As always, at this time of year, the annual trek to the far Southwest takes to the stage, writes Ian Thomas.
Until last year, it had always been a Pathfinder tour featuring various motive power up front. We have had Deltics, Westerns, Hoovers, Syphons, and, of course, a selection of Duffs over the years. It is always a great day out, and better still with full dining aboard.
However, with Pathfinder finishing last December, the Railway Touring Company stepped in and ran this year’s tour, with guidance from the Pathfinder team earlier in the year. So, we boarded the Mazey Day Cornishman (1Z36) at Cam & Dursley with Class 37s 669 and 668 up front. They did a good job of it, and all went well. We had an excellent breakfast; I had porridge to start, followed by salmon and scrambled eggs for the main course. My wife, Jill, enjoyed a full English, as we were celebrating her 75th birthday.
The weather was good and much, much cooler the further west we travelled. Cornwall does not experience the extreme heat found further inland, remaining at a pleasant 21–23°C.
We had an on-time arrival at Penzance and enjoyed a view of The Statesman ECS with its black Class 37s in the sidings. We took a stroll along the coast in the direction of Newlyn and photographed the Scillonian III ferry in the harbour. I believe it will be taken out of service next year or later, so it had to be pictured. It is, in fact, 49 years old this year and is a British-built ship constructed at Appledore in North Devon.
Our return train departed 10 minutes late due to a Class 175 failure at St Erth, which caused delays to other trains. We were around 20 minutes late at Plymouth, but after that, some excellent running and recovery time along the sea wall saw the train arrive only 6 minutes late at Exeter. It maintained that six-minute delay all the way back to Cam & Dursley.
We got off and were once again in the heat zone; it had reached 28°C earlier in the day at Dursley. Just for the record, I recorded a maximum of 35°C on Thursday afternoon, making it the warmest June day on record here, beating the 34.2°C recorded in June 1976.
