Chasing 7029 “Clun Castle” round West London on VT’s “Farewell to Steam Special” - 1/11/2025

Also featuring a bonus clip of 34028 "Eddystone" returning to Southall depot!

An afternoon spent in West London chasing Vintage Trains' flagship Castle, 7029 "Clun Castle", and Transrail-liveried 37240, working a tribute to, and loose re-run of, 27 November 1965's Farewell to Steam special, which was the last time Clun Castle led a train out of London Paddington.

The tour is seen firstly at Southall, with 37240 piloting the Castle into the nearby Hanwell Bridge loop, where it would run round. The tour had run double-headed from Small Heath down to west London.

Clun Castle then leads the tour through Drayton Green in spectacular style, heading towards Greenford to enable the train to turn on the West Ealing triangle.

With 37240 once again leading, the train negotiates the second leg of the triangle and crawls through West Ealing station, returning Clun to Paddington ahead of its first departure from the station in almost 60 years.

Finally comes a simply magnificent, yet sadly nowadays very rare sight: Clun Castle at full chat on the Down Main line through Hayes and Harlington, with 37240 providing a helping hand to maintain time and speed on the busy Great Western Main Line.

The end of the video sees a bonus clip of recently-mainlined West Country class, 34028 "Eddystone", lead 5Z29 from Reading to Southall. The loco had been used to haul the southbound leg of the Chiltern Explorer from Manchester Piccadilly to Reading. 47746 "Chris Fudge" was on the rear and would work the return leg north.

Had "Eddystone" not been over 20 minutes late, the two steam-hauled services were booked to have crossed each other on the fast lines between Southall and Hayes & Harlington, which would've been quite the extraordinary sight!