Bon Accord Posted May 3, 2014 Share Posted May 3, 2014 Another weekend and another steam tour in Scotland, although I wasn't travelling on this one. The Inverness-Aberdeen leg of GBVII was scheduled to be handled by 45407/44871, with them handing over to number 9 at Aberdeen. Unfortunately it would seem the tender of one of said Hikers came off the road in Cadder yard, which together with some other problems meant No.9 would be taking this leg of the tour from Inverness to Edinburgh, via Aberdeen, Dundee and Perth. Still, steam in this corner of Scotland is a pretty rare occurrence so I decided to troop down to Aberdeen Joint for a look and a couple of photos, and then jumped on an East Coast HST down to Montrose to try and capture the train there. Interestingly, it would appear the old Ferryhill shed turntable in Aberdeen could be about to return to use after Network Rail granted a lease of said 'table to the Ferryhill Railway Heritage Trust, thus paving the way for its restoration - the table itself is Grade A listed. John Cameron has made no secret of his desire to see his A4 run regular Edinburgh-Aberdeen steam hauled railtours and he's already voiced his support for the project, naturally no.9 would be ideal, as would Bittern and SNG, as all three ended their 'working' lives with BR from Ferryhill shed in that final summer of 1966. No.9 rolls into platform 6 in Aberdeen Joint. The concrete monstrosity behind covers the Northern end of what was once a reasonably open air station, the Northern bays being used for trains to Peterhead/Fraserburgh etc. The old and the not so new at Aberdeen, with an East Coast HST next door. Sadly, there were a few rather selfish photographers around who seemed to think they had a monopoly on all access to the loco within a 20 yard radius. Somewhat different to how it was 48 years ago. The sleeper in the background, at rest in Clayhills carriage sidings. Now to Montrose, still with a few semaphores about, despite the abolition of Montrose South signal box (or cabin, if you're an NB man). Montrose North - seen here - has been retained and modernised with both lines now bi-directional. In terms of rolling stock the new order isn't quite as inspiring as the old, however I suppose 170's aren't too terrible - the Scotrail examples are now fitted with free wifi. Right loco, (almost) right stock, right location, decent weather and still a fair bit of the old railway to be seen, even if the semaphores are new. It doesn't get much better. Alas I wasn't quick enough to get a decent shot as she passed through the station as drifting exhaust was a problem. All the same, I still managed to grab this somewhat meagre 'off the hip' shot of her running past with whistle blowing. She was running well at this point, a few minutes early and doing just what she was designed to do; pulling a fast, lightweight train. As is customary with No.9 there was much whistling to onlookers and photographers and she made a fine sight (and sound) attacking the gradient towards Usan, over the viaducts to the south of Montrose station. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aberbrothock Posted May 4, 2014 Share Posted May 4, 2014 Another weekend and another steam tour in Scotland, although I wasn't travelling on this one. The Inverness-Aberdeen leg of GBVII was scheduled to be handled by 45407/44871, with them handing over to number 9 at Aberdeen. Unfortunately it would seem the tender of one of said Hikers came off the road in Cadder yard, which together with some other problems meant No.9 would be taking this leg of the tour from Inverness to Edinburgh, via Aberdeen, Dundee and Perth. Still, steam in this corner of Scotland is a pretty rare occurrence so I decided to troop down to Aberdeen Joint for a look and a couple of photos, and then jumped on an East Coast HST down to Montrose to try and capture the train there. Interestingly, it would appear the old Ferryhill shed turntable in Aberdeen could be about to return to use after Network Rail granted a lease of said 'table to the Ferryhill Railway Heritage Trust, thus paving the way for its restoration - the table itself is Grade A listed. John Cameron has made no secret of his desire to see his A4 run regular Edinburgh-Aberdeen steam hauled railtours and he's already voiced his support for the project, naturally no.9 would be ideal, as would Bittern and SNG, as all three ended their 'working' lives with BR from Ferryhill shed in that final summer of 1966. No.9 rolls into platform 6 in Aberdeen Joint. The concrete monstrosity behind covers the Northern end of what was once a reasonably open air station, the Northern bays being used for trains to Peterhead/Fraserburgh etc. DSC_0547.JPG The old and the not so new at Aberdeen, with an East Coast HST next door. Sadly, there were a few rather selfish photographers around who seemed to think they had a monopoly on all access to the loco within a 20 yard radius. DSC_0553.JPG Somewhat different to how it was 48 years ago. The sleeper in the background, at rest in Clayhills carriage sidings. DSC_0571.JPG Now to Montrose, still with a few semaphores about, despite the abolition of Montrose South signal box (or cabin, if you're an NB man). Montrose North - seen here - has been retained and modernised with both lines now bi-directional. In terms of rolling stock the new order isn't quite as inspiring as the old, however I suppose 170's aren't too terrible - the Scotrail examples are now fitted with free wifi. DSC_0575.JPG Right loco, (almost) right stock, right location, decent weather and still a fair bit of the old railway to be seen, even if the semaphores are new. It doesn't get much better. DSC_0577.JPG Alas I wasn't quick enough to get a decent shot as she passed through the station as drifting exhaust was a problem. All the same, I still managed to grab this somewhat meagre 'off the hip' shot of her running past with whistle blowing. She was running well at this point, a few minutes early and doing just what she was designed to do; pulling a fast, lightweight train. As is customary with No.9 there was much whistling to onlookers and photographers and she made a fine sight (and sound) attacking the gradient towards Usan, over the viaducts to the south of Montrose station. DSC_0579.JPG Well done Jim I was at the Tesco car park at Dundee at 5.25 to 5.45 pm yesterday, but missed no.9 - probably just a bit later than that - I was torn between helping with the shopping and tracking the final minutes of the Dundee/Dumbarton game - great relief when it all came together for Dundee - just! However, your lovely clear photos made up for all of that. Thank you Ken M (Aberbrothock) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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