And as promised an update on the glory that was the Mayflower as she thundered past the reserve on the C2C line at just after 830am yseterday morning much to the delight of the huge crowd of ten people that accepted the offer of an early opening.
She was under full steam with billows of white fluffiness trailing out behind her and was a sight to behold.
Jerry Hoare had set up a variety of cameras to capture the moment for us all and has made this superb tiny film of her passage... enjoy in HD with the sound on!
The birds were very unimpressed and everything came up off the marsh as this huge, puffing iron snake hurtled through. Makes me wonder if the birds would have reacted in the same way back when steam trains were the norm on the Southend line?
Howard Vaughan, Information Officer