30th December 2002

Pathfinder Tours
Settle & Carlisle Excursion

Route:
1Z65 : Derby to Carlisle
1Z66 : Carlisle to Derby 

Notes:
(1) 47805 on rear to provide train heating as D9016's ETH supply had failed on the outward journey.

Source : Steve Cassidy (on the train throughout)

Tour Review
(by "Miggy")

Oh good, Christmas time again and with a work closedown for the first time I needed to find something to do to relieve the boredom. After an afternoon of 333 scratching around Shipley and six hours behind 45135 on ELR covering less than 43 miles, 55016 from Derby to Carlisle and back couldn’t get any less interesting.

A 6am departure from home (nice lie in) saw a 0730 arrival in Derby and the deltic drone could be heard. Coach A was located at the front of the train so all we needed now was the usual Riviera Trains watering farce as on the tour two days earlier, a reversal at Preston and we would be at the front for most of the trip.

On entering coach A it was clear this wasn’t a normal Pathfinder trip, as well as the usual coach A suspects and deltic bashers were hoards of normals including in the front bays, I hope they appreciated the fresh air as the windows were open all the way to Carlisle.

The trip to Crewe was uninspiring due to stopping to pick up, a surprisingly large, number of passengers from the intermediate shacks remembered from the glorious days of 20s on the Derby-Crewe trains of long ago. Between Crewe and Warrington an unscheduled stop on the WCML and an engine shutdown suggested all was not well with 16. At Wigan another unscheduled stop allowed the travelling engineer to rectify 16’s problem by turning off the eth (December 30^th on a train full of normals).

By now we were running about 30 mins late but the enthusiasts were not unhappy, after all what is there to do in Carlisle for 2 hours in July, never mind 4 hours in December?

Parts of the Stagger and Crawl run, resulted in some decent exhaust beats from the front especially the climb to Blea Moor, whist other parts lived up to the lines nickname. Eventually Carlisle was reached and the pub visited for food and liquid to ups.

Whilst there I received a call to say 47805 would be on the back to provide heat to Crewe on the return. (Thankfully that’s all it did as I was at the back on the return and would have had to listen to the thing otherwise).

Travelling to Crewe at the rear of the train I managed to catch up on some much-needed sleep so am unable to provide any type of review. After Stoke I drifted towards the front of the train and quickly realised what I had been missing since Carlisle. The run south was again largely uninspiring with late running despite slack timings and Derby was reached over 20 minutes late.

In conclusion the tour built up my mileage behind 16 but was on the whole disappointing. It did emphasise that Deltics belong on fast main lines with long distances between stops rather than trundling at 30-50 mph on secondary routes (Failtrack/Notwork Rail etc. timings permitting). For those on 55009 on the ECML Hertfordshire Tour two days previous the day must have been a real anti-climax.

Timings : (Booked & Actual)
(courtesy of Pathfinder Tours & Andrew Mitchell/Mark Pichowicz)

Timings continue in first table.

Key;
a : arrival time
c : crew change
d : departure time
L : loco change
* : operational stop
/ : passing time

All distances, in miles and chains (M & C), are taken from the timing sheet given out on the train. No attempt has been made to verify the mileages given.

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