'Flying Scotsman' rounding the bends into Stroud

I got up at 6am to have a long soak in the bath before we went to the Shambles Indoor Market for the day. We actually left the house after 8am and got set up in time for the first wave of visitors.  We met people visiting from Norway, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands  as well as more local ones from London, Brighton, Bristol, Cardiff and even Birminghham. Stroud is becoming quite a holiday  destination with the added attraction of the weekly Farmers’ Markets on Saturday.

I even managed to get away for about three-quarters of an hour to watch ‘Flying Scotsman’, the famous steam locomotive, at the head of an excursion train from London to Worcester. I checked several vantage points including the station but ruled that out as there were hundreds of people crammed on the platforms. I’ve never seen as many there before. 

I retreated to the Brunel goods shed, which I know very well having been part of the team that transformed it from a near ruin to a going concern. We had built a small extension at the at end and from there I could climb on some railings to get a vantage point above the rampant weeds growing beside thew tracks.

There were a couple of other people there to watch the spectacle and we heard the sound of the engine’s whistle in the distance. It was several minutes early! I chose this spot as it gave a view as the train rounded the bend into the station just after it had crossed the Capel’s Mill railway viaduct where allowed the tracks to weave the canal, road and river that occupy all of the bottom of the Golden Valley.

It started to rain again a few minutes before the train arrived which was very annoying, as I’ve lost my lens hood, so i wasn’t sure how the pictures would turn out. I like this rather distant view as it doesn’t have much of the debris which lies beside the track, a product of the railway track maintenance teams which access the line through their gates just beside the Goods Shed. We live close to the wooded slopes at the rear of the picture on the left.

When I returned to the market I met a few people who said they had been at the station but were dismayed at how fast the train had travelled through the station. I think they thought they would have more time to admire the engine at close quarters.