Saphos 2025

Confirmed as the B1 for tomorrow.

Also keep an eye out for some testing paths between Crewe-Preston next week for steam.

And finally mutterings of more “diesel assistance” following Wednesdays fire and the still dry conditions in the North West.

 

Timings for the train have changed too. it now looks like steam on at Crewe and water at Oxenholme rather than Grayrigg. It also looks like steam all the way back to Crewe in the evening.

 

I’ve just asked my reliable LSL source - Because Region 5 (North West) is now back under an orange fire risk and steam cannot run solo again Mayflower cannot run Crewe to Preston and Carnforth to Crewe without a diesel.

As such It’ll be Crewe-Carlisle-Crewe with steam, but I am told to expect help from the tail gunner.

 

Cheers. I suspected that would be the reason.

 

The weather forecast in Cumbrian says that it should rain heavily on Friday night and during the day on Saturday. Maybe it will change the way how the Diesel helps.

 

Possibly. Although given the rain we’ve had the last week or two the ground was still very dry Wednesday for Gresley so not sure much will change.

 

As I posted a couple of pages back, 9.5" of rain at Ribblehead in the last few weeks and a few hundred feet of lineside still got set alight. There's plenty of fresh growth, but there's still a lot of last year's dead foliage around.

After this evening there's very little rain in the forecast for the country for the next couple of weeks, with temperatures well into the 20s. I'd fully expect another steam ban of some description come July.

 

Just to follow up I’ve just been told the plan will be to put Mayflower on the front of the diesel when it arrives at Crewe so it’ll be Steam+Diesel+Coaches+Diesel

 

Tbf I think it could be a class 2MT and still be enough. I feel certain it’s merely a headboard tomorrow.

I believe it was planned to be 9/10 vehicles which actually would have been quite nice with the B1, inside its comfort zone. As you say weather is the factor here

 

60007 Waitby by Harry Bradley, on Flickr


60007 Frodsham by Harry Bradley, on Flickr


60007 Langcliffe by Harry Bradley, on Flickr

 

Thanks for the update Harry. I must admit to getting a bit confused about NR's fire risk mitigation measures, I thought that the amber (orange) level required the TOC to consider diesel assistance but that it did not become mandatory until level red was imposed. I have absolutely no problem with LSL choosing to add steam to the front at Crewe, and it is probably more expedient than a loco change at Preston, but it would seem to be their choice (and probably a very wise one).

From my own observations much of the trackside is now green, but not everywhere, in some locations dead/dry vegetation is present close to the ballast especially on embankments - and hence Wednesday's issue.

 

A shot of No. 7 on Frodsham viaduct from Wednesday

 

If there was one thing we could rely on in the north west that was long wet winters, wet springs and wet summers, but times change. A couple of photos of the same stretch of track at Ramsgreave & Wilpshire.


(23 May 2024) view from the bridge


(11 June 2025)

Neither image shows anything that might easily catch fire (and neither shows anything that is a credit to NR). Sadly it appears that despite all the recent rain (and we've had plenty) dead/dry vegetation still "adorns" some of the trackside and the fire risk refuses to go away.

 

Firstly, cracking shot! Secondly, it appears that I now have to send "appearance money" via Rachel Reeves, so I did. The bad news is that she kept it, sorry!

 

I think part of the problem with all the dead vegetation at the trackside is that it got an early start with all the fine weather in early spring, and there was much more than normal when the weedkiller trains were run and therefore much more dead vegetation afterwards for the sun and wind to dry out. I walked up to Haw Lane crossing in early May and was shocked at the amount of dead vegetation along the track. You could easily see where the weedkiller sprays had reached to. Beyond was lush and green.

 

Yeah I think it’s the “close” lineside that’s the issue. That Weedkiller train has been all over and it seems to have done a very good job, but also made things dead and dry on the cess edge. It’s very visible in my shot at Waitby on the return Wednesday, a good 3 foot is brown.

 

Yes. Am on the Midland Pullman at the moment and was just chatting to the crew about it. Tough times at the moment trying to run steam tours.

 

One could argue that, by turning a lot of live vegetation into flammable dead vegetation, the weedkilling has done a very bad job. Lineside fires can be started by other causes besides steam locos.

 

Agreed but it’s not how NR see it sadly. They see it as helping reduce signal sighting issues, keeping walking routes clear, etc.