Dalesman and Pendle Dalesman 2021

Pure poetry. Why the hell did I pick today to have a bad knee?!

 

45562/45627/45699 departing Hellifield & passing Jack Green this evening.


https://www.flickr.com/photos/167082436@N06/51371183010/in/datetaken-public/


https://www.flickr.com/photos/167082436@N06/51369420997/in/datetaken-public/

Phil

 

Charging past Settle Junction........

 

After the early morning rain the day was much improved with a mixture of light cloud and long sunny intervals. For the return working I decided to try my luck again at Ramsgreave & Wilpshire station. I thought I might try the Clitheroe end of the down platform. Despite arriving over 30 minutes before the train was due and there being only one person on the station, it was a photographer and he had already set up at my chosen spot - hey ho! I settled on the Blackburn end of the same platform.

As time went by several more "watchers" arrived as did the Clitheroe bound service train and departed - my view would not be blocked. After a couple of minutes I thought that I heard the sound of a train but it seemed to be coming from behind me. It took me a few moments to figure out what was happening; the station is in a cutting with an overbridge immediately at the Blackburn end of the platforms, it is like half of a stadium. The shape, like a giant radar dish, was gathering and concentrating the distant sounds. The noise from the exhaust grew louder, then quiet (Wilpshire Tunnel?) then louder again, much louder and now coming from the right direction.

The Jubilee appeared at the bend, the noise grew and grew and grew, nearer and louder as she blasted towards us, the pale, translucent exhaust was being hurled skywards. As the loco headed through the platforms the noise was deafening as it reverberated around the confined station. Rob Russell, face stained with coal dust, smiling as he looked out from the footplate, his afternoon's work almost at an end. All the coal that he must have shovelled through the firebox door only for Mick Kelly to try and throw it up the chimney - happy days! Sierra Leone passed under the bridge and as she did she gave the underside a good grit blasting, then almost silence as the bridge cut-off most of the sound. The carriages rumbled by, at an open window of the last one I recognised a very frequent "timer" on the S&C. Power stayed on well beyond the summit as the train first dipped then curved away towards Blackburn.

The train passed through the station 2L at 20mph. Following a RT departure from Clitheroe a Jubilee hauling 13 coaches has no right to be ONLY 2L and equally it has no right, at the top of 4.5 miles of 1/82r to still be travelling at TWENTY mph. It is a testament to the skill and hard work of the footplate crew that this was possible (and I was there to see and hear). After the early morning's rain the conditions appeared to be ideal, WCRC will, I hope, regard this as an exception and not let it become the rule.

Just as the roar of Moses' triumph could, supposedly, be heard throughout Israel, so the blasting exhaust of David's (Smith) Jubilee could be heard throughout Wilpshire and Ramsgreave and for miles around - it was epic!

 

The Jubilee with an identity crisis at Birkett Common with the Pendle Dalesman of 10/8/2021

David Price
Cop Lane on Flickr

 

A nice day, a Jubilee with a decent load and working hard, a good crew, what's not to like.
It could have carried B&O's nameplates with a performance like that.

 

What's not to like? The gypsy caravans! . Everything else... all good

 

More like 45738 Samson...

 

Ian, if you see a white and brown oss towing a cart with a green tent on top outside your window don’t answer the doorbell ‘lucky white heather Sir’

 

My PC got a good shouting at and was switched off and sent to the naughty corner before it eventually behaved. This is best listened to on speakers with a bit of oomph, so put the dog/wife/kids in the other room and crank up the volume - but it still won't be as loud as it was on the day.



This was an Oswald Two Phone Production.

 

They didn't want a clip around the lug or worse for being disrespectful to their equality.

 

Some might consider the load excessive, especai

Note also that neither the lads nor the girl showed the slightest interest in the noisy locomotive passing a few feet from them.

 

45627 tops Hoghton summit in a fleeting glimpse of sun ,the rainbow lasted a few seconds.

 

Wow

 

Do we have any idea which engine is on the Dalesman tomorrow please?

James

 

Some might, but the people who authorised 13 must have considered it OK and it's them who pay the bills if owt goes wrong.
As for the young people, when I was their age a young 'lady' took preference over a noisy steam locomotive.

 

Been advised it’s 45699 again today.

James

 

Yep Galatea with 13 on today, sounded wonderful near Helwith Bridge