it had been pleasantly sunny earlier in the afternoon, but inevitably the clouds gathered again as we left home. Could have been worse though - some brightness in the west to

light the scene. A northbound service hurried through, then a long train of coal empties headed south. At about 6.00pm, we spotted the tops of the coaches rolling along behind the houses on the Clun road, and heard a hoot of the whistle. A few minutes later they were away (four early), through the junction and, as we’d hoped, working hard to accelerate their 12-coach train on up the gradient to Church Stretton. Great stuff!