BRITANNIA WAIVES THE RULES
Stepping out of the shadow of Oliver Cromwell, the ‘Pennine Moors Christmas Explorer’ was Britannia’s time to shine with a trip that bucked the railtour trend in several respects.
10 mins up on schedule at Earlestown before rejoining our outward route at Winwick Junction. The rest of the run calls for little comment. Warrington and Hartford were merely set-down stops, so dwell time there was minimal, and arrival at Crewe was 20 mins ahead of schedule after a thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable trip.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am indebted to the following correspondents who have commented or contacted me about recent trips – Bill Long, David Pawson, Sandy Smeaton, Joe Cassells and Vic Freemantle. 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
Sidelined since 2015 by bottom-end repairs and overhaul, the eponymous ‘Britannia’ class ‘Pacific’ No. 70000 made its return to the main line on a Saphos Trains tour on December 2, operated by Locomotive Services Limited on a circuit from Crewe via Chester, Shrewsbury, Oxley and Stafford. All Saphos Trains tours had so far run with a diesel attached to provide air-conditioning and heating for the excellently refurbished carriages.
However, generator coach No. 6311 would finally be available for the Saphos train on December 8 (SR488), meaning that the ‘7MT’ able to go solo.
This was Britannia’s second outing, and the destination was an unconventional one – Burnley Manchester Road! In fact the pan-shaped itinerary of ‘The Pennine Moors Christmas Explorer’ was quite imaginative, and it enabled the train to avoid reversal and take in the opportunity for some fast running on the West Coast Main Line, as well as the challenge of the hilly gradients around the mill towns of North Lancashire leading to Copy Pit summit.
From there the routing was via the reinstated Todmorden chord, Manchester Victoria and Chat Moss, before regaining the outward route at Winwick Junction. In the Special Traffic Notice, Network Rail treated the operation as two separate trains, 1Z70 to Burnley and 1Z72 from Burnley. Class 47 D1924 (its original number) was deployed to shadow the train as insurance, and it was waiting at Blackburn when we arrived. Later, it was seen at Warrington Bank Quay on our return journey.
Britannia was tasked with an 11-coach load weighing 378 tons tare and some 410 tons gross, moderately loaded. The crew comprised Mark Dale, who drove to Burnley, and Fred Lewis who fired. Their roles were reversed on the return journey.
The left-hand column of Table 1 shows the outward run.
Leaving Crewe on time, in fine clear weather, No. 70000 made a cautious start from Platform 12, then onto the Down Slow line, but was checked by signals approaching the two-track section at Winsford causing a loss of 2¼ mins on the initial section to the first pick-up stop at Hartford.
The next section to Warrington involved some easy running, with a fall from 65½mph at Weaver Junction to 63 up the mile and a half of 1-in-330 to Birdswood with a subsequent maximum of 78½mph downhill to Moore.
An energetic start was made after a punctual departure from Warrington, with 57mph attained on the gentle rise to Winwick Junction, only falling to 51 on the rise to Golborne Junction which finishes at 1-in-156. Adverse signals were sighted either side of Golborne culminating in a signal stop just beyond Springs Branch Junction. No. 70000 made a spirited recovery, passing Wigan North Western at 30mph and accelerating to 41mph up the 1-in-104 to Boar’s Head Junction.
THE DESTINATION WAS AN UNCONVENTIONAL ONE – BURNLEY MANCHESTER ROAD