Return of the Cotton Mill Express

No, one angle, different amounts of zoom....

 

you are all like a run down record

 

Do you not realise why you are been criticised Neil?

 

Whats it got to do with anyone what i do, its a free country

Get back to the proper content of this link ok

 

.... and "you know who" STILL doesn't get the hint!!!

 

Noone ever said you cant do it?

 

Well ive put my money where my mouth is.. a day out from London for me.. am looking forwards to it. (sadly I can't make the Royal Scot and RTC kindly moved me to this trip).

 

RTC's website still says it's

Lancaster-Preston-Bolton-Manchester-Hudderfield-Blackburn-Manchester-Huddersfield-Blackburn-Preston-Lancaster... for £60.. nice price, high steam mileage.

however according to UKSteamInfo's website this railtour has turned from a 5* to a 2* adventure..

Preston-Wigan-Manchester-Hudderfield-Blackburn-Manchester-Wigan-Preston basically a normal CottonMill priced £60, that was £40 under the previous operators*.

*http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1022649_all_aboard_cotton_mill_express

I'll be a bit miffed if it has.. Ive booked my tickets to Lancaster & a hotel from London for this trip, losing the mainline steam section of the journey and a further substantial steam mileage from what was the second loop round lobbed off from the original itiniery.

Why cut the Lancaster stop when it's running past there in each direction anyway ?, and why the curtailment of the tour at Manchester ?

It suggests 46115 is uncoupling and going to Castleton / reversing.. instead why not take the whole train to say Heywood on the ELR, detrain everyone, turn the whole train and start back again from Heywood, thus giving everyone the few hours or so to see whats happening on the ELR as the loco's going to be turned there anyway, or why not even make the train into the 1520 from Heywood giving an ELR trip whilst 46115 is watered / turned, rather than hanging around Victoria for three hours looking at empty stock ?

 

RTC are taking booking from Huddersfield I was considering it from there. I wonder whats happening for the return to Huddersfield from Man Vic now ? All seems to be a bit confused to me. The circuit Huddersfield to Huddersfield sempt a bit expensive for around 3hrs on the train £60. I will give it a miss now. Look into another tour.

Brian

 

Train details changing after RTC have your money - never heard that one before!

And you don't need to go to Castleton to find somewhere to turn. Brewery Triangle is only at the top of Miles Platting - should only take about twenty minutes with good train regulation "ahem"

As for pricing though - £45 a head didn't do the previous operator much good overall

 

Hoping UKSteam Info have got this wrong (which would seem unlikely) - but will a bit disappointed if this is the case was looking like an excellent trip - but halving the milage with no price change would be a big disappointment. Does make you wonder what they plan to do with the customers who have bought tickets from Huddlesfield.

 

The website is still accepting bookings from Lancaster and their phone number is an answer machine. God forbid they should answer when the customers are around with important questions. Ralphs earlier 'I think we should wait and see' comment could be prophetic!

 

Just a word of warning - the times that I have put up at uksteam.info may not be the final times. This is why they are marked as provisional. It is not unknown for itinerary/times to be changed nearer the day. This is one of the reasons I don't (usually) publish the times too far in advance !

David at www.uksteam.info

 

What I don't understand is why Network Rail should waste time preparing a set of timings, provisional or not, that bear little resemblence to the advertised steam mileage and pu / sd stations. If someone could explain the reason for doing this it would b appreciated.

 

When the tour promoter/operator's initial specification cannot be met, perhaps because of pathing issues or engineering works, Network Rail will normally offer an alternative path where possible - it is part of the negotiation process. The other alternative is cancellation. As I don't know if the provisional times for this tour shown at uksteam.info have been agreed yet, I have now deleted them.

David

 

I've started looking at potential places to photograph the first Cotton Mill (weather depending!) on January 30. A location I am looking at is the northern portal of Standedge Tunne at Marsden on the Manchester to Huddersfield line - http://www.trainspots.co.uk/locpage.php?ts_number=169

Now I don't know the area very well so would the lighting allow me to get a good photograph of 46115 as it leaves the tunnel if anyone who has used the location before know?

 

Ralph - your memory is failing you - The summit is Diggle as there were water troughs in the tunnels. They wouldn't have worked very well with a "summit"

 

They usually work round the corner towards Marsden station before shutting off but rumour has it that it's to be double headed with 44871 so might well shut off when she comes out of the tunnel unless it's a very big train.