Main Line Steam

6201 to Glasgow

On 16th November 1936 the LMS Princess Royal Pacific 6201 'Princess Elizabeth' completed a record breaking non-stop run from London Euston to Glasgow and, seventy years to the day the same locomotive was back on the West Coast Main Line working a train to commemorate the anniversary.
Organised by Kingfisher, The Mid-Day Scot, an all dining train, ran on 16th November 2006 steam hauled from Preston to Glasgow returning south, again steam hauled, the following day.
As might be expected, running a train on this busy route on a weekday meant that, as well as water stops, the timetable included visits to many of the loops en-route, however, as we have seen in the past, just because there is a booked stop in the timetable.......
Our first recording was made at the usual place near Shap Wells and despite the rather poor weather, we made sure that we set off to walk to our spot in plenty of time, at least we thought that 45 minutes before the train was due was plenty of time!
According to the timetable the train was booked to stop, presumably for pathing, in the loops at Carnforth and Oxenholme before following a Euston - Glasgow Pendolino from the latter and as we reached our recording spot the Glasgow train came past so plenty of time to get set up.
Oh no there wasn't! 6201 hadn't stopped at Carnforth or Oxenholme and had been looped at Grayrigg so, while we still looking around for the best place to get shelter from the wind, steam appeared over hill down at Greenholme and it became a bit of a race to get everything set up, plugged in and switched on!
Fortunately, there was just time and, aside from a little wind noise, the recording was a good one.
6201 was going well with a load of just 7 coaches with the addition of a Class 67 diesel at the rear there to provide ETH power to the train but not assisting, just adding to the weight which must have been around 350 tons.

Now we had a problem. According to the timetable we had well over three hours to get to Beattock and find a suitable spot. We had only been there once before so it would have been handy to have had plenty of time to look at a few possibilities. However, while 6201 had stops booked at Penrith, Carlisle and Lockerbie we couldn't be sure if it would actually make any of them. And it was already running 45 minutes early!
We decided to play safe and assumed that it would only make one stop of about 30 minutes somewhere for water and we could expect it to be perhaps an hour or more early on Beattock.
Guess what? When the train passed us at Greskine, about half way up the bank, it was only about 15 minutes early! It had made a water stop at Penrith and had been held there for right time.
The problem with recording on Beattock is that the railway and the very busy A74(M) occupy the very narrow valley of the Evan Water and it is impossible to get away from the incessant noise from the road. We chose the spot at Greskine as, at that point the railway is on an embankment and it is possible to get to the west side of the line, the opposite side to the road, and by recording from low down hide a little of the road noise. Unfortunately, as the line here is on a curve, the embankment also hid the sound of train's approach to a certain extent so this recording of 6201 going very well on the 1 in 76 gradient isn't quite as good as I had hoped.
Not that I'm complaining you understand, 6201 was making a fine sound on the gradient and, at least, the RAF waited until the train was almost out of earshot before performing a fly past!

Whitby again

Once again, throughout the summer, the North Yorkshire Moors Railway ran a service of trains to Whitby and, once the summer Sunday service ceased in September were able to take advantage of having sole use of the railway on some Sundays in September and October.
Instead of having just three departures from Whitby, they were able to have five.
One of these Sundays coincided with the Autumn Steam Gala and BR Standard Class 4MT 2-6-0 76079 was in charge of the service during a rather showery Sunday afternoon.
In this recording the Standard 4 is heard as it passes Lease Rigg not long after departing from Grosmont with just 4 coaches behind the tender.
Although the rain had stopped water was still dripping from the trees and a greasy rail surface causes some adhesion problems for 76079 as it recovers from a speed restriction on a bridge over the River Esk and climbs the 1 in 100 gradient towards Egton Bridge and Glaisdale.