D9523 Castor 21 April 2001

Quite a load for a Teddy Bear! D9523 passes Castor on 21 April 2001 with the Pathfinder Tours 1Z39 14:25 Orton Mere to Preston 'Nene Navigator' railtour. It's difficult to say whether this Nene Valley Railway section of the tour, or the variety of mainline traction was the highlight, but tour participants had already sampled 58050 & 60015 on the outward leg of the tour. The Class 14 is more used to pottering up and down this line with a few coaches, but this twelve coach rake probably isn't taxing it as much as you might think, as I have seen some archive pictures of these little locos on some truly monstrous freight trains. They weren't always employed on short trip freights during their few years on the Western Region!