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Special Trains on the Waverley Route

'CHARD

By 'CHARD,
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balders

balders

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What a fabulous set of photographs on the Cumbria zenfolio website! A superb snapshot of the 40's at that time, and the variety of stock. A school train tacked onto a goods train? Brilliant history and beautifully photographed. Many thanks for this.

 

Guy

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AJCT

AJCT

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Not sure when your friend was at school but there was an 08:00 train from Newcastleton to Hawick on weekday mornings.  Attached are the associated carriage workings from June 1952.  Sadly I don’t have anything later for this train.attachicon.gifNewcastleton Carriage Working 1952-06-30 LH Page.jpg

 

This service, in later years at least, was not advertised in the public timetables.  I have a copy of the relevant pages of the June – September 1960 passenger WTT which shows the service still running.  The next passenger WTT I have is a copy of the relevant pages from the September ’63 to June ’64 issue.  This shows that the service from Newcastleton no longer runs but there is a 07:53 SX Riccarton Junction – Hawick “Mixed” (note this does not call at Newcastleton) which is endorsed “6.36am Class 4 Carlisle New Yard to Craiginches running Class 2 between Riccarton Jn and Hawick”.

 

There's similar info on another thread - see http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/37850-waverley-route-freight-flows/page-9&do=findComment&comment=2373752 post #204.

 

Cheers -

 

Alasdair

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'CHARD

'CHARD

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I remember when Peter Robinson uploaded a pile of his photos onto the CRA site in about 2005; what an amazing set of photos. He was a member of the same RCTS branch as me, we held meetings at the Station Hotel in Carnforth and I recall chatting to him on several occasions. He was quite interested when I gave my first ever talk about the Waverley Route around 1999 and later gave permission for WRHA to use his photos in the journals. A sadly missed chap.

 

This photo was used as the rear cover of journal 9, an amazing ten years ago almost to the month! I'd deduced the erroneous number of the A2, but can't fathom my reasoning for captioning the 40 as being on an express - especially as I'd seen the other, earlier, photo of it!

 

j09_cover.png

 

'Up express' - if only it were that simple, hey!

 

What we know now is incredible, and due to the fantastic input of so many new (at least to us) Waverlites!

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37175

37175

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According to Six Bells Junction, the tour with 60528 was booked to pass Riddings Junction at 13/35 and Riccarton at 14/04.  No timings are given for Newcastleton but as it is at the foot of the climb to Whitrope and slightly closer to Riccarton than Riddings, let's say it passed at 13/50.  However, Six Bells Junction also indicates that the turn round at Waverley was accomplished in 19 minutes, suggesting the down train ran late.  The tour ran on Saturday 11th December 1965.

 

 

Although actual (clock) times need working out and we can see a signal check at Newcastleton, a full timing sheet for this tour can be found here: http://locoperformance.tripod.com/edition13/60528wav.htm

 

Two separate logs of the tour also show the lateness of the tour in the down direction:

 

"11th December 1965: The Warwickshire Railway Society "Waverley" tour ran into trouble with a coaching problem at Leeds, and by the time class A2 4-6-2 no 60528  Tudor Minstrell was ready to depart from Carlisle, we were 47 minutes late. So with a 10 coach, 340/360 ton load, would the A2 pull back any time. The answer was in the negative. All we could manage past Steele Road and Riccarton was 20/23 mph. So we were no less than 75 mins late into Edinburgh."
 
and
 

 

"We now had to follow, rather than precede, the 1.40pm Carlisle to Edinburgh service, which stopped at every station as far as Galashiels. It was 2.02pm before 60528 Tudor Minstrel departed from Carlisle, so no doubt we would soon catch up with the slower train ahead. But the crew decided to take things easily, and we fell to 21 mph beyond Riccarton. But then we were checked at Shankend, and were 69 minutes late at Hawick, where we took water.. Thereafter, we ran to Edinburgh, mainly downhill, losing another 3 minutes. Arrival time was 5.02pm."
 
Given that I've acquired a couple of nice 35mm transparencies of this tour near Steele Road I've decided to put a short article together about this tour, as I've done with other tours in the past, for publication in the next issue of The Waverley.
 
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The Border Reiver

The Border Reiver

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D97 on 2nd May 1968 in a scarce photographed location:

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/39309233492/in/album-72157689871212964/

 

Here is a shot of A2 60528 Tudor Minstrel at the same location, 'Port Carlisle Junction' but heading towards Edinburgh.

 

It is 1X50 the Warwickshire Railway Society, The Waverley Rail Tour on 11th December 1965.

 

An A3 was originally advertised between Carlisle and Edinburgh, the A2 being used at short notice (hardly surprising as the only remaining A3s that could have been used were laid up at 64A). The tour was originally advertised as running on 4th December, as the "Waverley Tour to Edinburgh". By the time it ran on the 11th, the advertising had changed its name. Included is a Gresley buffet immediately behind the loco

 

post-19218-0-71043500-1541774072.jpg

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37175

37175

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Here is a shot of A2 60528 Tudor Minstrel at the same location, 'Port Carlisle Junction' but heading towards Edinburgh.

 

It is 1X50 the Warwickshire Railway Society, The Waverley Rail Tour on 11th December 1965.

 

An A3 was originally advertised between Carlisle and Edinburgh, the A2 being used at short notice (hardly surprising as the only remaining A3s that could have been used were laid up at 64A). The tour was originally advertised as running on 4th December, as the "Waverley Tour to Edinburgh". By the time it ran on the 11th, the advertising had changed its name. Included is a Gresley buffet immediately behind the loco

 

attachicon.gifCA011_11_20171108_crop_800_0010.jpg

 

 

Just to add some further interesting detail to this, I compiled an article in Issue 28 of The Waverley, autumn 2016, about A2s and the railtours that 60528 undertook. The following is an extract from the article:

 

"On 4th December 1965 Warwickshire Railway Society organised a steam charter (diesel hauled for the first section) from Birmingham New Street to Edinburgh Waverley entitled the Waverley Rail Tour. It was routed north via the Waverley Route, returning south via the East Coast. However, this tour was postponed and it ran a week later on Saturday 11th December 1965.

 

Courtesy of the Confessions of an Ageing Trainspotter site:

 

“We were 46 minutes late into Carlisle, arriving at 1.51pm. We now found ourselves with another problem. We now had to follow, rather than precede, the 1.40pm Carlisle to Edinburgh service, which stopped at every station as far as Galashiels. It was 2.02pm before 60528 Tudor Minstrel departed from Carlisle, so no doubt we would soon catch up with the slower train ahead. But the crew decided to take things easily, and we fell to 21 mph beyond Riccarton. But then we were checked at Shankend, and were 69 minutes late at Hawick, where we took water. Thereafter, we ran to Edinburgh, mainly downhill, losing another 3 minutes. Arrival time was 5.02pm.”

 

The contemporary report from the RCTS Railway Observer reads as follows:

 

“On 11th December a rail tour special (1X20) ran from Birmingham to Edinburgh (Waverley) via Leeds and Carlisle and back via Newcastle and York. A3 60052 Prince Palatine (64A) was to have worked this train from Carlisle to Edinburgh (Waverley) but failed a boiler examination at St Margaret’s Shed on the 8th and A2 60528 Tudor Minstrel of Dundee, was used instead.

 

A2 60532 Blue Peter, the first substitute, worked the 05.03 MX Class 4 freight on the 10th but failed at Kingmoor shed on the same date, whereupon Tudor Minstrel was hastily despatched to Carlisle the same night. Departure from Carlisle was fifty minutes late at 14.05 and due to signal checks from the preceeding 13.45 Carlisle – Edinburgh (Waverley) passenger a further twenty minutes were dropped between Carlisle and Hawick.”"

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Shed Driver

Shed Driver

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Looking through old copies of Trains Illustrated, September 1950, I found the following:

 

The Postal takes the Waverley Route.

 

On June 8th the Railway Observer records, when the Caledonian main line was blocked at Harthorpe on Beattock Bank owing to the disastrous fire on the 11 am from Birmingham to Glasgow, the southbound "Postal" was diverted from Carstairs to Edinburgh, and came south to Carlisle over the Waverley route, presumably with a double reversal - at Dalry Road Junction and again at Haymarket West junction.  The engine was converted Royal Scott No 46145 .

 

I have not heard of this before.  I believe that the Postal left Aberdeen with 4 TPOs;  how many did it pick up before Carstairs?

 

Norman Blackburn

 

 

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