The South Yorkshireman - 3/11/19

I think he fired from Fort William to Glasgow area going south when the train went from Fort William to Penrith. I do know that he does support crew work outside of the Jacobite but didn't think he did much firing work; certainly not outside Scotland.

 

Footage of the railtour returning to Preston and departing with the ECS for Carnforth:

 

A few shots from my day out on this train. Here arriving at Manchester Victoria...

 

Taking on water...

 

And at Sheffield.

 

Many thanks Al, much appreciated.

 

This was my first trip with preserved steam that started at Blackburn, I don't know if anyone can recall another. As a youngster we travelled through Blackburn, but not often boarding there. In the mid 50s I have a vague recollection of boarding a train in the bay platform at the south end of the station but don't recall the destination - probably not Manchester as we usually travelled from Accrington (and up Baxenden Bank).

As planned, the trip was due to travel through many miles of longer tunnels; Sough, Disley, Cowburn, Totley, Tankesley and Woolley then back via the Hope Valley tunnels - throw in a couple of shorter ones and almost 19 miles inside tunnels. As run, we lost Tankersley, Wooley and out through the Hope Valley tunnels but gained Summit and several along the Calder Valley Line - just over 12 miles. I wonder if this would have been the Tunneliest trip in preservation.

 

A bit of tunnel vision there David, if I may say so.

 

I think the upcoming RTC trip from Slough to Shrewsbury may beat that (at a quick look) I will sit down and work it out later, but it does have Severn Tunnel and Chipping Sodbury both ways plus some shorter ones.

 

Just about 17 1/2 miles; but that's out and back; so ruled out for repetition!!!.

 

Fair

 

By that argument, the South Yorkshireman would be ruled out for deviation (from the planned route) and hesitation (sitting in loops between Wakefield and Sheffield).

 

I think Graham was being a bit harsh; perhaps 2 categories with and without repetition?

 

If a line has separate up and down tunnels, do those count differently from a single two-track tunnel?

 

Out of interest (as I do not know, and slightly off thread) at what length does a bridge become a tunnel? Or is there no set measurement.

 

Without wishing to indulge in too much thread drift, the preamble to Wikipedia's "List of Tunnels in the United Kingdom" suggests two possible (and differing) criteria that might be helpful in distinguishing the difference between a bridge and a tunnel.

"A tunnel is an underground passageway with no defined minimum length, though it may be considered to be at least twice as long as wide. Some civic planners define a tunnel as 0.1 miles (160 m) in length or longer".

A quick scan of the accompanying list (E & OE !) shows the shortest recorded tunnel anywhere on the network to be Peak Forest Tunnel, at 27 metres/ 29 yards, on the freight only line between Great Rocks Junction and Buxton. Next in the shortest tunnel league table are two on heritage lines - Bradnop on the Churnet Valley (33 m/ 36 yds) and Knowlesands on the Severn Valley Railway (40 m/ 44 yds). On the Big Railway, the two shortest tunnels on passenger lines appear to be Bincombe Tunnel (South ) at 44 m/ 48 yds and Duffield (Derbyshire) at 48 m/ 52 yds.

If interested, the full listing can be reviewed here as a handy source of reference....https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tunnels_in_the_United_Kingdom