All things considered, 16th March turned out to be a really good day.   The fact that my outing to the WSR Spring Steam gala was curtailed by the weather was more than made up for by Wales administering a damn good tatering to England at the Millennium Statdium in Cardiff - and I managed to ge t home in time to watch most of the second half!

Despite it raining all the way down the M5 en route to the WSR, the sun had come out by the time that the first working of the day appeared at Cottiford bridge, and it was a goods train to boot!

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Although conditions were never quite as good again for the rest of the day, I still managed to get some good shots of the three gala guests, starting with USATC S160 2-8-0 no. 6046 at Mineral Line bridge in Watchet.

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The stack of track panels in the foreground has been there for a year or more now - you'd think that the WSR would have moved them by now, even if they're only good for scrapping.   Anyway, it was on to Dunster, a quintessential country branchline station, for my next stop to see GWR steam railmotor no. 93 working the shuttle service from Minehead.   Having only a four minute turnaround, you can see why the GWR first developed the concept which underlies modern multiple unit operations. 

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A run up to Minehead on the next service train followed, and as you can see from the shot of Sir Lamiel below, the sun hadn't quite given up for the day.

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The good weather came to an end at around the time I left Minehead to get back to my car at Dunster in order to photograph the next few trains at a number of locations between Blue Anchor and Doniford before heading off to Bishops Lydeard station.    This is achievable due to the combination of the  somewhat indirect route of the railway compared to the local roads and the leisurely pace of the trains.   Things were distinctly gloomy by the time that I photographed 6960 at Doniford Halt.

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Before heading for home I decided to take the last autotrain shuttle from Bishops Lydeard down to Norton Platform to get out of the rain for a while and also to travel on this stretch of the line for the first time.   Just about managed to see WSR Mogul no. 9351 as it completed its turning manouvre on Norton Triangle in the encroaching gloom.

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Next week, I'll be covering the Severn Valley Railway's Spring gala.