Just a quick post today to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
I seem to be a bit lacking in the 'Christmas blog post photo' department so here's another shot from the Great Central Railway winter steam gala in January 2013, this time of Great Western Railway 2884 class 2-8-0 no.3803 (visiting from the South Devon Railway) running around its train at Leicester North in the snow…
Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Royal Albert Bridge spans the River Tamar and the border between Cornwall and Devon and even partially shrouded in scaffolding it's still a magnificent sight!
Here 43151 leads* the 14.00 First Great Western service from Penzance to London Paddington 'The Royal Duchy' across the bridge and into Devon on 6 August signifying the end of my trip to Cornwall… Trains slow considerably along the single track section across the bridge and that, coupled with the tight curve leaving Saltash station make such images possible.
Built for the Cornwall Railway's 7ft ¼in broad gauge line from Truro to Plymouth the bridge was opened in May 1859, four months before Brunel's death and the lettering 'I.K.BRUNEL ENGINEER 1859' was added as a memorial by the directors of the Cornwall Railway Company.
In 1889 the Cornwall Railway became part of the Great Western Railway, a company that had operated the line since 1877 who converted the track gauge on the bridge from 7ft ¼in to 4ft 8½in in one single weekend in May 1892! A feat hard to imagine these days…
*For the record 43195 was on the rear of the train.
'Twas the night before Christmas, when all thro' the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
Then suddenly I heard a tiny voice speak,
'You lazy old s*d, you've not blogged anything in weeks!'
(with apologies to Clement Clarke Moore)
So instead of three Kings from the east let me wish you all the compliments of the season with a suitably wintry image of one King from the west.
The Great Western Railway's KING EDWARD II to be precise… Photographed in the snow at Loughborough Central station during the Great Central Railway's winter steam gala in January this year.
So I'll just finish this brief entry with the last line from Clement Clarke Moore's poem 'A Visit from St. Nicholas'
'Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night.'
