P1170016
A day trip to Carlisle with The Railway Touring Co from Milton Keynes (7.54am) hauled by Electric loco 86259 Peter Pan ( Now E137 Les Ross). We were in Coach A seats 11 & 12b . We very much enjoyed the company of Michael & Barbara from Chorleywho were celebrating their forthcoming Golden Wedding Anniversary. Speeding through the English countryside we had the best "Full English" ever served with humour and aplomb at high speed. At Carnforth E137 was swapped for a steam loco, 46115 was scheduled and off we went over Shap and eventually into Carlisle, having had a light "Ploughman's" lunch. 12.40pm & It was a bit of a crush at Carlisle Station as a trainload of steam enthusiasts tried to admire our loco. Here I discovered that it was the Jubilee Class 4-6-0 45690 Leander, a new one for my current list. We had 2 hours before the southward journey on the Carlisle to Settle route. It was grey and drizzling. We found our way to M&S for a loo, then wandered down to Carlisle Cathedral where an officious person/guide "told" me I would need a permit to photograph. It was very dark and foreboding but the stained glass looked promising but as time was limited we wandered back to m&S for another loo stop and I practised my street photography in the main drag. Back in good time to admire Leander from the platform then off we set on the route to Appleby passing by little halts and lots of panicking cows & "racing" horses, slowing chugging higher and higher in the dark hills until Appleby in sunshine where we stopped to take on water and again admire those magnificent men and their steam machines. From here it got greyer and greyer and we crossed Ribblehead Viaduct in low cloud and failed to enjoy the sweeping views down Dent Dale was left to our imagination. Somewhere along this leg we had a very nice supper (for me vegetable soup) followed by roast rump of lamb + veg & mint sauce, cheescake crumble, cheese & biscuits plus coffee & mints. We branched off the Leeds line at Hellifield towards Cltheroe & Blackburnafter Leander's brave and very slow climb (1 in 82) up to Blackburn.
Here we said farewell to Michael & Barbara and a little later ( over an hour behind schedule) changed back to Loco E137 who conveyed us very fast and smoothly back to MK in the falling dusk, arriving at just after 10pm, very weary but very satisfied in body & soul, just under 45 minutes late from the scheduled 21.22 arrival.
P1170016
A day trip to Carlisle with The Railway Touring Co from Milton Keynes (7.54am) hauled by Electric loco 86259 Peter Pan ( Now E137 Les Ross). We were in Coach A seats 11 & 12b . We very much enjoyed the company of Michael & Barbara from Chorleywho were celebrating their forthcoming Golden Wedding Anniversary. Speeding through the English countryside we had the best "Full English" ever served with humour and aplomb at high speed. At Carnforth E137 was swapped for a steam loco, 46115 was scheduled and off we went over Shap and eventually into Carlisle, having had a light "Ploughman's" lunch. 12.40pm & It was a bit of a crush at Carlisle Station as a trainload of steam enthusiasts tried to admire our loco. Here I discovered that it was the Jubilee Class 4-6-0 45690 Leander, a new one for my current list. We had 2 hours before the southward journey on the Carlisle to Settle route. It was grey and drizzling. We found our way to M&S for a loo, then wandered down to Carlisle Cathedral where an officious person/guide "told" me I would need a permit to photograph. It was very dark and foreboding but the stained glass looked promising but as time was limited we wandered back to m&S for another loo stop and I practised my street photography in the main drag. Back in good time to admire Leander from the platform then off we set on the route to Appleby passing by little halts and lots of panicking cows & "racing" horses, slowing chugging higher and higher in the dark hills until Appleby in sunshine where we stopped to take on water and again admire those magnificent men and their steam machines. From here it got greyer and greyer and we crossed Ribblehead Viaduct in low cloud and failed to enjoy the sweeping views down Dent Dale was left to our imagination. Somewhere along this leg we had a very nice supper (for me vegetable soup) followed by roast rump of lamb + veg & mint sauce, cheescake crumble, cheese & biscuits plus coffee & mints. We branched off the Leeds line at Hellifield towards Cltheroe & Blackburnafter Leander's brave and very slow climb (1 in 82) up to Blackburn.
Here we said farewell to Michael & Barbara and a little later ( over an hour behind schedule) changed back to Loco E137 who conveyed us very fast and smoothly back to MK in the falling dusk, arriving at just after 10pm, very weary but very satisfied in body & soul, just under 45 minutes late from the scheduled 21.22 arrival.