| The bus tour
took us in Helm's of Eastham (ex- Nottingham) Dennis Arrow N402NRA from
Liverpool. |
The tour vehicle rests in Baslow during our
mid-morning stop. We actually arrived there early, unheard of
for a LUPTS tour. Photo: Charles Roberts/Online
Transport Archive (CCR30048)
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|
The incredible sight of four Deltics inside the same
building. The tour party is being given a talk about the DPS's
activities. Photo: Charles Roberts/Online
Transport Archive (CCR30055)
|
Our first port of call was the Deltic Preservation Society at Barrow Hill near
Chesterfield. Although the 2000 LUPTS Tour visited Barrow
Hill, the DPS did not take up residence until 2003, when its own
purpose-built facility was completed. We had a talk from
the Graham Clarke of DPS about these most powerful and fabulous of all
British diesel locomotives. There was also just enough ('not
enough'? Ed) time to catch up on developments at Britain's last operational roundhouse
engine shed.
|
| Naturally, the invitation to sit
in the cab of D9009 'Alycidon' was accepted by many of the youngsters in
the tour
party. Photos: Charles Roberts/Online
Transport Archive (CCR30067, CCR30068); Hugh Hollinghurst, Rob Marsh |
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| We were conveyed from Barrow Hill to our lunchtime stop in an ex-Crosville Series
2 Bristol VRT of Johnson Bros Tours of Hodthorpe, Notts.
Johnson Bros have two ex-Crosville Series 2 VRTs; we used HTU159N
(ex-Crosville DVG270), which was based in Liverpool at one time.
|
A smiling bus tour organiser, before he realises
that about a dozen of the party have failed to board the special tour
vehicle in time for the scheduled departure time. Many of the
absentees were in search of gunge - click here
if you can be be bothered. Photo: Charles Roberts/Online
Transport Archive (CCR30092)
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|
The bus tour party split into two for the guided
tour around Sandtoft. Here the story of the museum and many of
the individual vehicles is told by Geoff Sandford. Photo:
Charles Roberts/Online
Transport Archive (CCR30098)
|
We then moved on to The
Trolleybus Museum at Sandtoft, the world's largest trolleybus museum, for
the first time since 1986. Sandtoft were running a North-East weekend, with a vehicle or two visiting from
Beamish and we had our own guided tour.
Note that our every move at Sandtoft was
being recorded by someone else: click
here.
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| Our last, but not least, stop
was The Appleby and Frodingham Railway, which is based on 96 miles of
track at the massive Corus steel plant in Scunthorpe. Locos
and rolling stock on site are divided between Corus and AFPRS, the latter
of which was running a diesel weekend. We travelled on the
last train of the day. Mark predicted: "The railtour promises
to be very special and unusual". It was.
|
A view looking backwards out of the of the train
towards The Four Queens (aren't they the house band on Jonathan Ross's
show? Ed), the four blast furnaces at Corus's Scunthorpe
plant. Photo: Charles Roberts/Online
Transport Archive (CCR30171)
|
| Courtesy of Paul
Hollinghurst's GPS, you can follow where our route around the steelworks
took us. The apparently strange route in the south east of the
steelworks does not represent the route we took, but is the result of
strange reflections from the satellite bouncing of some of the bigger
steelworks buildings.
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We do pick the most of exotic locations for our
group photographs - alongside the recycling bins in Morrisons supermarket
in Scunthorpe. Photo:
Charles Roberts/Online
Transport Archive (CCR30177)
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Arrival back in Liverpool. Photo:
Charles Roberts/Online
Transport Archive (CCR30180)
|
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The tour organisers enjoy a well earned drink after
a long day's work. Photo: Charles Roberts
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On returning to Liverpool, we
adjourned to the Pig and Whistle in Chapel Street.
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|
CAPTION
COMPETITION
If you think you can do better (and let's face it,
some of these are rubbish) please send your entries
to webmasterATlupts.org.uk (replacing the AT)
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|
Photo: Keith Nason
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Photo: Keith Nason
-
Is this where you
put the coffin? [Reference to Mark's peculiar choice of attire]
-
I'm sure I put her
in here this morning.
-
Is there a storage
locker for the spare grey rubber window surrounds?
- “… and when did you stop
appearing in those bank adverts (“Brand new customers only”) and
start driving buses for Johnson’s?”
-
I'm not going to
enter this year because you say it's anonymous but then you virtually
give the person's name
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|
Photo:
Mark Telfer
- "Happy Deltic, Happy Deltic take
a Pinza or Tulyar too ..." to the tune of happy talk. [See
note 1]
-
Trespassing on the
railway can be dangerous. [See note 2]
-
Disco Deltic -
presumably shed music is something like garage music.
-
“C’mon baby,
do the Locomotion.”
Notes:
1 Only if you're musically illiterate
(Ed).
2 Not so much a caption, as part of
LUPTS's hitherto undeclared commitment to public safety (Ed).
|
Not originally part of
the caption competition, but included here through weight of public
demand:
Photo: Rob Marsh
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"Hello, my
pretty one! Do you come here often? I'm sure I can pull
you with what I've got down here - 5,000 horses throbbing away!!"
-
Rover unveils its
replacement for the Babe Magnet Metro
|
