Well a slightly different blog post to my recent ones of late; they say bad luck comes in three's and today (11/09/12) this certainly proved to be the case, I woke up this morning and checked my phone e-mail for the usual gen posts and discovered that 57003 and 57004 were allocated to work 4M34 Coatbridge - Daventry intermodal, so I headed off to Tamworth Station, upon arriving at Tamworth I seen 70017 pass through working 4O49 Crewe Basford Hall - Southampton freightliner, I wasn't really pushed for a photo as I had already had photographed this loco on the working a few months back in really reasonable light. Anyway weatherwise today it was sort of 50/50 cloud and sun, first off 90046 appeared working 4L75 Crewe Basford Hall - Felixstowe freightliner, of course the cloud obscured the sun for a brief period, resulting in the front 2/3 of the train being in dull whilst the rear was in full sun, about 15 minutes later and exactly the same happened with 57003 and 57004 working 4M34 Coatbridge - Daventry intermodal. OK I and other enthusiasts did manage a shot but wasn't what we hoped for.

My next move was to Lea Marston (between Kingsbury and Water Orton) for 56087 and 56094 working 6E07 Washwood Heath - Boston Docks steel empties, upon arrival there was cloud in the sky but again, interspersed with clear blue sky, quite a substantial cloud obscured the sun, although the light was still quite decent, soon the unique rumble of a hard working Class 56 shattered the otherwise still air and with the camera at the ready I set up the frame I wanted for the shot, no sooner the pair of "Grids" came into the frame, a Class 170 going the other way completely bowled the shot thus rendering the photograph useless.

So what else could go wrong, well after this I just headed to Water Orton for a few hours to at least try for a few decent photo's which I did somewhat manage although it has overgrown quite a bit since I was last there, although there was some consolation when 70003 appeared on a rake of empty Freightliner Heavy Haul coal hoppers working 4Z68 Ratcliffe Power Station to Stoke Gifford, and 60099 working 6E41 Westerleigh - Lindsey empty bogie tanks, which was around an hour late and was routed via the Whitacre Junction line.