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‘Tornado’ to tackle Shap Summit grade in July
This is the Night Mail crossing the border,
Bringing the cheque and the postal order,
Letters for the rich, letters for the poor,
The shop at the corner and the girl next door.
Pulling up Beattock, a steady climb:
The gradient’s against her, but she’s on time.
Past cotton-grass and moorland boulder
Shovelling white steam over her shoulder,
Snorting noisily as she passes
Silent miles of wind-bent grasses.
Dawn freshens, the climb is done.
Down towards Glasgow she descends
Towards the steam tugs yelping down the glade of cranes,
Towards the fields of apparatus, the furnaces
Set on the dark plain like gigantic chessmen.
All Scotland waits for her:
In the dark glens, beside the pale-green sea lochs
Men long for news.
'Easy to see how 1 in 75 could be rewritten to 1.75 %
A 3rd way of describing grades was used by 1, and maybe uniquely, US railroad system.
A trivia question…why not, Chief?
The ruling grade northbound is actually 1 in 75, about 1.33%.
This project offers inspiration to build replica ALCO PA’s and PB’s in different paint schemes like Southern Railway, Santa Fe, and Missouri Pacific Lines.
Beattock Summit, at 1016 feet, is the highest point on the West Coast Main Line.
Beattock Summit, at 1016 feet, is the highest point on the West Coast Main Line.
This should be a great spectacle, some years ago three different classes of British pacifics, competed to see which could get up the final 4 miles of Shap in the fastest time. They were a) an LMS built Duchess class that was built for the line, b) an A4 streamliner from the rival LNER and c) Duke a Gloucester the unique British Railway Standard with 3 cylinders that has performed better in preservation than in regular service. Many of us have been waiting for Tornado to have a go. I am just old enough to remember seeing Duchesses working the line in 1962.
Pity I won’t be able to see it depart from Crewe, as I’m booked for something else that day. I saw it on the Settle-Carlisle at Dent a few years ago, magnificent! I do like its current early BR express blue livery, just like many of the A1s were turned out back in 1949-50 - happy memories!