70013 to Carlisle. 25th August.

Good thinking by someone to miss Northampton out on the way back too. Don't remember that happening before.

 

Yes a great day out. I would like to comment that I found the SD's super standard option very good.
One point of interest, when we departed from Preston with Olly in the morning we departed in parallel with a pair of 20's also running light south, passing a yellow 37 waiting to pass through northwards. At one point there was a line of 2x20's, 37 and Olly along side each other. Wonder if anyone managed a shot of that?

 

Ok - I had many many calls with Steam Dreams regarding this tour from its original (Very late) cancelation, so lets remember that this tour originally as advertised was to run from Preston to Carlisle up Shap and then down the Settle and Carlisle line back to Preston behind Scots Guardsman.
Sounds great - cracking tour Super Standard tickets booked without any hesitation...So first of all change of route, Up Settle and Carlisle down Shap, due to being unable to find a path. Ok its still much the same route just a different way round, then the steam return was cut to end at Carnforth, shave nearly 30 miles or so of steam haul off... next a late cancelation due to the Class 86 failing (in there words "we were unable to find a replacement loco") the late cancelation was well managed but a poor excuse in my eyes WCRC have more than enough locos available.
So date rescheduled, again on a Thursday 25th August, route now advertised as Up S&C down Shap, return to Preston still Scots Guardsman...imagine my surprise when a month prior to the trip UKSteam.info advertises Oliver Cromwell, whats going on, check Steam Dreams website still advertising Scots Guardsman, their website finally caught up a week or so later, (A quick call to Steam Dreams to get told well if you read our T&C's we can change at short notice due to availability blah blah blah, well fair enough but having been messed around some form of commnication to those who had remained booked on the original tour may of been nice).
So then we receive the confirmation for the trip and guess what only steam hauled back to Carnforth again, ok so another call to Steam Dreams booked Super Standard; will we be the Coach closest to the loco on the journey up or on the way back? Would they know...the short answer was no - so it was with some trepidation that our party arrived at Euston on the day of the trip to find that we would indeed be in the coach closest to Oliver Cromwell for the outward journey up the S&C. Relief!
The trip itself was fantastic, Oliver Cromwell performed faultlessly with a fantastic run from the water stop at Hellefield up the long drag to the next water stop at Appleby (the acceleration through Blea Moor Tunnel was very noticable) and if we hadn't of been brought to a stand outside Carlisle would of had an ontime arrival.
Then a total surprise in that they not only turned the loco but also the entire train, thus ensuring that we would be in the first coach for the run at Shap!
Needless to say she sounded great on the slog up to Shap, so all in all a wonderful trip, photos and videos to follow shortly.
Apologies for the rather lengthy essay, just so glad that it all worked out in the end and a fitting birthday present for my Dad. Probably a good thing we weren't booked behind Scots Guardsman after her failure the previous week on the Scarborough Spa otherwise we may still be waiting for a rescheduled date!

 

Lucked out on this one, very dull and 70013 was making really light work of it. :rolleyes1:

http://www.stuartbrown.me.uk/cpg/displayimage.php?album=lastup&cat=0&pos=2

 

And as we know, or most of us do, West Coast don't have electric locos hanging around.

 

Yup, all thirteen coaches of it.

 

WCRC currently has about 15 supposedly operational locos so quite a few

 

Not sure I indicated that any of the WCRC fleet were Electric?

 

You didn't.

 

Quotes from the thread for postponed trip in May from a West Coast Driver

"Very sadly 86259 requires more extensive repairs than anybody realised. 86101 could not be made available in time. 87002 no good as 87's are Air Brake Only, and cathex is a Vacuum set. Most 86's had the Vacuum brake kit disabled or removed in later years. The timings issued were too tight to achieve with Diesels, and delays on the WCML cannot be contemplated. Once 259 is up and running it should see more use on this type of job. ( I like to think of AC locos as 'remote steam engines'. They are still powered by steam, its just a lot further away!) A "

"To give an idea, if you leave Euston with 12 on with an Electric, you are shutting off at 100mph just after Wembley Central. With a 47, you will be doing about 65-70 at Tring 31 miles out, with a Pendo chasing your Tail Lamp. From Euston to Tring it is uphill all the way, with the exception of a very short stretch near Bushey"

 

Exactly, that's why it was put off in the first place and has been mentioned ages ago, so let's leave this fatuous buisiness about West Coast's diesels alone.

 

Thankyou Paul for the explanation - as you will note RalphW - I am new to this forum so had not read this - so apologies if this had already been posted about previously and obviously if I was aware of this would not of expressed this opinion.

 

Great to see that the green train had pretty much the majority of green coaches on this trip as they seem to have been few and far between over the last couple of years or so.

 

There were three of the maroon stock on the train this time. The normal 2 interlopers for the Pullman Style diners, but the buffet has also bee maroon this year. I wonder what happened to the green one (1840 I think?)- and if the painting of 73096 is still in it!

 

Gregson Lane



Between Horton-in-Ribblesdale and Selside. Anyone know the actual name of this spot? Nearest name on the map is Dike Green Pasture.

 

Great photos 5944