Crewe - York - Stanhope Railtour

[37412]

Photos of 37038 & 37607 working Crewe to Stanhope with a Spitfire tour yesterday:

http://seed08.fotopic.net/c1819698.html

 

[37401]

Good shots pal

 

[142094]

Heard a few people complaining that we were at Stanhope for only 15 minutes, since we seemed to make a bit of time up going back to Darlington. Also one person complaining about the fact that the guide from the Weardale Railway said "you may wish to purchase branded crockery at the gift shop". Bit of a tight sod I expect he is.

 

[37412]

Yeah it would have been nice to have a few minutes longer there to stretch the limbs after 7 hours run from Crewe as only had time for a sprint to the footpath for a quick photo before the return. However in the event it was the sensible thing to do as we could have been held (up to an hour?) waiting the next available path back from Bishops Auckland to Darlington if the train had not left swiftly, had that been the case we would have been pushed for time in York prior to the tour leaving for Crewe so it was the sensible thing all round really to leave asap.

 

[pinkpanther]

15 minutes? That's really pushing it - we had about 40 the previous week I think. Even so that was really only just enough time to queue up to get across the footbridge to the griddle car and fetch a pint. The crush to get over the footbridge was quite something.

Stanhope station just wasn't designed for that volume of people, as is pretty obvious if you look at the last few photos from the previous weeks tour:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jalapenokitten/sets/72157623370928251/

With the length of the Weardale line and its low linespeed I suspect timings are always going to be tricky. The fact that much of the Bishop Auckland-Darlington branch is now single track just makes it even trickier.

 

[142094]

A lot of the sections past Bishop Auckland were 5mph, but it did seem on the return journey with the 47 leading that it went a bit quicker. But still, I had a good few hours and always nice to say that you've been on only the 2nd mainline train to go through since the early 90s.

 

[pinkpanther]

A lot of the sections past Bishop Auckland were 5mph, but it did seem on the return journey with the 47 leading that it went a bit quicker. But still, I had a good few hours and always nice to say that you've been on only the 2nd mainline train to go through since the early 90s.

On the return journey I was enjoying my pint too much to care about the time.

 

[142094]

Managed to bag a window all the way back to York so it seemed to go much quicker than on the way up. Only thing - I wish it was a warmer day. My face and hands were freezing by the time we pulled into platform 10.