60163 Tornado; 10/12/12 Cathedrals Express; at Night

StevieG · Post by **StevieG** » Fri Dec 21, 2012 3:16 am

Steam traction is not my forte I'm afraid, but I was able to capture these images (LINKed below), quite by chance, and wondered if they would be of interest to some other members here.

Mid-evening of Monday 10th December 2012: I was just heading for the exit of Stevenage station having alighted from the 21:00 East Coast train from KX, when becoming aware of a hissing noise, increasing in volume, from the platforms area out of sight behind me. Thinks: 'Ah, a railhead treatment train jetting the rails'.
Within a few seconds, and still exiting, nearing the main road outside; thinks again: 'No, it's getting too loud for that, and doesn't sound right for an RHTT anyway - so what is it?'.

Moving to a point where the platforms could be seen, cue Tornado unexpectedly (to me) arriving in the Down Slow, and coming to a stand at the platform's departure end, with safety valves continuously blowing, which carried on until about 1.5 minutes after movement ceased.
So, heading for the part of the drop-off/pick-up parking area from where access can be made to the public cycleway along the east side of the station, and the metal pallisade fence which separates it from the adjacent and parallel Up Slow line, while extricating my ever-present compact camera from its case, I was just able to get to a position opposite 60163 and capture the following over the (very sharply pointed!) top of the fence, just prior to, and during, departure about 3-4 minutes after arrival.

They're rather dark, but I hope are of a little interest to some : .....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/89966691@N ... hotostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/89966691@N ... otostream/ (36 secs. : MP4)

( EDIT: Regrettably, the video clip, although playing okay, with sound, on my camera; in Flickr it seems to remain silent; and so far I can't work out why.)

( 2nd EDIT: I've now tried this video on a different PC and the sound on there is fine, including the brief slipping as Tornado reaches a point just above the twin-red shunt signal in the foreground.)