It's that time of year again, when main line steam engines pass our Northampton depot either whilst working a festive job or when performing a loco or stock move in order to do so. Today it was the turn of Saphos Trains' LMS Black Five No45231 "Sherwood Forester" to move south to Southall on head code 5Z52. The 1936-built 4-6-0 is one of Stanier's 842-strong class of mixed traffic class fives, first introduced by the LMS in 1934. 45231 was at the head of a 12-coach ECS working when she cautiously appeared around the curve from Mill Lane, tailed by a green class 47. At this point she was running about 15 minutes early and so was held on the approach to Northampton station at a red signal. As a few orange vest wearing onlookers peered at her from our lawn, the 5MT simmered in the sunshine with the occasional pop of one of the safety valves. It was definitely the perfect weather for it today...
45231 hung around for about 10 minutes before she was released on a caution signal to continue southward towards the station. The chuffing of the air pump (a Saphos fitment) is a noticeable difference to what we're used to with our vacuum braked engines. (I believe all of the Saphos main line workings are now on air). When the signal cleared to a caution aspect, the 5MT gave a blast on her hooter before hissing into life and casually strolling away in the direction of London...
The 47 was doing most of the work as they started away from us, rumbling away at the rear of the blood and custard stock. I appreciate loadings are key to economic success with these jobs but a 5MT on load 12 with a 47 too is an unrealistic prospect and will mean that the 47 will have to do its fair share of the work. For the uninitiated, the 47 will add at least another 2.5 coaches of load with its weight. Ahh well, what can you do? This is modern main line steam. As long as we can still see these fine engines in action on the main, that's all that matters. 45231 is working to York tomorrow on an early Christmas job before returning to the capital later on. It was nice to see her again. I think this is the fourth time I've seen her passing work. Cheers all, Sam...
Please note that the above images were taken from land outside of the NR boundary fence.
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