Settle and Carlisle Railway

[jimthetrain]

I was fortunate enough today to have what we call on the railway "a route refreshing day". This happened to be over the Settle to Carlisle route and upon taking my camera gear was looking forward to some shots of all the snow that had fallen over the area. The downside being it rained constantly for the whole trip, there and back. I've posted some shots below and as I was behind the cab window, with the wiper constantly on trying to shift the rain, on an engine(class 57) that is bouncier than tiggers tail, the results are somewhat soft. That's the excuses out of the way.

All images are clickable

[jimthetrain]

Some more

[jimthetrain]

The last one apparently has only become visible over the last two days.

[picsfor]

great piccies Jim but explain to me a Preston Driver doing the Carlisle - Settle line?

As for shooting from the s/m side of a class 57 - the trick is not to be sat down but stood just behind the cooker...
Shoot when the wiper is diagonally across the screen because you miss it and end up shooting when it's either right up or right down.
Been shooting from Class 47's/ 57's since '86. Is a bit of an art but once you've mastered it - it's a home run.
Always found Class 86's the difficult one... they are bouncy 

[Forseti]

- the trick is not to be sat down but stood just behind the cooker...

W H A T ? I thought the trick was to keep your hands on the steering wheel with one hand on the brake or whatever you call it. A great comfort to us passengers to know that the guy at the pointed end is strolling around taking photographs, perhaps making him/herself a cup of tea on the cooker, reading the paper or, in fact, not even at the pointed end at all. Remind me to always fly in future. No forget that, these drivers are also in the habit of wondering around at times. 

[jimthetrain]

great piccies Jim but explain to me a Preston Driver doing the Carlisle - Settle line?

As for shooting from the s/m side of a class 57 - the trick is not to be sat down but stood just behind the cooker...
Shoot when the wiper is diagonally across the screen because you miss it and end up shooting when it's either right up or right down.
Been shooting from Class 47's/ 57's since '86. Is a bit of an art but once you've mastered it - it's a home run.
Always found Class 86's the difficult one... they are bouncy 

We have always gone over there for when the west coast is shut. Only us at virgin do it. Did the windscreen thing but it was raining quite hard all day, it was clearer on the left wipe than the right one.

[picsfor]

- the trick is not to be sat down but stood just behind the cooker...

W H A T ? I thought the trick was to keep your hands on the steering wheel with one hand on the brake or whatever you call it. A great comfort to us passengers to know that the guy at the pointed end is strolling around taking photographs, perhaps making him/herself a cup of tea on the cooker, reading the paper or, in fact, not even at the pointed end at all. Remind me to always fly in future. No forget that, these drivers are also in the habit of wondering around at times. 

The important point here is... Jim was actually just a passenger in the cab - some one else was actually driving (weren't they Jim!)
Hence the term road refreshing.
As for steering wheel - haven't used them since we got modern computer controlled trains that can be programmed.
Now we just play solitaire and take pictures or read a book whilst the train does the driving 

[jimthetrain]

Here's the engine with other driver and obligatory cup of tea.

[picsfor]

Was that tea fresh from the previous signal box?
Because us drivers lose concentration if we have to pass a signal box or 2 without a fresh cuppa 

What a mess they've made of that lovely class 47! Just so's you can have a jolly with the Pendolino's!

[alan1572]

i watch a program called Globe Trekka on one of the Discovery channels and they ..well trek all over the Globe, they have just put a top 10 together of the worlds best journeys and guess what was number 1...go on guess

All right i'll tell you, Settle to Carlisle Railway trip.

[Oldboy]

Not a bad set of pictures considering the rain and murky conditions. 

[picsfor]

Gosh, rain and murky conditions are the least of his worries.

The class 47 (or 57 as it is now called) has very poor demisting and an almost useless window wiper that clears but a small part of the window.
Cab heating is useless - a bit like lighting 3 or 4 candles and keeping them close to use the heat off the flame.
As a light loco (not pulling any vehicles) it can be like taking pictures whilst jumping around in a bouncy castle - hence my advise to be stood up - it's the only way to minimise the bouncy castle effect.
The loco was designed and built in 1963 and done so using the left over components from the class 46 in the final days of the 'Peak Project'.
They had enough to build 20 locos which turned out to be so good BR built another 500 odd and they were the main stay of BR loco power on freight and passenger until the late 90's.
The body design was so good they used it to build the class 56 freight only loco which gives an even rougher ride at 75mph and should really have come with seat belts!  

All in all - Jim has done exceedingly well with those pictures as can be demonstrated in the picture below!



 

[Sandy]

I think the photos are great and would love to travel that route on a steam train

Sandy

[picsfor]

you could get a flight to Yellow Stone for less Sandy!

VSOE out of London Victoria down to Canterbury on the 3 Cathedrals tour is one of the cheaper runs and you need to consider 3 figures starting with 3!

The Settle Carlisle run will be a few hundred more on top - especially with one of the more prominent steam loco's on the front!

[Sandy]

It would also be great if you could get a photo of a steam train on the viaduct

Sandy