The Cheltenham Flyer rips up the timetable.....

GWR Castle Class 4-6-0 no 5043 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe on the Cheltenham flyer, turn up your speakers and cop a load of this whistling performance.
Moans and grumbles were in abundance before this run commenced, it had been routed slow, stuck behind stopping service trains, wouldn't be flying. The Answer? Get it out on the main line in front of the "stopper" and throw the timetable out the window. So they did and it flew. So far ahead of its timetabled slot many people missed it, cracking into Paddington 40 minutes early. Last i heard on the return, it was nearly an hour fast.

So here, early, is the Earl, cracking up Cholsey on the outwards leg, tearing up Taplow on the return, with a rest period in between at Drayton Green on the service and turning leg.

At Cholsey where the heritage Cholsey and Wallingford Railway terminates, the staff there rocked up in their B.R. Class 08 Shunter no D3030 "Lion" to catch the Earl, They only just made it in time as it whistled by. Never knew you could get so many people in the cab of an '08!

A day that promised so little but delivered in spades. Well done to VT and the crew. And Network Rail.