Cathedral Express The Britannia (Definately Not the Cheese)

I read in the local paper the Shrewsbury Chronicle that a Steam train called the Tornado was due to visit Shrewsbury Shropshire and make a stop at the Abbey Station. If like me you are a resident of Shrewsbury you may be wondering where the Abbey Station is situated, well it is the little museum building tucked away in the corner of the large car park opposite the Shrewsbury Abbey. I popped down to the said building and met a chap who kindly informed me that the Tornado had been withdrawn and but it had been replaced by the Britannia and the Train would be arriving into Shrewsbury Station at approximately 1400hrs. I have for many years driven past a place just outside a village called Dorrington and thought that this would be a wonderful spot to Photograph a Steam Train and this was my chance to have a go and see if I could get a reasonable image.  I arrived at the said location to find that some one had beaten me to it and nabbed the best spot however there was enough room for the both of us.

The Britannia Dorrington Shropshire.

There is still something quite quintessential about Steam Trains and the English Countryside, it is a very rare thing to see a Steam Train run on an English Railway Main Line as the majority of them are confined to small private railway organisations such as the Severn Valley Railway which is  located in Bridgnorth Shropshire and others  situated around the United Kingdom. Another factor is that the Steam Trains do tend to break down a lot and  have the tendency to emit fire and sparks and are often banned from certain lines in the Summer because they can set the railway embankment alight. Another thing that you should bare in mind is that it is a Train and like all Trains they are never on time. By the time Britannia did arrive it was nearly over charging through at 75Mph, but luclily I managed to get a couple of decent frames.

The Britannia Dorrington Shropshire.

Many thanks to all of the people that I met, especially the chap with the I-Phone Train Tracker application and everyone who were all so knowledgeble about Steam Trains. I have been told that we will all get to see a few more of these magnificent beasts as the excursions have now been switched to the West Coast Line.

Canon EOS 7D, 70-200 F4, ISO 1600, 320/ F5.6 Hand Held the subject was a good two hunderd yards away from us. I have also played about with the images in Light Room 3.

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