56094 Charlbury (Cornbury Park) 22 December 2012

56094 accelerates away from Charlbury station, and passes Cornbury Park in the rain on 22 December 2012 with the Pathfinder Tours 1Z56 06:38 Crewe to Euston 'Thames Angerman' railtour. The ultimate destination of the tour would be Angerstein Wharf, near Greenwich. The extremely unusual appearance of a Class 56 on the Cotswold Line was well worth recording, despite the atrocious weather, although the bright Colas livery of the locomotive goes someway to brightening up the scene. I particularly wanted to photograph the train here, as it shows the transition from the newly reinstated double track onto the remaining single track section to Wolvercote Junction. The tour was running very early at this point, having arrived at Charlbury station (just out of sight around the corner) 17 minutes ahead of time. It therefore had to wait several minutes for the preceding HST to clear Wolvercote Junction.