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Black 5 steam locomotive on Glenfinnan viaduct

Ex-LMS Black 5 locomotive No. 45212 building speed along the Glenfinnan Viaduct on the Scottish West Highland line between Fort William and Mallaig. The driver graciously slowed the train on the descending approach to the viaduct, before increasing power to produce a photogenic plume from the chimney as it made the crossing. The weather conditions were very poor, with so much rain that visibility was awful, so I had to process the raw file quite a bit to extract enough contrast to make this worth posting. I saw this train several times and each time was amazed that the rake of seven carriages was drawn solely by a Black 5 with no backup diesel-electric locomotive seemingly required. The services were very punctual too!

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Uploaded on September 4, 2021
Taken on August 18, 2021