Jubilees on steam specials approaching Hathersage – 54 years apart!
ON April 22, 1967, a very young James Shuttleworth was taken by his father, John, to watch a steam-hauled tour passing through Hathersage station.
LMS 5XP Jubilee 4-6-0 No. 45593 Kolhapur – currently in the restoration queue at Tyseley – was heading the ‘Derbyshire Dawdler' railtour from Leeds to Derby, organised by the Middleton Railway Trust. Kolhapur hauled it via Garforth, Kippax, Castleford, Knottingley, Doncaster, Sheffield and the Hope Valley to Chinley.
At Chinley, the train reversed and was hauled to Derby via Peak Forest, Millers Dale and Matlock by LNER K4 No. 3442 The Great Marquess, then owned by enthusiast Viscount Garnock, who had bought it from BR following its withdrawal in 1962. No. 3442 had run light engine from Leeds Neville Hill shed, where it was based at the time, earlier in the day. After a visit to Derby Works for the tour participants, No.3442 took the train back to Leeds, via Sheffield.
Preservation first
On October 24, James – who decades later became commercial manager for West Coast Railways – visited the same spot and captured sister engine No. 45699 Galatea, currently running as No. 45627 Sierra Leone (but also still numbered 45562), with the return leg of the Railway
Touring Company's Preston to Derby circular tour, which ran via Wigan, Manchester Victoria, Romiley, the Hope Valley, Sheffield, Barrow Hill and Toton to Derby, before returning via Ambergate, Chesterfield, Dore curve and thence the reverse of its outward route.
Although all four surviving Jubilees have graced the Hope Valley at one time or another since the end of steam (and both No. 45593 and No. 45699 were recorded over the route in BR days), this was the first occasion since 1967 that a BR green-liveried example had run in a westbound direction. Rather than travel as part of the West Coast crew on the trip, James decided to photograph it for a change, partially because he had suggested the itinerary to the RTC as a replacement for the unavailable ‘Tin Bath' routing. On the day, photographic opportunities were limited, mainly due to indifferent weather, so he opted for a ‘then and now' picture.
Another recreation
Although in 1967 The Great Marquess traversed the Hope Valley only as a light engine and in a westbound direction only, West Coast routed No. 61994 (as it had by then once again become) on a transit move in the other direction on a very cold and snowy evening a decade ago, thereby squaring the circle.