17th July 1993

S.L.O.A./F.S.S.
The Cumbrian Mountain Express

Locos Used 60007 "Sir Nigel Gresley" & 8????
Stock Used load 12

Route :

Loco Route (1)
8???? ??? - (via Shap) - Carlisle
60007 Carlisle - Settle - Hellifield - Clitheroe - Blackburn - Farington Jn
8???? Farington Jn - Wigan - ???

Notes :
(1) Route confirmation required.

Alex Cunningham comments : Good running up Ais Gill & Wilpshire and kept time to Farington Junction.  Short electric haul to Wigan and onto Edinburgh train back to Carlisle.  French or Spanish tourists sitting next to me marvelled at the mountains as we went through the Lune Gorge.  Buffet steward had never heard of my destination, Hawick, but I soon put him right that in the good old days this train would have called at Hawick (population 16,000); St. Boswells (3,000); Melrose (3,000) and Galashiels (15,000) instead of just Lockerbie (population 3,000).

Sources : Alex Cunningham (joined at Carlisle, left at Wigan)

Back to "The Railtour Files"