View allAll Photos Tagged royalwoottonbassett
Part of a flock around 20,000 strong which collects over this part of RWB every night. Royal Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire, UK. 2018-02-17.
Edging ahead of an unwelcome cloud shadow, 60012 is pictured on the 'Badminton Route' near Wootton Bassett with 6B23, empty fuel tanks from Colnbrook to Robeston on 1 June 1999. Despite the rural setting, this was anything but a peaceful or healthy location, being on the embankment of the busy M4 motorway!
Day 114/366
Standard weekend canal trip, this time I managed to convince the boys to climb up to the high point
#bestfriends #royalwoottonbassett #landscape #wiltsandberkscanal #wiltshire
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Busy fattening up on insects before it's first migratory trip to just south of the Sahara! Wilts + Berks Canal, Royal Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire, UK. 2017-08-13.
A Tale of Two Sheddies.
Freightliner's 66955 with 4L32 Bristol to Tilbury intermodal passes DB's 66114 waiting for the road with 6B49 Llanwern to Swindon steel working at Royal Wootton Bassett. The steel train was waiting for over an hour as another freight and 2 passenger workings passed, no wonder the driver had his feet up!
A Tale of Two Cities was of course a historical novel published in 1850 by that giant of English literature Charles Dickens, the two cities in question being London and Paris.
On rail-related matters, on 9 June 1865 Dickens was a passenger on the train involved in the Staplehurst Rail Crash, 10 passengers were killed in the incident, apparently the experience greatly affected Dickens. Interestingly he died from a stroke five years to the day after the accident.
This location in Wiltshire was the location of the 2015 Wootton Bassett SPAD incident in which a steam-hauled charter train operated by West Coast Railway Company passed a signal at danger and came to a stand across the junction (presumably in a similar spot to that of 4L32 in this image), thankfully an HST passenger service from Swansea to Paddington had cleared the junction moments before the errant working arrived and tragedy was averted.
Of further interest, and hopefully lightening the mood, Charles Dickens, the second of 8 children born to John and Elizabeth (nee Barrow) Dickens, married Catherine Thomson "Kate" Hogarth and together they produced 10 children.... maybe it's something to do with the family surname...., you'll have to make up your own punchlines.
Apparently in his early 20s Charles Dickens was described as "energetic and increasingly self-confident"- you're not kidding!! There's no truth in the rumor that Dickens authored the first edition of "The Joy of Sex" though😄
The Olympic torch comes through the market town of Royal Wootton Bassett. The old town hall stands in the background built in1889 .