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Lamiel Moves to Barrow Hill
30777 Sir Lamiel made a bleary-eyed 04.38 departure from Sheringham on the North Norfolk Railway last Thursday as it began its 202 mile rail journey to Barrow Hill near Chesterfield. The loco had stabled in the platform at the NNR's station from early the previous evening to be in "pole position" for an early getaway. Movements to and from the NNR over the new crossing are currently not allowed to take place whilst service trains are running. This means that inward and outward transfers have to take place very early or very late, which is extremely inconvenient for all concerned. The 03.30 arrival of the Class 37 diesel which hauled 30777 tender first to Cromer, with the support coach sandwiched between the two locos, caused some understandable annoyance to residents living close to the crossing. Hopefully a more civilised arrangement can be worked out with Network Rail for future movements.
37706, Lamiel and support coach 14099 were routed via the Wensum Curve at Norwich Crown Point depot, where the diesel was dropped off to continue its journey to the Mid Norfolk Railway for a Class 37 Gala there. This left 30777 pointing chimney first to continue on to Peterbourgh via Thetford, Ely West Curve and March. Taking the Midland line from here led to the water stop at Stamford, where the hydrant to be used had to be rescued from under a parked car. The poor flow from this hydrant left the tender a bit short of the hoped-for quantity by departure time but further dallying would have delayed the service train behind, leading to a bill for "delay minutes". Such are the wonders of working on the main line these days.
Fortunately Lamiel still had plenty of water left on arrival at Barrow Hill, achieved ten minutes early after journeying through Melton Mowbray, Loughborough and the Erewash Valley line to Chesterfield. The loco was checked round and left over a pit in readiness for disposal.
30777 will be working on the shuttle service at the "Model Rail" Gala at Barrow Hill over this weekend before it moves by road to the Bluebell Railway where it works four consecutive weekends from the 2nd/3rd October, culminating on the Gala on the 22nd-24th October.
By Info | Friday, September 24, 2010 | Tags : 30777