Waterfall on left on way up Yorkshire's highest mountain Whernside (736m)
35018 Thunders past Blea Moor hauling The Winter Cumbrian Mountain Express 25/01/2020
New decade, same opening tour, different loco. In the years this opening Winter CME of the year from Manchester to Carlisle has run, it's largely been the domain of Black 5's or Jubilee's, but for 2020, Carnforth decided to turn out 35018 for the run north up the S&C and south over Shap. While 47746 remained on the back for the duration, there were no TPWS faults this year forcing it to take over at the head, so the first shot, at Hoghton, was significantly more successful than when we were there 12 months ago. It was pushing from the rear though, as a result of a late running Euston-Glasgow working forcing the tour to stop at Euxton Junction for a few minutes longer than booked, which then caused it to lose its path at Lostock Hall with the Blackpool-York going in front. By the time it passed it was 12 minutes late with most of the work being done by the 47 on the rear. The slack schedule gave us plenty of time to overtake, so a dash up the M6 to Lancaster and across country through Ingleton took us to Ribblehead, with a 35 minute walk following to reach a viewpoint we haven't used for nearly 7 years, where the line crosses over Force Gill between Blea Moor Signalbox and the Aqueduct. Although the lost time had been regained before Hellifield, it was lost again while a late running service train went ahead which delayed the water stop in the platform there. The tour eventually left 8 minutes late and had lost another 3 minutes by the time it hove into view through the drizzle. It was well worth the soaking for, with a huge exhaust and sanders on full as the MN dug into the final climb into Blea Moor Tunnel. What wasn't so great was that by the time we'd walked back to the car, the rain was gone and the sun was coming out...