Tyseley: "Clun Castle" Awaits The Off...

Today I spent my time at Tyseley Locomotive Works in Birmingham as part of the regular Saturday working party. Only a few of us were in today whilst various groups on the site were busy working on their various steeds. I was put to work doing a couple of odd jobs for Tyseley's flagship Castle Class No7029 "Clun Castle", built under BR in 1950. Regular readers will know that 7029 returned to steam in time for the Autumn open weekend last year and has since been waiting for the call in the engine shed. She will be one of the star attractions at the upcoming Summer open weekend at 84E over June 30th/July 1st. It's been a quiet year for the Tyseley fleet so far as we haven't seen main line metals since the second York job with 5043 last December. Vintage Trains hopes to return during 2018 as its own train operating company (or TOC if you will) and that's when "Clun" will hopefully go out for a leg stretch. She is a beautiful thing and a testament to the hard work carried out to restore the engines at Tyseley...

The cab on "Clun" is very similar to sister Castle 5043: a mass of highly polished brass, copper and burnished steel makes for an impressive sight...

Later on, near teatime, I decided to head for home. I'll next be at Tyseley for the open weekend in two weeks time. Cheers then folks, Sam...