Saturday 26 May 2018

ECS for Retro Railtours, Romsey, 26th May 2018


37069 + 37259 5Z53 13:02 Salisbury - Romsey - Eastleigh. with 68025 Superb on the rear. The train left Huddersfield with 57305 providing ETS, but this was failed, and replaced at Crewe by 68025, losing about 30 minutes. Consequently the ECS was late in arriving at Eastleigh Works, where run-arounds were planned.

37069 (English Electric Robert Stephenson & Hawthorns, July 1962) leads approaching Romsey.



2nd locomotive is 37259  (English Electric Vulcan Foundry, January 1965).

Mk 2F TSO M5998 completed at BR Derby in June 1974 to Lot 30860.

68025 Superb has already made a railtour appearance in Romsey, on 23rd July 2017.

68025 led 5Z54 15:01 Eastleigh - Romsey - Salisbury. Since time was tight at Eastleigh, the run-arounds were cancelled, and the train was reversed at Laverstock Loop instead. The Class 68 action today should only have been on this ECS segment, the reason for bringing it along was to run the air conditioning.

The dim headlight is because the lights are pulsed - see the video below, where strobing is apparent. This is apparent to cameras, but not to the human eye.

68025 is in pool XHTP (DRS Class 68 Trans-Pennine)