LU eyes up double-headed steam on the ‘Met’ in 2017
Plan awaits approval for ‘Met 1’ and pannier 9466 to join forces for round-trips on the ‘Tube’.
FORCED tO call off its autumn steam weekend on the Metropolitan Line in 2016 because of the threat of industrial action, the London transport Museum is proposing to try again during the first two weekends in September.
Head of Heritage Operations Andy Barr is expecting to run three round-trips each day on the ‘overground’ section of the Met, between Amersham and Harrow-on-the-Hill on one weekend, and between Watford and Wembley Park on the other, double-headed by celebrity ‘E’ class 0-4-4T ‘Met 1’, and Dennis Howells’ Hawksworth pannier tank No. 9466. Barr’s proposals for the weekends of September 2/3 and 9/10 are not yet at the ‘go’ stage, and are awaiting formal approval from London Undergound. As is usual with Metropolitan line steam events, it is proposed that trains will run in ‘top and tail’ configuration because of the absence of run-round loops but Metrovick Bo-Bo electric No. 12 Sarah Siddons is out of the equation. The locomotive is sidelined, awaiting repairs which will involve lifting the engine, and its place in the line-up and in ‘top and tail’ formations is being earmarked for a Class 20 diesel. Passenger stock would again be LU’s 4-TC (trailer control) set, which is approved for 45mph running. The Bluebell Railway’s turn-of-the-century ex-Metropolitan Railway Chesham set coaches, which once ran regularly on the Buckinghamshire branch behind ‘Met 1’, are restricted to 25mph running, and thus deemed unsuitable. The Chesham set may, however, return to LU metals in 2018, to take an active role in steam-hauled workings between Ealing Broadway and High Street Kensington and marking the 150th anniversary of the District Railway. Plans to run the Chesham coaches on this route in July last year, behind ‘Met 1’ and LT-liveried GWR ‘Prairie’ No. 5521, were scrapped because the set was out of traffic for repairs.