Steam!

Just heard a loud chuffing noise outside and looked out to see a steam train heading towards Paddington Station. According to this site it's the "Yuletide Bard Express" running a couple of hours late.

Couldn't see much of the engine, they run steam trains along the track nearest my house to avoid power lines, and that unfortunately means that most of it is concealed by the brick wall between the road and the railway, but the web site says it should be the GWR King Class 4-6-0 no 6024 King Edward I - but given that they seem to have rescheduled the run and the station it runs to it's possible that they changed the engine too. If it is that engine, here's a picture:



What I saw of it was consistent with this, but I can't be sure.

It's funny... when there were twenty or thirty steam trains an hour running along here I'd imagine that my parents etc. thought of them as bloody nuisances, covering everything with soot and grime. These days they're romantic...

Later: I've copied the picture, saved it to photobucket and linked to that. Apologies if you couldn't see it before.