WCR 2024 Railtours

I travelled on the York Dalesman yesterday, boarding at Leeds behind 47832 & 57313, before 34067 Tangmere took over from 57313 from Hellifield to Carlisle & return Outward journey ran normally, but on the return we were advised a tree had come down near Skipton taking down all the overhead lines, Route closed!! back to Leeds Rail option from Hellifield was to proceed to Skipton and detrain Keighley and Shipley passengers, and any Leeds passengers that had to get connections at Leeds, me included. WCRC Tour manager advised this would be the best for Leeds passengers, which sadly did not happen, Bus took us to Shipley where we were supposed to get a train from Bradford to Leeds, only for some reason Northern Rail decided to cancel all these, leaving us stranded at Shipley with no onward transport, the passengers asked the bus driver if he could take us all to Leeds, after a lot of telephone conversations with his boss he agreed, getting us to Leeds at 9:30pm
Meanwhile the Dalesman went back to Hellifield then after reversing onward to Blackburn, Copy Pit and Calder Valley to Leeds, i actually passed it heading to Leeds while on my train to Huddersfield at Mirfield, which the tour finally arrived at Leeds 105 minutes late

 

Quite handy having a diesel on the back yesterday, in addition to the one replaced by Tangmere, quite helpful with the additional reversals at Skipton and Blackburn, needed to get everyone back to the stations they joined at.

 

No one could ever predict that allowing trees to grow uncontrolled or managed could lead to future problems..... until the next time !!!

 

Tell me about it young Whistle!!

 

If you leave your WD40 at home, as I did, then bad things can happen.

 

Still looks tidier than the Blackburn-Hellifield line to me.

 

A few phone pics from Thursday,


Tangmere waits in the loop at a deserted Hellifield, looking east the sky is grey and heavy.


Looking west and under a blue sky, Roly Parker (guard) makes his way towards Tangmere and the support coach.


Only five minutes later and the sky has clouded over as a couple of people look on as Chris Cubitt (driver) heads towards the footplate.

[WCRC staff were unaware of the comment made about Tangmere sounding like a cement mixer (see #514 on the Saphos 2024 thread) - until I told them! "Cement overcoat for Mr Winskill!"]

 

Lol Oswald,good to see you getting backing from the West End Girls. I.cannot see in his post where Mr Winskill said Tangmere sounded as you say.

 

With apologies to Marie Lloyd (and Mr Porter)

Oh! Mr Winskill, what shall we do?
I've sent "the boys" from Carnforth round,
but should they have been from Crewe?
Unless you name the loco upon your solemn oath,
Then Mr Winskill, expect a knock from both!

Oswald has left the building!

 

Excellent response,love a sense of humour,sadly lacking in some quarters.(W.E.G)
The loco in question partly rhymes with "clang"

 

LOL,that will please some on here Ralph,like itl

 

Looks like the Dalesman today will be diesel hauled all the way,RTT saying the move from Carnforth to Hellifield has been cancelled due to a problem with the steam engine

 

And why not - we used to have nicknames for some of the Bulleids in the 1960s.

Not used that often, but I think 35028 was 'Clank Line'. But generally I don't recall any regular ones for Merchant Navy pacifics.

Most were used for the Light Pacifics, perhaps the best being for 34090, which we called 'The Milk Marketing Board Machine' after one of the drivers called it 'An Old Crate'

34038 became 'Stormy Lynton' and I've never found out if that was after a run during a thunderstorm, or after a very noisy, fast run. Shame there wasn't a pacific named 'Daniels' that we'd timed during a thunderstorm!

34004 became Yeovile after some dreadful runs when maintenance levels dropped towards the end.

Some other nicknames are not really repeatable here - but I'll leave it to your imagination to what we called 34052 'Lord Dowding'.

Bryan B

 

Did Black 5 44871 return to Carnforth yesterday. To stand in for Tangmere on tomorrow's Dalesman?

 

There are two RTC jobs in the north on Saturday coming so my guess is it's come up for that... a CME and a Coast to Coast. Going off the photos on the RTC site, Tangmere will be on the CME and the Five on the C2C.

There was a Northern Belle for the same day too, but that's vanished from the NB web site.

I guess it may do Thursday's Dalesman also?

 

As per Rail Advent there was due to be a Cumbrian Coast Express on Saturday as well as the Coast to Coast and Northern Belle.
Both CCE and NB now show as Cancelled. There is no mention of a CME