Cumbrian Mountain Express 2021

Ian, I wonder if you can clarify something for me. @Shep Woolley (usually a source of accurate info) has BIL crewed by, Steve Chipperfield (driver), Rob Russell (booked fireman) and Steve Clark (fireman under assessment). You confirm that Steve Chipperfield "passed out" Steve Clark but as ?? @Big Al on the Pennine Explorer thread has assumed as driver, as I don't know Steve Clark I can't even guess. It would seem unusual for the driver (whilst driving) to monitor the performance of the "new" fireman. In the past I think that Frank Chippendale, as then "senior" fireman carried out the role, leaving the driver to concentrate on driving. Thanks.

 

Thanks Graham, an excellent report as usual. It is a shame, especially after such a long wait, that things did not go anywhere near as planned - fingers crossed for next time. I appreciated you posting the "electric" data, it shows what an advantage there is in not having to carry your own energy source. The electricity consumed by Les Ross could have come from anywhere, coal, gas, nuclear, solar or wind - no way of knowing. It would be nice to think that it came from the wind; best part of 600 tons "blown" up Shap like some modern day sailing ship. Better luck with the next one.

 

My apologies for not wording it clearly. @Shep Woolley's information is correct. Steve Clark passed out as fireman.

 

Thanks

 

Even though Tornado’s quite astonishing climb of Ais Gill has undoubtedly heightened performance interest again after all the downtime due to Covid, it is unfair to expect footplate crews to really go for it all of the time. Conditions on the footplate have to be right in order to do so, both in human and loco welfare.

We should consider ourselves extremely lucky that these sort of spectacles have returned after a bleak few months.

 

One thing hardly acknowledged is that Steve had rather a lot of damp and wet rail to contend with from Smardale to Ais Gill while Tornado had dry rail all the way.

 

BIL heads south on the S&C 22 May 2021

The first CME from London for a very long time, and my first steam in eight months. More waiting was involved: the train was two and a half hours late into Crewe from Euston and my breakfast was not served till Preston. Then we flew past Carnforth behind electric No 86259: we had lost the northbound leg as the steamer had gone ahead of us to Carlisle in the hope of starting the return journey more or less on time.

Things looked up when we saw Merchant Navy No 35018 British India Line on the centre road facing south, and by the time I reached the south end of the train she was coupled up and we left only 12 minutes behind schedule. At Petteril Bridge Junction, we found ourselves sandwiched between Tornado coming off the Tyne Valley line and a Statesman Rail working off the S&C. Then it was 32 at Cumwhinton, 42 at Howe & Co, and 56 after Low House before the slack through Armathwaite. On in the fifties to Appleby where we arrived 15 minutes late.

We reached 54 at Ormside but were down to 36 at Griseburn before recovering to 44 at Smardale viaduct. By Kirkby Stephen we were down to 33 and we went into Birkett tunnel at 28. We made it up to 38 along Mallerstang but struggled again up the last few miles with a minimum of 31 at Ais Gill summit, having lost another 5 minutes from Appleby.

We rattled down Ribblesdale with the brakes on almost continuously, as our 13 coaches would have happily propelled us down the hill at well over the speed limit. After watering at Hellifield and tangling with then dmu at Horrocksford, we went through Whalley at 35 and were still doing 32 at the other end of the viaduct. The gradient gradually took its toll and we went through Langho at 28 and eventually entered the tunnel at 19.

The Merchant Navy left us at Preston after another fair to middlin performance. But it was great to have a day out behind steam again, and to have more to look forward to as the year goes on.

8 photos are at https://pjhtransportpix.zenfolio.com/p850036848

Peter on a grey, damp and windy day in Manchester
https://pjhtransportpix.zenfolio.com

 

The performance of two Class 8 Pacifics over the Settle and Carlisle line on 22 May has attracted much interest on both the relevant pages of National Preservation.

The run of Merchant Navy No 35018 British India Line has been documented in the finest detail by @1020 Shireman, and the general assessment of its performance seems to correspond with my own view that it was ‘fair to middlin’.

By contrast the performance of A1 No 60163 Tornado an hour or two later appears to have been outstanding, with its speeds and timings appearing to approximate to record levels.

It has been frustrating so far that no detailed figures at all have emerged so far about the Tornado run, making it impossible to compare the two runs in detail. This has left the field open to speculation as to the causes, not all of it well founded.

A friend who is a guru of locomotive performance has attempted to remedy the lacuna of information, by measuring from published videos the times of both trains over a measured stretch of the final climb to Ais Gill summit. With the aid of a detailed OS map and the RPS distance chart, he was able to feed the data into the Railway Performance Society website interactive calculator. This produced the following estimates of equivalent drawbar horsepower of 1450 for N0 35018 and 2600 for No 60163, subject to the accuracy of the available inputs.

He and I would both be delighted to see more details of speeds and times from No 60163’s run, so that the true measure of this remarkable run can be documented.

Peter on a sunny afternoon in Manchester
https://pjhtransportpix.zenfolio.com

 

Is there any chance our friend @Where's Mazeppa? could look up how many runs there have been in the RPS database in the preservation era from Carlisle to Settle Jct in under 90 mins? Just as a broad brush indicator of quality.

 

Been looking back at what turned out to be the best southbound S&C run we did behind 60163 with 13 up. It goes back almost 11 years to the Border Raider of 24th June 2010. I wasn't such a serious timer in those days and we were on the 'wrong side' from Carlisle so I only I have some landmarks and stations of what was a seriously impressive run:

From rest at Appleby: Ormside Viaduct, 275 30c, 4m 05.53s, 61:
Helm Tunnel, 273 3/4, 5m 56.28s, 56;
Tunnel out, 20 onto tsr:
Crosby Garrett Viaduct, 269 1/2, 8m 38.84s, 36;
Smardale Viaduct, 268 3/4, 11m 46.08s, 52;
Kirkby Stephen, 266 47c, 15m 00.91s, 50;
Birkett Tunnel, 264 1/2, 17m 24.36s, 47;
Ais Gill Viaduct, 260 54c, 21m 56.46s, 51;
Ais Gill Summit Board, 259 3/4, 23m 00.68s, 53.

The tsr after Helm Tunnel had ruined the runs for a long time and I hadn't even considered the possibility of such a rapid run happening or I would have found a window to time from.

So not really a surprise 60163 was able produce the run on Saturday with a 57 mph pass of Appleby.

 

We've done over 100 Southbound runs over the S&C since August 1984. Appleby wasn't always a stop before the Water Tower was opened, but water was almost always taken at Garsdale. Rarely did trains run non-stop to Settle Jn or Hellifield. I'll be really interested to know how many are in the RPS Database.

 

I don't doubt your word, but there cannot have been many that spurned taking water at Appleby - as far as I can recall, they nearly all did. Water was taken at Appleby Dairy prior to the opening of the water tower, the official opening of which took place on 24.08.91, although 6201 had used the facility the week before. On average, 2,000 gallons were used on the Carlisle-Appleby stretch - but the locos could be driven hard with heavy loads in those days. Some of the locos uncoupled from the stock in the station to travel LE up to the dairy, whilst others took water at the dairy coupled to the stock, stopping there after restarting the train from Appleby. From recollection, the first loco to spurn taking water at Appleby was 60009, but an A4 has a larger water capacity than most that were using the line regularly at that time.



34092 stopping at the dairy for water - note the guy with the hose. 10.12.83.



60009 returns to Appleby station after having taken water at the dairy. 31.03.84.

 

My friends who'd been touring since 1977 told me about the Appleby Dairy watering. That had stopped before we did our first CME in August 1985. I've got hundreds of photos of the Garsdale Water Stops between 1985 and August 1991 when the Water Tower was built and commissioned.

 

46203 taking water at the dairy on 6th July 1991. We certainly used it until the tower opened; always take water when it's available - you never know what may may happen later on.

 

Lovely photo, love the guys taking an interest on the side, when can we get 46203 out to play again please?

 

Just seen this on RailAdvent, I wasn't even aware Tangmere was near completion

 

Not sure I would read too much into it, isn't Rail Advent basically an algorithm which grabs stories off the net and republishes them in a single place? Possibly some wires crossed.

But then again its Carnforth so who knows I expect that when she eventually appears it will be initialy with the Bodmin plates on, and vice versa!