44871 Struggles with Sunday Traffic. The Royal Duchy 18th* Aug. 2024
As many rail users will tell you: “never travel on a Sunday” and never was this truer than the timekeeping of this tour which left Bristol on time but held at Taunton for a 19 min late departure.
A shortened water stop in the Tiverton Loop restored matters but by the time we see the “5” slowly appear on the reverse curves through Marsh Barton station she has been shunted behind the late running Paignton “stopper”. Once through the station she is given a clear track and the regulator is opened enough for a cruise through the heat haze of Matford and Exminster before the inevitable “catch” at Dawlish Warren and all subsequent stops until Newton Abbot where the line splits.
By then, the train is back to 16 mins down but with the diesel on the back pushing hard over the Devon Banks as we see at Marley head through a snowstorm of ”thistle down”, arrival at Plymouth is only a couple of minutes down.
Although cheated for time, I am still able to get a static camera mounted on the road bridge before driving down to the Tamar River sailing club for the main shot over Brunel's iconic Royal Albert Bridge, through Saltash, over Coombe Viaduct and away round the headland towards Forder Creek.
The on time return is captured by a single shot down the whole of the Teign Estuary as a glimpse of late sunshine over the moors pierces the clouds and illuminates the river above Coombe Cellars. Low light levels remind us that the days are shortening but that little wisp of steam from the safety valves helps to keep the loco in the viewfinder during the difficult 180 degree pan at x20 zoom, not helped by a gusty wind!
For the unfortunate passengers who had work to go to on Monday, things once more took a turn for the worse at Taunton where the delay to departure this time was a massive 93 mins!
You will notice the different stock on the Matford clip as this was taken from the previous Duchy on 28th July which had similar problems with service train delays. I had to abandon other planned shots of that tour due to concerns about my car after hitting two enormous potholes!
Chapters:
0:00 Titles, Marsh Barton and Matford
3:32 Marley Head
4:04 Tamar Bridge
6:57 Teign Estuary