Riding Yorkshire's Final Steam Trains

by Keith Widdowson

  Attention back there! Having just completed a circuit of the Catterick Military railway, Blyth-allocated K1 62005 is seen at the photographic stop of Catterick Bridge while working The Three Dales Rail Tour on 20 May 1967. This 1949-built K1 was the very last steam locomotive to be withdrawn on the NER (at Holbeck in December 1967) having been selected for preservation.

  Here we see K1 62005 coupled with Sulzer Type 2 D5160, provided for top-and-tailing purposes to avoid numerous run rounds at the various termini, at Redmire – the truncated terminus of the route over the Pennines to Garsdale née Hawes Junction. Redmire, having lost its passenger services way back in 1954, reopened in 2004 courtesy of the Wensleydale Railway preservationists who run trains over the 16-mile section to Leeming Bar.

  Another scene from the Three Dales Rail Tour sees the K1 Mogul at the subsequently conserved station of Richmond (albeit as a cinema/heritage centre) – the Beeching axe ensuring that it was to lose its services in 1969.

  The Ashington Rail Tour – Saturday 10 June 1967

  LMS Stanier 5MT 4-6-0 45428 Wakefield Kirkgate (dep. 08 57) to York = 27½ miles.

  LMS 6P5F Jubilee 45562 Alberta York (via Leamside, Newcastle and Percy Main) to Ashington = 102¼ miles.

  NCB 0-6-0ST 39 Ashington Colliery circuit = 4 miles.

  45562 Alberta Ashington (via Heaton, Newcastle, & Stockton) to York = 103½ miles.

  45428 York to Wakefield Kirkgate (arr. 21 26) = 27½ miles.

  This was a jointly organised tour between the SLS and the Manchester Locomotive Society. Ex-Farnley Junction Black 5 45428 had become a Holbeck ‘pet’ during the final months of NER steam and was turned out polished to the nines. Alberta was similarly treated and with only four Jubilees remaining any run with one was worth the effort. The northbound route, via Leamside, was that of the original East Coast route – superseded in 1872 when the more direct route that we nowadays know as the present ECML was opened. This route, having lost its passenger services in 1964, was mothballed in 1991 and is currently being considered for reopening, the ECML expected to reach capacity point by 2018.

  The novelty trip around the Ashington colliery (the unofficial capital of the Northumbrian coalfield) was temporarily marred by the loss of my spectacles – they being posted to my home a week later by considerate officials at the National Coal Board. Procol Harum’s A Whiter Shade of Pale was topping the charts back then and, as a novel way of keeping awake during the obligatory Hebden Bridge bash undertaken during the early hours of that day, strains of ‘skipped the light fandango’ were to be heard!

  Upon arrival into Normanton 61388 was backed onto the 04 25 ex-Manchester to take the train forward to York. Always grateful for a run with a B1, I have to say that when she was failed by the driver and replaced with Holbeck’s 44857 I was selfishly pleased. Why so? I had already had a run with the B1 – but not with the Black 5!

  Although the tour started and finished at Huddersfield, by alighting at Wakefield Kirkgate on the return journey, a 14½-mile run with a required Low Moor-allocated 42252, she having been displaced at Tebay by the influx of BR 4MT 75xxxs, was enjoyed to Huddersfield on the once-a-day unusually routed 22 04 portion to Bradford (via Huddersfield/Halifax). Was that the end of my travels that weekend? With the cessation of SR steam fast approaching I think not – a day trip to Bournemouth being enjoyed and finally reaching home after fifty-four hours on the go.

  The Ashington Rail Tour on Saturday 10 June 1967 had Holbeck-allocated Black 5 45428 working the train from Wakefield Kirkgate to here at York. This ex-Farnley Junction Black 5 had worked the Royal train to Nidd Bridge the previous month and was subsequently sent out on all prestige duties – surviving until the NER cull that October.

  The incongruous mix of an express steam locomotive in coal siding! Having brought the tour the 102 miles down the ECML and through Newcastle, 45562 Alberta is seen at the NCB colliery of Ashington.

  The Northumbrian colliery of Ashington on 10 June 1967 and NCB 0-6-0ST 39 readies herself for a 4-mile circuit of the coal mine’s railway system. The comparison of the ‘comfortable’ BR Mark 1 coaching stock with the single compartmented miners’ accommodation can be easily seen.

  Similar to Goole the previous year we were able to wander freely throughout the complex. Here 0-6-0ST 3 contains a full footplate with three of my travelling friends from those halcyon days – Andrew (Clackers) Clarke, Graham (Jock) Aitkin and Bob (Doze) Thompson. Whether we liked it or not we were all given nicknames; mine, because of my large sideboards and occasional moustache, was Keith (Wild Bill) Widdowson as I was being likened to the American cowboy lawman/gunfighter Wild Bill Hickok.

  The Preservation Special – Saturday 28 October 1967

  LMS Stanier 5MT 4-6-0 45411 Stockport Edgeley (dep. 11 20) to Manchester Victoria = 7 miles.

  Riddles BR 7P6F 4-6-2 Britannia 70013 Oliver Cromwell Manchester Victoria (via Hebden Bridge, Penistone, Sheffield Victoria & Doncaster) to Normanton = 117 miles.

  LMS Stanier 6P5F Jubilee 45562 Alberta Normanton (via Halifax & New Pudsey) to Normanton = 47¾ miles.

  70013 Oliver Cromwell Normanton (via Kirkstall & Skipton) to Rose Grove = 54½ miles.

  Riddles BR 5MT 4-6-0 73040 Rose Grove (via Blackburn) to Manchester Victoria (arr. 21 38) = 34¼ miles.

  Although no photographs were taken whilst aboard the Preservation Special of 28 October 1967, I had travelled with one of the locomotives used on the day, Britannia 70013 Oliver Cromwell, thirteen days earlier. Selected for eventual preservation, she is seen taking water at Hellifield while working the Kingmoor Rail Tour on 15 October 1967.

  This jointly organised tour (Severn Valley Railway Society/Manchester Rail Travel Society) started and finished at Birmingham New Street. All steam locomotives barring Jubilee 45562 Alberta, K1 62005 and a dozen or so 8Fs at Royston had gone from the NER by this date and I was aboard this tour possibly lured by the original booking of an 8F on the circular routing of the train through West Riding. No notes were made at the time as my disappointment/joy of once again having a final run with Alberta – in place of a guaranteed required 8F! She hadn’t been used for three weeks (having been stored at Holbeck) and was to be withdrawn seven days later.

  A4 to Edinburgh – Saturday 4 November 1967

  LNER Gresley 8P 4-6-2 60019 Bittern Leeds (dep. 08 45) to Edinburgh (arr. 13 34) = 230¼ miles.

  Having let go the A3 at Newcastle in August ’64 on an Edinburgh train the massive void of ECML track over which I hadn’t covered with steam was sated on this day by this rail tour organised by The Railway Correspondence & Travel Society (RCTS). Bittern had been withdrawn at Aberdeen in September 1966 and was privately preserved, being owned by Geoff Drury. I had covered the Calder Valley services for the first time since the 1 October cull, catching just one steam, the 03 32 Leeds/Halifax/Hebden Bridge (a non-required 9D-allocated 45203 to boot!), the eastbound mails having gone diesel. After the tour I returned south, travelling over the wonderfully scenic 98¼-mile Waverley route, to Carlisle. Since the winter timetable change that September there were no booked regular steam passenger services over Shap, or indeed would ever be, and it wasn’t until arrival that evening into Preston that my steam-starved day improved – catching the subsequently preserved ‘Flying Pig’ 43106 on a Blackpool portion.

  With the last of the class being withdrawn in Scotland the previous summer the now privately owned A4 60019 Bittern was used on The A4 to Edinburgh Rail Tour on Saturday 4 November 1967 – seen here at Newcastle. She was one of thirty-four Doncaster-built LNER Gresley-designed 4-6-2 Pacifics used on the crack expresses over the ECML, one of which, Mallard, holds the world record for the fastest recorded speed with a steam locomotive: 126½mph. Most of the class were equipped with corridor tenders thus allowing the crew to change over without stopping. It was this very platform, readers might recall, that three and a half years previously I had failed to appreciate the significance of travelling with steam over the Scottish border by letting A3 60112 St Simon head nor
th without me aboard – an error rectified this day.

  Preservation Special No. 2 – Saturday 27 April 1968

  As this was my very last steam incursion into BR’s Eastern (née North Eastern) Region I have included the details within the final chapter (15).

  12

  BRIEF ENCOUNTERS

  NO THIS CHAPTER isn’t about Carnforth, the scene of the Brief Encounter film – my exploits over the WCML are held over for another book! Having completed the task set by myself of catching runs with all of the NER Jubilees quicker than anticipated, 23 July 1966, my interest in the West Riding steam scene waned somewhat. That summer was spent predominantly living on steam trains the length and breadth of Britain. At just over 35,000 steam miles 1966 was to prove my highest yearly total ever. Whilst admitting about a half of that was on SR metals, considerably assisted by holding a ‘privilege’ season ticket between London and Southampton, the LMR’s WCML steam services provided a healthy contribution. That area thus became the draw for the remainder of that summer – hunting down and catching runs with the remaining required Britannias being my next mission. I did, however, make occasional ‘brief encounters’ over the NER, as follows.

  Until the November of 1966 a somewhat unique working of a Low Moor tank was diagrammed to work the three-coach 15 20 Bradford Exchange to Stockport Edgeley – together with the balancing 19 35 return. The westbound train called at Halifax, Brighouse, Huddersfield and Stalybridge. The eastbound evening working, while calling at all the above, also had set-down only stops at Saddleworth, Marsden, Slaithwaite, Golcar and Longwood – ‘for passengers from south of Crewe upon notice given to the guard at Stockport’. Although having sometimes, after a long day bashing in West Riding, often boarded the return working at Halifax, it wasn’t until 3 September when, at the end of a four-nighter, I caught the 45-mile journey in its entirety with one of the seemingly two regular Fairburns used on the train – 42116. Ominously my returning one-coach train, the 22 00 Bradford/Huddersfield, was (over) powered by English Electric Type 3 D271 – was this yet another train gone over to DL operation, I wondered at the time? Fortunately, as can be noted further on in this chapter, it appeared to have been a one-off. The novelty, to me, of a tank locomotive journey over the Pennines was thoroughly enjoyed and, having ascertained that a not-required Brit (70010) was booked out of Crewe on the 18 25 Barrow departure some seven weeks later I repeated the itinerary – on that occasion with 56F’s 42184.

  Upon arrival into Bradford that evening I was presented with a dilemma. The 21 25 Wakefield portion had 56A’s B1 61123 on it – the 22 00 Huddersfield had 45197 on it. I required both and the persuasive factor in taking the 22 00 option was that had I gone with the B1 I would have arrived into Kings Cross at the unearthly hour of 03 26 – the prospect of a walk across London (before any transport had started up) failing to appeal to a weary traveller. By taking the 22 00 and connecting into the Manchester portion off of the TPO together with a Standard Caprotti on the sleepers coupled with a more sociable arrival into London at 06 20 was enough to sway me to that alternative. Although, figuratively speaking I made the correct decision at the time (catching three requirements vice one en route home) I lost out on the B1. I was never destined to have a run with her – she being transferred to York weeks later and withdrawn the following May.

  Two weeks later, on 5 November – the Four Tops having knocked Jim Reeves’ Distant Drums off the top spot with their Reach Out I’ll be There, a repeat scenario, i.e. Brit 10 on the Barrow – saw me once again making my way to Stockport for a third occasion. Starting away from Stockport over the lengthy twenty-seven-arched viaduct straddling the ex-Cheshire Line Committee’s Tiviot Dale line the first half mile, to Heaton Norris, was uniquely ‘under the wires’. After then, having negotiated our way through the many eastern Mancunian suburbs to Stalybridge, the journey really took off. This crossing of the Pennines was the fifth, out of twelve, and was completed by the LNWR in 1848. Ascending the 1-in-125 incline towards the infamous Saddleworth Moor, the rugged limestone ridge prominent in the night sky, for nearly 2 miles the Fairburn tank certainly let all nearby know she was coming – her exhaust resonating off the hillsides. With many of the occupants of the clusters of houses that nestled in the hollows at the foot of these hills celebrating Guy Fawkes Night – the smoke and glow from a great number of bonfires, together with the rockets/debris being sent up into the sky, harmonised aptly with 42116’s (again!) exertions.

  Gradient profile over the Pennines – Stalybridge to Huddersfield.

  All the main arteries of communication – road, river, canal – ran side by side through the textile townships en route. Magnificent cotton mills, often described as dark and satanic, loomed out of the blackness – as a reminder to the passer-by of the inhabitants’ contribution to the industrial revolution. You had to have been there to witness the scene: reflections of the tank’s fire in her billowing ear-splitting exhaust being observed from the obligatory window-hanging position in the leading coach.

  Storming away from the station stops on and on she climbed, eventually after nearly 7 gruelling miles, entering the second longest tunnel through the Pennines – that of the 3-mile 60-yard-long Standedge tunnel. Only then could I sit back and wipe the smut and grit off my face, luckily on this occasion not getting anything in my eyes. Exiting the tunnel at Marsden it was downhill the 7 miles into Huddersfield – both of us (enthusiast and crew) no doubt suffering from partial hearing loss. In this hobby of mine you sometimes chance across being in the right place at the right time and I was completely unaware that it was the last occasion – the train going DMU the following Monday. It was utterly memorable and rounded off by recently reallocated, ex-Trafford Park, Stanier tank 42574 returning me to Huddersfield on the (as ever) conveniently connecting 22 00 departure. This train, a service upon which I relied to exit from Yorkshire homeward-bound on many an occasion, didn’t appear in the following year’s timetable – presumably being either vans only or completely cancelled.

  The following year, having concentrated on the demise of SR steam until the July, the majority of the summer was once again spent on LMR metals. On one particular July Sunday morning, having jumped aboard a double-headed Black 5 powered Paignton/Glasgow ‘adex’ at Wigan, assuming it called at Preston, I found myself effectively stranded at Carlisle (its first stop!) at 03 30 in the morning. With no trains back south for many hours and the adex having been taken forward by DL, rescue came, albeit one-and-a-half hours later, in the form of Brit 70024 Venus. At 5 a.m. she took over a relief ex-St Pancras via the G&SW route and Dalry the 127 miles to Glasgow. It was a gloriously sunny Sunday morning and although taking me in the opposite direction to that intended, because by then steam incursions over the border were becoming rare, I sat back and enjoyed the moment. So after arrival into Glasgow Central at 08 08, and having missed a southbound WCML service back to the smoke, after a hurried perusal of the ever-present saltire-blue-covered Scottish timetable (no wonder my case was always heavy!) I surmised the quickest way south was to walk over to Glasgow’s Queen Street station and head to Edinburgh for the 10 00 Kings Cross departure via the ECML – hence the inclusion of this journey in a book about the NER! What a wonderful trip that train turned out to be. With Deltic D9017 The Durham Light Infantry in charge a right-time departure was made but, resulting from a derailment at the Northumbrian station of Ackington, we were diverted over the Waverley route via Hawick to Carlisle then on via Hexham – regaining the booked route at Newcastle. Not having had anything to sate my hunger over the preceding twenty-four hours, I was famished and, after counting my pennies, treated myself to a meal in the restaurant car. As for timekeeping the eventual 427-mile journey, no doubt resulting from lax Sunday schedules, brought me into Kings Cross a mere sixty-one minutes late at 18 11 hours.

  The next brief encounter was on Friday 18 August when, perhaps having viewed a common, i.e. not required Carnforth Black 5 on the 20 55 Belfast Boat Express departure out of Manches
ter Victoria, we caught the 21 05 Trans-Pennine service over to Huddersfield, connecting with the 22 33 for Bradford Exchange – worked that night by Low Moor’s 42141. This was a portion off the 18 53 ex-Kings Cross that had been detached at Wakefield Kirkgate and routed via Huddersfield and Halifax – and was running over half an hour late. Having noted the recently transferred (from Hull Dairycoates) B1 61306 while passing the now recoded Low Moor shed (55J), we arrived into Bradford Exchange at 23 46. After a minor altercation, the ticket barrier staff who, upon viewing our Weymouth-to-Perth free passes, stressed the fact we were well off route, escorted us onto the 23 55 Kings Cross departure – the very train we were planning to catch anyway. We had pleaded ignorance of the portion working and promised to continue our journey to Perth from Doncaster. Black 5 44694 worked this Friday-only dated train the 9½ miles to Leeds City – from where English Electric Type 4 D348 took over. We (Jock and I) had fallen asleep on that short run and, suddenly awakened by some sixth sense while at the Doncaster station stop, I jumped off not realising Jock hadn’t! As I stood on the platform viewing my sleeping friend stretched out in the warm compartment (SR malachite green liveried S855 for those coaching-stock aficionados!) I was never going to let him sleep on to London, a trick sometimes played on fellow ‘unliked’ companions by any one of us (it wasn’t just me!), and after some vigorous thumping on the window a startled Jock joined me outside.

  Deltic D9013 The Black Watch took us back north depositing us at 02 18 at the deserted and partially derelict Wakefield Kirkgate station where we festered for one and a half hours awaiting the York/Manchester mail train. The night was to get worse because, upon the train’s arrival, instead of the expected steam locomotive, Type 3 ‘tractor’ D6947 (transferred in from Wales at the recently opened nearby diesel depot at Healey Mills) was in charge. To compound the disastrous night an extremely common Newton Heath 45203 took over at Halifax. You sometimes wondered if it was all worth it, but fortunately matters improved later that day when visits to Morecambe, Kendal and Blackpool all delivered required steam!