47812 climbs towards Ryecroft Jct with a 6Z86 Long Marston - Eastleigh special, photographed at 16:07 on Wednesday 11th April
2018. The train consisted of thirteen bogie steel wagons, and took quite a convoluted route via Worcester, Stourbridge, Walsall
and Washwood Heath. Electrification masts would soon be erected at Ryecroft, removing another location from the already tiny
number where it's possible to take a half-decent photo of a train in the Black Country. The only consolation being that by
spring 2018 freight traffic in the area was at an all-time low, so there was barely anything to photograph anyway. It was a
filthy afternoon, cold and misty with drizzle in the air - perhaps an appropriate occasion to bring down the curtain on this
location. The gallery of four in attendance was the biggest I'd encountered here for many years, the blue 47 tempting others out
for what might be their last go, despite the appalling light. OLE masts duly appeared between Ryecroft and Walsall in late May 2018.
