YORKSHIRE jINGLE bELLS FOR ‘jUbILEE’

Home for Christmas… that’s the hope for Bahamas. The double-chimney ‘Jubilee’ is just awaiting final finishing off (such as wiring up of the new Train Protection and Warning System equipment), before heading out on the main line for the first time since 1994.

Light-engine plus ‘engine and van’ trips are expected to take place between Tyseley (where No. 45596 has been overhauled) and Stratford-upon-Avon in December. After that will come a loaded trial, then a welcome return to the Bahamas Locomotive Society’s home base at Ingrow. Think of that taking place around a week before Christmas, assuming all goes well.

That puts the BR green machine back on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway in good time for its planned debut trip

– a Settle-Carlisle bash starting from Oxenhope on February 9 and promoted by the Worth Valley itself. That looks like being a sell-out tour… and, I’m told, there’s at least the chance of a repeat.