Home»All Photographs»Year Albums»2022»January»2022_01_22 Winter Cumbrian Mountain Express

"The Cumbrian Mountain Express" on Saturday 22nd January was the first opportunity to watch and photograph main line steam in action in 2022. The weather forecast was poor but I did not wish to miss the first train of the year. It required a very early start from home and I was breaking my own rules as the booked locomotive was not stated in the on line publicity material until a very late indication that it would be 45699. Surely not some distortion of reality that its owner seems to regard as a joke! But yes, when I pulled into Hellifield there it was; name plate SIERRA LEONE, cabside number 45562, smokebox number 45627 and shed code 55A. And of course this locomotive's boiler has the large fire box with sloping throatplate that neither 45627 nor 45562 had. Last year there could have been an excuse in that the locomotive was quite busy but it's had many weeks out of service when surely time could have been found Perhaps David Smith is having financial problems and cannot afford to resolve these stupid inconsistencies. The appearance of the locomotive was not the only issue. On the run between Hellifield and Carlisle it gained 26 minutes on schedule to arrive in Carlisle 24 minutes early. I hope Ms. Kelly Osborne from Railway Touring Company is furious with WCRC. I've had an idea - why not rename and renumber it 45729 FURIOUS - it was a Kingmoor engine most of its working life and it had a sloping throat plate boiler.