Unusually, Sapperton Tunnel has short open section part the way along its length. This is conveniently situated near a main road, and in the early 1980s it was possible take a picture as a train emerged from the long (1864 yards) tunnel, and just before it disappeared into the short (352 yard) tunnel. On 4 September 1983 B426 (51406, 59516 & out of sight in the tunnel, 51364) emerges briefly into the light with the 16:30 Cheltenham to Swindon service. As can be seen here, the vegetation was luxuriant even then and got worse, to the point where photography was impossible. Happily clearance work has now completely removed everything.