Cumbrian Rail miscellany

[kevsmiththai]

Late August 2020 

Traffic on the southern end of the Cumbrian Coast line in the second half of August was dominated by the thrice weekly stone working from Barrow Docks to Drigg LLWR. The standard pair of class 66s in DRS Plain Blue, 421 and 091, are seen at various vantage points including Askam in Furness ( both the station and White bridge), Sowerby lodge, Park South, in atrocious weather at Salthouse Junction, Dunneroam, Sandscale crossing and from the Slag bank on the approach to Barrow.

 

Punctuating them are a network rail test train hauled by Colas class 37 219 'Jonty Jarvis' and we finish with the Black 5 4-6-0 45231 'Sherwood Forester'  hauled 'Lakelander' excursion which was further evidence that the charter train traffic is starting to recover

 

 

 

September hasn't been bad either. I had a few days leave to use up and haded across to the Setle and Carlisle to catch the last wek of the charter trains doing the appleby to Skipton 'Staycation' trains

 

Celebrity Class 47 47 721 'Lady Diana Spencer' was at one end of the top and tailed train in its Scotrail livery seen at Settle station

 

 

At the other end was green liveried Class 37 D6851 ( actually 37 667 on the TOPS system)

 

 

The 47 working hard uphill at Horton in Ribblesdale

 

 

More soon

 

Kev

[kevsmiththai]

There was quite a bit of variety in September and i was mindful of the ever shortening days and the weather starting to turn so tried to get out as often as possible. In the September video we see Diesel and Steam hauled charter trains, stone, network rail test traisn and a couple of nuclear moves i can't talk about. Suffice to say these are both Very, Very rare

 

Steam was in the hands of 46115 'Scots guardsman' which Brooklyn and I caught off the former Barrow Steelworks slag bank which forms a natural amphitheatre at the site of the old 'Cocken junction'

 

 

LSL's 47 805 on a charter at the picturesque Kents Bank station 

 

 

One of the trains I can't talk about!

 

 

roll call

 

 

01/09/2020 Park South 37 419 & 423 Carl Haviland Derby RTC-Carlisle

04/09/2020 Lindal (A590) 68 002 & 005, 018,006 6C53 Crewe CLS-Sellafield

04/09/2020 Askam in Furness 68 002 & 005, 018,006 6C53 Crewe CLS-Sellafield

04/09/2020 Foxfield 66 421 & 091Gresty Bridge TMD  6Z21 Drigg LLW-Barrow ABP

07/09/2020 Askam in Furness 68 006 & 002 Daring Sellafield-Crewe CLS

07/09/2020 Lindal in Furness 68 006 & 002 Daring Sellafield-Crewe CLS

08/09/2020 Long Preston 47 712 & 37 667 Lady Diana Spencer 5Z40 Appleby-Skipton

08/09/2020 Long Preston 37 667 & 47 712 1Z40 Skipton-Appleby

08/09/2020  Long Preston 35018 British India Line 5Z53 Carnforth-Hellfield

08/09/2020 Kents bank  47 805 Roger Hosking 1Z87 Derby-Ravenglass

08/09/2020 Askam in Furness  47 805 Roger Hosking 1Z89 Ravenglass-Derby

09/09/2020 Long Preston 37 667 & 47 712 5Z40 Appleby-Skipton

09/09/2020 Horton in Ribblesdale 47 712 & 37 667 Lady Diana Spencer 1Z40 Skipton-Appleby

09/09/2020 Settle 37 667 & 47 712 1Z42 Appleby-Skipton

09/09/2020 Hellifield  66 102 643H New Biggin Gypsum-Tees Dock

09/09/2020 Hellifield 47 712 & 37 667 Lady Diana Spencer 1Z43 Skipton-Appleby

10/09/2020 Kirkby in Furness 37 407 & 419 Blackpool Tower Carlisle-Blackpool North

14/09/2020 Thwaites Flats 66 421 & 091 Gresty Bridge TMD 6Z21 Drigg LLW-Barrow ABP

17/09/2020 Askam in Furness 66 421 & 091 Gresty Bridge TMD 6Z21 Drigg LLW-Barrow ABP

26/09/2020 Cocken Jnct 46115 Scots guardsman 1Z87 Carlisle-Crewe

 

Sorry about the flange squeal on the stone train at Thwaites flats I've kept it in just to annoy people

 

Kev

[kevsmiththai]

The 26th of October 2020 saw the stone train workings on the Cumbrian Coast coming to an end but these were punctuated on the Barrrow Ramsden dock by some nuclear moves, This line has seen more activity over the last few months than anybody expected. The stone train at Askam  on the 16th was held at the home signal due to the crossing gates at Park South being stuck. The driver had to pass two signals at danger on instructions from the signaller to continue his journey and the last clip shows Kirkby in Furness in the grip of a ten metre high tide

 

The driver of the stone train passes the home signal and attacks the incline away from Askam from a standing starrt

 

roll call

 

Askam in Furness 68 018 & 68 006 Vigilant 6C51 28/09/2020 Sellafield-Heysham P.S

Dunnerholme 66 421 & 66 091 Gresty Bridge TMD 6Z21 28/09/2020 Drigg-Barrow ABP 

Lindal in Furness (A590) 37 407 & 37 419 Blackpool Tower 1Q47 29/09/2020 Derby RTC-Carlisle

Askam in Furness 156 444 2C56 29/09/2020 Carlisle-Barrow in Furness

Askam in Furness 37 407 & 37 419 Blackpool Tower 1Q47 29/09/2020 Derby RTC-Carlisle

Askam in Furness 68 005 & 66 091 Defiant 6Z21 07/10/2020 Drigg LLW-Barrow ABP

Sowerby lodge 68 005 & 66 091 Defiant 6Z2108/10/2020 Drigg LLW-Barrow ABP

Park South 68 001 & 68 006 Daring 6X73 09/10/2020 Sellafield-Barrow MT 

Salthouse Junction 68 001 & 68 006 Evolution 6X73 09/10/2020 Sellafield-Barrow MT

Barrow Ramsden Dock 68 001 & 68 006 Evolution 6X73 09/10/2020 Sellafield-Barrow MT

Askam in Furness 68 001 & 68 006 Evolution 0C23 09/10/2020 Barrow MT-Sellafield

Dalton in Furness 88 005 & 68 017 Minerva 6C53 10/10/2020 Crewe CLS-Sellafield

Askam in Furness 88 005 & 68 017 Minerva 6C53 10/10/2020 Crewe CLS-Sellafield

Askam in Furness 68 001 & 68 006 Evolution 6C23 12/10/2020 Barrow MT-Sellafield

Askam in Furness 68 005 & 66 091 Defiant 6Z21 16/10/2020 Drigg LLW-Barrow ABP

Kirkby in Furness 156 454 2C59 19/10/2020 Barrow-Carlisle

Kirkby in Furness 68 005 & 66 091 Defiant 6Z21 19/10/2020 Drigg LLW-Barrow ABP

 

68 001 and 68 006 top and tail three four bogie KXA-Cs separated by PFA barrier wagons onto Barrow MT

 

 

 

 

Kev

[kevsmiththai]

This will be vague because I can't go into any details about a couple of these but we had some Rare, and I mean Rare, train movements on this new video.

Can't talk much about this except to say this was the first time we had taken an FNA-D wagon down the branch to our port

 

 

This was also rare. The weather was appaling and the wind noise on the video is a bit rough but it is November in Cumbria so you take what you can

 

 

 

 

 

 

the light engine class 66 moves seen in the video were route refresher training for Freightliner's drivers as major track renewal betweeen Millom and Sellafield was coming up.

 

66 503. the one painted in the parent companies Genesee & Wyoming colours  is seen at Dalton with 2,000 tonns of ballast

 

 

Video at

 

 

roll call

 

21/10/2020

Barrow MT 68 016 Fearless & 68 017 Hornet 6X24 Barrow MT-Sellafield

21/10/2020 Dunnerholme 68 016 Fearless & 68 017 Hornet 6X24 Barrow MT-Sellafield

09/11/2020 Askam in Furness 66 545 Q61T Carlisle NY-Carnforth

09/11/2020 Lindal in Furness 66 545 Q61T Carlisle NY-Carnforth

09/11/2020 Pennington 66 545 041U Carnforth-Carlisle NY

09/11/2020 Park South 68 016 Fearless & 68 017 Hornet 6C51 Sellafield-Heysham

09/11/2020 Park South 66 545 041U Carnforth-Carlisle NY

10/11/2020 Askam in Furness 68 016 Fearless & 68 017 Hornet 6C51 Sellafield-Heysham

10/11/2020 Askam in Furness 66 545 040X Carnforth-Carlisle NY

11/11/2020 Thwaites Flats 66 545 062Z Carlisle NY-Carnforth

11/11/2020 Furness Abbey 195 110 2C33 Lancaster-Barrow in Furness

11/11/2020 Furness Abbey 66 545 062Z Carlisle NY-Carnforth

13/11/2020 Sowerby lodge 68 001 Evolution 0C68 Sellafield-Barrow MT

13/11/2020 Kirkby in Furness 68 001 6X24 Barrow MT-Sellafield

15/11/2020 Dalton in Furness 73922 John Snowdon 689X Ulverston-Millom

15/11/2020 Dalton in Furness 195 107 1U94 Barrow-Manchester Airport

15/11/2020 Askam in Furness 73922 John Snowdon 689X Ulverston-Millom

22/11/2020 Dalton in Furness 66 552 Maltby Raider 647O Crewe Basford Hall-Millom

22/11/2020 Askam in Furness 66 552 Maltby Raider 647O Crewe Basford Hall-Millom

28/11/2020 Askam in Furness 37 025 Inverness TMD & 37 254 Derby RTC-Carlisle

29/11/2020 Dalton in Furness 66 503 The Railway Magazine 652E Crewe-Millom

29/11/2020 Kirkby in Furness 66 503 The Railway Magazine 652E Crewe-Millom

29/11/2020 Askam in Furness Unknown Tamper (probably 73909) 617F Ulverston-Millom

 

Note the blue flames from the exhaust on the lead 37, never noticed that before

 

I've got a couple of trains over the last few days so I'll see whether I end up with enough to do a December one

 

cheers

 

Kev

[kevsmiththai]

Things are still quiet on the Cumbrian Coast railway and certainly there is not enough action to keep up a monthly report like I used to do pre-pandemic

 

However there are enough nuggets to keep some interest

 

The youtube video I named 'Cumbrian cosat rail in winter' has a mixed bag of traction with network rail test trains, Nuclear flask trains etc but I also wanted to capture as much of Celbrity Class 156 156 480 'RAF 100' in its anniversary livery.

 

 

I like this unit so much that even though I don't model 00 gauge model railways I indulged in the limited edition Horny model

 

March to April's effort showed the line starting to wake up with some excursions as well as a better chance to capture the flask traffic and test trains. What I wanted to concentrate on was the gradual introductiom of the new Class 195 DMUs on to the coast line. Northern rail having been running train handling runs on the Sunday evening Barrow to Millom working

 

 

As the longer days have arrived there is a much better opportunity to film the monthly Carlisle to Blackpool North test train doing the reverse movement at Askam. really there is only a three month window when the light is good enough.

 

 

And for something completely different

 

 

shot whilst I was on my lunch during a First aid refresher course!

 

Kev

 

[kevsmiththai]

July and August were different to the norm on the Coast line. The Nuke traffic was fairly quiet but a short intensive campaign of stone trains livened things up

 

The trains used Network Rail owned MRA side tipping ballast hoppers top and tailed by Class 66 diesels. The loco at each end to make the reversing moves at Salthouse Junction and Sellafield sidings a lot easier

 

 

One of the 66s stands on the Dock road as the wagons are loaded in the virtual quarry around the corner. The diagram was loaded from Barrow to trhe Sellafield North siding and stabled overnight. Then into Drigg LLWR for unloading and then empty back to Barrow

 

Freshly loaded there was a large plume of dust thrown up from the stone as seen here at White bridge, Askam

The signaller in Askam box used to shut all the doors and windows when he knew it was coming

 

 

The Network Rail test trains did not run every time as scheduled due to traction issues but there were still some to catch the summer sun

 

 

Livening things up was the return of an old aquaintance. 34046 'Braunton', a rebuilt Southern railway West Country class 4-6-2. Now I hadn't seen this loco since I photographed it in Dai Woodham's Barry Island scrapyard in the late 1970s when it looked like this

 

 

 

 

July's video features the first run past on the Cumbrian Coast of this magnificant restoration

 

 

 

More soon

 

Kev

 

 

Edited September 5 by kevsmiththai

[kevsmiththai]

Drifting through Foxfield

 

 

The second run was in wet weather but it still looked good passing the classic signalbox at Park South

 

 

And even better romping up the incline from Lindal tunnel to Lindal Summit

 

 

August Video

 

 

I'll explain wht the Class 37s are next

 

All the trains in the video are identified in the video description

 

Kev

 

[kevsmiththai]

I usually work out what is coming through using two websites. Railtourinfo 2021 and Realtime trains

 

When I saw the Retro Cumbrian Coaster II listed and that ROG Class 37s had been requested I was mystified as I didn't even know there had been a Coaster I at some stage. ROG (Rail Operations Group) are a private company who move rolling stock around the country using Class37, 47 and 57s.

 

 

Seen at Askam 37 510 'Orion' leads 37 800 'Cassiopea' and 57 312 on the return Workington-Chesterfield leg

 

the train caught again at Lindal on the climb from the tunnel to Lindal Summit

 

37 510 used to be a DRS loco and one I know well. One of the most difficult re-railing operations I ever did was putting this one back on when it split the points inside Sellafield

 

Another suprise was to be found at the Barrow festival of transport. This is an opportunity for the local enthusiasts to show of their veteran and vintage cars in the town centre. The Barrow Dock museum announced that Furness No. 20 would be on display albeit on a low-loader. Now the last time I had seen it having a major boiler overhaul it was in a thousand bits at the Ribble Steam railway. But sure enough there it was looking very shiny. When I asked Tim Owen, the leader of the group who maintain it and operate it, he admitted that the paint was still wet as it was only applied the night before!

 

 

Brooklyn was most impressed with the 5 inch gauge model of it as well

 

Edited September 5 by kevsmiththai