Six Bells Junction

Notes :
(1) Booked route was Preston - Euxton Jn - Lostock Jn - Bolton - Salford Crescent - Ordsall Lane Jn but revised due to reasons unconfirmed (a possible fatality on the booked route?).
(2) 21272 was replaced by 71000's support coach (identity required) when 71000 was on the train due to a train length restriction over the S&C for 71000 of 13 carriages.

This was advertised as a steam excursion. However, the steam loco only did Crewe - Carlisle via S & C while the train started and finished at Cardiff! Originally, 45112 was to do the Cardiff - Crewe and Carlisle - Cardiff sections but this was unavailable at short notice because of an engine defect. Fragonset rustled up 33103 & 33202 fresh from exam at Derby to take the Peak’s place.

A few of the ‘Peak Army’ had booked on this tour and were happy to sell their Diesel only tickets to any of the ‘Crompton Road show’. With deals duly done, it was the usual railtour early Saturday start. Alarm at 0130, get in car drive to Cardiff, park, pay machine, walk to platform where Pathfinder stewards have congregated and its still only 0330, Nice!

The ECS from Old Oak had been delayed by the empties for Pathfinder’s other tour; Logs from Sheffield to Alton, being put into Kensal Wash Sidings far too early, and blocking the 33s train in the depot. Anyway, the empties arrived at 0405 and the locos ran round fairly promptly. Departing about 25 late.

Then followed the usual pick ups to Worcester where the tour was unusually routed via Kidderminster instead of the Lickey. Apparently Network Rail were digging up vast swathes of their tracks that weekend.

After a crew change at New Street it was onwards to Stafford via the booked route. As we rolled into Stafford some old fossil waiting to join said, "Get rid of these smelly paraffin cans!". He was well and truly put in his place. There had not been much opportunity to make up time so arrival at Crewe was a little late. Here, things get complicated; part of the diesel only deal was the fact that we had to make our own way from Crewe to Carlisle because coach A had been allocated to kettle-heads joining at Crewe, and stand(!) from Carlisle to Crewe on the return.

Not only that, while the kitchen car was being watered, the rear brake vehicle was removed by the Cromptons, which then disappeared into LNWR for fuel. Apparently, Duke of Gloucester brought along TWO support coaches and 14 coaches was thought to be too much. Lightweight!

We watched the 33s take their coach north and waited around while some 37 cranks got very excited about HNRCs 37087 & 37194 being lined up to work 2Z26 1157 Manchester Piccadilly - Crewe which had been upgraded from a 5Z.

Now came the tricky bit, how to get from Crewe to Carlisle without being chung by Richard Turpin’s organisation. 390blahblahblah rolled in and we made ourselves look asleep and managed to avoid being gripped. Just! This was the first time I had been unlucky enough to travel on a Pendolino - they are very plastic!

Lunch in ‘The Woodrow Wilson’, Carlisle’s original Wetherspoons, then back to Citadel to find that 71000 had managed to get there. I had a bit of fun with the kettle heads, asking why the train was so cold, had they been sticking their heads out of the windows? There were some grumbles about the lack of heat, so I pointed out that they could have had the 33s throughout and had the benefit of Electric Train Heating.

Coach A was on the rear, and although we did not have allocated seats until Crewe, there were sufficient spare ones. Those passengers who were doing the entire tour had two breaks off the train; 32 minutes at Carlisle while the locos were changed, and 28 at Preston while the stock was watered. Great!

There was a rateable diversion from the booked route, instead of going via Bolton to Man. Pic., the route taken was; WCML, Golborne Jn, Parkside Jn, Patricroft, Ordsall Lane Jn then back on the booked route.

Picture the scene, Manchester Piccadilly through platforms, quarter to 6 Saturday evening, platforms full of shoppers and day trippers returning home. The driver kept the train rolling slowly through the station to stop anyone trying to board, then a signal cleared and the shoppers were treated to the sound of 2 Cromptons at full power! One lady put her fingers in her ears!

There was another diversion after plastic central Longsight, left at Slade Lane Jn via Styal then back on the booked route at Wilmslow. From then on progress was quite rapid, with quite a few 87s being viewed on service trains.

The return was then as the outward route, with the onset of darkness it was time for sleep. Basically on and off until Newport where we saw 37402 haul dead 67016 and its train off to Canton. Something went on there then!

Verdict:- I only found out about the 33s doing the important bits the day before the tour, fortunately I had the day free. A fine day out with the Cromptons in fine form on a proper train. All credit to Chris at Pathfinder for offering pay on the day fares for diesel only sections.

M.C	Location	Booked	Actual	Booked	Actual	M.C
0.00	Cardiff Central	04.00d	04.36	22.53a	22.49	334.16
6.50	Marshfield	04/09	04/46	22/40	22/41	327.46
11.60	Newport	04.15a ~ 04.17d	04.51 ~ 04.55	22.32a ~ 22.34d	22.30 ~ 22.34	322.36
21.49	Severn Tunnel Junction	04/27	05/04	22/22	22/14	312.47
28.45	Pilning	04/33	05/11	22/15	22/08	305.51
32.11	Patchway	04/38	05/14	22/10	22/05	302.05
33.33	Bristol Parkway	04.40a ~ 04.42d	05.17 ~ 05.19	22.04a ~ 22.07d	21.54 ~ 22.03	300.63 (306.40)
38.03	Westerleigh Jn	04/49	05/25	21/56	21/45	296.13
46.16	Charfield	04/58	05/35	21/39	21/41	288.00
59.41	Standish Jn	05/09	05/43	21/27	21/31	274.55
65.51	Gloucester Yard Jn	05/15	?	21/21	?	268.45
66.38	Barnwood Jn	05/16	05/49	21/16	21/24	267.58
72.01	Cheltenham Spa	05.23a ~ 05.25d	05.55 ~ 05.58	21.06a ~ 21.09d	21.15 ~ 21.18	262.15 (267.72)
79.12	Ashchurch	05/34	06/06	20/56	21/08	255.04
89.79	Abbotswood Jn	05/43	06/14	20/47	20/57	244.17
90.61	Norton Jn	05/45	?	20/45	?	243.35
93.66	Worcester Shrub Hill	05.51a ~ 05.54d	06.36 ~ 06.39	20.39a ~ 20.41d	20.49 ~ 20.54	240.30 (246.07)
99.45	Droitwich Spa	06/05	06/50	20/29	20/42	234.51
109.01	Kidderminster	06/13	07/00	20/20	20/29	225.15
115.60	Stourbridge Jn	06/27	07/10	20/09	20/22	218.36
120.78	Rowley Regis	06/38	07/22	19/54	20/13	213.18
124.04	Galton Jn	06/53	07/29	19/48	20/08	210.12
125.62	Soho South Jn	06/57	07/31	19/46	20/04	208.34
127.63	Birmingham New Street	07.01a ~ 07.26d	07.36 ~ 07.39	19.35a ~ 19.41d	19.56 ~ 19.59	206.33 (212.10)
130.39	Aston	07/34	07/49	19/29	19/46	203.57
132.61	Perry Barr North Jn	07/38	07/51	19/24	19/43	201.35
137.38	Bescot Stadium	07/43	07/56	19/20	19/38	196.78
141.35	Portobello Jn	07/49	07/58	19/16	19/34	192.61
144.03	Bushbury Jn	07/52	08/06	19/10	19/29	190.13
157.60	Stafford	08.02a ~ 08.04d	08.20 ~ 08.22	18.55a ~ 18.57d	19.10 ~ 19.13	176.36 (182.13)
163.09	Norton Bridge	08/10	08/29	18/51	19/01	171.07
174.11	Madeley Jn	08/17	08/38	18/42	18/51	160.05
180.33	Basford Hall Jn	08/24	08/44	18/37	18/45	153.63
182.17 0.00	Crewe	08L28a ~ 09L05d	08.47 ~ 09.32	18.28a ~ 18.31d	18.34 ~ 18.42	151.79 (157.56)

M.C/	Location	Booked	Actual
0.58	Crewe Coal Yard SB	09/09	?
8.66	Winsford SB	09/18	09/45
17.20	Weaver Jn	09/26	09/53
22.24	Acton Grange Jn	09/32	09/56
24.11	Warrington Bank Quay	09/34	09/59
27.47	Winwick Jn	09/41	10/02
35.71	Wigan North Western	09/56	10/12
43.42	Balshaw Lane	10/04	10/20
45.45	Euxton Jn	10/06	10/22
48.21	Farington Jn	10/14	?
49.18	Lostock Hall Jn	10/24	10/24
56.26	Cherry Tree Jn	10w36a ~ 10w51d	?
58.18	Blackburn	1055a ~ 1111d	11.19 ~ 11.20
58.65	Daisyfield Jn	11/16	?
69.16	Clitheroe	11/36	11/45
69.36	Horrocksford Jn	11/38	?
82.44	Hellifield	11/59	12/14
83.70	Long Preston	12w02a ~ 12w27d	?
85.69	Settle Jn	12/30	?
98.49	Ribblehead	12/45	?
99.68	Blea Moor	12/48	?
108.04	Garsdale	13/03	?
117.69	Kirkby Stephen	13/18	13/33
128.51	Appleby	13/31	?
133.31	Kirby Thore SB	13/39	?
136.04	Culgaith	13/43	?
151.04	Low House SB	14/02	?
158.41	Petteril Bridge Jn	14/15	14/19
159.33 0.00	Carlisle	14L19a ~ 14L51d	14.21 ~ 15.14
17.69	Penrith	15/12	15/34
37.32	Tebay	15/30	15/52
50.01	Oxenholme	15/40	16/01
63.01	Carnforth North Jn	15/49	16/13
67.17	Morecambe South Jn	15/52	16/15
69.09	Lancaster	15/54	16/17
90.07	Preston	1614a ~ 1642d	16.36 ~ 17.01
95.43	Euxton Jn	16/50	17/07
98.57	Chorley	16/56	DIV
107.34	Lostock Jn	17/15	DIV
110.23	Bolton	17/21	DIV
119.12	Salford Crescent	17/33	DIV
(95.43)	Euxton Jn	DIV (16/50)	17/07
?	Balshaw Lane Jn	DIV (16/52)	17/09
(105.17)	Wigan North Western	DIV (16/58)	17/15
?	Wigan South Jn	DIV (16/59)	?
?	Springs Branch Jn	DIV (16/59)	17/17
(111.11)	Golborne Jn	DIV (17/04)	17/22
(111.69)	Parkside Jn	DIV (17/07)	?
?	Astley	DIV (17/14)	17/32
(122.72)	Eccles	DIV (17/20)	17/37
119.74 (125.51)	Ordsall Lane Jn	17/40 (17/32)	17/41
120.74	Manchester Oxford Road	17/43	17/48
121.37	Manchester Piccadilly	17/47	17/54
123.62	Slade Lane Jn	17/53	17/59
129.69	Heald Green	17/59	18/06
133.14	Wilmslow	18/03	18/12
147.29	Sandbach	18/15	18/27
151.03	Sydney Bridge	18/20	18/31

Bracketed Booked Timings are "re-timings". Bracketed mileages are as
re-calculated by Duncan Jennings (5m 57ch added on due to the diversion).

Back to "The Railtour Files"

Locos Used	33103, 33202 & steam: 71000
Stock Used (2)	21272+1692+3149+3147+3112+3122+3140+3107+3098+1863+4927+4902+5275

Loco(s)	Route
33103 + 33202	Cardiff Central - Newport - Severn Tunnel Junction - Patchway - Bristol Parkway - Westerleigh Jn - Yate - Gloucester Yard Jn - Cheltenham Spa - Abbotswood Jn - Worcester Shrub Hill - Droitwich Spa - Kidderminster - Stourbridge Junction - Galton Jn - Birmingham New Street - Aston - Perry Barr North Jn - Bescot Stadium - Bushbury Jn - Stafford - Norton Bridge - Crewe
71000	Crewe - (via WCML) - Farington Jn - Lostock Hall Jn - Blackburn - Clitheroe - Helifeld - (via S&C) - Carlisle
33202 + 33103	Carlisle - (via WCML) - Preston (1) - Wigan North Western - Golbourne Jn - Parkside Jn - Eccles - (1) Ordsall Lane Jn - Manchester Piccadilly - Slade Green Jn - Heald Green - Wilmslow - Sandbach - Crewe - (reverse of outward route) - Cardiff Central