37608 & 37601 Steeple Aston 2 May 2012

Making a fantastic racket that could be heard for several minutes before they came into view, 37608 & 37601 Class 37-'Fifty' storm past Steeple Aston on 2 May 2012 with the Cruise Saver Express 1Z75 05:51 Edinburgh to Southampton Docks boat train. After the previous week's fiasco, when the failure of both 47841 & 47818 resulted in the train being over four hours late, DRS obviously thought that a pair of 37s would be a better bet to actually get the train to the ship on time! 47810 is out of sight on the rear of the train, to act as a draw back loco at the docks, and to provide ETS. I usually walk to this remote location from the village of Lower Heyford, but on this occasion, purely on a whim, I decided to park the car in Steeple Aston and take the footpath from there. This turned out to be an excellent move, as the fields between Lower Heyford and the railway were flooded, after several days of heavy rain. The local farmer told me that it was over two feet deep in places!