Two Mainline Steam Trains in 10 Minutes at Abergavenny - 44871 and 60163 - 23/11/2019

After last week's success over the Welsh Marches line with the Black Fives, Today was a big day for mainline steam as not one but two steam engines venture on the same line towards Hereford and Shrewsbury. The engines featured were 60163 Tornado and supposed to be 60009 Union of South Africa. Unfortunately for the A4, she failed on her light engine run to Southall on Thursday with a hot box and even though it was fixed for Friday's run she suffered the same fate. so instead a Black Five from Ian Riley was a suitable replacement. The engine that replaced the A4 was no. 44871, but the load was too heavy to haul on her own over the steeply graded Welsh Marches Line and in particular in autumn. So the diesel was on the back for some much needed assistance. Tornado, on the other hand, had a pretty light load compared to her previous runs, but I guess the tour wasn't as popular as expected, at least it wasn't cancelled due to low bookings. the engines put on different displays to each other. The Black Fives was held up before Abergavenny and had a slow run through the station, but sounded amazing with her distinctive exhaust bark. Even better the diesel on the back didn't do anything until it passed my camcorder and can be heard opening up ready to push the train up Llanvihangel Bank. Tornado however put in an incredible display, roaring through the station at 70mph just 10 minutes behind the Black Five. Thanks to the Black Five being delayed, it was 10 minutes from each other, whereas if both were on time they would be around 25 minutes from each other. That's what made this occasion even more remarkable, as rarely you see two steam trains on different rail tours following each other on the same route. I hope you really enjoyed that video. If you love this video, please leave a like on the video and if you want to see more from me than please hit the Subscribe button for more steam action in the near future. Enjoy.