One of the highlights of the Pathfinder Tours 'The Chopper Topper Returns' railtour on 2 July 2022 was the ascent of the Lickey Incline with all four locomotives on the front end. This would have taken place in the dark, but there was scope for a picture of this section of the tour in the Cheltenham area, when it would still be possible to get a decent photo just after sunset. Unfortunately the manoeuvre to get all four locos on the front at Gloucester took longer than planned, and the 1Z43 21:30 Gloucester Horton Road Junction to Burton-on-Trent left 27 minutes late. It was almost completely dark when 20142 Sir John Betjeman, 20007, 20189 & 20205 passed me at Claydon, but luckily a security light from a nearby building provided a bit of additional illumination. Apologies for the terrible quality of this image, which for those interested was taken with a Canon 7D Mark II, 100mm prime lens, 1/250sec f2 ISO 25600! |