THE latest in a ‘summer of steam’ train excursions passed through Wellington twice on Saturday (August 3) as engine No. 61306 Mayflower hauled an outing for Birmingham-based Vintage Trains Charitable Trust.

Saphos Trains, The Railway Touring Company, and Vintage Trains have each been running steam-hauled excursions over the Great Western mainline through Wellington since May, with the final journeys scheduled for September.

Wellington Weekly reader Richard Mackrory was among local enthusiasts who captured the Mayflower on film on Saturday as the locomotive hauled an English Riviera Express on the Beambridge stretch of the main Paddington to Penzance line.

The engine had departed Wolverhampton diesel hauled as far as Bristol and then it recreated the thunderous scenes of a bygone steam era through to Kingswear, in Devon, and back again.

No. 61306 Mayflower was built by the North British Locomotive Company in 1948 and is now owned by Jeremy Hosking’s Crewe-based Locomotive Services Group.