Third and Last Time Lucky! 70000 Britannia hauls The Royal Duchy. 6th Sept. 2015

With the Railway Touring Company’s Royal Duchy schedule of 9 tours in 2015 decimated by 6 cancellations and two failures, it was down to 70000 Britannia to restore credibility. With such nice weather and visibility I decided to chance a location I had been keeping in reserve as something completely different. Stoke Hill Fort above Cowley affords spectacular views up the Exe (unfortunately marred by pylons) and Culm valleys all the way to Killerton in the distance where we can follow the line through the lovely East Devon countryside passing through Rewe, Stoke Canon and many well known filming locations but from a completely different perspective. My second shot at Matford Park Farm turned out to be quite similar and so I have omitted it here. As the train skirts Dartmoor I manage to grab a shot at Wrangaton as I make my way to Cornwall where I am disappointed to find after a long climb that my planned shot above Menheniot was no longer possible, so I went to the station to be caught out by the speed of the pass! Oh well!! Filming the return at Coombe Fishacre also turned out to be a miscalculation regarding lighting conditions and the fact that the air was full of dust from harvesting along the line which, although atmospheric and colourful, made filming very difficult. After the train passes, tranquillity is restored as the sun sets and the distant harvesters continue into the late evening. 70000 Britannia performed faultlessly on the day and proves the point that there is nothing like a steam train in the English countryside on a sleepy harvest day.