WITH FULL REGULATOR LOCOMOTIVE PERFORMANCE THEN AND NOW
OVER the past year or more I have received from David Bradbury a lot of very detailed train running logs covering the work of various steam locomotives on the Settle and Carlisle line. I don’t get to visit this line as much as I would like as whatever combination of trains I use to get to the Railway Touring Company’s‘Cumbrian Mountain Express’ or West Coast Railways’‘The Dalesman’, it involves a very long day. Indeed, the homeward connections from the retimed ‘The Dalesman’are now such that the chances of not making it home the same day are fairly high! Therefore, this time I am using some of David’s logs.
Table One contains detail of four runs from the Appleby restart to passing Ais Gill with three different locomotives, all demonstrating very good high power performances. The 1942-built LMS 8F No. 48151 had charge of‘The Dalesman’ for much of the early part of 2017 and most of 2018. This reliable engine is ideally suited to the fierce gradients of the S&C and its 50mph maximum speed isn’t unduly constraining in view of the line’s overall 60 mph limit. Nor do 13-coach 500 ton trains hold any terrors, as the loco, though only weighing 72 tons, has a nominal tractive effort of 32,440 lb. Therefore, I
