Home»All my photos»2018 Railway Photos»The Riley Fives storm Ais Gill 10 November 2018

Two of Ian Riley’s Black Fives from Manchester Victoria to Carlisle and back were a regular and well-loved feature of the RTC Christmas / New Year programme but sadly the tradition faded away. So the Citadel, promoted by Ian and the WCRC, was a welcome return, especially in the fiftieth year since the last BR steam train. Albeit in the opposite direction up to Ais Gill, Nos 45212 and 45157 The Lancashire Fusilier echoed that occasion superbly. How sad that the paying customers only needed a nine coach formation to accommodate them, and even then there were a lot of empty seats.

The engines looked superb as they crept down from Brewery Junction into Manchester Victoria, and they soon began to show their paces, reaching 50 at Brindle Heath and 54 at Clifton on the climb towards Bolton. Our departure from there was delayed half an hour by a sad and unticketed young man who was reluctant to leave the train, but a brisk restart saw us up to 52 at Lostock, 57 at Middle Brook and a spell in the early sixties down through Blackrod and Adlington as far as Chorley, when we made a slower job of entering and then leaving the West Coast Main Line.
Onto the Blackburn line, the locos opened up through Bamber Bridge (37), reaching 41 as we started the climb to Hoghton, and stayed at 42 or 43 right to the summit. After the Blackburn pickup and rounding Daisyfield Junction, the Staniers sent up a magnificent exhaust, accelerating all the way from the mid twenties to a momentary 40 on the climb to Wilpshire and slackening only to 37 at the summit. We continued briskly in the 40s through Clitheroe and Gisburn, and had recovered our lost half hour on approaching Hellifield.
But you ain’t seen nothing yet! On leaving Hellifield, the Fives switched from ‘lively’ mode to ‘bat out of hell’ mode. Our rear coaches must have been going well above the speed limit for the goods loop before they cleared it! We blasted through Long Preston at 39, Town Head at 48, Skir Beck at 56, and had to ease back from 58 to avoid breaking line speed and the locos’ speed limit at Settle Junction before hitting the bottom of the climb. But then they opened right up to attack the 1 in 100. 52 through Settle and on in the early 50s, apart from a short dip to 49 after Stainforth Tunnel. We were back at 50 by Helwith Bridge and accelerated to 55 on the following level stretch. Still at 52 through Horton in Ribblesdale and up to 54 for a short spell, we were still above 50 at Salt Lake where we shut off for a cautious approach to Ribblehead. After the viaduct we stormed up Blea Moor, entering the tunnel at 40. We whizzed along the tops in the mid fifties (apart from the 30 mph slack at Dent), and down from Ais Gill there was much use of the brakes to prevent us exceeding the limits as we headed for Appleby. After a pleasant break in the autumn sunshine we had a steady run in the high 50s right through to Carlisle.
After a lovely sunny morning it had clouded over by our departure time, but there was nothing shady about how we left Carlisle. We were up to 26 at Upperby Junction and 39 when we first crossed the M6. It started raining but we managed 41 at Wreay, 48 at Southwaite and 56 just after Plumpton. We buzzed along in the 50s, passing Penrith at 55, until our first pathing stop at Eden Valley Junction. When released, we were back in the 40s by Thrimby and reached 53 just past Shap Old Station. Wee dipped into the high 40s over the last stretch to Shap Summit, passed at 49, then rollicked down the other side, within 2 mph either side of the limit all the way to Burton and Holme, where we started our extended crawl into the Carnforth loop. Here No 45212 left us for a Christmas home visit to the K&WVR, and we continued with 45407 back to Manchester with some welcome train heating and unwelcome shovage.
We arrived back in Manchester before time at the end of a magnificent day out: just sad that so few of the usual suspects were there with us to enjoy it. Hopefully Ian Riley and WCRC will stick with the formula and give us some more great days next year.