Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway a lovely visit

The railway is a former branch line of the Furness Railway (FR) and was opened on 1 June 1869.^[1] The line was served by local passenger trains which started their journey at Ulverston on the FR's mainline from Carnforth to Barrow-in-Furness. The FR branch trains travelled east to the triangular junction at Plumpton and then turned north via Greenodd and on to stations at Haverthwaite, Newby Bridge halt and Lakeside. The FR's weekdays passenger service in July 1922 comprised eight trains in each direction. There were advertised train-to-boat connections that were established in 1869. During the summer season, excursion trains from Lancashire and elsewhere used the east-to-north side of Plumpton Junction to reach Lakeside, where their passengers joined the boat sailings on the lake.

 

 

British Railways closed the line to passengers on 6 September 1965, and to all traffic two years later.
A group of enthusiasts chaired by Dr Peter Beet formed the Lakeside Railway Estates Company, with the idea of preserving both the line and the former LMS 10A locomotive shed at Carnforth, to provide a complete steam operating system. However, although backed by then transport minister Barbara Castle, the need to build a number of motorway bridges and re-routing of the A590 road from Haverthwaite via Greenodd to Plumpton Junction, meant that the complete vision was unsuccessful. Beet acquired 10A in partnership with Sir William McAlpine, 6th Baronet, which became the visitor attraction Steamtown from 1967. The venture folded as a public access visitor attraction in 1987, but the preserved site was taken over by businessman David Smith to become the base for his West Coast Railway Company.
Resultantly, Austin Maher became chairman of the LREC, which then re-opened the truncated 3.5 miles (5.6 km) L&HR as a heritage railway on 2 May 1973. Maher and fellow L&HR director Jim Morris each bought one LMS 2-6-4T Class 4MT, Nos. 42073 (Maher) and 42085 (Morris), which eventually restored as L&HR Nos. 3 and 4 became the lines core steam power units.

 

As newly-built, but with a boiler manufactured in 1946, 42073 spent its first three months working from Stewarts Lane Depot, in Battersea, in London’s east end, before moving on to Ashford in Kent in February, 1951.
It was sent to Dover later the same year, then back to Ashford again in 1952. In November 1954 it was transferred to the North Eastern Region and allocated to Gateshead. Probably its most famous moment occurred on the 19th April 1955 at Newcastle-on-Type, when, below the Norman Keep of the castle, it did battle with a Gresley V2 2-6-2 on the diamond crossing.
They converged onto the same stretch of line and in the resulting collision the V2 fell onto its side. In 1957 it worked from Bradford and Sowerby Bridge; in 1958 from York and Neville Hill; in 1959 from Low Moor and Wakefield. At Copley Hill it was to have its longest stay from 1960 to 1964.
In 1965 it was back at Low Moor again, and finally in Normanton in June 1967, where it joined 42085 for the first time.

 

LMS 2-6-4T Class 4MT nos. 42073, which is featured above, built in 1950 and 42085 built in 1951, L&HR nos. 3 and 4. (Both have recently re-entered service & painted in BR lined black. 42073 carries late BR crest and 42085 has the early BR crest).

 

The Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway (L&HR) is a 3.2 miles (5.1 km) long. In Christopher Awdry's book "Thomas & Victoria", the Lakeside & Haverthwaite Railway is featured as the railway where Victoria worked before coming to Sodor.