Northern Belle 2024

I have seen this time and time again. But if I say about it's the steward checking this and that ,Time ORR should checked the videos out on the web, Even they would be surprised how many still window hangers there still are

 

Bedevilled by Storm Kathleen (camera shakes, wind noise and blob of rain on the lens) Tangmere at Scout Green and Ais Gill:

 

Good effort considering the conditions

 

Tangmere's exhaust sounds very irregular to me in some of the recent videos. Wasn't unreliability of the Bulleid valve gear the main reason for rebuilding many his Pacifics?

 

See thread Bulleid Rebuilds--Was It For the Better? Six pages of it.

 

That's very kind of you - thank you. Was a challenging day. I had trouble opening the car door (especially in the afternoon) not to mention just standing up in the wind.

 

Does the early arrival Carlisle with no stop Carnforth according to RTT mean diesel hauled or am I missing something?

 

That's RTT auto skipping the layover time at Carnforth. Look in the left column of times rather than the right.

 

I almost got bowled by the diverted flask train at Oxenholme

 

34067 at Shap Wells and a soggy Kirkby Stephen .

 

Usual "light breeze" on Shap then

 

Ais Gill for the 2 for 1 deal but unfortunately not to be as 34067 heads for the summit with the return NB running about a week early, 13.04.24.

 

Smardale in the rain:



Richard

 

In recent weeks on its return journey the Northern Belle has omitted the Appleby stop, gained more time to Aisgill, cut short the Hellifield stop, made up time to Horrocksford Jn and left Clitheroe very early (and Oswald almost missed it last week). Today appeared to be following suit. Might it be almost an hour early? In theory, yes. Oswald needed to leave home in good time, just in case. As it could involve a long wait Mrs W opted out - again! The skies were dark and there was a heavy rain shower but the forecasts appeared confident that the skies would clear and we may even get some late evening sunshine.

Over to Ramsgreave & Wilpshire where a check on RTT revealed the train was still in the loop at Hellifield. Despite repeated checks the train refused to budge. I faffed about in the car and, as the weather had improved, I went for a short walk. Finally the train left Hellifield 3E, it was going to run in its designated slot behind the 18.23 Rochdale Flier. As the sky had brightened I decided to leave the car and make my way to the road bridge at the end of the station platform. The Rochdale train came and went (RT) and then the Clitheroe bound service. The times for Clitheroe were extremely slow to appear on RTT and some not at all. However if the service train had been RT then it was reasonable to assume that Tangmere would be RT or even slightly early.

The sky had partly cleared and the old Wilpshire station was bathed in sunlight. Some old friends turned up and joined me on the bridge then, only a couple of minutes later, there were some pretty loud exhaust sounds in the distance. Could this really be Tangmere? It was! She appeared from around the curve and was "pumping up the volume" (not quite Britannia but a notch or two louder than we often get). The exhaust that emanated from her wide chimney was swept away to the east by the stiff westerly breeze. The sound just kept getting louder and louder as she ran thro' the station, under the bridge and away towards the summit. Sun, smoke, steam and a great soundtrack - Lovely, Jubbly! 9C, 3E & 26mph.



Mrs W had missed out again, not only on a great spectacle but also not seeing our old friends. After the train had gone we had a bit of a catch up, they were off to the pub before watching the Lakelander (despite it being diesel hauled). However, Mrs W is still a very happy bunny, the abject defeat that her team suffered on Wednesday was all forgotten as today they beat Leeds (at Leeds).

 

Abysmal conditions about and about today but 'Tangmere' still puts on a show as it works 'The Northern Belle' through Hincaster and on to Carlisle with David Blair driving, Craig Todd on the shovel and Roly Parker Guard



The rain having eased off for a moment as SR BoB No. 34067 'Tangmere' makes its way through Kirkby Stephen Station with the return 'Northern Belle' to Liverpool with David Blair driving, Craig Todd firing and Mike Macpeake Guard

 

Just a normal day yea and as we say in Cumbria especially on Shap if it’s not raining it soon will be LOL .

 

34067 seen from Shap Wells and Kirkby Stephen Station and yard.

 

That Brit looks (and sounds) great.

Very nice.

 

Update on Salterwath on the East side hasn’t gone well for folk hoping to future do photos/video after today as my colleague/workmate who knows the farmer who wasn’t best pleased when he asked folk to go and they refused.

 

34067 at Paddy Lane and Scout Green