During the Summer of 1995 Mel Chamberlain's Days Out programme of steam hauled trains suffered considerably from the fire risk ban and, in the case of trains that could have run, lack of bookings.
One series of trains that we had been looking forward to was three trains run from Crewe and reaching Carlisle via Shap. These, originally booked for August, were cancelled due to fire risk but new dates in the Autumn appeared in due course. These were advertised as the Shap Time Trials with the three engines booked to work one train each over Shap to Carlisle.
The locos were LNER A4 60007 'Sir Nigel Gresley' which worked the train on 30th September 1995, BR Standard Pacific 71000 'Duke of Gloucester' on 2nd October and LMS Pacific 46229 'Duchess of Hamilton' on the 3rd October each loco having 11 coaches behind the tender weighing in at a little over 430 tons.
While it would have been nice to have travelled on all three I decided to do just one, the last one with 46229 and despite the eventual result of the 'trials' it is a decision that I have never regretted!
The run wasn't without problems. Whilst climbing Grayrigg the loco began priming which caused a considerable loss of water level in the boiler and it proved difficult to restore this as the exhaust steam injector was playing up. In addition to this when the safety valves lifted one of the two valves refused to seat until the boiler pressure had dropped to 180 psi.
Falling water level meant that the driver had no option but to ease the loco on the upper part of the bank where speed quickly fell from around 60 mph to the mid 40's at the top of the climb.
During the course of the climb the weather deteriorated with rain coming down like stair rods at one point!
At the top of Grayrigg with the climb to Shap still to come speed was allowed to fall to 20 mph on the easier gradients to allow the water level in the boiler to recover before reaching Tebay.
In charge of 46229 on that day was Crewe driver Frank Santrian who was without a doubt as keen as we were to get the best out of the loco on the climb to Shap Summit. Aided by fireman Bob Morrison, in the short distance between Low Gill and Tebay they managed to get a satisfactory amount of water back into the boiler but, because of this were unable to do much to raise the boiler pressure. All this meant that, instead of starting the climb at 60 mph as was intended we were only doing 54 mph.
As this recording starts we are approaching Tebay and as the sound of steam blowing through indicates, the fireman's side injector is still playing up.
Once on to the 1 in 146 through Tebay Frank soon has the regulator open and speed rises to 57 mph before the 4 miles of 1 in 75 commence.
As we proceed Frank opens the loco up more and more until he has the loco working in full forward gear with the regulator fully opened on to the second regulator valve.
With a slower start and the boiler pressure being maintained at around 175 psi rather than the 250 psi it should have been there was no way that we were going to beat the Duke which on the previous day was able to pass Shap Summit maintaining 51 mph. However, just listen to the noise! I can honestly say that it is one of the finest sounds I have ever heard from a steam locomotive.
In the report published in the December issue of Railway Magazine detailing the performance of the three engines involved the caption to a photograph of the Duchess passing Greenholme read; 'The assault on Shap by Stanier's 'Duchess of Hamilton' in the pouring rain had to be heard to be believed.' I'll second that! The Duke might have put in a sparkling performance but I know what I'd rather listen to!!