| This is where the WCML 'proper' starts; a section of railway which is for me stands above all other main lines in this country. Even after some 500 runs, I never tired or travelling over it. Starting out from Preston, the line runs largely straight and level, allowing sustained high speed by those drivers so inclined (a 116mph run with 86229 on the up Royal Scot sticks indelibly in my mind...)! The neutral section adjacent to the site of Garstang & Catteral, nine miles in, marks the one-time divergence of the branch to Pilling and Knott end, though it is very hard to discern nowadays. After passing over Six Arches Viaduct at Scorton, and riding high over the village of Galgate on a magnificent stone viaduct, the line drops sharply into Lancaster once past the feight loops at Oubeck. The 1 in 98 upgrade for southbound trains was the scene of adhesion difficulties for many an 87, particularly in the Autumn and Winter. Handicapped by a ridiculous 10mph restriction (which took far far too long to resolve, to my eternal amazement...) leaving the station, the hapless driver of a DVT set would have little clue how well his 87 - nine coaches behind him - was gripping the rails. Many were the occasions on which uncontrollable wheelspin would reduce progress to a crawl over the canal.
North from Lancaster, the Carlisle Bridge traverses the River Lune, and three miles further on the 'West Coast' line briefly, and once only, skirts the coast at Hest Bank. After Carnforth the climb begins, almost continuously through Oxenholme and through some lovely scenery as far as Grayrigg, where the M6 makes an indelible scar on the landscape. The 80mph curves between Beckfoot and Low Gill precede a 100mph dash through the Lune Gorge - a section of line of stunning beauty, with hills rising high on both sides and the infant River lune little more than a stream down below, though it is frustratingly inaccessible from a photographic viewpoint if one wishes to stay within the law! A usefully-positioned (not!) neutral section at Tebay would pull any electric loco's speed down by several mph; by the time full taps were reapplied the machine would be on the four miles of 1 in 75 which constitute Shap Incline, with speed at this point typically in the upper 90s. This stunningly beautiful section of sweeping hill-climb was a stiff challenge for steam, though electrics suffer only from occasional wheelslip difficulties, and will maintain 90mph at least with nine Mk3 coaches in tow. To sit on Scotchman's Bridge at Greenholme and watch 86s and 87s sweep past, and onward into the far distance beyond Scout Green crossing, was something of which I never tired! Once past the 80mph restriction at Shap Summit, there follows a sprint past Hardendale Lime Works to Harrison's Sidings, whereafter a series of curves once again limit speed to 80mph, though running downhill all the while, past Bessie Ghyll. Thereafter, 100mph running is the rule past Clifton & Lowther and Eden Valley, where on the up side the track bed of the former Appleby branch is still discernible. The curve through a largely unspoilt Penrith station restricts progress to 75mph, but thereafter commences a flat-out dash downhill past Plumpton, Calthwaite and Southwaite's former stations. Many were the Polmadie drivers who had their 87s off the clock along this stretch; I have recorded a number of them at 116-117mph.... A sudden curve at Wreay interrupts this swift progress, carrying an 85mph restriction, with nothing more than 90 allowed thereafter as the line arrives past Upperby depot into the magnificent border station of Carlisle Citadel. |
Freshly outshopped from works and looking very smart for it, 87028 Lord President runs round its train at Carlisle Citadel, to take charge of 1G61, 14:05 to Birmingham Interational. |
86101 Sir William A Stanier FRS stands at Carlisle in 1990 with - I think - 1M04, 12:00 Glasgow - Euston. |
The morning sun catches 86103 André Chapelon as it runs into Lancaster with the second Carlisle-Euston service, in 1989. |
A tyipcal wet day as only the English Lake District knows how! Water droplets on the overhead contact wire spray from the pantograph of 86214 Sans Pareil as it rounds the curve at Beckfoot, heading north for Glasgow on 1S54. |
86214 Sans Pareil cruises south at Docker, a few miles north of Oxenholme, heading south on 1M33, the 14:40 Edinburgh-Birmingham cross country service. |
One of my favourite shots, and easily my favourite railway location anywhere in the country: it can only be Scotchman's Bridge at Greenholme, a mile or so north of Tebay. 86224 rushes down Shap in charge of 1M33, 14:40 Edingburgh-Birmingham. It was worth sacrificing the mileage just to get a shot such as this of Caledonian in action! |
86224 approaches Grayrigg heading 1S48, 09:05 Birmingham-Edingburgh cross country service. Had the weather been poor I would have been behind Caledonian, but having travelled from the Midlands for a weekend's photography and been rewarded with perfect weather and no skodas to spoil things, I was prepared to sacrifice a few hundred miles on my machine! |
Cranks' eye view of the finest main line in the country.... Picking up speed rapidly after a 20mph TSR at Shap Wells, 86224 Caledonian rockets down Shap at the head of 1M33, 14:40 Edinburgh-Birmingham. A memory to savour indeed. :-) |
86226 Royal Mail Midlands catches the last of the summer evening sunshine as it passes Greenholme, bound for Birmingham with a cross country service originating in Glasgow. An incomparable stretch of railway. |
During latter part of the post-Hatfield knee-jerk panic "let's slap speed restrictions everywhere just in case" era, there is ample time for an on-board shot of 86231 Starlight Express as it negotiates the curve at Beckfoot, running not at the usual 80mph, but rather at 20mph due to a gauge-corner cracking related TSR. The AL6 veteran is heading for Edinburgh in charge of 1S48, 09:05 from Birmingham. |
86243 passes Pye Bridge, an excellent photographic vantage point a mile or so south of Milnthorpe, at what one might consider the gateway to the Lake District so far as the railway traveller is concerned. The Howgills are just discernable in the background. |
86252 The Liverpool Daily Post is seen coming to a stand in the Border City at the head of 1M04, 12:00 Glasgow - Euston, around 1990. Alas the thrashing given to the 86s by the Great Eastern proved too much for the former E3101, and this pioneer machine was burnt out, and subsequently scrapped. |
86255 Penrith Beacon drags 86206 City of Stoke on Trent south past Low Gill on a dull summer morning, hauling 1M02 to Birmingham. |
An unidentified 86/2 passes Oxenholme with what I believe to be 1M44 parcels working. |
86621 and 86610 head a southbound steel coil train at Carlisle in 1990. |
86634 + 86614 (readily identifiable by its nameplates and assorted crests) are seen heading south at Pye Bridge, just south of Milnthorpe, on a lovely early summer afternoon in late May 1998. |
How I shall remember the West Coast - 87001 STEPHENSON, heading 1S55, cruises round the curve at Beckfoot, towards Low Gill, prior to a flat-out thrash through the Lune Gorge, followed by the assault on Shap. Superb traction, beautiful scenery - the Premier Line indeed. |
Somehow, to my annoyance, I messed this shot up, through not picking the right angle for the picture. Still, 87001 STEPHENSON looks OK storming up Shap at Greenholme with 1S83, 14:30 Euston Glasgow, on a sunny August evening. |
August 2003 finds 87002 (erstwhile Royal Sovereign) now nameless and sporting a colour scheme which most agree is little short of hideous, but such was the apparent trade off when 87001 was repainted into 1973 rail blue. Nonetheless, she was the best of the class in their final year or so, capable of blistering performance coupled with near bullet-proof reliability! Here she heads north at Beck Houses Bridge, between Oxenholme and Grayrigg. The train is 1S47; at the helm on this particular day was one of the WCML's top drivers, whose all-round skill at the controls is outstanding. |
Having abandoned any hope of a shot at Wreay (pronounced "rear"...!), a few miles south of Carlisle, due to excess foliage everywhere, I was driving away down a country lane when I glanced left, and noticed this lovely view. A few minutes afterwards, 87007 City of Manchester came into view, and is seen leaning to the curve and observing the obligatory 85mph restriction, at the head of 1S75 in August 2003. Surprisingly, I cannot recall ever seeing a photograph taken at this location published in any book or magazine....! Prove me wrong someone? |
The sun has already disappeared, and the zoom lens makes the fells encroach almost on top of 87008 City of Liverpool as it begins the ascent of Shap at Greenholme, on a summer evening in the mid 1990s. |
Racing down Shap with the driver dabbing the brakes so as not to exceed the 105mph line speed, 87013 is seen propelling either 1M28 Glasgow-Euston or 1A80, the Carlisle-Euston which on a summer Saturday set out immediately behind 1M28. |
This was mid-summer, not that you'd know it - but then again such is the charm of the Lake District! 87016 passes the bridge south of Hardendale Lime Works on 1S57, on an utterly dismal day around 1996. |
87019 Sir Winston Churchill stands at Carlisle Citadel at the head of 1G61, 14:05 to Birmingham International. This diagram took the engine from New St to Carlisle on 1M01 (ex Poole), and upon arrival back in the Midlands, it would then work 1S92, to Glasgow Central. Occasionally it would drop a 'roarer' - but never when I was in a position to do the mileage move!! |
