Peaks & Fells Explorer - 14th June

What was fairly lean fare for the steam experience on the previous "Spirit of the Lakes" outing (16/4, from Bridlington) where likewise steam came on at Sellafield for the leg to Carnforth now looks truly wafer-thin on this outing, given the even higher overall mileage. Just over 10% of the day's rail mileage (563 miles) and just under 10% of the day's on-board travelling time (nearly 17 hours) is given over to steam haulage!! The fares posted for this trip looked to be fairly reasonable value, notwithstanding the rather constrained steam content. But based on Load 7 + POB, I just hope that WCRC can make commercial sense of this.

But when I posted a very similar comment about the 16th April outing, an interesting response followed from "torgormaig" that gave me pause for thought, a different perspective, and some degree of reconsideration of what this type of day trip is really all about. I hope that, for the patrons of today's excursion, the same positives will have come out of their day today. In the interests of balance, its worth reproducing here..........

 

My comment was more of an observation than any manner of weighted comment, to be fair to WCRC the crew were definitely putting on quite a show when I saw the train.

 

With a backdrop of the Coniston Fells (l-r White Pike, Brown Pike, Buck Pike, Dow Crag and Coniston Old Man) and under threatening skies,
LMS 5XP Class 4-6-0 No. 45699 'Galatea' works away from Kirkby in Furness with the return leg of the 'Peaks and Fells Explorer' rail tour