Homeward Bound

On our way back from our weekend jaunt today, Dad fancied popping in to the Great Central Railway at Loughborough which was having it's first steam gala of the year. Not much of interest unless you favour GWR engines but "The Great Marquess" flew the flag for the LNER, and the pause was a welcome break in the journey home.

The Rother-Don Rambler

Following a week of poor reliability for the Class, which meant two no shows for me on the Trent Valley line yesterday (including the usually solid 6E41), 60099 got us underway on today's tour. A few red bits were had in the Sheffield area before a blat south to Chaddesden sidings in Derby. 31601 and 31190 were main tour loco's for the day.

60099

Rob Reedman nipped along to Warrington on the 18th of January and sent in this photo of 60099 working 6F74 12:11 Liverpool Bulk Terminal-Fiddlers Ferry Power Station, a turn that at one time looked likely to go over to 59/2 haulage.

Tug overhauls given green light.

Following months of speculation an announcement was finally released today.

Bring it on!

60040

Another Rob Reedman phot, 60040 working our old favourite, 6E41, passing Burton-on-Trent on the 13th of January this year.

60009

Here's another of Rob Reedman's pics that I wasn't able to post at the time.
Tug 9 throbs thru Sawmills with 6M11 on the 24th of April last year.

Testing...testing...

Hello stranger! Armed with a new Sony Ericsson Xperia X10, its about time I got this thing up and running again. I'm still getting to grips with the new handset but we're headed in the right direction at least.
The word on the street is a handful of Tugs have had overhauls sanctioned of which I hope to post more about anon.
In the meantime, enjoy this phot of 60011 and 60096 storming through Tamworth on the 9th of September last year. Photo courtesy of Rob Reedman, cheers Rob.