The Fifteen Guinea Special

The Fifteen Guinea Special "1T57" was the final steam hauled train to ever run on British Railways metals before the complete abolishment of steam traction on BR metals the following day. The date for this trip was Sun 11th August 1968 and was to run from Liverpool to Carlisle via Manchester. Motive power for this trip came from three London Midland and Scottish Railway class 5's (black 5's) numbered 44781, 44871 and 45110. A British Railways standard class 7 (Britannia class) no 70013 Oliver Cromwell were used for this trip. The first leg of the tour ran from Liverpool Lime Street to Manchester Victoria behind 45110 travelling via Rainhill & Newton le Willows over Chat Moss. From Manchester Vic to Carlisle the tour was hauled by 70013 Oliver Cromwell running via Bolton, Darwen & Blackburn before travelling to Hellifield. From there the tour travelled over the Settle and Carlisle Line for the journey to Carlisle. After 15 minutes in Carlisle the tour then departed southbound from Carlisle with both 44871 & 44781 double heading for the journey back to Manchester. The route was via the outward journey to Manchester Victoria & then at Manchester Vic the two engines were replaced by 45110 for the last journey to Liverpool via the outward route. The price of the tour as stated above was fifteen guinea's which in 2013 was about £15.75.

Of the locos which were to survive into preservation all survived except for 44781 which was used in the film "The Virgin Soldiers" and it was derailed hanging at an angle, an attempt had been made to save it but the amount wanted by BR to recover the loco was too much so it was sold for scrap. 44871 is today owned by Ian Riley and preserved at the East Lancashire Railway, 45110 is owned by the Severn Valley Railway and is based at it's namesake railway & 70013 Oliver Cromwell is owned by the National Collection and it's main base is the Great Central Railway.

After this it was thought that steam locomotives would never again be allowed to run over British Railways metals, but this was reversed in 1971 when the steam ban by BR was lifted & steam would once again be allowed to roam the BR network. 1993 marked the 25th anniversary of 1T57 and a train to mark this occasion was to be run, strangely though the tour didn't run from Liverpool and apart from 1 original loco from the train in 1968 which was 44871, none of the other steam locos used for the trip were of classes that worked the train in 1968. The tour ran from Nuneaton to Leeds behind a diesel engine and from there ran to Carlisle behind LMS Princess Coronation no 46229 Duchess of Hamilton. The return leg from Carlisle back to Leeds being double headed by LMS Black 5 no 44871 & LMS Jubilee no 45596 Bahamas. The last leg from Leeds back to Nuneaton once again being worked by a diesel loco.

15 years later in 2008 for the 40th anniversary something more appropriate was run with more appropriate engines & most importantly started from Liverpool. With the appropriate Aug 11th date being on a Mon the tour instead ran the day before on Sun 10th Aug. This run would follow the original pathing from 1968 where it was worked by one steam engine from Liverpool to Manchester & then after swapping locos at Manchester Victoria ran to Carlisle once again via Bolton, Darwen, Blackburn to Hellifield & then over the Settle and Carlisle Line. The return route once again followed the outward route but only as far as Blackburn. From there instead of going back to Manchester the tour avoided there completely going directly back to Liverpool via Farington and Wigan before joining the outward route around Newton le Willows and returning to Liverpool. Motive power for this trip featured LMS 8F no 48151 working the trip from Liverpool to Manchester (45110 had by now been withdrawn from the mainline), BR Class 7 pacific no 70013 Oliver Cromwell worked from Manchester to Carlisle and then from Carlisle to Blackburn the tour was double headed by LMS Black 5's no's 45231 The Sherwood Forester & 45407 The Lancashire Fusilier (45231 was covering for 44871 which was still under overhaul & 45407 covered for 44781). From Blackburn back to Liverpool via Wigan 45231 worked the train solo.

5 Years later the most recent anniversary run took place for the 45th anniversary, with 11th Aug this year being on a Sun it was decided to run a trip to mark the 45th anniversary of 1T57. Like 2008's trip this was again run from Liverpool and was to feature classes of engine which worked the original train in 1968 (no 8F's or non original classes this time) it would just be black 5's and a Britannia pacific. There was however again an issue with regard to the routing as the normal route from Liverpool to Manchester Victoria was shut for electrification work which meant it was impossible to take the anniversary trip through Rainhill & over Chat Moss. On a positive note a replacement route was found and it was decided to use that route to travel from Liverpool to Manchester, this route in question being the line which went via Hunts Cross & Warrington Central. This route had actually not seen steam traction run along it since the end of steam in 1968 so officially this was the first railtour to travel along this route in preservation, the one minor issue was that it was now impossible to reach Manchester Victoria as there's no direct link from this route to Victoria unless it reversed at Oxford Road or Piccadilly so the special went through Manchester Piccadilly to Longsight where the engine changes for the day would be made. The engine chosen to haul the tour from Liverpool to Longsight was LMS Black 5 no 45305 (this was the original engine allocated for the original trip in 1968 where it worked from Liverpool to Manchester and back in the evening but was failed the night before with a collapsed firebox brick arch so 45110 took it's place, the latter was also now out of traffic with it's boiler ticket expiring in 2008).

The Longsight to Carlisle leg was worked by Oliver Cromwell but for the outward journey instead of travelling to Blackburn from Bolton via Darwen, from Bolton the tour instead travelled via Farington Junction & Bamber Bridge to Blackburn. After this it was along the original route from Blackburn to Hellifield & then over the S&C to Carlisle (on the approach to Carlisle just as we were leaving the S&C we were treated to the sight of LMS Rebuilt Royal Scot no 46115 Scots Guardsman which had just left Carlisle as it was joining the S&C with a Waverley railtour which was heading back to York). Once in Carlisle it was a case of taking Oliver Cromwell off at one end & then attaching the next two locos at the other end of the train for the journey back to Longsight.

The LMS Black 5's rostered to double head for this leg of the tour were 45231 & 44932 (45231 was again covering for 44871 which was at the time in Scotland hauling Jacobite trains between Fort William and Mallaig & 44932 was covering for 44781). 45231 for this occasion had also had it's Sherwood Forester nameplates removed (none of the class wore nameplates except for 5 locos numbered 45154 to 45158), all in preservation were un-named in BR days. 44932 had also been planned to be disguised as scrapped classmate 44781 for the trip, however this never happened and it remained as 44932. The tour followed the original 1968 path from Carlisle to the outskirts of Manchester via Hellifield, Blackburn, Darwen & Bolton before heading back to Longsight via Manchester Picc. Once at Longsight both 45231 & 44932 were detached from the train and 45305 was re-attached at the other end for the final journey back to Liverpool travelling once again via Warrington Central and Hunts Cross.

This anniversary railtour in 2013 I even had the privilege of travelling on and oh my god it was and still is to date the best railtour that I have ever travelled on, 4 steam locos in one day aswell as rare tracks for steam traction in preservation & to be a part of history as one of the new generations of people to travel onboard "The Fifteen Guinea Special". Ticket's for standard class on this railtour from memory were advertised at £109 but I managed to get £25 knocked off with a discount code (so cost me just £84). Just for travelling onboard this tour everyone got given a certificate for travelling on the 2013 45th anniversary re-enactment railtour.

While the rest of the family were away in Majorca for two weeks at the time of this railtour I was travelling behind 4 steam engines for the day, it was a case of drop the dogs off at my nans the night before, get an early night and then after an early start on Sunday morning get down to Lime Street and then board the train. At that time there was a rule we had in place which was whenever parents were away out of the country I was not permitted to travel on railtours as someone needed to look after the two dogs we had and there were no exceptions to this rule as I was the only member of the family still in the UK except for my late nan & grandma, but with this being a one off anniversary railtour with rare tracks and multiple steam locos & the chance that it might not happen again for a very long time or even ever again. We decided to bend the rules just this once.

Sadly no anniversary railtour took place in 2018 for the 50th anniversary & next year will be the 55th anniversary but it's unlikely that one will take place as Oliver Cromwell & 45305 are out of traffic under overhaul & with 44871, 45212 & 45407 busy on Jacobite trains over the summer & with 45231 no longer operated by West Coast Railways there would only be 44932 available and 1 member of the class isn't enough for it unless some miracle comes along. All we can do is wait and see what 2023 brings along & fingers crossed if it does happen a solution is found.

Stay tuned for future posts

Mr Moyle