LMS BLACK FIVE 44932

G said there was a steam train due through Gargrave at about 10 to 10 this morning, so I walked as fast as my little short legs would go, up the hill to the station. And arrived just in time to blip a diesel train hauling a long row of burgundy carriages. G caught me up. That was not a steam train, I pointed out, in between gasps for breath. Ah, said G, I wonder if that was what the message was, flashing up on the website. What did the message say, I asked. I don't know, he said, I didn't read it.

We walked back down the hill and home at a more leisurely pace, and G checked the website, properly. Apparently the diesel was taking the carriages as far as Hellifield, where they would then be connected to the steam engine for the trip to Carlisle and back.

We set off in the car to Hellifield. This blip is of one of the engine drivers, striding forward to blip his own train. When he was a lad, I wonder what he wanted to be when he grew up. Lucky man. And the sun is shining so they will have had a glorious trip through the magnificent countryside of the Settle-Carlisle line.