34067 Tangmere - A Dramatic Run Over The Cotswolds & Sapperton - 2015

It's been over 12 months since I last saw Tangmere, when it put it one of it's finest ever performances over Hermerdon. The final weekend in September would see the light pacific front the Cotswold Venturer, where we see the Southern Loco revert to it's usual dramatic fashion, as it's seen leaking steam & sounding very off beat, in a few of the captures from the day. With a return trip up the heavily graded Sapperton Bank, everyone lineside was hoping for an incident free climb and fortunately Tangmere went well up the winding metals of the Golden Valley, though far from sounding in good health. Unsurprising to many, the engine was declared a failure at Reading & the tour was terminated !
The locations for the day start of at Culham, where the conditions were sunny & cold, which made for perfect filming conditions, though a few curve balls were thrown into the mix, with an unwanted appearance from a three carriage unit & an unfortunate memory card failure would almost end in disaster.
After the early morning start in rural Oxfordshire, we jumped ahead of the tour, to the borders of the Cotswolds, where we first see Tangmere departing Moreton In Marsh, sounding very poor & struggling to keep it's feet after leaving the station. At the time, the tour was running 20 minutes early & nearly caught us out, if it wasn't for the blast on the whistle ! A few miles further down the line, we catch 34067 approaching Chipping Campden Tunnel, as it prepares for it's descent down Campden Bank towards Evesham, where it's steam leak is not so apparent.
For the return trip & our main shot of the day, we headed to the Golden Valley, where we see the Bullied tackling the winding grade as it heads through the jungle like terrain ! Once again the leaking of the steam on the drivers side is back, which would of made visibility very difficult. As I stated above, the engine was declared a failure at Reading, which will once again make bad reading & cast another doubt over the engine's reliability & whether it should be allowed onto the national network !
I hope you enjoy the video.