60007 'Sir Nigel Gresley' - A 3 Day Odyssey on the East Coast Mainline - November 2025

The pre-Christmas season has begun once again and what better to start with than a 3 day adventure over nearly a week of one of the finest locomotives on the mainline taking to its old stamping ground

On Saturday 15th, Tuesday 18th & Friday 21st November 2025 LNER A4 no 60007 'Sir Nigel Gresley' would be employed on 3 back to back workings from Peterborough to York & return via its native route on the East Coast Mainline, working 2 trips of "The Christmas White Rose" for Saphos Trains and a "York Christmas Market" for Steam Dreams, all 3 trains would be brought in by diesel haulage from Potters Bar, St Albans & Colchester respectively from where 60007 would take over and enjoy the benefit of a fast line path up Stoke Bank and a tightly timed timetable for some thrilling high speed running

This video explores in some depth the 3 days of the A4 hard at work on the ECML, starting with a montage of clips at Wansford on the Nene Valley Railway where 60007 would be based in-between the outings, followed by in location order of the outward legs a sprint up Stoke Bank at Burton-le-Coggles, a high speed runpast through Grantham & Newark and a long view at Scrooby, followed on by 2 angles at Doncaster on the fast line from platform 3 and the Frenchgate carpark

The return workings are also captured in location order with 'Sir Nigel Gresley' putting the power down at Doncaster once again on the fast line, this shot in particular being a third time lucky with the other 2 shots either not able to be obtained or retoured through platform 1 the final result still not 100% great with a Leeds bound 225 blocking the rear portion of the train but still somewhat salvageable, followed by some more high speed running through the depths of darkness at Retford, Newark & Grantham

All 3 days of filming represented their own challenges with combinations of late runnings, the brief failure of the A4 on Saturday night and in some place the weather, with Saturday 15th being the worst off with the rain whilst Tuesday 18th improved to mild conditions and Friday 21st being the winner with clear blue skies, crisp mornings and the exhaust hanging clear above the train

A massive kudos to the Network Rail planning time and in particular Jordan Bailey for his planning on his carefully thought out timetables, Locomotive Services Group for putting on a great show operating the engine and trains, the SNGLT group for presenting their A4 in top condition (& a personal pleasure to have helped out with the cleaning of the engine at NVR) and to Jack for the assistance driving on Friday and Thomas of The Modster Railway Videos for his company during the 3 days, hopefully this time next year we may see a repeat event, perhaps...!

00:00 - Wansford NVR
04:17 - Burton-le-Coggles (21/11)
05:27 - Grantham (18/11)
07:01 - Newark Northgate Carpark (15/11)
07:52 - Scrooby (21/11)
09:27 - Doncaster (18/11)
10:22 - Doncaster Frenchgate (15/11)
11:40 - Doncaster (21/11)
12:53 - Retford (21/11)
13:37 - Newark Northgate (18/11)
14:29 - Grantham (15/11)