Further Afield ~ A day out at Reading & Reading West.



Today's post is a special and further afield report on my trip to Reading and Reading West for particular reasons which will be explained as the report goes on.
(ANDY)

Without further a do, here's how my day planned out; I boarded the 08:23 Redhill - Reading service at North Camp and arrived promptly at Reading around 9am. I had chosen to go early for a particular reason: Britannia was in town! 



After a search on Real Time Trains, 
I found that Britannia was in fact late arriving at London Paddington and consequently didn't depart London Paddington until 08:28 (22 minutes late.) However, Britannia must have hauled very well as she made it on time to Reading Platform 7. 


Pictured to the right is 70000 "Britannia" 
on the West Somerset Steam Express from London Paddington (08:06) to Minehead West Somerset Railway (14:37).









After this, I had 56 103 with a Chiltern Mk3 carriage on 09:00 Bristol Barton Hill W.R.D to Wembley Lmd, passing Reading 9 minutes later than planned at 10:46 on Platform 15.

It was then time to see the 56 on the return move, 60 095 making a first appearance on the steel from Tilbury to Llanwern Exchange Sidings - just after I had seen the 60, the 60 failed so 66 848 was scrambled from Swindon Cocklebury to rescue the Class 60 locomotive.






Another steam loco on the mainline, this time 34067 "Tangmere." Tangmere was due to come through on P12, but the signallers put her through on P8 for some reason, hence the going away shot.





the final part of the day was to see a Colas Class 37 on a test train at Reading West before calling a day. Pictured is 37 219 leading the early 14:51 Eastleigh Arlington - Derby RTC Network Rail test train!


That brought the day to a close, and I headed home happy.

Tomorrow's post brings a Week Review from Liam.
Regards:

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