Posted for the photographer, David Rodgers. All pics copyright David Rodgers:
Subject: Sunday 7th November
I was looking forward eagerly to yesterdays circular charter using double-headed Black 5s, Nos. 45407 and 44871. Despite a fairly good forecast and the train running along the scenic Hope Valley line (which sees at best one or at the most two steam trains per year) and the Penistone line (which has seen 3 steam trains in the past 40 years) on the day events conspired to make this a most frustrating day. At least I was fortunate in receiving news that an engineer's train had derailed at Grindleford on the Hope Valley line before leaving home. However what was not clear was which route the train would take. Full marks to WCRC and Network Rail for devising a very different itinerary - with all the difficulties of arranging watering, route knowledge, etc. - whilst the train was en-route from Preston. The route adopted was as booked from Manchester Victoria, then via Stockport, Crewe along the West Coast mainline through Stafford to Lichfield. Taking the rarely used spur to the Midland route, the train continued through Derby back to Sheffield. Departing Sheffield 2 hours late on the original schedule, the next stage and key part of the itinerary was the Barnsley - Penistone - Huddersfield line with difficult pathing issues on this single track route. However by omitting the booked Brighouse water stop and running direct via the Calder Valley mainline rather than via Copy Pit and Blackburn, the train reached its destination Manchester barely 15 minutes late!
- Once a likely schedule became available I decided to go out for three hours in the afternoon. First port of call was Unstone bank on the Midland mainline between Chesterfield and Bradway tunnel. Everything looked good. However news came through that the train had been looped at Ambergate to allow a couple of expresses to overtake and the steam train duly appeared just as the sun was dipping below the hills in the west!
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- Both locos required water at Sheffield and departure had been re-scheduled for 16:00 after the sun had set in the city! The pair of Black 5s are seen crossing the River Don at Attercliffe to the north of the city.
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- Originally booked to run through Huddersfield non-stop at 15:16, Nos. 45407 and 44871 emerge from Springwood tunnel and accelerate through the station exactly 2 hours late. With no high expectations for the shot but always nice to see passing through the local station I upped the camera setting to 800ASA and took it at 1/30th sec @ f2.8 and hoped for the best!
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