'Britannia' + 'Sherwood Forester' double-heading

I looked at my online calendar this morning and was surprised to see a strange entry. Opening it up I saw I'd marked the day for steam train spotting. 

'Britannia' + 'Sherwood Forester' were double-heading the return of the day-trip from Bristol back to Crewe. I quickly looked at Google maps to see where I could get a good view of this rather wide angled situation. In the end I chose somewhere I'd been before when Flying Scotsman came in the opposite direction some years ago.

I walked out into a field at Stanley Downton to get far enough away. In the process I became the centre of attention for a herd of cows who followed me inquisitively. They had been standing near a hay feeder so I think they hoped I was their farmer bringing another meal.

When the train arrived the light drizzle had become rain and general atmosphere was rather dreich, so the image is somewhat subdued. The train didn’t whistle and appeared to be coasting so there wasn’t the usual and hoped for atmosphere of a thundering engine, or in this case two engines. 

I normally see steam trains when they are visiting our valley which has a steep incline forcing the engines to work hard. I think I’m rather spoilt.

I'll do some back-blipping soon. I'm getting rather too lazy these days. My 'Blip mojo' cycle seems to have gone into another quiet mode. :-(