UK Railways

To promote the share issue in Moorland and City Railways the Churnet Valley Railway ran a special service weekend on the Caldon Low line. Prairie Tank 5199 is seen hard at work on Bradnop Bank in dull and blustery conditions.

The 2011 season of the Scarborough Flyer commenced today with 34067 ' Tangmere ' being given the task of heading the train. It was certainly cracking on as it neared Goostrey.

34028 approaching Blackbrook Crossing on the return from Caldon Low. The Lafarge cement works in the background may yet bring freight traffic back to this line.

An unusual sight for Macclesfield was this morning's Southend Airshow Daytripper, run by Retro Railtours from Leeds. In dull and flat conditions the pair of 31s up front. Bringing up the rear was a class 67. Eagle142 is seen beyond the pond snapping away happily. Having packed up and about to head for home we were surprised by the appearance of 2 47s on a Pullman liveried rake of empty stock heading towards Manchester. I assume that this will be for a special to the Champions League cup final at Wembley where Manchester United are one of the teams involved.

There is plenty of supervision in the cabin during the loading the MGR hoppers under the bunker at Silverdale Colliery. The train was probably heading for Fiddler's Ferry power station when it departed behind Brush type 4 47 354.

Hunslet Austerity Whiston banked by Florence No.2 make a start out out of Foxfield Colliery yard on the 1 in 19 gradient.

Deltic hauled Ribble Lune Railtour arrives at Northwich off the branch from Sandbach. Reversal at Lostock Works proved to be a shambles due to Network Rail being totally disorganised and the train was delayed for over an hour whilst the staff on the ground made mobile phone calls to control/management.

Carlisle was not a place where you normally saw Deltics and there was plenty of interest when 55 002 arrived from Leeds at the head of the Deltic Scotsman tour. Why the crowd all had to gather right against the locomotive to take their photos is beyond me. The subsequent run to Newcastle was less than spectacular as the locomotive suffered badly with greasy rails and nearly slipped to a halt several times.

Eddystone powers up the bank towards the unofficial level crossing on the way up to Bradnop from Leekbrook.

71000 working hard past Cliff Farm crossing with 44767 banking. The light was almost gone but it was well worth waiting to see this train pass. It could be heard for a long time before it came into view, probably most of the way up from Leekbrook.

One of the fleet of class 08 shunters to be found at the Corus plant at Shotton.

5199 at Blackbrook Crossing whilst working the Sunday service on the Caldon Low line

I had to wait until the last train of the day for the light to improve beyond dismal. With a bit of sun showing, 5199 is seen leaving Threshing Barn crossing towards the summit of the climb from Leekbrook.

The Isle of Man Railway system was not long off the final closure of most lines when I visited in 1967. The whole system had closed after the 1965 season but was briefly revived when the Marquess of Ailsa obtained a lease and reopened all three routes for a final time in 1967. Both the Peel and Ramsey lines shut following the 1968 season and the tracks on those lines was removed in the 1970s. The green and red printed timetables on yellow card are a souvenir of that summer when you could still enjoy Victorian narrow gauge travel on a whole network of lines. Not that all was steam; the two ex County Donegal railcars were in use and I saw them running back-to-back on some services towards St Johns.

GW 0-4-2 tank 1450 is heading back to the train after running round at Leekbrook under the watchful eyes of the crossing man.

On a wet and windy morning I set off in the dark for Foxfield Colliery and a charter photo shoot organised at the start of the Foxfield Railway autumn gala. It stayed dark and the rain only occasionally eased off, but the results were ok. Here Giesel ejector fitted Bagnall, Florence No.2, sets off from the yard with a rake of mineral wagons. The upcast headstocks of the former Foxfield Colliery stand to the left.

I spotted these whilst out walking a few days ago, but it was raining so hard that I couldn't risk getting the camera out of the bag. Today the sun was shining and so I was off up to Mow Cop Edge to get a shot. These are stone sleeper blocks from the Congleton Railway of c1807, now incorporated into a wall alongside the former route of this line. The track used was oval iron bars about 3ft long with a foot cast into the ends. The wheels on the trams were double flanged according to Farey in his General View of the Agriculture of Derbyshire vol 3 (1817). The line, which brought coal from Stonetrough Colliery in Staffordshire to a wharf on the outskirts of Congleton, had only a short life and was abandoned some time after the opening of the Macclesfield Canal in 1831

After the rain at Foxfield I drove over to Peak Forest to catch a look at 45305 on the "High Peak" railtour from Tyseley to Buxton. The light was much better with some sunshine as the train arrived. As it came into view the exhaust was excellent but unfortunately the driver shut off as he had not had a clear view of the signal beyond the bridge. It was really frustrating that he opened up again after the bridge.