Saturday 8th August was an extraordinary day.  It started much like most operating days on the Honeybourne Line with the two rostered locomotives being prepared, steam being built up, oiled and cleaned.  Except that 9F 2-10-0 no. 92203, Black Prince, was having a little extra effort being put in to making the paintwork sparkle - for its owner, David Shepherd, was due to arrive and enjoy a day on his engine. 

Before Black Prince moved 'off shed', Steve Wakefield - former Mayor of Swindon and reporting for both the Swindon Evening Advertiser and Swindon Radio 105.5 arrived to gather material for a programme and a news item about the fact that Black Prince, a Swindon-built machine, is 50 this year.  He chatted to Ian Crowder and David Shepherd, who by this time was busily signing books and prints of his paintings and getting close up and personal with Black Prince.

Then Alan Greer, of STEAM museum at Swindon arrived to talk about the GWR175 events coming up in 2010, while of all things, a Russian TV crew turned up two days earlier than expected to record some footage for a travelogue programme on Russia's premier TV channel, Channel 1.  It broadcasts throughout Russia and has an extraordinary 120 million viewers.  The reporter, called Maxim, is a pop star in Russia. 

Highlight of the day, however, was a flypast of a Spitfire from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.  Just after 3pm, the aircraft seemed to appear from nowhere, following the line of the railway from the Broadway direction, passing over at little more than 100 ft.  It made two more passes over Toddington station before the aircraft waggled its wings in farewell, on its way to another display.  The Russian film crew were thrilled - this was something they certainly had not expected!

There was spontaneous applause as the Spitfire climbed skyward and away and the moment was certainly moving for the hundreds of people watching - not least David Shepherd, who has been working hard with the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight to raise funds for a memorial to recognise all those airmen in Bomber Command who never came home during the war.

Then, just as the crowds were boarding the train to travel back to Cheltenham a gentleman called Henry Summers arrived armed with pictures of Black Prince on its very last turn of duty: hauling the last ore train to Shotton steelworks for Summers Ore, in 1967.  On the footplate were a youthful David Shepherd who was riding on the engine with a view to buying it, and Mr Summer's grandfather Richard (later Sir Richard), who owned Summers Ore. 

And the rest, as they say, is history.