Two charters in one week?! Well that doesn’t happen often at the Bluebell Railway!

Fresh from seeing the lovely Hastings Unit roll onto Bluebell rails last week, the start of the late May bank holiday weekend was poised to be even better. Why? Well during the week before, rumours had started to circulate of a steam hauled railtour coming to the Bluebell. Was it Tornado, Britannia, Sir Nigel, Clan Line?

For me it would turn out to be one of my favourite mainline locomotives Britannia, having last seen her screaming through Christ’s Hospital in August of last year. It would be great to see her on my home metals. The final piece of the puzzle was finding out when the loco was traversing Bluebell metals. With the excellent “Bluebell Bashers” group coming up top trumps again, thank you to all of the members (they know who they are) I was armed with the information I needed.

No70000 “Britannia” blasts through Christ’s Hospital on a Steam Dreams Excursion in August 2024
Camera settings: ISO: 320, Focal: 59mm, Aperture: f7.1, Shutter: 1/500th

Friday was promising some lovely evening weather to coincide with excellent traction in the form of 70000 “Britannia”. However, one more surprise was in store before I went out. A very close friend of mine who helps take photos for me from time to time, decided to tag along and he brought along his latest toy, but we will reveal that to you all later.

Britannia was due to depart Kingscote at 1700hrs, but as a big believer in always get to the shot you want earlier than you need to, we got in the car and raced round to Kingscote Vineyard. Having shown my friend where to go and then run round to Birch Farm crossing, just in case it was busy. Fortunately I found just one other photographer at the crossing. It is one of my favourite things about going out and photographing locomotives, you find yourself having good conversations whilst you wait for the shot.

Well as Fenchurch runs to her own timetable, so does Britannia, as she left Kingscote at 1655hrs and headed south on her way to drop off her stock at Horsted Keynes, before heading down to Sheffield Park with just her support coach. I picked Birch Farm crossing as my spot, why? Because with the enclosed canopy of trees, foliage and the recent damp weather it was the best chance of having a serious amount of exhaust. Please have a watch of the reel below and enjoy the picture. With the initial photos and video captured. It was a sprint back to the car as my friend brought it from Kingscote. Would we make it to Tremains in time?

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No70000 “Britannia” climbs up towards Birch Farm crossing with the Wedding Belle Express on Friday 23 May 2025
Camera settings: Taken from video

Things didn’t start out too well, the first hurdle was a car reversing out of the drive way and then quite a bit of traffic heading back towards Sharpthorne but the car was in fine form and we sailed the rest of the way to Tremains crossing. Quickly jumping out of the car and heading across the field, we couldn’t run because of the horses being in close to the gates. As we crossed over the fences towards the crossing the gorgeous chime whistle blasted and we knew we wouldn’t be able to set up. Therefore, all we got was a rather disappointing mobile shot. However,

Now for the mystery toy, well as the title says it is quintessentially British…….. any guesses? Well I will give you a two huge clues. It is made by British Leyland and named after a famous aircraft of World War II…. of course it is the Triumph Spitfire! After we had finished with Britannia and after having a chat with friends we parked up at Horsted Keynes and took some shots of this fantastic soft top. An absolutely gorgeous addition to my friends garage and I cannot wait to take it out for a photo shoot.

A 1973 Triumph Spitfire 1.3L V4 pictured with Horsted Keynes station building and signal gantry in the background.

Camera Settings: ISO 64, Focal: 70mm, Aperture: f10, Shutter: 1/80s (Numberplate removed in edit for privacy reasons)

To complete the round up, and whilst writing this blog the following day I wanted to complete the wedding charter photo tour with the locomotive that the happy couple would ride on on the Bluebell Railway. Plus as Sir Archibald Sinclair (Archie, SAS, insert other nicknames here) would be hauling it and having not run in a few weeks, it was time to get some fresh air and enjoy a shot of the best Rebuilt Light Pacific. With the shot below done, all was left was to finish up writing this blog and editing the final photos. Thank you all for reading once again and I wish you all an enjoyable bank holiday weekend.

Please find more pictures below that I couldn’t fit in above. Finally, I hope the happy couple has had a fantastic wedding day and experience, thank you for bringing Britannia to the railway and many happy years together.

A Quintessential British Evening

125 to Stanhope

The Blue Belle DEMU Railtour

Sharpthorne Steam