5th June 2010

(2) The Royal Scot?? Not exactly. A railtour to Axminster is incredibly rare and on this day UK Railtours ran one from London taking passengers to the Seaton Tramway and their 40th Anniversary gala. This is the return service and the passengers are boarding after being brough over from Seaton by coach. The 9-coach stock was formed of ex-BR Mark I carriages, owned by Riviera Trains and carrying their Royal Scot carriage boards - a very unusual sight on the old Southern Railway main line indeed! For the record the coach numbers were: 17015, 3066, 3068, 1691, 3063, 3097, 1813, 4902, 5391.

Just a few minutes to go before the 1Z83 16.45 Axminister to London Waterloo leaves for the city. I will dash ahead to Cloakham, east of the town, to catch the train on its way....