The Getting Wet Round Britian tour

Monday, 23rd August, 2004

With a week off I planned to head to the north to catch a railtour taking Class 40s to places they really do go very often. But there were four days before that. So a tour was put together to get me north. For some reason the rain seemed to follow me pretty much everywhere I went to. Sometimes it cleared at the right time, sometimes it did not. Here is what I saw......

Day 1 - Cathiron	First port of call on the tour was Cathiron just outside Rugby. Sadly the weather was not on my side and I had to rush back to the car on a number of occasions. Missing blue 87001 in the process.	Monday, 23rd August, 2004
Day 1 - Ansty	Just up the road from Cathiron is the idilic canal side setting at Shilton, or Ansty as it is more commonly know. Many thanks to Scott Borthwick for helping out with last minute directions. When I got lost 1/2 a mile from the location. When I arrived the heavens opened and the sky blackened just in time to see....	Monday, 23rd August, 2004
Day 2 - Sharnbrook	Day two of the tour and with the news the previous day that the departmental Class 309 units would be moving from Old Dalby to store at Shoeburryness and 1Z18 Serco test train with top and tail 37s would be running down the Midland Main Line I made my way to the Sharnbrook area to catch them.	Tuesday, 24th August, 2004
Day 2 - North Yorkshire Perambulations	Next stop, a place I have never been photographing before, the much praised (and rightly so) Barnetby. With the oil refineries and iron works to the east there is a steady flow of freight throughout the day. The station has a huge foot bridge which offers excellent photographic vantage points.	Tuesday, 24th August, 2004
Day 2 - 3 Tractor Chasing and the road to Scotland	Probably the most photographed passenger working in the country today is the Arriva Trains Leeds to Carlisle working that is top and tailed by EWS Class 37s locos. The initial plan for day 3, and the back end of day 2, was to get some shots of this working along the Settle to Carlisle line. But a few surprise pieces of gen altered this plan....	Wednesday, 25th August, 2004
Day 3 - Scottish sunsets	Once I'd arrived up in Scotland, dealt with the M8 traffic jams and met up with Ewan Tait We thought we would go out and catch the evenings other 37 hauled Malcoms train at Greenfoot.	Wednesday, 25th August, 2004
Day 4 - Checking the line	In preparation for the coming class 40 tour to Kyle, Ewan and I decided to go check out some locations along the line to Perth	Thursday, 26th August, 2004
Day 4 - 406 Reaches Glasgow Central	Another gen prompted move. With the news that a 60 had been allocated on the Caledonian Sleeper ECS from Polmade we set off that evening to catch the rare sight. What we saw surprised us.	Thursday, 26th August, 2004
Day 5 and 6 - Chasing the 'Northern Lights'	The Class 40 Preservation soceity ran a railtour from Birmingham to The Kyle of Lochalsh. The first leg of the tour was hauled by 50031 to Preston. From there 40145 took over. Unfortunatley 145 suffered turbo problems and had to be taken off the train at Carisle. A 66 took the train forward to Motherwell where 2 class 37s took over. Road Trip buddy for the tour Ewan Tait's pictures can be found at: Carstairs to Dalwhinnie Kyle to Greenloaning	Friday, 27th August, 2004
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