Riding Yorkshire's Final Steam Trains

by Keith Widdowson

  The 04 20 Manchester Victoria to York eastbound Calder Valley mail train timings. This service was steam worked throughout, changing locomotives at Normanton. Most journeys were made boarding at Hebden Bridge (05 28) and alighting at Normanton (06 50) if a DL took over, Castleford Central (07 15) when the dated Blackpool was running or York (07 50).

  It’s 5 a.m. on the morning of 2 June 1967 and Newton Heath’s Black 5 Derby-built 44822 storms away from Rochdale with the 04 25 Manchester Victoria to York. I was LMR-based that day and after an hour’s wait I caught sister 45083 back into Manchester on the 02 10 ex-York.

  Although the eastbound train was Newton Heath-crewed the provision of power was random. Generally Newton Heath-allocated Black 5s were turned out, but there were weeks on end when either their Liverpool area or Holbeck-allocated sisters broke the monopoly. So now, during our one-and-a-half-hour journey to Normanton, we could attempt to regain some disturbed sleep – after all we had ahead of us a full day’s chasing and energy had to be conserved!

  Opened in 1840, Normanton was once a junction of three railways: the North Midland, the York and North Midland and the Manchester and Leeds, and, even after the 1923 grouping, retained two MPDs (LMS/LNER). Research led me to uncover a somewhat obscure fact about Normanton station. During the early days of the Midland Railway, a table d’hôte menu was handed out at St Pancras soon after a train, destined for Leeds, had departed. At Leicester orders were placed with the station staff who then telegraphed the diners’ requirements to Normanton where the soup would be on the table as passengers poured into the dining room – just twenty minutes being allowed for the entire three courses to be consumed.

  Returning to 1966, after arriving into Normanton at 06 50 the Manchester train was taken forward the 24½ miles to York by whatever was available. For us enthusiasts the variation was looked forward to in anticipation of ‘something rare’ – and we weren’t disappointed. On the eight occasions I was aboard, the Normanton foreman turned out 50As B1s 61019, 61199 and 61319; 55As Black 5s 44857 and 45428 and his own Fairburns 42093 and 42149 and Ivatt 43043. A haulage is a haulage, however short the distance, and just nine minutes later, at Castleford Central, all us weary and hungry travellers alighted and fuelled our empty stomachs with copious quantities of beans on toast at the adjacent bus station canteen. Initially overwhelmed by the sudden surge in demand at that time of the morning the canteen manageress, over the coming weeks, became proficient in preparing vast quantities of beans prior to our arrival. Another first was the then novelty of somewhat fragile plastic knives and forks being provided. I say canteen rather than café, as I believe it should have been for bus crews only although we never had any problems getting served. They probably wanted the extra source of income! We had just fifty minutes for us all to be served because at 08 05 a summer Saturday train departed via Halifax and Copy Pit for Blackpool. This was the sixth catch and to this day I am unsure whether it was booked for one of Wakefield’s two Jubilees or an LMR-resourced locomotive being returned west – more often than not it was the latter.

  In my travels throughout those years all over Britain I was never able to surpass that six-hour six-locomotive itinerary for supply of haulages (although with careful planning the suburban services out of Paris Gare du Nord came a close second!) – nor I suggest did others. As an aside, I understand that with no one bothering to advise the canteen manageress that on Saturday 10 September and thereafter, when the summer dated 08 05 departure for Blackpool ceased to run, she was left with a great amount of cooked beans, there being no requirement to alight at Castleford ever again!

  Normanton’s Ivatt Mogul 43141 struggles to move a heavy freight at her home depot’s yard on 23 July 1966 – the Doncaster-built 15-year-old being withdrawn that October.

  The 46-year-old Armstrong Whitworth built 0-8-0 Q6 63420 runs light engine (LE) outside her home depot of Normanton on 31 August 1966 – being withdrawn in February 1967 at Tyne Dock.

  The Newton Heath Black 5 had come off the 04 25 from Manchester Victoria here at Normanton and the foreman, always seemingly struggling to find adequate replacement power, supplied 19-year-old Doncaster-built B1 61019 Nilghia for the remaining 24½ miles to her home depot of York. The date was 27 August 1966 and she was to be withdrawn seven months hence.

  My first encounter of this scenario was on Saturday 16 July, a day after a controversial ban on black workers at Euston station was overturned, and all went to plan reaping runs with one Jubilee, two B1s and three Black 5s. The second attempt the following week, however, did not. The 02 00 from Sheffield, with 45675 Hardy at the helm, suffered a thirty-minute signal stand seemingly in the middle of nowhere en route to Normanton and the Manchester train was not held. There were twenty-eight enthusiasts present (a census was held on the Sheffield service during the delay) and having wandered around Normanton station we discovered that a BSK sitting in a bay platform formed a 04 25 for Rochdale (unadvertised beyond Wakefield), which we duly ‘invaded’ – at least it was out of the cold. In due course Wakefield-allocated Fairburn 42204 materialised out of the darkness, initially to provide welcome heat before then taking us the 3 miles to Wakefield Kirkgate where we changed onto the 05 15 to TV chat show host Michael Parkinson’s hometown of Barnsley. None of us had ever caught this train before and the forty-odd minutes (04 32 to 05 15) spent loitering, in hope, at the deserted Wakefield Kirkgate station must have seemed, to an outsider, as a gathering of some cult organisation. You never knew what you were going to catch back then and on this occasion the earlier disappointment of missed trains now turned into elation. Yet another one-coach train was invaded and with Wakefield-allocated Ivatt 4MT Mogul 43070 (why did it have to be one that I’d had previously but new to all my mates?) in charge for the 11-mile journey I would think that the train never had been, or was ever again, so well patronised!

  On 23 July 1966 the six-locomotive Calder Valley bash fell down because of late running (see text) and we (all twenty-eight of us!) ended up on the one-coach 05 15 Wakefield Kirkgate to Barnsley. Having run round her train, Wakefield’s Flying Pig 43070 readies herself for the return 06 10 departure from Barnsley. She was to be transferred to Blyth from where withdrawal came in September 1967. (Alan (Nobby) Hayes)

  Luckily not being challenged by officialdom with respect to ticket validity during the thirty-minute turnaround the ‘Flying Pig’ duly returned us to Wakefield Kirkgate where, with just six minutes to wait, we picked up the 04 20 ex-Manchester and normality returned to our plans. I remembered afterwards that it had been detailed in Roger’s book, but an isolated working, involving many hours festering on stations, not necessarily guaranteeing steam had been disregarded. As the summer of ’66 wore on and word got around about this succession of catches the extraordinarily crowded scenes on these essentially mail trains, on which just one BSK was provided for passengers, had to be seen to be believed. The only method of securing one of the few seats on the westbound Manchester service at Normanton was to alight of the Sheffield train before it had come to a stand and race across the platform, a scene which surely in this day and age would have provided wonderful YouTube footage (it was after all at 3 a.m. when most sensible people were in bed!) – and only then sending one of the party up front to see what was to haul us on into the night! Slowly but surely the remaining locomotive numbers – those that weren’t blacked out indicating withdrawal – in my Ian Allan ABC were no longer isolated redlined entries but several unbroken rows indicative of a seasoned traveller.

  Although showing a 56D (Mirfield) smokebox shed plate I think Low Moor had already acquired Stanier 4-6-0 44694 as the LCGB Bulletin showed her being transferred there within weeks. The date was 31 August 1966 and she is seen at Bradford Exchange with the 15 05 portion for Wakefield.

  After 23 July, having obtained runs with all the NER-allocated Jubilees, other parts of Britain were visited and it wasn’t until the final Saturday in August that I was once again ‘doing the circuit’, having paid my last respects to
the ex-GC route by arriving into Sheffield Victoria with Tyseley-allocated 44865 on the 19 15 ex-Swindon at a conveniently connecting 00 51 – into the 02 00 departure out of Sheffield Midland. I had deliberately caught this train because it was the only one covering the ex-GC route north of Nottingham (closing the following week) booked for steam traction. Having travelled out of the Midland station on the 02 00 departure it was nearly another miss at Normanton as the Sheffield train arrived into at 03 08 – just a two-minute connection!

  Two more namers, B1s 61022 Sassaby and 61019 Nilgai, were caught on that particular occasion, and as some of the summer-dated services had ceased running, having partaken once again in the Castleford beanfest, I went over to the still steam-saturated LMR. Four days later, on Wednesday 31 August, saw the commencement of a four-nighter and after the aperitif of the Hebden Bridge bash one final concerted effort regarding services out of Bradford and Leeds was made. This involved a lot of toing and froing between the two Bradford termini of Forster Square and Exchange together with the Leeds counterparts of City and Central stations. I never noted where and when (cafes, station refreshment rooms, chippies?) my appetite was sated – Bradford had yet to receive the accolade of being the curry capital of Britain, that dish never being on offer back then. Much shoe leather and energy was used that day – monitoring as many arrivals and departures as feasible eventually yielded seven further 2-6-4Ts on the portion workings. This figure included one of the few remaining Stanier Tanks, 42622, and a Huddersfield Hillhouses (a shed without any booked passenger duties) allocated 42141 on The Yorkshire Pullman out of Bradford Exchange.

  Extracts from my notebook.

  Thoroughly satisfied with my catches, I departed the NER once more on the 22 00 Bradford/Huddersfield continuing my pursuit of steam on the LMR on the final weekend of the summer-dated services that year. Spending the next three nights at Crewe, Preston and Wigan waiting rooms I was to eventually collect runs with forty-three different locomotives from nine classes totalling 983 miles – happy days! With the commencement of the winter timetable the 02 00 Sheffield went diesel and the Castleford/Blackpool ceased running – the never-to-be-repeated six in a row was now down to four.

  11

  ALL ABOARD THE RAIL TOURS

  I WAS TO travel aboard a total of seven rail tours that traversed NER metals – details are as follows:

  The Crab Commemorative Rail Tour – Saturday 8 October 1966

  Riddles WD 8F 2-8-0 90076 – Wakefield Kirkgate (dep. 13 59) (via Applehurst Junction) to Goole = 32 miles.

  LMS Hughes 5MT 2-6-0 42942 – Goole (via Knottingly) to Wakefield Kirkgate (arr. 17 11) = 27 miles.

  This LCGB-organised tour originated at Liverpool Exchange and used representatives from two classes of steam locomotives I had never travelled with. Never working passenger services, one of Wakefield’s ‘Dub-dee’s’, 90076, worked the outward leg to Goole while 42942, one of the last surviving Birkenhead-allocated ‘Crab’s’ returned the train westwards. A most rewarding hour or so was spent wandering around Goole shed photographing its allocation of WD 2-8-0s at close quarters – without the slightest interference from high-visibility-vest-wearing officialdom – no chance of that today! The day had started well with the Hebden Bridge bash (truncated at Sowerby Bridge due to late running) finishing with one of Normanton’s Fairburn tanks, 42149, taking me into York – I never did get the other! After the tour’s arrival back into Wakefield Kirkgate we walked over to the Westgate station where 56A turned out Bolton-allocated 44927 for the 18 25 portion to Bradford – the day being rounded off nicely with a ‘namer’ on the 22 00 for Huddersfield B1 in the form of 61030 Nyala. Six required locos, two new classes and loads of new track – could it get any better? (It did – 9D turned out a required 44845 for the 00 14 portion Stalybridge to Manchester Exchange on the way home!)

  The rail-tour tickets and free passes used for my travels.

  The front cover of The Crab Commemorative Rail Tour brochure – operated on Saturday 8 October 1966.

  The September ’66 Railway World advert for the tour.

  A far from usual (i.e. spruced up!) WD 2-8-0 was used for the tour on 8 October 1966. Wakefield-allocated 90076 is seen at Goole having worked the tour the 32 miles from her home depot – she was to be transferred away from Wakefield upon that shed’s closure in June 1967, to West Hartlepool, ending her days three months later.

  We were able to wander at will in those far away days of non-health and safety around Goole depot and life-long resident WD 90094 was captured in camera.

  An imposing view from ground level of Goole’s 1943-built WD 90030 seen at rest – being withdrawn after twenty-four years’ service in April 1967.

  The celebrity, for which the tour was run, Hughes-designed Crewe-built 34-year-old LMS 42942, awaits the departure from Goole with the return trip to Liverpool. A total of 245 of these LMS 5F ‘Crabs’ were built but by October ’66 a mere twelve remained – seven in the Ayrshire coalfield and five, including this one, at Birkenhead. She was one of the final two being withdrawn that December.

  Extract from notebook.

  The Mercian Rail Tour – Sunday 16 April 1967

  E3103 Euston to Stockport Edgeley = 189½ miles.

  LNER Gresley K4 6MT 2-6-0 3442 The Great Marquess (BR’s 61994 – withdrawn in 1961) Stockport Edgeley to Leeds Central (via Manchester Victoria, Bolton Trinity Street, Blackburn, Colne, Skipton and Keighley) = 88¾ miles.

  LMS Stanier 5MT 4-6-0 45377 (assistance) Bolton Trinity Street to Blackburn = 13¾ miles.

  LMS Ivatt 2MT 2-6-2T 41241 (withdrawn December 1966) on Haworth branch = 4 miles.

  LNER Gresley 8P A3 4-6-2 4472 (BR’s 60103 – withdrawn January 1963) Leeds Central to Kings Cross (arr. 21 58) = 185¾ miles.

  This Epsom Railway Society-sponsored rail tour used three preserved steam locomotives – Viscount Garnock’s K4 3442, the embryonic Keighley & Worth Valley Railway’s (K&WVR) Mickey Tank 41241 and Alan Pegler’s 4472. It had been planned that a trip over K&WVR metals would take place, but the necessary Light Railway Order had yet to be granted. We were all bussed from Keighley to/from Haworth where a 4-mile ‘shunt’ along what was available took place. I also ‘cabbed’ the star of The Railway Children film – 80-year-old Lancashire & Yorkshire (L&Y) 0-6-0 Ironclad 957. Originally shown to travel via Leeds City and change locomotives at Wakefield, the changeover between the K4 and the A3 actually took place at the soon-to-be-closed Leeds Central. Another two classes of steam locomotives were scratched!

  A mere five LNER 6MT 2-6-0 Gresley-designed K4s were built. Here, at Blackburn on 16 April 1967, the now privately-owned 1938 Darlington-built 6MT 61994 (painted up with her LNER number of 3442) The Great Marquess, withdrawn at Thornton Junction in 1961, readies herself for the haul over Copy Pit en route to Leeds.

  The Mercian organisers had advertised a run over the embryonic Keighley & Worth Valley Railway, but the necessary Light Railway Order hadn’t been authorised by the date of the tour. The participants were therefore bussed to Haworth where ‘Mickey Tank’ 41241, withdrawn at Skipton the previous December, shuttled us along what was available. A total of 130 of these Ivatt-designed 2-6-2T locomotives were built and distributed throughout all the regions of BR – this one fortunately surviving into preservation. Here we see her on a visit to The Watercress Line in Hampshire where, coupled with sister 41312, she departs from Ropley on 13 September 2008.

  The Three Dales Rail Tour – Saturday 20 May 1967

  BR Peppercorn K1 6MT 2-6-0 – Stockton (dep. 10 17) via Northallerton, Redmire, Catterick Camp and Richmond to Darlington (arr. 15 50) = 112¼ miles. Top and tailed with Sulzer Type 2 D5160 – Northallerton (via Redmire) to Darlington = 58¼ miles.

  Yorkshire was by this date becoming a desert for both steam followers and football followers alike in 1967. The Bradford portions had ceased that April, the FA Cup being played out by two London clubs (Tottenham 2 Chelsea 1) and the four division championships being won by Manchester United, Coven
try City, Queens Park Rangers and Stockport County respectively. The one highlight, for the former, was this Stephenson Locomotive Society organised tour utilising 62005, one of the half-dozen remaining K1s. Formed of just six vehicles I thoroughly enjoyed the near six-hour tour that travelled over many freight-only branches, and with speeds never exceeding 40mph I had ample opportunity for viewing the picturesque Dales – the highlight being, perhaps, a circuit around the Catterick Camp Military Railway. Prior to the rail tour I had naturally partaken of the Hebden Bridge aperitif of steam after which, when passing through York en route to Stockton to pick up the tour, I espied one of the twenty-strong class of BR 2-6-0 3MTs, 77012 outside the shed – together with several condemned B1s. By alighting at Darlington in the afternoon and travelling over to Carlisle, I rounded off the weekend with 73 miles of Brit ‘fix’ into Scotland. Recommended background reading on organising a rail tour such as this can be viewed on the North Eastern Locomotive Preservation Group’s website (www.nelpg.org.uk) where a ‘Memories of the Day’ article by Maurice Burns details the traumas and difficulties in securing the necessary authorisation to operate over lines no longer catering for steam locomotives.

  The front cover of the Three Dales Rail Tour pamphlet – operated on Saturday 20 May 1967.