Green Machine

As a result of winning the RCTS/Railway Magazine railway photography competition i was awarded the prize of a footplate ride from Knottingley to Drax with Bio Mass where it would be unloaded. From there we would travel empty to Immingham where the train would be loaded. From there we would return to Drax but i would alight at Knottingley.

For a retired Firefighter with a life long love of railways it was a day out to look forward to.

Yes i have had footplate rides in the past when i was much younger but they were always a bit covert. 2x20s from Tibshelf to Silverhill Colliery, 50049 from Exeter to Waterloo and D1047 Western Lord from Exeter St Davids to Teignmouth not to mention 01002 along the breakwater at Holyhead.

This time it was all above board, my locomotive for the day would be 66004 the green one.

As i drove down the access ramp at Knottingley depot what should greet me ? Only 50008, apparently she lives there. I was greeted by my DB driver for the day Dave Jenkinson, a thoroughly nice chap.

Coffees and introductions over we proceeded to our train. The green 66 was enormous and it was a tight squeeze through the corridor and into number 1 end cab. Im not as slim as i used to be. No sooner had i settled in then we were off. It was impressive how the 66 can put the power down without any wheel slip. You could feel her gripping the track and the noise was sheer poetry. it took me about 15 seconds to find the horn and i was given the all clear to apply the tones as i saw fit, well i think it was the noisiest run 66004 had ever made I even let the rabbits know we were coming. By the end of the day that horn had received a years worth of use.

The arrival into Drax was a impressive sight, we pulled up and alighted, a Drax driver then took the train through the unloader at 2.4 mph whilst i was shown around Drax by Logistics officer Ian Broadhead for an hour before picking up the emptied 66004 and we formed the 4R51 1250 Drax to Immingham.

It was a fascinating trip from Drax to Immingham passing under the ECML at Hensall, passing Knottingley depot and heading south crossing the ECML again at Applehurst Jnc before joining the Doncaster to Cleethorpes line at Stainforth Jnc, then onwards passing Althorpe, Scunthorpe,Wrawby Jnc,Brocklesby then into Immingham passing Lindsey and Humber oil terminals passing the Iron ore and coal terminals before arriving at the Bio Mass loading plant. Again the train was handed over to a loading driver whilst i was given a tour of Immingham where i managed a shot of 66171 at the DB depot and 66060 at the coal loading plant.

Loading complete we departed as 6H77 1615 Immingham to Drax. I alighted at Knottingley having completed a cracking day out. Big thanks to Dave Jenkinson, DB, and Paul Chancellor from RCTS.