Two Railtours on the Welsh Marches - Saturday 26th May, 2018

Today was a lucky day on the Welsh Marches mainline, on Saturday 26th May, 2018. Two railtours were seen travelling up and down the mainline between Pontypool, Cwmbran and Panteg, with a freight train seen in the mix. Today, it was originally going to be just one railtour filmed on camera, but that soon changed to filming two railtours, when the second one just so happened to have first generation power running it.

First, DBS Class 66s (66133 & 66198) were seen passing through a cloudy and slightly misty Pontypool & New Inn, top and tailing UK Railtours 'The Chester & Liverpool Explorer', heading from Eastleigh to Liverpool Lime Street.

Next, a Colas Rail Class 60 (60096) was seen passing through Cwmbran on an engineer's freight train, heading from Westbury Up T.C to Henwick. It's quite rare to see a Colas Rail Class 60 on the Welsh Marches mainline.

Then, after a bit of waiting, DRS Class 37s (37069 & 37259) were seen passing through Cwmbran, double heading Retro Railtours 'The Retro Bath Centurion & Retro Salisbury Belle', heading from Huddersfield to Salisbury.

A DRS Class 68 (68025) was provided at the back of the railtour. Originally, Northern Belle liveried 57305 was to be the back engine on the train, but it was then later replaced with the Class 68.

Later on, the DRS Class 37s returned on the Welsh Marches mainline, running straight through Panteg, making a powerful first generation hellfire sound, while the DRS Class 68 trundled quietly behind at the back of the train, as the tour was returning from Salisbury to Huddersfield.

Finally, the DBS Class 66s from earlier in the morning then passed through Pontypool & New Inn once more, returning from Liverpool Lime Street to Eastleigh. Today was definitely a rare day to see a few loco hauled trains on this mainline in South Wales.

Locos Featured:
66133, 66198, 60096, 37069, 37259 & 68025.

Filmed at Locations:
Pontypool & New Inn, Cwmbran and Panteg

Filmed by Thomas Coombes & Scott Coombes
Produced by Thomas Coombes

© 2018 s0nic1997 Productions