SCOTS GUARDSMAN AT TACKS SHAP
In this instalment of Practice & Performance, John Heaton FCILT analyses preserved steam on the main line, looking at ex-LMS locos on the ascent of Shap and Ais Gill summits.
World Record Officially the world’s longest-running railway series, established in 1901
‘Royal Scot’No. 46115 Scots Guardsman makes its way past Angerholme on the climb to Ais Gill summit on August 8, 2020, with a‘Cumbrian Mountain Express’for the Railway Touring Company. JOHN COOPER-SMITH
Last summer the country emerged from the first Covid-19 lockdown just in time for West Coast Railways to run the ‘Cumbrian Mountain Express’ charter train on behalf of the Railway Touring Club on August 8.
Organising the train to run in the difficult circumstances dictated by social distancing must have been a logistical nightmare, but the more intrepid among the enthusiast ranks duly headed north behind No. 86259 Les Ross for a far from brief encounter at Carnforth with ‘Royal Scot’ 4-6-0 No. 46115 Scots Guardsman.
For seven years, No. 86259 was named Greater Manchester – The Life and Soul of Britain, more a documentary title than a loco name perhaps, and for 23 years before that, Peter Pan. I never considered this identity suitable either, but perhaps the loco’s longevity in preservation has proved me wrong. Peter Pantograph might have been more appropriate.
Stalwart
Railway Performance Society (RPS) secretary Dr Frank Price was on board the train, having travelled from London for the event, and Scottish RPS steam special stalwart Sandy Smeaton joined en route. I am grateful to both friends for making available their logs of the superb run that ensued.
Driver Kelly and fireman Soames were in charge of Scots Guardsman as it stormed the 1-in-134 of Yealand Bank at 40mph.
After accelerating to 70mph on the level to Milnthorpe, the ‘Royal Scot’ tackled the initial climb to Grayrigg, passing Oxenholme at 60mph and maintaining no less than a minimum of 45mph with its 12-coach load(c.450tons gross) at the end of the punishing final two miles at 1-in-106.
Dr Price calculates that the estimated drawbar horsepower (edbhp) was 1,780, which, his research has discovered, equals that narrated in an article concerning outstanding ‘Royal Scot’ performance in a 1966 Stephenson Locomotive Society Journal.
By further coincidence, he also discovered this same figure was the maximum quoted by John Clay after examining the performance of the class in the 1948 Locomotive Exchanges. Grayrigg is a curtain-raiser for the main task of climbing Shap. There is a brief respite to allow the loco some recovery from its exertions, with the gradient being no more adverse than 1-in-777 over the next five miles towards Tebay (see Table 1). Shap introduces itself with the firm handshake of an uphill 1-in-146 for two miles before exerting a vice-like grip with 1-in-75 for over four miles to the summit. The maximum permissible speed of 75mph was reached at Tebay South.
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