St. James' Day Tripper

Edinburgh

As the Settle & Carlisle line celebrated its 125 anniversary beginning on the 1 May 2001 with steam specials so the St. James' Day Tripper took to the rails on the 5th. At Settle Station a 125 Anniversary Plaque was unveiled during the day.

The 33rd St. James Day Tripper consisting of 12 coaches from West Coast Railway Company and two locomotives from Fragonset Railways set off from Preston and called at Bamber Bridge, Cherry Tree, Blackburn and Clitheroe and went via the scenic Settle and Carlisle line to Edinburgh for the usual 5 hour stay. Passengers from Burnley (Rose Grove), Accrington and Rishton, our usual pickup points, were brought to Blackburn by coach to meet the train.

The station at Blackburn is nearing the completion of the remodelling that has taken several months and lots of money to achieve. When all passengers were present (about 450 got on at Blackburn) there was still plenty of circulation space on the platform.

The weather was bright Spring sunshine and the views up the Settle & Carlisle line sometimes called England's Most Scenic Railway were awe inspiring but what was the motive power?

A pair of Fragonset Class 31s were intended to be our motive power but during the week leading up to the train one of them "broke a valve". Plan B came into action and a pairing of a Class 31 with a Class 33 became the preferred option. But they would not "talk" to each other initially. To be effective as a pairing the lead locomotive controls the following locomotive. Not "talking" to each other was serious. Ian Stocks at this point was having fabulous dreams at night!! Along side the locomotives that weren't cooperating was a single locomotive well capable of doing the job - a Deltic D9000. It has long been Ian's dream to be pulled by such a classic heritage locomotive. But it didn't happen Class 31 31459 Cerberus and Class 33 33021 Eastleigh settled their differences and pulled the train throughout the trip the Class 33 leading to Edinburgh.

One slight problem occurred as the train left Carlisle on the return journey down the West Coast Mainline - 33021 cutout. The Class 31 then leading did a sterling job of lifting the 12 coaches and one failed locomotive up Shap. The difference in speed once the train had crested Shap was remarkable. At the scheduled stop at Preston 33021 was restarted with no further problems to journey's end at Rose Grove.