RACING SOUTH ON A RUN-DOWN ‘DUCHESS’

I stood on Platform 1: it was Carlisle Citadel station and the chill wind was a sharp reminder that winter’s icy grasp had yet to relinquish it’s hold to the onward march of Spring. The icy wind stirred the dust at my feet into mad whirligigs and rustled my oil and soot begrimed boiler suit as it tried – with some success – to penetrate to the very skin.

My mind at this moment was still in a turmoil with recent memories of the previous hours which had brought me steadily north from Crewe South marshalling yards to my present environment. The occasion had been the opportunity to work with one of man’s most glorious creations – the steam locomotive. I travelled in the cab of BR ‘Britannia’ 4-6-2 No.70044 Earl Haig on the down parcels from Crewe South, leaving around 2pm.

This, to me, had been fulfillment; the realisation of a dream and utter Utopia for six hours as we had slowly rolled onward, first through the murky industrial region of Warrington, then Wigan with it’s rows of terraced houses at the foot of the embankment....and then on to that airy monolith of former times, Preston station, where we had stopped to refill the tender. Then north again, through Lancaster, to the ever-nearing fells and a long wait at Carnforth to allow