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Flying Scotsman back on the mainline - 2016


colin penfold

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Raced through Lancaster. Looks like there is a path tomorrow for a test run.

 

There's a regular path in for test runs from Carnforth Steamtown - but only used as required. 5M51 Carnforth-Hellifield and return or 5M50 Carnforth-Hellifield-Blackburn-Preston-Carnforth.

The out and back is usually a diesel test, the full circular is normally steam.

 

However, they do amend these at very short notice.

 

Cheers,

Mick

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I have very limited memories of BR steam, and I'm 60 now. If BR mainline steam ran its last in 1968, with most of it ending in 1965/6 then anyone who can actually remember it must have clear memories of that time; so I would say anyone who actually remembers steam working would now be at least 60 and probably over 65 years of age.

 

I'd be curious to know what the last steam working, actually was. An entry on Wikipedia, quoting the steam stock list as at 31/12/1967 shows 359 locos still in service, of which 150-odd were ex-LMS Black 5s, a similar number of ex-LMS 8F 2-8-0 and 50 or so various "Standards". All are shown as based on LM Region, most on freight working in the NW.

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I have very limited memories of BR steam, and I'm 60 now. If BR mainline steam ran its last in 1968, with most of it ending in 1965/6 then anyone who can actually remember it must have clear memories of that time; so I would say anyone who actually remembers steam working would now be at least 60 and probably over 65 years of age.

 

I'd be curious to know what the last steam working, actually was. An entry on Wikipedia, quoting the steam stock list as at 31/12/1967 shows 359 locos still in service, of which 150-odd were ex-LMS Black 5s, a similar number of ex-LMS 8F 2-8-0 and 50 or so various "Standards". All are shown as based on LM Region, most on freight working in the NW.

I can remember back to the age of 2, I won't tell you what year, but my mother was in hospital after giving birth to my brother in the year we won the World Cup.....

I have one memory of seeing a steam engine sometime just after this, when my father held me up to see it (in the distance) over my uncles garden fence - I would love to know what it was (from the location it must have just come over Parkhead Viaduct in Dudley).

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Steam was certainly running in Nelson (Lancs) in 1966. I used to sit on the playing fields at secondary school watching them running past with coal trains and shunting them in Chaffers Sidings. WDs, 8Fs and black fives spring to mind, probably from Rose Grove.

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I have very limited memories of BR steam, and I'm 60 now. If BR mainline steam ran its last in 1968, with most of it ending in 1965/6 then anyone who can actually remember it must have clear memories of that time; so I would say anyone who actually remembers steam working would now be at least 60 and probably over 65 years of age.

 

I'd be curious to know what the last steam working, actually was. An entry on Wikipedia, quoting the steam stock list as at 31/12/1967 shows 359 locos still in service, of which 150-odd were ex-LMS Black 5s, a similar number of ex-LMS 8F 2-8-0 and 50 or so various "Standards". All are shown as based on LM Region, most on freight working in the NW.

 

Without looking, I think the last steam working of a scheduled service was around the Preston area, with a Black 5 complete with blue.grey Mk1's in the train.

 

Not yet 55 and memories of being dragged round Lostock Hall, Rose Grove and Carnforth with my Dad and big brother. One of the last steam worked goods trip services was outside ny house with 8F's, Black 5's and Standard 4's.

I even saw the 15 Guinea Special in both directions. 70013 in all her (his?) glory.

 

Back on-topic. A trip to see 4472 at Manchester Victoria on it's UK tour before it's world tour in 1968 is still clear in my memory as I was allowed to pull the whistle cord.........

 

Cheers,

Mick

p.s. I guess I'm one of the few as I don't model what I remember, but what I can see now.

Edited by newbryford
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Steam officially finished in the West Midlands with the closure of Snow Hill in March 1967. .

I must have been very young then, but I definitely remember the event - the train must have come via Dudley station, and been heading towards Brierley Hill (Round Oak??)

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On 3 August 1968, the last British Rail scheduled passenger train to be hauled by a standard gauge steam locomotive ended its journey at Liverpool Exchange, Stanier 'Black 5' No. 45318 having hauled from Preston the Liverpool portion of the evening Glasgow to Liverpool and Manchester train.

 

Brit15

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I can recall steam in Devon, pretty vague though as I was about 4, and also working coal out to Portishead when I was at school in Bristol. My memory is of 8F's being in charge but I'm not certain. That would have been mid to late 60's. The trains were, as I recall, 16T minerals. The sidings at the back of the sports field (which was on the A369 at Ashton Gate and is now occupied by Bedminster Cricket Club) the school used also housed a quite large number of vans.

 

I also have a recollection of steam across the Cumberland Basin bridge by the bonded warehouses.

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Latest update from Mr Riley at 8pm last night.

 

"60103 safely delivered to Carnforth, hauled by diesel power under a 'transit move' certificate. Once full certification 'To Test' is received, the light and loaded test runs can be instigated........"

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I have very limited memories of BR steam, and I'm 60 now. If BR mainline steam ran its last in 1968, with most of it ending in 1965/6 then anyone who can actually remember it must have clear memories of that time; so I would say anyone who actually remembers steam working would now be at least 60 and probably over 65 years of age.

My dad is, erm, 68 I think and occasionally talks about going spotting when he was young. In fact the main reason why I bought the model of Alberta was because he grumbled about seeing it all the time, so when I saw the model in a shop I had to buy it. My (fraction of a) layout needs a Jubilee anyway, so that works out.

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Many thanks Richard E, your post has kept me dry. Had it been Scotsman I might have nipped out with my camera, but its pouring down, blowing a gale and I've got lots of pics of the 8F, so I'll stay in.

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Steam was about for 26 of my years. Half-cab buses, my other interest, for a few years longer. I worked on BR Parcels at 17, moved to footplate work aged 18 and on the buses aged 19, so I had a well-rounded childhood... :biggrin_mini2:

 

And talking of Flying Scotsman, I filmed it climbing to Conwy on five-beats per revolution in 1991. There were four even beats and one large wooooof!

Edited by coachmann
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62 and clear memories of steam. Used to go regularly to Grantham before 1963, first with my mother then with a group of friends. After steam finished on the ECML, headed off to Crewe clear memory of SNG tearing out of the station on it's first run in preservation, showing the western side how it should be done! Used to come home via Birmingham, went wrong once when I got on a train to Lichfield instead of Leicester. Got home at nearly midnight, parents were a tad concerned.

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Steam officially finished in the West Midlands with the closure of Snow Hill in March 1967. .

 

My last steam sighting was in 1967 on the Birmingham Coventry line, a light engine 9F, very unusual by then as the wires were up.

 

The year before we had two Black 5s on the Royal train with two more following behind light engine.

 

I reckon the class 47s arrived on the scene in the West Midlands around 1965 and that's when steam pretty much disappeared on the Coventry line.

 

Even then it had been down to two or three freights during daylight and the odd peak commuter working.

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I reckon the class 47s arrived on the scene in the West Midlands around 1965 and that's when steam pretty much disappeared on the Coventry line.

Sounds familiar. It was those, arriving from late summer 1962, which had put the final nail in the coffin of GN steam out of Kings Cross by the following June.

 

The Nim.

Edited by Nimbus
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My last steam sighting was in 1967 on the Birmingham Coventry line, a light engine 9F, very unusual by then as the wires were up.

 

The year before we had two Black 5s on the Royal train with two more following behind light engine.

 

I reckon the class 47s arrived on the scene in the West Midlands around 1965 and that's when steam pretty much disappeared on the Coventry line.

 

Even then it had been down to two or three freights during daylight and the odd peak commuter working.

47s from the Brush built batch D1682 onwards started appearing at Oxley around December the end of 1963. They started taking over the trains to Paddington early in 1964 and quickly displaced the Westerns from most services.

 

The demise of steam on LNW lines came mainly with the extension of the wires south of Crewe. by 1964 plenty of Class 40s became spare and took over most of the remaining Birmingham - London services. Other services were usually Class 24s or steam.

 

At that time daily NE-SW services at New St were largely in the hands of Class 45s. Dated and additional trains were often steam.

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