Furness, Lakes & Lune
Meeting Reports
Friday 2nd March 2012
The Stainmore Line
David Tyreman
After a few technical difficulties David Tyreman grabbed the attention of a good audience with his ‘Photographic tour of the Stainmore line’, compiled by J.R. Midcalf and based on the collection of the Armstrong Railway Photographic Trust, of which David is a founder member. David began with some of his own colour photographs of the last day before closure and of a later special at Middleton in Teesdale, then went on to the main part of the programme which took us on a journey from Darlington to Kirkby Stephen, stopping at most of the stations and visiting the branches to Merrybent, Forcett, Bishop Auckland and Middleton in Teesdale. There was a wide variety of motive power from old NER favourites to BR standard classes, and equally varied conditions with the normally beautifully maintained permanent way occasionally hidden under mountains of snow. Naturally scenes at the summit were included, as were views of the viaducts, with the partly dismantled Belah viaduct in stark contrast to its earlier impressive appearance. The programme was enhanced by David’s intimate knowledge of the line and its workings, so that any questions thrown at him were successfully dealt with.
Friday 3rd February 2012
Challenges of Timetable Planning
David Langton (train diagram planner, TPE)
The speaker at Carnforth on 3rd February was David Langton, Timetable Strategy Manager for TransPennine Express. In a couple of hours David gave an enormous amount of information about the development of the company’s train services, dealing not only with those between Manchester and Scotland, but also to destinations in the north west. As there were representatives of rail user groups in the audience there was no shortage of searching questions to be answered, and if the answers were not always what the questioners would have liked to hear they were always thoughtful and reasoned. With the multifarious problems confronting a timetable compiler, such as motive power suitability, working costs, ticket revenue, punctuality, connecting services, catering, engineering works and so on and on, one might think that the work of a timetable compiler would lead only to an early grave, but David is obviously one who relishes a challenge, and he was able to show that, while we may never enjoy a perfect rail service, many improvements are being made and the needs of passengers are not forgotten.
Friday 6th January 2012
The Lancaster & Carlisle Railway
Peter Robinson
Branch chairman Peter Robinson began his talk on “The history of the Lancaster & Carlisle Railway”, the topic of the January meeting, by outlining the development of the main line railways which linked London with the north, including the canal period, the time when connection with Glasgow was by sea via Fleetwood to Ardrossan, and the vicissitudes of the hapless Preston & Lancaster Junction Railway. He then dealt with the various routes proposed between Lancaster and Carlisle, the engineers responsible for construction, and the merger with the LNWR. When the history of the railway had been covered, we were then taken on a journey, starting at Preston, visiting almost all of the stations north thereof, including the rarely photographed Scorton and the L&PJR terminus at Lancaster. We were also treated to a rich variety of motive power, including very early L&NWR 2-4-0s, ‘modern’ steam, and the Fell diesel mechanical, GT3 and so on up to the Pendolino era. Among the more unusual photos were a couple of M&CR 0-6-0s at Tebay, and LNWR ‘Jumbo’ “Dagmar” looking sorry for herself after a spot of bother at Penrith in 1903.
Friday 7th October 2011
Rebuilding Arnside Viaduct - Engineering and Logistics
George Thomas (TPE) and a Representative of Network Rail
Rhiannon Henshaw (Network Rail) and George Thomas (TPE), the speakers at Carnforth on 7th October, presented a topic of much local interest: ‘Rebuilding Arnside Viaduct: Engineering and Logistics’. After an account of the history of the bridge, we got down to the rebuilding, hampered at times by bad weather, but completed before schedule by 18th July. Among the new features were derailment protection, walkways on both sides and comparatively silent welded rail to replace the noisy, but affectionately remembered, clickety clack of the bullhead rail. Great care was taken to reduce the inconvenience to passengers, with carefully considered bus replacement services, and a multitude of problems were successfully overcome through provision of extra human resources at stations. The opportunity was also taken during the period when the viaduct was out of action to do other jobs such as repairs to Lindal tunnel. Little wonder that the result was an Outstanding Teamwork Award and tributes from members of the audience. To cap it all we were shown a video which showed the work from beginning to end all in the space of about a quarter of an hour.
Friday 2nd September 2011
A members’ evening devoted to ‘My best pictures’
The new season opened on 2nd September at the County Hotel, Carnforth, our new venue, with contributions from six members. Peter Robinson set the ball rolling with scenes at the mining railway at Threlkeld, near Keswick, including the visiting Statfold Farm Railway locomotive, to be followed by John Owen whose visits included Majorca and Switzerland before reverting to ‘home grown’ preserved main line steam. Dave Balderson provided a photographic selection of much earlier vintage from the camera of Dr. Tice F. Budden, the earliest being of the broad gauge ‘Zulu’ at Ealing in 1890 with both mixed and standard gauge in evidence, while Alan Sattenstall brought us back to more modern times with 6115 and 5690 working on the Settle and Carlisle, 5043 and 4965 in tandem in Wales, and 6233 in 1946 LMS livery. Noel Machell continued with a variety of his camerawork from the 1960s, always a welcome contribution, and Clive Holden rounded off with a few station interiors which, intended to test the knowledge of the audience, proved to be all too easily identified.
last updated: 04/03/12