50003 passing the sea wall at Teignmouth on August 6, 1988

In 1988, we changed our holiday destination to the Teignmouth area of South Devon as the Class 33/1s working the ‘push pulls’ on the Weymouth section were coming to an end with the electrification of this final section of the L&SW. Choosing a campsite alongside the line by the River Teign was heaven, especially late at night listening to Class 50s thudding along working empty stock trains back for servicing at Laira! I was well and truly hooked.

I was informed that Colin Marsden had a shop in Dawlish selling his booklet, Photographers Guide to the South Devon Sea Wall, for the princely sum of

£1.50, so I took the plunge and it was to become my bible, so many thanks to Colin for doing it. In this particular shot I went for a bit of a wide angle to include some of Teignmouth Pier, as the previous shot had been 50034, which was published as a poster by Pip Dunn when he was editor of Railways Illustrated.

I remember the couple strolling along and hoping they would clear off before the train showed up, but as it didn’t stop at Teignmouth they heard it coming and stopped to watch as 50003 Temeraire rounded the curve onto the sea wall with 1S71 08.17 Penzance to Glasgow Central.

I was a bit annoyed that the couple had photobombed my shot, but over the years I am glad they did, whoever they were.

Another piece of good luck was that, according to the booklet, this train was booked to be hauled by a Class 47/4!