2nd April 2011 was to be an historic day in the history of railway preservation as this was the day of the launch of ex-GWR 6000 'King' Class 4-6-0 no.6023 'King Edward II' She was dubbed 'Project Impossible' by some due to the neglected state she was in when she was at Bristol, but after a 22 year restoration, she is here and alive. She is painted in BR's experimental express passenger blue livery which was carried only by Class 8 locomotives, and she looks absolutely gorgeous. Guest engines included 4965 'Rood Ashton Hall' & 5043 'Earl Of Mount Edgcumbe' who had arrived at Didcot with the appropriately named 'Coronation Express' from Tyseley to Didcot. As expected for an event like this it was absolutely jam packed with people so it was difficult to get a clean shot of the King. The launch ceremony was to be held at the turntable where she would be turned once 360 Degrees then a ceremonial speech would be given before 6023 moves off with plenty of whistling and cuts the string to make her officially launched. She would then go on to the main running line where she would trundle up and down, most of the time with quite of bit of thrash.

A big congratulations to all those involved in making this a reality.

Filmed on a Panasonic HDC-HS60 HD Camcorder

Enjoy

свернуть