60103 ON THE ‘WAVERLEY’
T he Nation’s Engine’ has been spending the summer months travelling between York and Carlisle via the Tyne Valley on a regular programme of excursions which were originally intended to feature the Settle & Carlisle line. Due to the landslip in the Eden Valley near Armathwaite, the line has been closed to through traffic for several months, which has caused the ‘Waverley’ to be diverted via Durham, Low Fell and Hexham. I am indebted to my correspondent Malcolm Lawn, who has provided details of No. 60103’s performance from Darlington to York on the return from Carlisle on August 21, which includes an even time start-to-stop performance between Darlington and a signal stop outside York, for which Malcolm obtained a GPS distance reading. The 42.90 miles to the signal stop took 41 mins 49 secs, at an average of 61.5mph. Steve Chipperfield was the driver and the load was 12 coaches, 439 tons tare and 475 tons gross. This was in spite of a distinctly unenterprising schedule of 53 mins from Darlington to York (44.10 miles), including Slow line running. It seems that on several occasions this summer, No. 60103 has been given the Fast Line throughout on this section because of late running of other services, or because a path was available, and an ‘even time’ run has resulted. In Table 3, I have compared this recent run with a service run of my own from 1961 with ‘A3’ No. 60048 Doncaster, which had the benefit of a Kylchap double chimney and sported small deflectors beside it (much less impressive than the Witte deflectors carried by most of the class).
Impressive form
No. 60048, a Grantham engine, was in the hands of York driver F.C. Brown and was working the 9.47am (Mondays only) Newcastle-King’s Cross with an 11-coach train of 400 tons gross, including through carriages from Tyne Commission Quay from a Fred Olsen Bergen crossing. The following 9.55am Newcastle-King’s Cross had No. 60003 Andrew K. McCosh at its head, and I considered switching trains at Darlington, but No. 60048 was on impressive form, passing Durham in the unusually fast time of 18 mins 13 secs for an engine starting ‘cold’ out of Newcastle, and it reached Darlington 3 mins early, so I elected to stay with it. (Unfortunately I never subsequently had a trip with No. 60003.) The 9.47am service, like most of the Up ECML expresses at this time, had the standard 42-min schedule from Darlington to York (at an average of 63mph). The run shows the speeds necessary just to keep this schedule. My ‘rule of thumb’ was that to ensure time was kept, 80mph had to be achieved at some point. Usually the fastest stretch was around Pilmoor and Raskelf,
My ‘rule of thumb’ was that to ensure time was kept, 80mph had to be achieved at some point
where there is a slight down gradient from the dead level at Sessay. No. 60103 made a steady start to Croft Spa but fell to 49½mph up the 1-in-391 out of the Tees Valley before recovering to 54 at Eryholme Junction. The acceleration down 1-in-650 to Danby Wiske took speed up into the 70s and there it remained until beyond Beningbrough. The average from Danby Wiske to Beningbrough (28.2 miles) was 74.4mph. The maximum of 77½mph was attained, as expected, between Pilmoor and Raskelf. This was excellent work, with 475 tons behind the engine. In contrast, No. 60048 made a faster start with the lighter train and was 1¾ mins ahead by Northallerton. There was a slight slack to take water on Wiske Moor troughs, yet Doncaster’s average between Danby Wiske and Beningbrough was 75.6mph, due to the higher speeds on the latter part of the run. Of course, Driver Brown did not have to worry about a 75mph speed ceiling!
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to the following correspondents who have supplied comments, details of recent runs, or interesting runs from the past - Malcolm Lawn, ‘Dauntsey’, Alastair Wood, Sandy Smeaton, Peter Gregory, Doug Landau, Richard Peck and Ronald Krug. I am always pleased to receive such details so they can be considered for inclusion in future ‘Top Link’ columns. They can be emailed to me direct at mthedderly@btinternet.com Clearly displaying its double-chimney and small smoke deflectors, ‘A3’ No. 60048 Doncaster rests at King’s Cross on April 3 1960.