I'd got it in my head to go and find the Class 205 Diesel electric multiple unit that is preserved at the Eden Valley railway based at Warcop in Cumbria. This railway exists because after the former North Eastern railway's Trans Pennine line was closed to traffic the British Army had the section between Appleby on the Settle and Carlisle line to Warcop kept operational for military traffic(AFVs and Ammo mainly). Still relatively humble in its working at the moment it has carved out a unique profile by its preservation and operation of former British rail, Southern region, EMUs and DEMUs. These Commuter vehicles find themselves hundreds of miles away from the former lines in Kent, Surrrey and Sussex and have none of the glamour of the preserved mainline steam and diesels found at other Railways but they are a perfect time capsule of the things London commuters had to put up with for decades. This is a 4-CEP unit of 1961 still in Southwest trains livery and is a pure EMU using third rail electrification back in he day As there is no third rail on the line it is used as loco hauled coaching stock. Not the prettiest thing ever put on the main line So what Brooklyn wanted to ride was the 205, popularly known as as 'Thumper'. These shared the bodysyle of the other London EMUs but had an English Electric four cylinder4SRKT diesel engine and generator in what would be the luggage compartment producing 600 HP at 850 RPM. They sound uncannily like the English Electric engines in the class 20s. to be honest they are a bit basic but never the less it was very pleasant trundling though the secenery of the Eden valley in something very, very retro! The interior with the distinctive luggage racks obviously designed for briefcases So why the Happy boy? As I was buying the tickets we noticed a sign saying "Drive for a Fiver". Basically pay £5 and they would let you, under instruction, drive one of the Industrial diesel shunters. Brooklyn pestered me all the way to the end of the line and back again to do it! "O.K, but I'll have to see if you are old enough" The loco Just going to top my pint up and then there will be some more Kev
Once we were on the footplate I started a chat with the instructor and we hit it off straight away when he found out I have five locos at work similar to this I can drive and was even more impressed when Brooklyn showed he knew a lot more about diesel shunters than many other nine year olds. So he drove to the end of the line at the Kirkby Stephen end ( of which more soon), reversed and drove back and did a perfect stop back at the platrform steps. And gets his certificate Heres the video. A chip off thr old block I think! there are other things to see at Warcop including what must be the worst Class 37 in the U.K. 37 042 is going to be a challenge The original NER Signalbox Lever frame, track diagram and block machines
I mentioned Kirkby Stephen East. There are two stations in this little market town situated about six miles east of Warcop. Kirkby Stephen West is still open and a station on the famous Settle and Carlisle seeing regular steam hauled excursions and a regular passenger service by Northern Rail. Kirkby Stephen East survived as a building in industrial use until a preservation society was formed to save it and re-open part of the line. Some of you Z gauge modellers may recall I showed Cuyahoga,My Nickel Plate road layout, at a show on the platform a few years ago. So Brooklyn and I had a very nice lunch at The Mulberry cafe in the town before heading to the museum. The last time I visted there wer a lot of privately owned main line diesels lying around but I was pleased that they seem to have decided on a clear direction for the centre and the line Star of the show is NER 910. A North Eastern Railway 2-4-0 of 1875 vintage built in their Gateshead works. Excuse the very early Christmas decorations The working fleet consists of Pecket 0-4-0ST 'Lytham St Annes' The boy seems to get everywhere! And another Peckett 0-4-0ST ' F.C Tingey' immaculate in black Where this little railway stands out is its expertise in the restoration of LNER Teak carriages. They start of with things like this Excuse the vignetting on the picture, I screwed the wrong filter on They turn out immaculate, varnished teak, LNER Gresley wooden bodied coaches like this Just superb More in a minute
But we hadn't finished there In between the two stations is yet another WW2 pillbox we needed to get but this time I let Brooklyn go and take all the pictures I mentioned that the owners of some of the mainline locos had been asked to leave and was aware that two of them had appeared randomly on an Industrial estate besides the M6 motorway at Tebay. The estate is built on the former site of the steam locoshed that was here back in the days when every train heading up the climb to Shap Summit needed a banking engine. Had to shoot over the fence to get Type 2 Bo-Bo 20 169 and the 9F 2-10-0 92119 This was one of the last 9Fs built by British Rail and really needs to be brought back to life One of its sister engines in its prime at Totley Tunnel east in May 1966 in a pic taken by my dad Kev
Nice to see some trains I used to ride in , that seat covering felt like spikey doormat on the back of my schoolboy legs !! ... memories Fun factoid, the black triangle on the front of the Thumper was to indicate that this end had the luggage compartment so the station porters could get in position with the newspaper cages etc as the set approached the station. Looking at the 4CEP the guards compartment in the second carriage seems to be at the wrong end ! they were usually adjacent to the centre gangway.
