6201 on the S&C 26th March 2011

Well a long day was had today and those involved in todays run will be still at work long after I have gone off to bed tonight. Thanks to all involved in making this tour happen and much appreciated :thumb:

We were running slightly late on the outward run but made some time up along the Preston-Carnforth section and set off from the Carnforth water stop roughly to time. The climb of Greyrigg was steady and measured with Lizzy sounding on top form then through the Lune Valley we never really built up that much speed with Tebay being passed below 60mph. By Scout Green we were down below 30mph and then Lizzy dug in to the rest of the climb in fine style accelerating to top Shap at around 32mph. Ralph was logging the climb via GPS and laptop and I am sure he will post up the correct speeds when he can.

After a couple of hours in Carlisle we headed off over the S&C with Lizzy in fine form again with the exhaust beat reverberating around the hills and an excellent steady climb. There was a 20mph TSR just before the summit at Ais Gill which I think left a couple of linesiders dissapointed along that stretch but all in all a really enjoyable run and we were around 5 minutes early into Hellifield. Due to a problem with the watering at Hellifield and then the loco could not be reattached to the train after watering due to a points failure we did not get away until around 7.15. The run down through to Clitheroe started well but we were held on a few occassions before an excellent climb to Wilpshire. We were then held again north of Blackburn for a while. A short water stop again at Cherry Tree (which as far as I am aware was due to not taking much at Hellifield) and then a fast run back down the WCML.

I shot a fair bit of onboard video during the day so I will see what I have tomorrow after work.

Thanks again to all involved, Neil.

 

Just to add, I hope that some linesiders made use of the text update service rather than standing around in the dark waiting after Hellifield today. We tried to keep them reasonably regular throughout the day and as informative as possible.

 

Sorry you had a difficult end to the day Neil. I took some footage at Oubeck Loops, Shap, Langwathby and briefly at Birkett Tunnel when things were going better (mostly). Lost her feet two or three times in front of me at Scout Green. Video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEyPAJewo0k

I also sent in some text updates - probably duplicated yours!

Chris

 

Excellent photo's and video as usual. It's a pity about the water problems, but these things are sent to try us!!
I hope Ben ensured that favouritism was shown to Nat Pres members when the bacon rolls were on offer.

 

6201 passing through Long Preston this afternoon on the return leg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27848870@N02/5562826450

 

The Princess at Crewe 26 March 2011

In 2011, Vintage Trains' steam train programme is continuing its incursions into the northern hills, today with Stanier Pacific No 6201 Princess Elizabeth coming on at Crewe to head north of Grayrigg and Shap to Carlisle, then back via Ais Gill and Settle. It was a dark grey misty morning but the Princess looked good as she pulled away confidently and noisily from Crewe station with its well-loaded 11 coach train.

Following the disappearance of Fotopic, I have moved to Flickr - surely they are too big to fail?

12 pictures are at http://www.flickr.com/photos/pjhliners/sets/72157626232988279/

Click on any thumbnail to choose an image. Click on the image to see a choice of sizes. You can run a slideshow as well.

The front page of my embryonic new photosite is at http://www.flickr.com/photos/pjhliners/ , though I want to tweak the layout further if I can.

Peter, on a grey Sunday morning in Manchester
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pjhliners/

 

Off topic for a moment, some posts are being picked up by the auto spam blocking software and are being pre moderated. It seems to be happening to posts with links to Flickr and other photo sites.

Sorry if it is taking a little while for them to appear and I will see if Glyn can make some adjustments to the software.

Thanks, Neil.

 

Lizzie digging in on the climb to Shap Summit
H


http://winskill.zenfolio.com/

 

Here's my footage of the tour -- although for some reason it didnt upload any narrative, so I'll add that shortly
Thanks for the text updates especially about the problems at Hellifield
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWU8pkbh4yE

 

They were certainly welcome Kevin and arrived during the Carnforth water stop as Matt and I were looking for a droplight for the climb to Greyrigg and Shap. A big thank you to Ben and nice to meet you briefly during your busy day feeding a packed train :yo:

Thanks to all who were lineside and have posted up some excellent videos and pictures so far.

Neil.

 

Many thanks for the updates, really appreciated that you took the time to send them regularly, especialy with the Helifield problems.

 

6201 seemed in fine form yesterday from the lineside - especially on the S&C, where she tore into the timings after Appleby; a superb performance. Shame about the 20mph slack at Ais Gill - she was really pounding along as she rounded the curve from Mallerstang. Looking forward to a tour behind her this year. Does anybody know who the crews were?

 

Why was Lizzie carrying a wreath on the return leg?

Cheers

Andfrew N

 

Somebody has already asked this (#60), but no one seems to have come up with an answer.

 

The wreath was for Ray Churchill's wife, Pat, who died last week.

Pat frequently travelled with the support crew on jobs where Ray was driving (particularly Tyseley ops, where she was affectionately titled 'Train Crew Nutritionalist'), and will be much missed.

JS

 

Many thanks for that information Ralph, and on the crews also. Seems that 6201 was a bit winded after Grayrigg, you'd expect her to hit the bottom of Shap at 65+, but a good recovery to 32 after the slips.