In this video we capture 70000 Britannia & 60103 Flying Scotsman 24th May 2024!
We start the video at Tamworth with Britannia storming on the low level sounding magnificent as she heads from Crewe HS to Southall Loco Services Ltd in preparation for a Steam Dreams Excursion to Norwich on 29th May 2024.
We next see 60103 Flying Scotsman heading home to York at Chesterfield as she powers away from a rare quick stop on platform 1 heading from Toton TMD to York NRM after her tyre turning was complete.
Now it's my story of the day time... having realised Britannia was due to head down to Southall in preparation for the Steam Dreams Excursion from Windsor to Norwich on 29th May and having decided to miss 60007 Sir Nigel Gresley on The Fellsman on 23rd due to the poor weather I thought I would make a trip into Staffordshire to capture 70000 only if she was hauling a full ECS. I then decided to look and see if Flying Scotsman was going to make her way back to York and it turns out she was!
However with the train times making me get back to Chesterfield 12 mins after Scotsman would pass through a decision of what to see needed to be made... in the end, I couldn't turn down the opportunity to capture a Brit at speed so I chose Britannia only if she was on a full rake of coaches. So having left it to see if she was on a full ECS when she appeared on Railcam at Crewe at 10am I decided to get to 10:13 train down to Derby which I would then get the 10:41 from there. And having decided to not take the risk of getting there with 50 mins to go at 10:35 and it turning out to be an engine + support coach move meaning spending £25 not be worth it in my eyes and I would just stay in Chesterfield to see Scotsman. However it was confirmed to be a full ECS move so I decided to risk getting there with 21 mins to spare at 11:04 where she would pass at 11:25
However... having seen she was getting earlier and earlier whilst I was between Derby & Burton the closer it was getting to cutting it fine and £25 going down the drain I eventually got to Tamworth at 11:04 and dashed down to the low level to set up very quickly.... she passed through at 11:06 19 mins early... talk about cutting it fine!
I then realised because Britannia was so early it meant I could get the 11:12 train back to Derby for 11:33 in time to see Flying Scotsman come through at 11:42 meaning I would spend a grand total of 8 mins at Tamworth! 😂
I would arrive back into Derby to await the A3 in between changing train, however due to her 44 min late departure from Toton TMD I decided to head back to Chesterfield in order to get a shot of her from behind Tapton Bridge which I was wanting to do since it was made known that she was going for tyre turning at Toton I arrived back into Chesterfield with 27 mins at 12:28 where she would pass through at 12:55 38 mins late.
Overall a chaotic and brilliant morning & afternoon seeing two famous Pacifics at Tamworth & Chesterfield, especially given I wasn't meant to see Scotsman originally!
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