Historic steam locomotive Britannia hauled an excursion special through Teignmouth, Dawlish and Newton Abbot at the weekend.

The majestic loco has been dubbed the Concorde of its time because it hauled express trains at up to 90mph.

The 94-ton leviathan of steam was the first of almost 1,000 new Standard class post-war steam locomotives, built by British Railways at the start of the new Elizabethan era of the 1950s – summing up forward-looking optimism after almost six years of the second world war.

Britannia hauled the funeral train of King George VI, from King’s Lynn in Norfolk to London, after the monarch’s death in February, 1952.

Sunday’s excursion – one of many this year – steamed from Slough to Kingswear and back, and John Silverman snapped this shot from Shaldon Bridge at sunset as the train headed down the Teign.