The Cumbrian Mountain Express
Date : 20th April , 2002
Location : Garsdale, Settle & Carlisle Railway
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My second tour of 2002 was supposed to have been a southbound trip on the Settle & Carlisle line behind 6201 "Princess Elizabeth". However, like my two previous Pathfinder tours, it didn't quite work out that way. 6201 wasn't ready on schedule and as demonstrated below, A4 Class No. 60009 "Union of South Africa" was substituted.
The tour started just after 7am, with Barnt Green again being chosen as the embarkation point. The Severn Valley Railway was providing all of the day's motive power, with SVR-owned class 50 diesels hauling the tour from Swindon to Carlisle and rejoining at Crewe for the return to Swindon. It was a 4 and half hour journey from Barnt Green to Carlisle and I got to travel a significant section of the West Coast Main Line.
A4 Class No. 60009 "Union of South Africa" rests at Garsdale
On arrival at Carlisle, I proceeded to attempt to get photographs of 60009 backing onto the train. However, so was just about everyone else, and in the end all I managed were some shots where you can just about spot the engine over a lot of heads. In hindsight, I wish I'd gone to the other end and taken some of the class 50s that brought us to Carlisle instead. While we waited to depart a tour hauled by 6233 "Duchess of Sutherland", which we had passed at Carnforth, arrived outside the station. However, Carlisle was only allowing one platform for use by both tours and we had to depart first before 6233 could pull in, so I wasn't able to get any photographs of her at Carlisle, either.. We caught a brief glimpse of the other tour as we departed.
The front of 60009
Our first scheduled stop was Garsdale, although an unscheduled stop was made at Kirkby Stephen to clear a clogged spark arrestor. The photography at Garsdale was much better and all the photographs on this page were taken there.
60009 takes on water, against a backdrop of the Cumbrian landscape
The second and final watering stop was made at Blackburn, and from there we rejoined the WCML, where 60009 was allowed to run to the 75mph maximum, although we were forced onto a slow line to allow a Virgin express to pass us at one point (50 years ago everyone would have been getting out of our way!). At Crewe, 60009 was detached; I chose not to take any more photographs at this point as I had cleared one film and felt that conditions would have required an ISO 800 which I didn't want to leave half-exposed in the camera. The class 50s rejoined the train and we set off for home.
To conclude, despite the distance and the change in motive power, this was the best tour I've done to date. It is perhaps a pity that time couldn't have been made at Carlisle for a carriage service, but the demands of the day meant that this was clearly impossible. However, I would have hated to have started from Swindon, as the carriage toilets were starting to overload by the time we returned to Barnt Green.