Some new ones

After more than 20 years making sound recordings there aren't that many steam locos that I don't have recordings of, well, main line ones anyway. There are still quite a few preserved lines that I haven't even visited yet so it'll be many years (I hope) before I run out of material!
There are, however, a few main line locomotives that have been out and about for a few years that have managed to avoid my microphone but in the last few months I've managed to catch up with some of them.

Principle among the missing recordings and a loco that I have been wanting to hear, or at least see, is the BR Standard Class 5 4-6-0 73096.
Usually based on the Mid Hants Railway it is a little too far away from where I live and, while the railtours that it has worked in the south haven't been particularly expensive, by the time you add the cost of getting down there plus a couple of nights hotel accommodation, etc. it is beyond my pocket nowadays.
I was fortunate however that circumstances permitted me to get to see and hear the engine when it travelled to Worcester on 13th September 2003 on it's way to visit the Severn Valley Railway for a brief spell.
Not knowing the area well and having little idea of where would be a good recording spot I ended up at the Worcester side of Norton Jc. in the hope that the loco would make some noise recovering from the speed restrictions there or at Abbotswood Jc.
Whilst not the best lineside recording I have ever made I was quite happy with this one. The loco is audible accelerating away from Abbotswood Jc. having left the main line there and heading for Worcester. After the train has passed the adjacent semaphore signal clatters back to danger.
Now then, please, please, please can we have the loco up north for a bit? I can guarantee at least one passenger!

It wasn't long before I was able to cross another new loco off the list.
On the following day, 14th September 2003 after visiting the SVR in the hope that the Standard 5 would be working trains (it wasn't!) I was able to get a recording GWR Hall 4-6-0 4965 'Rood Ashton Hall' as it returned from Stratford upon Avon with a Shakespeare Express.
The usual route for these trains is via Henley in Arden but due to a weak bridge the return journey to Birmingham is via Solihull.
In this recording, despite the noise from the M42 motorway, the Hall makes a fine sound passing through Widney Manor station with 8 coaches behind the tender.

I always had a soft spot for the class and have been looking forward to getting a chance of recording LNER B1 4-6-0 61264 for a while now.
I got my chance when the loco visited the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway for their Enthusiast Weekend in October.
I can recall seeing the loco on the Great Central Railway many years ago long before restoration was started and thinking that someone was going to have quite a task with that one. The loco that I saw at Keighley on Sunday 12th October 2003 presented quite a different picture! It looks magnificent in lined BR black livery. And it sounds even better as you can hear in this on train recording made departing from Damems Loop on the way up to Oxenhope.

The Keighley & Worth Valley Railway October Enthusiast Weekend provided me with the opportunity of recording another new loco.
This was the ex Lancashire & Yorkshire 2F 0-6-0 52044.
Although I had seen and ridden behind this loco on the railway many years ago this was the first time I had the opportunity to make a recording.
During the afternoon the 0-6-0 worked a demonstration freight train from Keighley to Ingrow and sounded like this departing from Keighley.

Not another new loco this time but a new location for a lineside recording.
On 27th September 2003 the LMS Pacific 6233 'Duchess of Sutherland' worked a train from Manchester with steam haulage from Carnforth to Glasgow and back.
This train must have left Manchester at some really ungodly hour as it was due through Tebay at 7.30 am!
Despite the early hour we were there to see it and from a sound recording point of view it was a waste of time! On the loco they had been having injector trouble and, when it passed Shap Wells the safety valves had lifted and the loco was being worked easily, or to put it another way, inaudibly! The train had to stop before the summit to allow the water level to improve before risking going over the top.
Despite the lack of a good recording I am very glad I was there as the sight of the loco coming up the gradient illuminated by the newly risen sun was superb. Have a look at the picture on page 3 of the Photo Gallery and you'll see what I mean.
Having been disappointed on Shap, my friend without whose car I wouldn't have been there at all, suggested that we continue north and try for a recording on Beattock. He had been to the lineside there once before but I never had but was aware that for most of the way the line is paralleled by the busy A74(M) so finding a good spot was not going to be easy.
After driving almost to the summit we eventually decided to have a look at a spot just below Harthope. This spot seemed to be the best that we could expect to find and, thinking we still had plenty of time began to have a look around for the best place to set up the microphones.
We were still looking when, in the distance we heard the unmistakable sound of a Semi working hard and some quick work was required to get set up!
The recording was much better, if shorter than the one obtained on Shap but it would have been nice to have had more time!
The train had been booked a pathing stop at Quintinshill and this had been omitted hence the early arrival. I really wish that they wouldn't do that!