‘Duchess’ on the tricky Hertford Loop
One of John Daniel’s final steam workings was on December 1 last year, when he was in charge of Stanier ‘Pacific’ No. 46233 Duchess of Sutherland working a ‘Cathedrals Express’ from King’s Cross to Lincoln. Since no diesel was scheduled to accompany the train, I decided to travel, although I could only do so in the outward direction since the arrival back in London was too late for me to be able to get home to East Devon at a reasonable hour. The ‘Duchess’ was deputising for ‘Princess Royal’ class 4-6-2 No. 6201 Princess Elizabeth, which is currently out of commision at . Driver John Daniel’s manager at West Coast Railway, Andy Taylor, informs me that John must have been one of the last men to be passed for driving steam on British Railways.
In the loop
On the Lincoln train on December 1, the log of which appears in Table 2, Driver Daniel’s train comprised 12 coaches (including two Pullmans) weighing 445 tons gross. No high speed was possible before Stevenage, since the train was booked via the Hertford Loop. Finding a path on what is a basic two-track railway after Alexandra Palace was obviously difficult as the train had a total of 13 mins pathing allowance in a 52-min schedule for the 19.6 miles to the first pick-up stop at Hertford North. Starting 21 mins late from King’s Cross, the ‘Cathedrals Express’ was able to negotiate a much better path than planned and had regained all but 3 mins of the late start by Hertford. Adverse signals were encountered as early as Hornsey, which hampered speed at Alexandra Palace. Here, Hertford-bound trains have to climb
The schedule for the 9.95 miles from Huntingdon to the Holme watering point was an impossible 10 mins!
an awkward 1-in-55 gradient over the flyover crossing the main line. Speed fell to 13¾mph on the climb, but once past Winchmore Hill, with the benefit of the dip at Grange Park, a maximum of 50mph was reached before speed settled down in the mid-40s on the predominant 1-in-198 rising grades. The alignment through the Northern Heights is less taxing than the parallel main line, which has an unbroken 1-in-200 gradient for a solid 8 miles up to the summit at Potters Bar. With an engine starting ‘cold’ out of King’s Cross, speeds in the mid to high 40s ascending the Northern Heights with big loads were quite usual in steam days.
Lucky dip
Driver Daniel was able to coax a maximum of 60½mph on the descent from Bayford to the Hertford stop. Hertford lies in a dip, and the 1-in-198 gradient is resumed most of the way to a summit at Milepost 21½. After working up to 49mph beyond Watton-at-Stone, it was disappointing to be stopped by signals before Langley Junction, where the main line is rejoined. Leaving Stevenage 4¾ mins late, now with the driver and fireman having switched roles, the train had a 35-min schedule on the Down Slow line over the 31.1 miles to the next pick-up stop at Huntingdon. Despite a slow finish, this was accomplished nicely inside schedule, in 33 mins 24 secs without ever quite touching the 70mph mark (was the locomotive’s speedometer reading high?). The restart up 1-in-200 to Leys Summit was somewhat laborious, but speed reached 66mph down Abbots Ripton Bank before a signal stop for almost 4 mins. The schedule for the 9.95 miles from Huntingdon to the Holme watering point was an impossible 10 mins! With the slow start, the signal check and the normal crawl up to the watering point, it’s no surprise that 13 mins were dropped on this section. An allowance of only 9 mins from Holme to Peterborough (7.55 miles) was also unrealistic, and arrival there came 16¾ mins late.
Know your limits
I have not tabulated the remainder of the run to Lincoln because John Daniel, who took over the regulator again from Frank Coupland, appeared to be observing a 60mph steam limit imposed some time ago on the GE &GN Joint Line, despite the fact that it has recently been upgraded to 75mph. The edict from the local Network Rail manager applied a seemingly arbitrary 60mph limit for steam on all former ER lines except the ECML. In any case, the running was not as fast as that achieved by Bittern, as described in SR437’s Top Link. Speed was mostly kept between 55 and 60mph, though on the final descent to Lincoln a maximum of 66½mph was achieved. Having started from Peterborough 19 mins late, John Daniel had the train running 2¾ mins early through Ruskington (38.10 miles), passed in 45 mins 11 secs and, despite a signal stop for 7½ mins at Sincil Bank to wait for a platform, the arrival at Lincoln was only half a minute late.