The Flying Scotsman

we woke to torrential rain - and it hasn't stopped all day.
So when I saw on the news that the Flying Scotsman would be out on a test run less than two miles from our house a blip plan was launched.
Not being a spotter I had little but local knowledge to guide me as to where to go - it would have been lovely to head over to Ribbleshead - but family plans & the possibility of the line being shut subject to inspection meant that I consulted the map - worked out where some very minor farm roads took me & set off.....only to discover that Scout Green is one of the best known & most popular spotting sites in Cumbria - arriving there must have been 100+ cars! *
As with yesterday the event was a bit of an anti-climax - the news had neglected to mention that the Scotsman has yet to be painted into his famous livery - and running on the West Coast mainline meant there are electrical stanchions every few metres - but when he actually ran past there was a small cheer & a moment of magic that our modern inter-city trains could never aspire to match.
* the real skill in this blip has been in managing to miss out the hordes.