A Fine Day Out

Oh, how I wish it had been a fine day!
However you describe Saturday 2nd September 2006 , weatherwise, 'fine' it was not.
In other respects 'fine' it certainly was!
It was a shame really as I had been looking forward to recording this locomotive in this location for some time. Not just for over a year from when this train was first proposed, but since February 1967!

I was slightly unfortunate in that I was born a little too late to have a chance to see much 'real' steam (pre-1968) although I'd like to think that I've made up for it since so I only ever had one run with steam over Shap. That was in February 1967 on the Border Countryman railtour which ran from Leeds via Manchester, over Shap to Carlisle then to Beattock and back before returning to Leeds via Newcastle and the East Coast Main Line.
The loco that hauled the train from Leeds to Carlisle and back was one of the last Jubilees, Holbeck's 45562 'Alberta'. This loco was requested for the tour for the simple reason that it was cleaner than the other Holbeck Jubilee, 45593 'Kolhapur' despite the fact that those of us in the know knew that 'Kolhapur' was a far better loco!
'Alberta' steamed very badly all day and, even with a fairly light train, was down to walking pace at Shap Summit.
The tour was considerable enlivened during the short run to Beattock and back from Carlisle when we had an absolutely filthy 43106 which produced speeds approaching 80 at times!
The run back from Carlisle was no better and I seem to remember that we very late back into Leeds at the end of the day.
While it would have been nice to have had a better run, I was pleased to have at least 'done' Shap in steam days.
Since then I have been steam hauled over Shap on quite a few occasions and, in more recently, have been to the lineside quite a few times so, when in 2005 Vintage Trains advertised a train with Jubilee 5690 'Leander' I was quite keen to get out for a recording of what I hoped would be a far better climb of the gradient with a Jubilee than I had experienced with 'Alberta' in 1967.
The original date for the train proved impossible and it was almost a year later that the train actually ran.
The only fly in the ointment was the weather forecast which, through the previous week didn't sound at all promising.
Weather forecasters are often wrong with their prognostications but unfortunately, for once, they were spot on. The weather was absolutely atrocious with heavy, continuous rain and a strong wind almost all day.

photo: Alan Taylor

Still, as we were determined to turn out for this train we went to Shap Wells as usual, donned the waterproofs, wrapped recorders in plastic bags and attempted to find a reasonably sheltered spot hoping all the while that the train would be on-time and we wouldn't be out there for hours!
The area is fortunate in having that boon to lineside sound recordists; dry stone walls. No finer wind break and rain shelter has ever been invented and we set up our microphones in the shelter of a handily situated one with plenty of time before the train was due and settled down to wait.
Had the weather been better we could have expected the area to have been thick with photographers and videographers but besides the two of us, only one other person joined us. No doubt everyone else had more sense and stayed with their cars!
Our wait in the rain proved most rewarding. 'Leander' turned up just about on time and as you can hear was going very well at the head of a 9 coach train.
In 1967 I'm sure that 'Alberta' didn't roar up Shap like this!

For the return from Carlisle we went to a spot we had tried before at Harrison's Siding not far north of the Shap village.
If anything, while the rain seemed a bit lighter the wind had strengthened but here, again there was a handy dry stone wall for shelter.
Once again 5690 was going well on the gradient towards Shap Summit.