An early Christmas present is in store for steam train enthusiasts as the festive season gets underway.
On Tuesday, November 22, Princess Coronation Class locomotive Duchess of Sutherland will be steaming through Swindon with one of the first festive specials of the Xmas season.
Number 6223 ‘Duchess of Sutherland’ was built by the LMS in 1938 and is currently the only member of the class to be mainline certified.
It is currently owned by The Princess Royal Class Locomotive Trust.
The steam locomotive is set to chug past the home of the Great Western Railway with the Cardiff Christmas Express which is being run by the Railway Touring Company.
It is scheduled to leave London Victoria at around 7 am before calling at Reading and Didcot.
Duchess of Sutherland is then set to continue to Swindon (10.50 am), where the train will take the Golden Valley line through Kemble and onto Gloucester.
The special train is set to puff along to Cardiff via Lydney, Chepstow and Newport before arriving at the Welsh capital at 1.48 pm.
On the return journey to London, the Duchess of Sutherland will be taking the same route as on the outward leg.
Full timings have been released on Realtimetrains which are as follows.
1Z80: 07.02 London Victoria to Cardiff Central
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