VALENTINE'S Day got a tad steamy in the Cotswolds when the Rood Ashton Hall locomotive made an appearance along the Cotswold Line.

The steam train was spotted making a special Valentine journey from Tyseley to Oxford as it climbed the 1-100 Campden Bank towards the Mickleton Tunnel.

Fraser Pithie photographed the 'Valentine's Express', run by Vintage Trains, as the steam locomotive chugged its way up the locally infamous bank.

He said it made for a "stirring sight".

"I took the photo as I knew the train was going up there and that view is relatively new," said Mr Pithie.

"I can just about remember them when they went up there in 1968 before they finished and this is the type of engine that used to go along the line.

"The Chipping Campden bank was notorious as trains, especially the passenger trains, would regular bank up there. Another train, the banker, would come from Evesham to push the engine up the bank.

"Watching it this time there is no banker she had to get up there alone. It would have had to work hard and take a lot of skill from the driver.

"In the foreground are the nearly completed stabilisation works to the north west cutting of Mickleton Tunnel, the need for these works was similar to Harbury Tunnel as according to the British Geological Survey both locations share the same siltstone and mudstone base which is associated with soil transport, particularly when or where drainage issues exist.

"Originally planned to return via Banbury and Leamington Spa the service returned via the Cotswold Line due to the Harbury Landslip line closure."