47402 Chilson 8 July 1984

Locos from the original batch of twenty Class 47s built with ETH were never common on the Cotswold Line in the 1980s by virtue of their Gateshead allocation, but I did see 47402 Gateshead on the line on two separate occasions. On 8 July 1984 it worked the 16:10 Paddington to Hereford service, seen here passing Chilson. Apart from the lack of lineside vegetation, points to note here are the remnants of the steam age railway: bullhead track, platelayer's hut, and a telegraph pole lying just in front of the loco, as it was only a few years previously that they were felled.