North Yorkshire Moors 40th Anniversary Gala

A video of our day out to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway which we attended so we could travel on the steam trains at their 40 anniversary gala on 10 May 2013.

The footage features not only the locomotives we travelled behind but some of the scenery of the North Yorkshire Moors in late spring.

We start with some shots at Pickering station of NER design class J72 0-6-0T locomotive number 69023 “Joem” bringing in and running around the Great Western Saloon carriage to operate a shuttle service to Levisham.

Meanwhile LNER A4 class Pacific 60007 "Sir Nigel Gresley"  arrives with a service from Grosmont and runs around its train ready to operate the next service to Grosmont. This is the train we catch to Goathland where we break our journey and have lunch. We pass LMS Stanier Class 5 4-6-0 45407 'The Lancashire Fusilier' at Levisham where our train pauses in the station before departing for Grosmont.

At Goathland we get some footage of 60007 "Sir Nigel Gresley” leaving for Grosmont and after lunch we see LNER class B1 4-6-0 61264 renumbered and named as 61002 Impala double heading with  60007 "Sir Nigel Gresley"  arriving at Goathland. We see our train 45407 'The Lancashire Fusilier' arrive at Goathland before we get on board for our journey to Whitby.

At Whitby 45407 'The Lancashire Fusilier' pushes its train out of the station to perform its run around the train before re-entering the station. We decided to catch this train back to Grosmont and spend an hour at this station.

At Goathland our day went pear shaped with the cancellation of a train to Pickering. As the previous train to Pickering had been diesel hauled we decided on an extra hour at Grosmont to take advantage of the next steam hauled train. This was not to be and left us with a further 2 hours wait at Grosmont.

In the end we travelled back to Whitby again with  45407 'The Lancashire Fusilier' very disappointingly this service was then diesel hauled all the way back from Whitby to Pickering. This wasn't the end to the day out we had hoped for.

Copyright: Original post from http://steamdaysblog.blogspot.co.uk/author M Garrett

Success and Failure

Last weekend's failure was on Friday afternoon with an attempt to film Ian Riley's black 5's on a positioning move through Wakefield Kirkgate. This turned out to be  unsuccessful as we heard the Black 5's whistles, as they went through Wakefield one hour early, whilst we were walking towards the station.

Our second visit of the weekend was on Saturday to catch 60163 Tornado hauling the Cathedrals Express from London Kings Cross to York.

60163 Tornado was just a few minutes down as it powered through Ryther in North Yorkshire. We also tried a video using both old and new cameras which I think came out quite well.

Finishing off a busy weekend we made a trip into Derbyshire on Sunday to visit The Peak Line Heritage Railway which was hosting a visit of 34067 Tangmere with The Peak Forester charter train.

Our first view of 34067 Tangmere was at Whatstandwell just outside Matlock still on the National rail network.

After lunch we moved on to Rowsley, the hub of Peak Rail, to see if we could capture some more pictures of 34067 Tangmere. At Rowsley Tangmere got the steam train version of a quick pit stop ready for the return journey to London. The site at Rowsley was packed with enthusiasts all looking for the perfect picture.

We were too late to see the locomotive on the turntable but as you can see we did capture it filling up with fuel, a tender full of coal, before being reunited with its coaches.

There were some good opportunities to watch Tangmere perform a few manoeuvring operations as it moved from the coal yard to the station to head up the train.

As a bonus whilst watching Tangmere take on coal and carry out a little bit of manoeuvering we saw Lord Phil arrive with one of Peak Rail's own services from Matlock.

The video below covers the visit of 34067 Tangmere to Peak Rail on a rather windy and damp Sunday afternoon. I'm sure Peak Rail will be pleased with the numbers of people who turned out to see this tour on their heritage line.

To finish is a short clip of Lord Phil one of Peak Rail's locomotives arriving and departing Rowsley with a Matlock service.

Copyright: Original post from http://steamdaysblog.blogspot.co.uk/author M Garrett

Specials in the North This Weekend

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An early start to some steam locomotives this weekend with Ian Riley's Black 5's 44871 and 45407 making a positional move from Grosmont-Shrewsbury. The provisional timings for this move are given here on the UKsteam website.

44871 and 45407 with The Tin Bath at Stocksmoor station 17 03 2013

On Saturday 60163 Tornado hauls The Cathedrals Express from London to Durham presumably by the East Coast Main Line but no details are on the web site at the moment.

60163 Tornado approaches Sherburn In Elmet with The Cathedrals Express on 30 06 2012

Then for good measure a real rarity as on Sunday 14 April 2013 Battle of Britain Class 4-6-2 No 34067 Tangmere is scheduled to bring The Peak Forester from London Kings Cross to Matlock and Rowsley via the Peak Rail heritage railway. It's not very often we have the chance to see  one of these locomotives hauling charter trains on the main line this far north

Copyright: Original post from http://steamdaysblog.blogspot.co.uk/author M Garrett

48151 with THE YORKSHIRE COAST EXPRESS

The Yorkshire Coast Express ran from Crewe to Scarborough passing through Milford on its way to York and the coast. The train was hauled by 8F 48151 throughout.  It was our intention to photograph the train just before it arrived at Milford loop for a water stop and then to move on to Sherburn in Elmet to capture it pulling away after taking on water.

On a lovely sunny, but bitterly cold, day 48151 cruises into its stop at Milford Loop. Disappointingly no smoke but I suppose as it was going to stop for water a mile or so up the line this was to be expected. It was a nice change to be taking pictures in sunshine rather than the dull gloomy weather of our last few excursions.

Once the train was out of sight at this location we quickly packed up cameras and tripods and headed for the station at Sherburn in Elmet. It's only a few minutes up the road giving us plenty of time to set up on the station platform to capture 48151 pulling away from its water stop.

In the end we had plenty of time to get set up before The Yorkshire Coast Express came through on its way to Scarborough. The pictures were a little more difficult to shoot due to a group of photographers standing at the end of the platform and blocking everybody else's view of the approaching express. Some people are just not very thoughtful.

I travelled to Woodlesford Station on Wednesday evening as 48151 was due to pass through on the return journey to Crewe at around 18:20. However, by 18:30 48151 hadn't shown up and on Realtime Trains it still appeared to be in York. I decided I might as well head home. I later found out that 48151 had been failed at York suspected of causing lineside fires on its run from Scarborough to York so no pictures at Woodlesford.

Our video at these two locations is shown below.

Copyright: Original post from http://steamdaysblog.blogspot.co.uk/author M Garrett

Tin Bath - video

I did manage to get some video of The Railway Touring Company's Tin Bath charter passing through Stocksmoor station on 17 March 2013. In charge were Ian Riley's Black 5 locomotives 44871 and 45407 The Lancashire Fusilier.

Copyright: Original post from http://steamdaysblog.blogspot.co.uk/author M Garrett

The Tin Bath

The Tin Bath ran from Preston and Manchester over the steeply graded routes to West Yorkshire and passed through areas renowned for Lancashire cotton mills and Yorkshire woollen mills. The train was hauled by two steam locomotives ‘Black 5’ 4-6-0’s Nos. 44871 and 45407, facing face some of the fiercest gradients in the country.

The Tin Bath at Stocksmoor Station

It was yet another bitterly cold March day as the two locomotives hauled the The Railway Touring Company’s charter train through Stocksmoor station. A good number of photographers had turned out to capture a rare journey by steam train alone this line.

Copyright: Original post from http://steamdaysblog.blogspot.co.uk/author M Garrett

A Tale of Two Viaducts

On Saturday 02 March 2013 we visited the Settle to Carlisle Railway in the Yorkshire Dales to photograph The Cumbrian Guardsman and The Winter Cumbrian Mountain Express.

The weather was generally good but unfortunately at the important times the sun managed to disappear behind the clouds making photography of moving objects a bit of a lottery. Our first location was Dandry Mire Viaduct which is just north of Garsdale station.

Dandry Mire Viaduct

The construction of Dandry Mire Viaduct was completed in 1875. It is 227 yds (208m) long and stands 50 ft (15m) high. Originally planned as an embankment difficult ground conditions resulted in the construction of the viaduct.

Dandry Mire Viaduct construction date

70000 Britannia was hauling Vintage Trains Limited “The Cumbrian Guardsman” steam hauled from Hellifield to Carlisle over the Settle to Carlisle Line returning to Carnforth via Shap.

70000 Britannia crosses Dandry Mire Viaduct

Britannia heads onto Dandry Mire Viaduct

After this our second visit of the day was to Dent Head Viaduct. The intention was to photograph 60009 Union of South Africa with The Railway Touring Company’s  “Winter Cumbrian Mountain Express”

Dent Head Viaduct

Dent Head Viaduct is a 10 arch viaduct with a combined length of 199 yds (182m) long standing 100ft (30m) high.

As we arrived it was a sunny afternoon and would have made a spectacular photograph with the train crossing over the viaduct. Unfortunately the train was running a few minutes late so by then,  the sun had dipped behind the hills lighting up only the distant fells as Union of South Africa crossed the viaduct.

60009 Union of South Africa crosses Dent Head Viaduct

Copyright: Original post from http://steamdaysblog.blogspot.co.uk/author M Garrett