Gone

The engine steamed and the whistle blew as Tornedo thundered down the track through Garsdale Station. As you can see I clicked too soon and forgot I was in 'sports' mode so such have kept my finger down to get multiple images, doh,

and there it was - gone.  Ah the perils of photography.  Tornado is limited to 75 mph on main line running but would be able to go a lot faster, even so it was very impressive.  It is modern steam locomotive completed in 2008 (based on a Peppercorn engine with modifications) and for the first time was running a scheduled public timetable from Appleby to Skipton prior to the re-opening of the whole track from Settle to Carlisle on 31st March which will be inaugurated by the iconic Flying Scotsman.  The scenic line has been closed for over a year after the winter storms created a landslip of 500,000 tonnes of earth at Eden Brows and it continued to move.  The engineering solution can be seen here.

The station at Garsdale Head has been described as being the "wildest on the line" being high up on the fells and although the day was beautifully sunny the wind was icy, I was well wrapped up but as you can see the signalman is obviously made of sterner stuff, one could almost say made of 'True Grit', in his short sleeved shirt.

No-one else was taking that option.

An entry to ABC Wednesday, a journey through the alphabet, this week sojourning at G here