5-loco convoy en-route as 0Z56 from Kidderminster to Swanage this morning (57601, 56301, 37503, 55009 & D1062 neeeded to list them from a post as I never got to see them!), the sun is out and I actually may have time to nip out with the camera. Yay! Email report around 9.50 showing it being looped at Ashcurch, so as I’d just beaten PayPal Sandbox into submission I figured I deserved a break and piled into the car to head for Stanley Downton.

No one else parked on arrival, not always a good sign, still headed out across the fields as the southbound X-Country HST passed. Shame as that’d have made a good fot. Got to the spot I was making for to find the bank/grass already too high, so a quick change of location was in order. Called Paul as I walked back through the woods to see if he had an update. He did. “It’s gone mate”. Brilliant. I diverted from the field back through the woods toward the car. Yes he continued “they let it out of Ashchurch loop and it went down directly behind the X-Country HST”. Hang on I started to point out I’ve just seen the … at which point and still well inside the woods I heard the unmistakable sound of a 57 engine hauling south. Careered hopelessly back towards the line but never saw hide nor hair of it 🙁

Couldn’t resist rubbing salt into the wound; later I followed a link to some Youtube footage of it passing through Gloucester. Yep that’s the sound I heard damn it!