& Melvin Teale
Back to "The Railtour Files"27th October 1990
Pathfinder Tours
The Rylstone Cowboy
| Locos Used | 25322, 31294, 31327 & 47826 |
Route :
| Loco(s) | Route |
| 47826 | Swindon - Bath - Bristol Temple Meads - Bristol Parkway - Worcester - Stourbridge Junction - Dudley Port - Walsall - Stafford - Stoke-on-Trent - Stockport |
| 25322 | Stockport - Guide Bridge - Stalybridge - Huddersfield - Mirfield - Wakefield Kirkgate - Whitehall Jn - Shipley - Skipton (avoiding line) |
| 31294 + 31327 | Skipton (avoiding line) - Rylstone |
| 25322 | Rylstone - Skipton - Hellifield - Carnforth - Morecambe |
| 47826 | Morecambe - Heysham |
| 25322 | Heysham - Morecambe |
| 47826 | Morecambe - Lancaster - Preston - Crewe - New St - Bromsgrove - Worcester Shrub Hill - Bristol Parkway - Bristol Temple Meads - Bath - Swindon |
Notes :
Joining
the train at the booked pick up stop of Stockport was a total farce. The train
was routed onto the rare through tracks on the far side of the station
presumably to stop a mass bail to phot Tamworth Castle as she replaced 47826
here. So after much flapping about an authorised ballast leap was allowed for 50
or so of us and our first main line rat mileage for some time followed.
Tight timings, the Stockport farce, greasy rail and a titanic struggle to restart the train from the slimy depths of Rylstone works saw us approaching 3 hours down. This enforced a Morecambe bail for us London lads but that Sulzer sound at proper speeds on a proper railway was "hell".
Sources : Nick Ross
(joined train at Stockport, left at Morecambe)
& Melvin Teale
Back to "The Railtour Files"