The Duchess to Carlisle: VT - 12/03/22

Not a great fan of timing the Carlisle-Appleby section so enjoyed the splendid Cumbrian Countryside view from the window. Kept to time. We were still milepost side as the train didn't turn at Carlisle. Hand timed the Appleby-Ais Gill Section on the return; the pdf is below. The 'thin' note from 6233's double chimney after Kirkby Stephen and the time taken to Ais Gill Summit suggested the fire wasn't great. No indication of anything from the Class 47. We lost 5 minutes on the climb. It was dark by the time we got off the S&C. I always like hand timing the climb of Wilpshire Bank, but as this wasn't possible, I did time from Whalley to Ramsgreave and Wilpshire using the GPS' odometer readings. Looks OK, though the GPS can be a bit erratic in the dark in steep cutting like the one around Wilpshire Tunnel. I'm not convinced the climb was unassisted. It would be some feat for any big pacific to accelerate away from 15 at Whalley to 35.4 in 2 1/2 miles on the 81 1/2r. The noise would have been deafening (it wasn't) and the chance of not slipping virtually nil (we didn't). Only my view based on numerous climbs behind big pacifics. If you look back at the S&C data, 6233 didn't even manage to accelerate at all on the 100r.

 

An excellent set of timings. Thank you.