There was little to report of a day when most things went according to plan – or very nearly. Vintage trains and everyone associated with the train are to be congratulated on an excellent day out. The booked route of the train from Tyseley to York, at just under 135 miles, covers sections of main line interspersed with sections of secondary / freight lines. This combination worked well for the “City of York” and did not appear to cause the operational problems encountered by some other steam specials using more congested routes – or perhaps we were just lucky!

From my own non-technical viewpoint Nunney Castle worked extremely well and there were periods of sustained high speed particularly on the return journey to excite both passengers and spectators alike. During both the outward and return journeys, time was consistently made up against the booked timings. This meant that we were brought to a stand to await our booked path on more than one occasion. However, the climax to the day was being allowed to proceed onto the main line at Stenson Junction having presented ourselves some 15 minutes ahead of schedule. Everyone on board was expecting the train to be brought to a stand but the signals were green. Nunney Castle made the best of the opportunity and some further high speed running was achieved despite set down stops at Burton and Tamworth.

5029 at Tamworth.