Up to Beattock Summit and Back - via Quintinshill

Yesterday I had an experience - commentating to about 400 people over the Settle-Carlisle line on a Trans Pennine Express train's PA system.

The train was running from Manchester via Beattock summit in Scotland, Carlisle, Settle and back to Manchester - raising money for The Railway Children charity.   Here is our six coach train in Carlisle heading south from Beattock:

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It was organised by The Branch Line Society and trundled into little used sidings and loops, much to the delight of society members.   It takes all sorts.

One of the poignant moments of the day was to traverse the up loop at Quintinshill in Scotland - scene of the UK's worst rail disaster:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quintinshill_rail_disaster

Everybody seemed to appreciate the Settle-Carlisle commentary,    Organiser Kev Adlam was kind enough to e-mail saying it was fantastic, absolutely superb!

Better still, they raised £18,000 for the Railway Children.

https://www.railwaychildren.org.uk/

click to enlarge

And here is a fine portrait of our train at Garsdale.   We felt very privileged indeed when the train made a special stop at Settle just for us.