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West Coast Easter Special - Double Railtours in Preston + LSL Private Charter - 18/04/25 & 19/04/25
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The Easter Weekend provided us with a great mini variety of first generation traction in Preston, Lancashire, with two railtours being seen on Friday 18th April, 2025, one which was a stock movement for a Northern Belle tour with Class 47s, and the other being Day 1 of 'The Easter Highlander' railtour with both Class 47s and Class 37s, making it a very busy day for the both of us.
To start off, West Coast Class 47s, 47813 & 47832, were seen top and tailing the Northern Belle stock from Carnforth Steamtown to Manchester Victoria, the stock being moved in preparation for 'The Spirit of Travel Lunch & Champagne Afternoon Tea' charter. The train pauses at Platform 5 to allow for an Avanti West Coast Pendilino passenger service to move ahead of it, before the Northern Belle resumed on its way to Manchester.
Later, West Coast Class 37s, 37518 'Fort William' & 37516 'Loch Laidon' arrive in a double-headed light engine move from Carnforth Steamtown to Preston to position themselves for 'The Easter Highlander' (Day 1), which was running from Cardiff Central to Falkirk Grahamston. West Coast Class 47s, 47848 & 47746 'Chris Fudge', arrive with the charter train, where they would run as far as Preston, and be taken off to allow for 37518 & 37516 to take over for the rest of the run to Scotland.
The loco movements were included as part of the day, with 47848 & 47746 returning to Carnforth Steamtown together to wait for Day 4 of the charter to come back down to Preston on Monday.
After staying for one night in Blackpool, we return to South Wales on Saturday 19th April, 2025, where a very late running Locomotive Services private charter, also know as 'The Chairman's Train', is seen moving through Cwmbran over some two and a half hours late while running from St. Ives to Shrewsbury, with 47810 'Crewe Diesel Depot' dragging two dead Class 37s along with the charter itself.
37667 'Flopsy' & 37521 had both experienced technical difficulties whilst operating the train from St. Ives. One loco was low on coolant while the other one had broken down completely, and while the train had to limp along slowly from St. Ives, 47810 was sent from Crewe H.S to Bristol Temple Meads to rescue the train and drag the consist all the way up to Shrewsbury.
Overall, the Class 47s had taken over the Easter Weekend for this video, and the West Coast Class 37s were a fantastic sight to see in Preston itself.
We used both a Sony Photo Video Camera and an iPhone camera to get the double filming shots done.
Filmed at Locations
Preston, Crewe & Cwmbran
Filmed on
Friday 18th April, 2025
Saturday 19th April, 2025
Filmed by
Scott Coombes
Thomas Coombes
Produced by
Thomas Coombes
(C) 2025 S.T.C Rail Productions
To start off, West Coast Class 47s, 47813 & 47832, were seen top and tailing the Northern Belle stock from Carnforth Steamtown to Manchester Victoria, the stock being moved in preparation for 'The Spirit of Travel Lunch & Champagne Afternoon Tea' charter. The train pauses at Platform 5 to allow for an Avanti West Coast Pendilino passenger service to move ahead of it, before the Northern Belle resumed on its way to Manchester.
Later, West Coast Class 37s, 37518 'Fort William' & 37516 'Loch Laidon' arrive in a double-headed light engine move from Carnforth Steamtown to Preston to position themselves for 'The Easter Highlander' (Day 1), which was running from Cardiff Central to Falkirk Grahamston. West Coast Class 47s, 47848 & 47746 'Chris Fudge', arrive with the charter train, where they would run as far as Preston, and be taken off to allow for 37518 & 37516 to take over for the rest of the run to Scotland.
The loco movements were included as part of the day, with 47848 & 47746 returning to Carnforth Steamtown together to wait for Day 4 of the charter to come back down to Preston on Monday.
After staying for one night in Blackpool, we return to South Wales on Saturday 19th April, 2025, where a very late running Locomotive Services private charter, also know as 'The Chairman's Train', is seen moving through Cwmbran over some two and a half hours late while running from St. Ives to Shrewsbury, with 47810 'Crewe Diesel Depot' dragging two dead Class 37s along with the charter itself.
37667 'Flopsy' & 37521 had both experienced technical difficulties whilst operating the train from St. Ives. One loco was low on coolant while the other one had broken down completely, and while the train had to limp along slowly from St. Ives, 47810 was sent from Crewe H.S to Bristol Temple Meads to rescue the train and drag the consist all the way up to Shrewsbury.
Overall, the Class 47s had taken over the Easter Weekend for this video, and the West Coast Class 37s were a fantastic sight to see in Preston itself.
We used both a Sony Photo Video Camera and an iPhone camera to get the double filming shots done.
Filmed at Locations
Preston, Crewe & Cwmbran
Filmed on
Friday 18th April, 2025
Saturday 19th April, 2025
Filmed by
Scott Coombes
Thomas Coombes
Produced by
Thomas Coombes
(C) 2025 S.T.C Rail Productions
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- nux8Gsvbn14
- 395
- 20 Apr 2025 10:03
- 16 Oct 2026 08:03
- 18 Apr 2025
- 11
- 0
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