South Pennines Day Ranger

The monthly trip of the RCTS Merseyside, Cheshire and North Wales branch took place on 12 November.  We used the South Pennines Day Ranger ticket instead of a West Yorkshire Day Ranger which would have been too restrictive owing to the closure of the line via Dewsbury for engineering work. The group met up in Sheffield after traveling from Liverpool, Malvern, Chester, Oswestry and the Wirral.

We journeyed to Leeds first.  We were disappointed with the passing of Midland Road - it would have been helpful if the driver of our train had slowed down but he seemed to speed up as we went past.  Even taking a video on the phone did not help much.  However, we did manage to write down a few numbers.

After a break at Leeds, a short trip to Garforth followed in order to pass Neville Hill where little could be seen.  A class 08 was in the yard but impossible to see the number owing to its very poor condition.

We then travelled to Huddersfield via Wakefield Kirkgate and time was spent appreciating the façade of Huddersfield station as well as saying hello to the Harold Wilson statue.

The party then travelled homewards via Sheffield through Penistone and the Hope Valley.

Trains on which we travelled….

MAN PICC [1B70 08.19 LIVERPOOL – CLEETHORPES] 185124 + 185144

SHEFFIELD [1Y10 09.17 NOTTINGHAM – LEEDS] 195003

LEEDS [1B22 09.19 BLACKPOOL NORTH – YORK] 195116

GARFORTH [1B25 11.23 YORK – BLACKPOOL NORTH] 195127

LEEDS [10.51 SALTBURN – MAN VIC ] 185150 + 185109

HUDDERSFIELD [2B19 14.09 - SHEFFIELD] 150222

SHEFFIELD [1R72 11.56 NORWICH – LIVERPOOL] 158806 + 158854

 

The two members from Malvern joined up with the merry throng at Sheffield just after 10am, having caught the 06:44 from Great Malvern. Upon arrival at Sheffield we were greeted with the sight of a rather filthy RHTT (they all are, of course) which was hauled by 66848 and 56105. It left the station before the other members arrived however.

Various attempts were made to video the passing of the depot but these were unsuccessful owing to the speed of our train. Nevertheless locos 66548, 70013, 70019 and 70020 were noted amongst many others.

Leeds station was its usual busy self. We had planned to make a quick dash to Garforth and back by train so as to pass the Neville Hill depot, and nearly abandoned the idea when our train to Garforth was announced 6 minutes late, which would have meant us missing the return train to Leeds and being stuck in Garforth for quite some time. Nevertheless, we risked all and just managed to catch our return train as it was also running a couple of minutes late.

After an hour or so of happy spotting and lunching at Leeds the itinerary bade us take the 12:45 Transpennine train to Huddersfield, being diverted via Wakefield because of major works to upgrade the line through Dewsbury.