The Shakespeare Express in 2022 and 2023

Vintage Trains and Tyseley Steam Trust continue to run the Shakespeare Express and the Polar Express between Stratford-upon-Avon and Birmingham Snow Hill stations. Here's some photos taken between 2022 and 2023. Steam locos used include 5043 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe and 7029 Clun Castle.

The 2018 Shakespeare Express post. Shakespeare Express and Polar Express.

The 2019 Polar Express post: Polar Express 2019.

 

7029 Clun Castle

For the 2022 Polar Express season, I first spotted 7029 Clun Castle, with the Polar Express at Birmingham Moor Street Station on the 27th November 2022. This view below taken from the no 35 bus.

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After various attempts to see the Polar Express between November and December 2022, I finally got a photo of 7029 Clun Castle with the Polar Express at Birmingham Moor Street Station, platform 4 on the 11th December 2022.

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I next saw 7029 Clun Castle, this time with The Shakespeare Express passing Solihull Station at speed on the 12th February 2023. Usually I'd expect The Shakespeare Express to run in the summer, not winter! Was a bit unexpected, as was going to Birmingham Moor Street one way that day (I did not see it at Moor Street, as by then it was at Birmingham Snow Hill).

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Carriages at Birmingham Snow Hill Station

On the 31st July 2022, I spotted these carriages of The Shakespeare Express at Birmingham Snow Hill Station, but did not see the steam locomotive. Initially from the Jewellery Quarter near Lionel Street, then from Great Charles Street Queensway, the car park near Ludgate Hill (the Great Charles Street construction site in 2023) and from the top of Snow Hill Car Park. They stretched to the end of platform 2. Was during the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, so the station had wraps all over for the event.

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5043 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe

For a few Sunday's I kept thinking of seeing The Shakespeare Express again. There was one Sunday when I spotted a steam locomotive at Birmingham Moor Street, platform 1 before it returned to Birmingham Snow Hill (from the top of a bus). Then another Sunday, I was waiting for a bus in Solihull, when I saw The Shakespeare Express whistle at speed past Solihull Station.

So this time I kept checking Real Time Trains, and it said it would be at Birmingham Snow Hill on the 13th August 2023 around 13:40.

 

The view from platform 3, as 5043 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe leads The Shakespeare Express into platform 2, through the Snow Hill Tunnel.

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5043 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe had decoupled from the carriages, heading to the Jewellery Quarter end from platform 2, then passing platform 3, then through the Snow Hill Tunnel to Birmingham Moor Street. Was a West Midlands Metro tram nearby at St Paul's Tram Stop.

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One of the carriages, Charter Train Coach E, shows the route: Birmingham - Tyseley - Henley-in-Arden - Stratford-upon-Avon - Tyseley - Birmingham. Although it does also go via Dorridge, as well as via Shirley and Whitlocks End.

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After waiting for a West Midlands Railway Class 172 to come out of the Snow Hill Tunnel to platform 1 at Birmingham Snow Hill, shortly after, 5043 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe emerges from the tunnel to re-couple onto the other end of the carriages waiting at platform 2.

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See 5043 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe with The Shakespeare Express on my YouTube Channel: Shakespeare Express 5043 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe at Birmingham Snow Hill Station

Or on my Facebook page: Shakespeare Express 5043 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe at Birmingham Snow Hill Station

 

Photography by Elliott Brown