I had spent a bit of time preparing to photograph the Flying Scotsman on a Saturday morning at the Watercress Line. Once done, I had gone home and picked up Nancy so we could head to an appointment that we had in Itchen Abbas. When we finished there, the plane was to head to Alresford for some other stuff. This was going to take us by the bridge in Bishop’s Sutton that goes over the track. I thought it was about the time that another of the Scotsman’s planned runs should take place. Consequently, we drove by that way.

There were plenty of people on the bridge when we got there so I parked and asked if it was due. Someone said five minutes, so I grabbed the cameras from the car. As I did so, I saw people lifting cameras to their eyes so zipped back. The train was already climbing the hill out of Alresford. The longer shots were not great because the heat haze was already showing itself, but they were okay. As it came up the cutting, it was making plenty of power. Then it was gone. We were back in the car and off to our destination and it had barely taken five minutes out of our day!