Lostock Junction

[cheshire lines]

11:05am - Having been turned and serviced, 8F 48739 proceeds tender first on the Up Main towards the exchange sidings.

Meanwhile the ICI shunter hauls a rake of empty limestone hopper trains into the exchange sidings

and then pulls forward to clear the points.

[cheshire lines]

11:05am - Having been turned and serviced, 8F 48739 proceeds tender first on the Up Main towards the exchange sidings.

Meanwhile the ICI shunter hauls a rake of empty limestone hopper trains into the exchange sidings

and then pulls forward to clear the points.

[cheshire lines]

11:10 am the 8F reaches the exchange sidings and crosses over the Down Main and backs onto the empty hoppers.

She then hauls the rake forward past the points and the ICI shunter


and then sets back onto the other siding to collect the brake van for the train.

and a few minutes later at 11:15am she is seen passing through the station on the Down Main at the start of her journey back to the quarry in Derbyshire.

[bulleidboy]

A good selection of pictures - Lostock Junction is a busy place.

[Walkingthedog]

Wish I was a spotter there.

[cheshire lines]

Thanks for the compliments guys.
It certainly keeps the timetable writer busy trying to fit in paths for the various freights etc. in between the regular passenger services.
The local photographers tend to concentrate on the freights as they offer more variety of locos and rolling stock.
Luckily one of them is friendly with a member of the local aero club (nicknamed Biggles of course) who sometimes takes him up in his Tiger Moth to get some photos which aren't available from ground level. They have to be careful to keep out of the way of the commercial flights two of which (a Vickers Viscount and McDonnel Douglas DC3) are just visible on the backscene.

[cheshire lines]

11:30am - A BR Standard Class 5 4-6-0 is seen passing the goods yard with an Up fitted freight.

and then speeds through the station.

[cheshire lines]

After further Up and Down Semi-fast and local workings and Branch Autotrains the photographers next pick up their cameras at 1pm for the return of the salt branch train.

One captures the train as it rounds the bend on the approach to the yard and Biggles manages a few aerial shots of the shunting moves

The headshunt will only take the 2-6-0 plus 4 wagons, so the brake van has been detached and left on the access road

One van is then shunted into the goods shed for transfer to road transport for delivery to local customers.

and the other 3 are shunted into one of the sidings. These will then be collected by the afternoon pick up goods for onwards transport.

Finally the brake van is shunted onto another spare siding before the loco heads for the access road to await further instructions.

[Chops]

Remarkable sequences. Sorry to ask, but does “up and down” refer to going towards and away from a given terminus? I was watching a British film last night, with references to an “up” electric train and a “down” steam train. This struck me as odd, surely the implication that they ran empty on the return trip isn’t correct? How does this terminology work?

[IanS]

I didn't know - but I do now!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_dire ... 0a%20track.

It's a fascinating read.