The South Yorkshireman - 3/11/19

And a bit further on at Rochdale.

 

Nice and on time as well just after leaving moorthorpe goods loop for the next stop at brightside for water keep up the good work 10A lads good time keeping

 

Footage of 44871 & 45407 blasting past Spring Vale into Sough Tunnel then flying past a foggy Slattocks.

 

A great day out on team rileys black 5,s and thanks to W.C.R.C and N.R. for letting us do a bit of rare eastbound track on the ex L.Y.R. calder valley line south on the S.and K. Joint to sheffield and westbound along the hope valley with steam traction a 1st for me and hope another chance comes for R.T.C. to do this sort of similar tour again.
Anyhow a few o my pics

 

44871 & 45407 climbing out of a misty Manchester Victoria


https://www.flickr.com/photos/167082436@N06/49006692228/in/datetaken-public/

Phil

 

Abysmal tour -an endurance test with more time sat in loops and watering than actual moving .This will be my last Tin Bath version tour .

 

But this is how its going to pan out all the time waiting in goods loops and long waterstops thanks to other private railway companys increasing frequency of service passenger trains on transpennine and suburban routes if private companys such as W.C.R.C. and other T.O.C. want to run ketttles on the network as well.
Davo 56F.

 

I remember the tin bath when we only stopped 3 times for water romiley brightside or sheff mid and brighouse. But today it must have been 8 extra stops just to get from blackburn via sheff to preston.

 

A couple from today with LMS 5MT No.44871 and LMS 5MT No.45407, seen approaching Wilpshire Tunnel, Darwen, Horsfall Viaduct and Horbury.

Images Available Here

 

I don't know. Whilst the lack of Barnsley was a disappointment, there was a bit of track for those who needed it at Salford Central. Also, whilst the majority of the track is not new, the direction of travel taken is rare. I guess it depends what one wants from life and a railtour, but it hasn't quite been the drag I thought it would be. Think the pint at the Sheffield Tap helped.

 

I bailed out at Sheffield to travel back to London via Doncaster, getting home soon after 8 o'clock. I had considered staying on to Manchester and coming home from there but a delay could have left me stranded and I didn't mind missing the Hope Valley in the dark. The reduced mileage and the inordinate amount of time in loops were a bit of a disappointment, but I don't think I've even done the line through Darwen before with any form of traction and I did enjoy the sound on that climb and some other sections.

I didn't bother taking a camera, because those not on the train can take much better pictures and videos, but I did use my phone for a brief video of the steam coming through the door from the vestibule when we were in Sough Tunnel. I'll see about posting it, but I could do with an early night tonight.

 

Just for a bit of amusement, and as a total contrast to the other videos, mine from inside Sough Tunnel is now at

 

So what to say about yesterday? Well if Gary Lineker was deciding on a running order of highlights, it is fair to say this trip would have been on last!

But some positives:
-160 miles of unassisted, double headed steam.
-2 black fives, clearly in good health and some good, noisy accelerations which could be heard clearly 8 coaches back.
-Some rare track, Darwen was new for me.
-Some excellent hill climbing, the restart on a 1:60 at Darwen was brilliant, as was Miles Platting.

The steam heat worked well and the homemade soup sold at dinner time was excellent!

Now for the negatives. Whoever timed Wakefield to Sheffield clearly needs their head checking. 3.5 hours to cover 30 miles must be some sort of record and would be embarrassing on many heritage lines. What made it worse was we are now in short daylight hours, to spend most of an afternoon in loops looking at hedges, disused steelworks etc, was not good. If Sheffield is that hard to access, even on a Sunday, it should be avoided in future.
I booked this trip with a discount, it was just about worth the £69, but I would be a lot more miffed if I had paid full price. Given we had an overnight stay too it was a bit more costly.
Most of our table had enjoyed it, however, one of them had been on last week's Golden Arrow - it put things in perspective!

 

Still at least it was only steam. Over the years stewarding I have collected two of those Pullman doors and had a PA speaker handed to me during a rubbish pass after we crossed with an HST or IC225 in a tunnel and they were all ripped off.

 

Rather cryptic, spit it out man!

 

Completely straightforward. There was an unexpected block by NR on the Sheffield-- Meadowhall section in that direction. So doing a circle from Sheffield becomes impossible. And because the junctions all face the wrong way, doing the Calder Valley and the Horbury to Barnsley section is impossible*. So then they are reduced to plan Z with an average speed over the day of less than 20.

* unless you start the trip from Man Vic, run to Carnforth and the Little North Western and approach Wakefield from the east. Not on at two days notice.

I wonder how long it takes to establish that a Black Five or a Jubilee will gauge from Stalybridge to Huddersfield.