Steam on Beattock Bank 45407 + banker 76079 Carlisle to Beattock

[@Linesider1]

This is a wonderful video, the journey up Beattock is so captivating, with the views of 45407 charging ahead and 76079 chucking out all manner of clag at the rear. It’s striking to see the extent to which rail tours have changed since, sadly for the worse from the enthusiasts’ point of view. Many thanks for sharing this, it’s fantastic.

[@Locohauledtrainsuk]

Past Time Rail who promoted this marathon were by some distance in my opinion the best at one-off railtours. The profitability for tour operators back then was marginal never mind in todays climate. Sad day when they went bust. 45407 took over this railtour at Preston & we arrived in Edinburgh nearly 10 hours later ! There was a 2 hour stop at Carlisle & various others including a planned/deliberate stop at Tebay on the down main, not the loop prior to taking on Shap (thus recreating how it used to be with a Tebay banker or as near as one could) Beattock loop was used due to pathing. Incredibly complex itinerary & no doubt incredibly expensive to run. You may come across the climb to Beattock again on KZbin (in a much shorter form) as I will be publishing a Beattock loop to summit 6 minute video on 2nd January 2023. Part of a series of both steam & diesel locos doing battle with the gradients on charters or in unscheduled circumstances.

[@Linesider1]

Locohauledrailuk I will look forward to seeing that, many thanks. I saw this tour on Shap but not from the best of locations due to the foot and mouth restrictions which were still in place.

[@MasterMoyle]

It would be fantastic if they ever ran something like this again, they missed a great opportunity when 76084 was mainline certified.

[@Locohauledtrainsuk]

The late 90's/early 2000's was something of a golden era for preserved steam (in my opinion) on the relatively recently privatised railway. Gone were the handful of routes that British Rail permitted steam to run on. Any route anywhere suddenly became possible if a path could be found & the organiser had the cash. Past-time Rail who promoted this railtour were notorious (in a good way) for running expensive but fabulous one-off railtours. Maybe this is partly why they ultimately went bust, such a shame. Thanks for watching.

[@MasterMoyle]

@@Locohauledtrainsuk it still makes a change from just seeing regular stuff get repeated, the Cumbrian Mountain Express is one example but it does make a change to see some different tours which rarely ever see steam or even attempt to replicate events like this. One that I would like to see run again is "The Cotton Mill Express" which ran in 2020 (weeks before the bloody covid lockdown), by far one of the best RTC tours iv been on (not the absolute best though as that claim belongs to 1T57). A Steam banked trip over Shap and Beattock however would be a fantastic sight to see again though. I know expensive but deffinately one people would love to see happen as there's many young generations of rail enthusiasts around now who didn't exist when this took place.

[@Locohauledtrainsuk]

Thanks for watching