Ding Dong

I came across a most useful website in my endeavours to get my facts straight about some of the steam-hauled special trains that I have seen in the past. It is called Six Bells Junction. http://www.sixbellsjunction.co.uk/

It claims to be the biggest archive of rail tour information on the planet and I can believe it. My own records often suffice, but on other occasions I only have the date that a film was developed to go on. The website provides an opportunity to check exact dates, routes, timings etc.

My notes indicated that I photographed the Shakespeare Don twice on a colour slide film dated May 1976. I located two very mixed-up sets of slides with that date on. I separated them - the print used for numbering being slightly heavier on one than on the other. I put the pictures in order for the first time in ages. What turned out to be my wife’s May 1976 film had no less than three weddings on it.

The previous film that I had taken was developed in August 1975. It had actually been my first colour print film ever and it recorded our holiday to Austria that summer. That definitely placed Castle Class No. 7029 Clun Castle heading the Shakespeare Don at sometime between August 1975 and May 1976 but I could not find any evidence of the train during that period on the Six Bells site.

I went back to the internet and found another website which did mention the name of the train. https://www.national-preservation.com/threads/brmb-radio-shakespeare-don-with-7029-clun-castle.850901/ The headboard also included the name of the Birmingham-based BRMB radio station, which was clearly visible on other photos of the train on the same site. A contributor to the online discussion claimed that the train ran on 17 April 1976 between Birmingham and Didcot, via Stratford.

My pictures were clearly taken from a train travelling in the opposite direction. My feeling now is that we stumbled across this steam special by accident and that, luckily, I was able to take a couple of shots out of the window as it passed us, possibly just outside Didcot. I can’t help thinking that we were almost certainly on our way to a wedding.