It was class 156 this morning the poor animal died but there was little damage to the train, infact it went through the chassis wash and had a check before being declared fit for service just 3 hours after the incident.
I,m too young to have driven steam although my dad who did 50 years before retirment 5 year ago drove steam for a number of years and was one of the last steam men at manchester picadilly, i remember fondly waiting for him to come through the village station to give me a ride on the footplate.
Unfortunately i don't think i will ever pass out on steam for the specials either as the freight firms seem to do all that work i will just have to make do with my main stead the wonderfull class 142 plus classes 150/1, 150/2, 153, 156, and 158.
I gave up a very good carear in refrigeration to go on the railways and to be honest it was the best thing i ever did, i work 35 hours on a 4 day week and get a long weekend thursday to tuesday every 3 weeks, great for caravanning and honestly the railways really are very reliable these days, me personally i have only lost 4 minuites this year my trains are never more than 1 minuite late at any station.
Ive been from manchester to blackpool twice today and not lost one minuite plus 2 trips to the shed and one trip to huddersfield again no time lost.
I think i had better stay away from the meets if i get with some others who have an interest in steam and heritage then the weekends over for her indoors and my life will not be worth living when i get home,lol.
Why do pigeons allways fly straight in to trains ? i must hit one every single day, they never fly away just straight at you, very strange.