AFTER a couple of delays, the day East Anglia's steam rail fans have been looking forward to has almost arrived.One of the best-known steam locomotives to ever travel on the region's rail line, “Britannia” class pacific Oliver Cromwell will be returning to the main line from London to Norwich, through Ipswich, on Tuesday, September 9.
Matthew Tacket
AFTER a couple of delays, the day East Anglia's steam rail fans have been looking forward to has almost arrived.
One of the best-known steam locomotives to ever travel on the region's rail line, “Britannia” class pacific Oliver Cromwell will be returning to the main line from London to Norwich, through Ipswich, on Tuesday, September 9.
The train leaves Liverpool Street at 10.30am and stops at Colchester to take on water just before noon. It is due to storm through Ipswich - without stopping - at about 12.30pm before reaching Norwich at about 1.30pm.
The train will be using the “middle road” through Ipswich station, away from the platforms - a track that is usually only used by freight services.
If, like me, you'll be at work when the train passes through Ipswich, there will be another chance to see it on the return journey.
It will leave Norwich at about 5.30pm and pass through Ipswich about an hour later before going to Colchester for water and arriving back in London at about 8.30pm.
And if you are not able to make that trip at all, the whole return journey is being repeated two weeks' today - on September 20.
Oliver Cromwell is owned by the National Railway Museum and is famous for hauling British Railways' last ever steam service in August 1968.
After retirement it spent 36 years at Bressingham Steam Museum on the Suffolk/Norfolk border before being taken away to be restored to working order at the Great Central Railway in Leicestershire.
Its first main-line run after restoration was a repeat of the “last ever” steam run on BR almost 40 years to the day from the original trip - it hauled the train from Manchester to Carlisle and did a storming job by all accounts.
I would love to see your photos and movie clips of the trip which we can put on our website - www.eveningstar.co.uk
In the meantime if you would like to see video clips of its trip around the north west of England in August, visit our site today.
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