Early morning is always good.  Sure no sun, but plenty of mist and atmosphere.  The sight of the ‘Dukedog’ gently festering in the yard, then doing a bit of shunting was just too good to miss.  And there was only a couple of us out with cameras. 

Eventually breakfasts were eaten, everybody piled on the train, and off we went. 

First location was the bank up towards the tunnel just outside Bewdley. 

There was a lot of grumbling about the fog, but the Gallery formed, the Dukedog reversed into the gloom, and we were on for the first runpast of the day. 

Hilarious, you could hear the ‘dog long before it appeared out of the fog.  First charter shot at 8.55am – almost two hours after arriving at Bewdley.

We did a number of runs, until it was declared just too foggy. 

In the time we’d been there the fog had actually got thicker, even though the sun was visible.

So back on the train, and off to Hampton Loade. 

Clear blue sky, rasping sunshine, but had to keep out of the way of the driver experience train so we did a departure shot and then headed off to Highley.

At Highley the plan was to shoot from the newly built Engine House.  I didn’t like the look of that (the shot that is, the Engine House looked perfectly fine), so slipped away from the herd to try my own thing.  Not easy, but reasonably rewarding.

From there on to Arley, but the shadows were getting long.  For me, time up because I had to head off. 

So hitched a lift on the loco back to Bewdley and got on my way. The crew just loved the Dukedog. Reckoned you only had to show it a shovel of coal and it blew off.

Worth it?  Yep – loved the yard shots in the morning.  The set piece runpasts were OK too, but as always the banter was brilliant.

Thank you Russ and Simon.

See my album of pictures taken on the Severn Valley Railway.