A perfectly timed picture, taken from a train on the Great Western Mainline near Sonning on 12 September 1973. D1068 Western Reliance plods along the up relief line with vacuumed braked mixed freight train 7E36, while a Class 117 DMU bound for Paddington approaches in the distance. This location is just after the famous Sonning cutting, and on the approach to Reading, which at this time was dominated by the large gas holder, which was situated between where the former GWR and Southern lines approached each other, as they neared Reading station.