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60163 Tornado & DBS 66152 on 'The Cathedrals Express' 10/03/12

2,560 views · Published 11 March 2012 · 12:15 · Indexed 1 October 2026

Channel: Speed To The West · 2012 · Autos & Vehicles

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BR A1 Class 4-6-2 no.60163 'Tornado' made a welcome return to the mainline after her winter maintenance at the Mid-Hants Railway hauling the London Paddington - Plymouth - London Paddington tour 'The Cathedrals Express'. Working solo to Exeter she would then be joined by DBS Class 66 no.66152 to assist her up the South Devon Banks. 71000 'Duke Of Gloucester' was originally supposed to be doubled with 60163 from London to Plymouth and back as far as Taunton but as she had had a bit of a prang up on the East Lancs Railway she was unavailable. Thankfully they put 66152 behind 60163 which made for an interesting combo of steam & diesel power. For this tour I was joined by Sam (itfcsam) and I'd like to say thank you to him for doing the planning for this trip.

We start of at 40 Steps bridge just outside Taunton, first seeing 66152 heading light to Exeter, looking rather nice in the DBS red livery. 60163 is then seen arriving into Taunton, not scheduled to stop but she did anyway, at the same time a HST is seen arriving and giving some tones, no response from 60163 though. 60163 is then seen departing Taunton giving off some lovely whistles. Our second location is the classic spot on top of the tunnel mouth at Dawlish where we see 60163 & 66152 running along the sea wall, 60163 whistles away as they run through the station and up to the tunnel, 66152 also chips in with a two tone at the tunnel mouth.

For the return run we went to Teignmouth and walked over Shaldon Bridge to Shaldon itself to a spot I've seen many times in videos on YouTube and on DVDs, it's a lovely little spot indeed. With the sun now setting we see 60163 & 66152 running along the bank passing a HST, the lighting couldn't have been better. They did have to slow down coming into Teignmouth as they were early and were trying not to catch up with a stopping service which passed not long before. Now for a shot we didn't expect to get, as 60163 hadn't left Exeter when we got there, as we didn't think we had much time it was a bit of a rush to set up. 60163, now minus 66152 is seen departing Exeter in a cloud of steam, 12 minutes late due to a late running HST so we had a bit more time than we thought. I had a bit of trouble with my foam I use for wind reduction as in the rush to get set up I didn't stick it down properly so part way through it got unstuck at the front so I had to try and gently stick it back down.

All in all it was a lovely day out and I very much enjoyed filming this tour. Thanks again to Sam for coming along and doing the planning.

Filmed on a Panasonic HDC-HS900

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