Marking the first ever appearance of an InterCity 125 HST set on the East Lancashire Railway was East Midlands Trains owned Class 43's, 43083 and 43049 'Neville Hill', seen working the East Lancashire 125 Railtour from London St Pancras to Rawtenstall.
The East Lancashire Railway closed to mainline traffic long before the introduction of the HST sets, and was only used as far as Bury for electric GMPTE services from Manchester Victoria run by Class 504 DC units. The lines towards Heywood and Rawtenstall were only retained for intermittent freight use until the traffic dried up in the early 1980s. Bury Bolton Street itself was closed in 1980 when electric services were moved to the new Bury Interchange station in the town centre, these services now running as Manchester Metrolink trams.
Once the route had been reopened to Castleton where it joins the mainline from Manchester Victoria to Hebden Bridge and Halifax, a connection to the rest of the network was once again available, thus allowing for a tour such as this to be accomplished. It also includes an interesting frame of two East Coast Mainline racehorses stood side by side at Bury during the final train movements, with D9016 stood right next to 43049.
The Class 55's were replaced on the East Coast by Class 43 HST sets powered by locomotives such as 43083 and 43049, ending their tenure as the ECML flagships in January 1982, but this was not before they had been displaced from their primary express workings by the InterCity 125 sets during the mid to late 1970s. The sight of these two rivals side by side is one that harks back to those final days of the Deltic rumble under the roof at Kings Cross and Edinburgh Waverley, mixed in with the idling scream of the then new Paxman Valenta engines. Although these powercars now have VP-185's fitted to them, they still sounded very much the part!
Enjoy!
Also, big thanks to DM Stuart for joining me on what turned out to be a fantastic day, it was great to see you again! :D
12 окт 2013
