'Run It' at the Tanfield Railway! - 19/10/2024

Описание: Following their famous ‘Legends Of Industry’ Gala in June, the Tanfield Railway held their ‘Run It’ event over the weekend of 19th and 20th October. This was to be a smaller-scale affair, featuring no visiting locomotives, but that did not mean it would be any less entertaining! With the autumn colours on full display and a variety of consists in action, the gala promised to be an enjoyable event for passengers and photographers alike!

Five steam locomotives from Marley Hill would see service. The two diminutive 0-4-0s, Keighley Gasworks No.2 and ‘Sir Cecil A. Cochrane’, could be found bustling about on short passenger rakes. Larger engines such as ‘Austerity’ Backworth No.49 and Barclay 0-6-0 ‘Horden’ (as well as Barclay 0-4-0ST ‘Stanley’) took turns on a very impressive freight rake, resulting in some great noises on the full line runs. Although not featured in this video, Fowler 0-6-0DH ‘Ribblesdale Cement No.6’ also operated several services and ‘Armstrong Whitworth No.2’ could be found shunting in the yard. The timetable was very intensive, especially for what was supposed to be a more relaxed gala! All in all, a total of seven engines could be found trundling up and down the three-mile railway.

I visited on the Saturday of the event, which did not run without issue. The first freight was scheduled to depart Marley Hill at 09:00, but the diesel electric was still assembling the rake until 09:25. Late running continued until around 15:15, when during a run-round manoeuvre at Sunniside, ‘Horden’s steam brake failed and the locomotive hit the buffers in the headshunt. This caused further delays as well as an ad-hoc reshuffling of the allocations. By the time ‘Sir Cecil A. Cochrane’ departed East Tanfield with the planned 15:10 service, trains were running over one hundred minutes late. The final full-line freight behind No.49 was cancelled in an effort to make up time, as was at least one passenger train. The weather on Saturday was overcast to start off with, although the sun came out in the afternoon, showcasing some beautiful autumnal glint.

The full lineup consisted of:

Steam:
Hawthorn Leslie 0-4-0ST Keighley Gasworks No.2
Robert Stephenson & Hawthorn 0-4-0ST 7409 'Sir Cecil A. Cochrane'
Robert Stephenson & Hawthorn ‘Austerity’ 0-6-0ST No.49
Andrew Barclay 0-4-0ST 1659 'Stanley'
Andrew Barclay 0-6-0ST 1015 'Hordon' (failed on Saturday with steam brake issues)

Diesel:
Fowler 0-6-0DH 4240010 ‘Ribblesdale Cement No.6’*
Armstrong Whitworth 0-4-0DE No.2*

*does not feature

I hope you all enjoy the video. Despite the difficulties with the late running and locomotive failures, I had a very good time at Tanfield this weekend. Thanks once again to David and Duncan for their kind permission with lineside access. Check us out on Facebook and Instagram at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?... and   / secondvalvesteam   for photos, updates and more. Please consider subscribe and feel free to leave a comment!