Note: This is NOT an April Fool's Post!

The latest issue of Britain's Railway Magazine is reporting that temporary water troughs ("track pans" in American parlance) are to be laid for a main-line steam special to enable a former Great Western Ry. "Castle" class 4-6-0 5043 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe to scoop water during a planned nonstop 118 mile run from London to Bristol on April 17th. The troughs will be installed near Goring, site of some of Britain's last track pans (last used 1965, removed 1966). The track troughs will be lightweight moulded segments temporarily installed and filled, and the scooping mechanism 5043's tender is being readied for the occasion, with test runs to occur earlier in April before the run. The excursion of April 17th kicks off a year of 175th anniversary events of/on the former GWR, and is being billed as the first nonstop steam run between the two cities in over 50 years.