56022 & 56025 pass the ARC stone terminal at Oxford (Banbury Road) as they run parallel with the traffic on the A34 at Water Eaton on 18 August 1991 with the Pathfinder Tours 1Z36 06:28 Manchester Piccadilly to Paddington 'Strider' railtour. This tour was a means of getting people from the north of England to the Old Oak Common Open Day. Obviously it would not be possible to use a pair of Romanian built Grids on the mainline today, and neither would it be possible to repeat the route of this tour, which is here traversing the former LMS line from Bletchley to Oxford. Although the section as far as Calvert Junction remains open, further east the line has been closed for a number of years and in places is in a very overgrown state. |