The Flickr Queensmessenger Image Generatr

Royal Train liveried liveried Class 67 67005 'Queen's Messenger' passes Brafferton on 7th September 2007 with 5Z67 Crewe Carriage Shed to Craigentinny Depot

67005 ‘Queens Messenger’ passes Portway with I think ECS Royal Train running as 5Z67 Beeston-Wolverton on Friday 20-02-2009.

DB Cargo Class 66 diesel locomotive 66116 leads Class 92 electric locomotive 92029 "Dante" and Class 67 diesel locomotive 67005 "Queen's Messenger" away from Stafford station working 0A06 13.32 Crewe Electric Traction Maintenance Depot to Wembley Loco Holding Siding

In the July 2007 floods, over half the homes in Gloucestershire and 7,500 businesses were without any mains water for up to 12 days – and 17 days for drinking water.. More than 50 million litres of bottled water. were provided by Severn Trent Water, most of it brought to the area by train.
Here, on the 3rd August 2007, 66225 has arrived at St Andrews Road near Avonmouth with its train of empty wagons, after making a water delivery for the affected area. In the background are 67005 "Queen's Messenger" and 67003 which are also on freight duty.

After picking up HRH Prince Charles at Tal-y-Cafn, DB 67005 'Queens Messenger' passes National Trust Bodnant Garden in the Conwy Valley moving on to his next engagement in Llandudno.
Later on in the day the Royal Train was to move on to Hooton on the Wirral, April 25th 2008.

The Royal Train conveying HRH Prince Charles from a morning engagement at Bodnant Garden in the Conway Valley is seen approaching Llandudno at Maesdu Golf Course.
Conway Mountain and Penmaenbach Tunnel feature in the background, April 25th 2008.

With a background of still-quite-new (in 2016) solar panels hemmed in by Westbury East Loop and the wonderfully named Shallow Wagon
lane (going over the bridge), the Belmond Pullman headed by DB's 67005 Queen's Messenger negotiates Hawkeridge junction, Westbury with (taking a very circuitous route) 1Z83 12.20 Truro to London Victoria. 67006 Royal Sovereign was at the rear - 24/04/16.

At the top right hand corner (in the parish of Heywood) can just be glimpsed Heywood House, built in the 1600s it has had many owners over the years including being the headquarters of The National Trust for a time, it is a Grade II listed building.

On the horizon above the Solar Farm is the (even more) wonderfully named Clanger Wood.

As most of you will know, 'Solar Confinement' is the fifth track (and 2nd single release) from everyone's favourite Polymath Bruce Dickinson's 1996 solo album release 'Skunkworks'. As you no doubt recall, between 1992 and 2000 Bruce took a break from fronting British Heavy Metal legends Iron Maiden, Skunkworks being Brucey's 3rd solo album, coming in-between the disappointing 'Balls to Picasso' and the semi-mighty 'Accident of Birth' (y'know just before the frankly brilliant 'The Chemical Wedding' released in 98).

DB Cargo 67005 "Queens Messenger" top and tail with 66073 hauling 2920 MK2b Royal household couchette, seen here approaching Church Lawford. Forming the 5Z60 from Wolverton Centre Sidings to Derby Rtc Serco on 26.06.2024.

I should have used a different lens to get the whole train in shot but hey you can't win them all.

© Copyright Paul Knight (All rights reserved. Please do not use this image without explicit permission)

DB Class 67 67005 'Queen's Messenger' in Royal Train livery at Northallerton, 1 April 2024.

The opening leg of Pathfinder Railtours 'Easter Chieftain' Scottish weekend charter, 1Z68 0510 Eastleigh - Aviemore' approaches the site of the former Sutton Park station on 29th March 2024, hauled by 'Royal' Class 67 No. 67005 'Queen's Messenger'. Copyright Photograph John Whitehouse - all rights reserved

And, a half hour wait ensued, thinking it now prudent to 'catch' a couple of other workings which were due through the area, one heading east just after mi-day and the other, heading west about another half hour later. Coming along fully laden from the quarries at Peak Forest, is a complete bright-red set of loco and 16 MMA wagons on the 6M04, Dowlow Briggs Sidings to Toton Up Sidings with what must be around 1200 tonnes of aggregates, the wagons being by no means very full..
Leading the working through the station is a D.B.C. class 66, 66100, named 'Armistice 100 1918-2018', and this type and time of working was also used in last years Xmas card, see-
www.flickr.com/photos/vinc2020/50739569246/in/
and its not all that far off to this years effort, once more!

The set of red wagons is stretched out along around half the length of the loop line and the final two shots will show the scene looking from the other end, with the view back towards Bamford Station. The last time I was here was on February 13th this year for a test train move, see-
www.flickr.com/photos/vinc2020/52694525834/
a bit more interesting than the R.H.T.T> which has just passed by, and before that, for the engineering work proceeding on the loop line, which meant the Hope Valley line was closed, on Sunday, July 3rd, 2022, and what an event that turned out to be, with me getting the call onto the work-site to take shots from the track formation, see-
www.flickr.com/photos/vinc2020/52208643791/

* A 12Mby MP4 phone Video which is 15s long.
* NB: As this is shorter than the fixed 3 minute viewing in the Flickr interface, the Video can be watched here... or downloaded as usual.

Well, rushed out here to catch what I thought would be a different set of traction on the 'all over the world' RHTT, originating at the Wigan L.I.P. and chasing round clearing the rail-head in the Manchester area before heading, briefly, over this way to perform a reversal operation at Grindleford. The RailCam details indicated this set was operated by Freightliner and had 'diesel' traction and knowing that other local areas around were operated with class 66s, eg, the one that clears the tracks to the east and south of here and passes for reversal through Worksop, it seemed obvious this one would be the same. The working number is 3S50, another indicator and not usual for these types of 'On-Track Machine' workings, this one an M.P.V., 'Multi-Purpose Vehicle', usually with a nUxx, a number usually 6, followed by 'U' and 2 letters.. So, you can imagine my surprise when this thing came 'scooting', that's what it looked like, around the bend in the distance, crossed the green River Derwent rail bridge and rattled through the station. This is the Freightliner operated, Network Rail, class 989, M.P.V. with DR98982 leading and DR98932 at the back on the 3S50, Wigan L.I.P. via all over & reversal at Grindleford to Stockport leaf clearing train with 'Clearing Britain's Railways' on the side of the 'J.S.D. Rail', 'Socofer Construction' unit, see-
www.socofer.com/presenting-traction-socofer

With the set having headed off to Grindleford, around 5km away, just before the western portal of Totley Tunnel, it was time for a change of location to be ready for the return which turned out to be 23 minutes later. The set must have used the cross-over in front of Grindleford box, passing along the line towards Sheffield before stopping to reverse back over to the west-bound line and then reversing into the siding line in front of Grindleford box; there being no crossover to allow the movement directly into the siding for east-bound trains.. The set was now ready for the off, back west, but by the time it had completed the reversal, a T.P.E. service, 1B73, with 185131 was in the area, due to pass at 11:27, for which the R.H.T.T. set had to wait to pass by, making it around 15 minutes late when it got back here.. By this time there were a few folk about and 1 or 2 were interested in knowing what I was up to.. had to tell them about the MPV, but as it was a wee bit unusual, it may be worth having a look and taking a shot, before they got on their Sheffield-bound train. By the time the set was well into the station, both the guys on the left and right had taken their shots and were ready to board their trains, due for imminent arrival in both directions. The last time I photographed one of these 'jobs' using an M.P.V. for a different task, weed-killing' in this instance, was at Deepcar station of the Stocksbridge branch line where the set did its reversal on that day, 9th July, 2019, see-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/48251724787/
The units are produced by 'Socofer' for Network Rail, see-
www.socofer.com/presenting-traction-socofer
Today its running on the 'leaf-buster' rail head cleaning duties on the long-days working, 3S50, from the Wigan L.I.P. via all over the western area around Manchester, and returning back to Stockport this evening, the departure from Wigan being 05:33 and arrival into Stockport at the end of the day's work, at 19:08. Though it looks like the set was ran into problems before completion with the following message shown in the time-table-
'This service was cancelled between Longsight Down Goods Loop (at 17:33) and Stockport due to a problem with a railhead treatment train', not a very informative message methinks!!
In the right-hand shot, the set is about to cross the River Derwent over-bridge with the splendours of the Peak National Park in the background, prominently showing is the 462m high, Win Hill peak, making for an equally splendid walk up to the top, around and along the Ladybower Valley, coming back along the waters to the pub, the 'Yorkshire Bridge Inn' though, not on this day...

A quick decamp now, along the line to see what may be seen looking back along the Hope Valley, from the other end of the 'Dynamic Loop', the junction back onto the main line being just this side of the bridge which can be seen in the distance, in the last picture. In addition to the move, it was worth having a look to see what developments have taken place a the foot-crossing just a little further along the line than the distant road-bridge. It turned out that the last time shots were taken from the foot-crossing was in... 2015, I could hardly believe it, 8 years ago, when 'Nenta Railtours' operated the 'Buxton, Matlock & Derbyshire Dales Rover' with West Coast class 47s, 47786, 'Roy Castle O.B.E.' and 47851 in charge, see-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/20851760751/
Now it transpires, the foot-crossing has been removed and a nice new green, shiny, footbridge has been put in its place. On inspection, before the next interesting move arrived, it turned out to be disappointing, as the access to it has been fenced off; whilst engineering work continues on the 'Dynamic Loop', one assumes.. so no foot-crossing and no usable bridge. In the last of the still photographs, a short video follows showing the passage of the Hope Valley R.H.T.T., on the left an East Midlands service can be seen passing the very fore-shortened picture, along the tracks back to the Bamford Station site. The DMU is approaching the junction of the ~1200m long loop line exit and the hills and terrain of the Peak National Park stand clear in the background. This is a pair of E.M.R., 'East Midlands Rail', class 158s, 158780 & 158770 on the 1L10, Liverpool Lime St. via Sheffield to Norwich service; Autumn is now under way...
At centre, fortunately for me, a lone traction unit comes along running along about 15 minutes late and turns out to be a D.B.C. class 67 in all its finery, running a light engine move, 0Z06, from the Toton Traction Maintenance Depot to to Peak Forest Up Sidings, with 67005, 'Queens Messenger', 'at the front' and has just come under the 'new' footbridge, inaccessible at the present time.
At right, swinging the vie back towards the west. 67005, 'Queens Messenger', which means this is one of the two locos which run on the Royal Train, now with King Charles aboard, not today though, obviously!, there's a stream culvert just ahead, the bank on the right has been reinforced and there were, and still are, some Engineering problems to resolve. Still, from this perspective the new Loop line looks very well indeed and it will be interesting to see it in action, one day, when a freight from the quarries has to be sidelined so that one of the Hope Valley fast passenger services, a T.P.E. or E.M.R. unit, which run at high speed along here, 90m.p.h, can overtake. This will result in a more frequent service, which is what all this is about and to accomplish this, the single track section at the other side of Totley East Box is also in the process of being doubled, along with a new platform for west-bound services.. Great stuff, though its a shame that all this was actually in place until the 1970s/80s when 'rationalisation' took over and this infrastructure was removed now, its all going back in!

Well, rushed out here to catch what I thought would be a different set of traction on the 'all over the world' RHTT, originating at the Wigan L.I.P. and chasing round clearing the rail-head in the Manchester area before heading, briefly, over this way to perform a reversal operation at Grindleford. The RailCam details indicated this set was operated by Freightliner and had 'diesel' traction and knowing that other local areas around were operated with class 66s, eg, the one that clears the tracks to the east and south of here and passes for reversal through Worksop, it seemed obvious this one would be the same. The working number is 3S50, another indicator and not usual for these types of 'On-Track Machine' workings, this one an M.P.V., 'Multi-Purpose Vehicle', usually with a nUxx, a number usually 6, followed by 'U' and 2 letters.. So, you can imagine my surprise when this thing came 'scooting', that's what it looked like, around the bend in the distance, crossed the green River Derwent rail bridge and rattled through the station. This is the Freightliner operated, Network Rail, class 989, M.P.V. with DR98982 leading and DR98932 at the back on the 3S50, Wigan L.I.P. via all over & reversal at Grindleford to Stockport leaf clearing train with 'Clearing Britain's Railways' on the side of the 'J.S.D. Rail', 'Socofer Construction' unit, see-
www.socofer.com/presenting-traction-socofer
As can be seen, there is no-one around, other than me, to photograph this event, and when it had appeared a few moments ago, I understood why! Heading swiftly away towards Hathersage & on to Grindleford where it will use the crossover and sidings line to perform a reversal, the extent of the on-going work on the 'Dynamic Loop' over on the left, can be seen; almost nothing happening on this day. 3 'orange' jackets sauntered along the loop line tapping things, then came back and bug**** off.. and that was that..

30/09/2023 - The Snowdonian

All photos are my own and are watermarked with my logo.
Copyright protected.
All rights reserved.

Do not attempt to change or edit photos and use them as your own as this will result in legal actions being taken against you.
Images can be purchased through me for private use or advertising use

30/09/2023 - The Snowdonian

All photos are my own and are watermarked with my logo.
Copyright protected.
All rights reserved.

Do not attempt to change or edit photos and use them as your own as this will result in legal actions being taken against you.
Images can be purchased through me for private use or advertising use

DB Royal 67005 tnt 67007 pass Uffington with UK Railtours' 'The Skipping Devonian'. 1Z66 0600 Peterborough to Paignton, 19/9/23.

DB Royal 67005 tnt 67007 pass Uffington with UK Railtours' 'The Skipping Devonian'. 1Z66 0600 Peterborough to Paignton, 19/9/23.

DB Cargo 67005 'Queens Messenger' seen on the rear of the return leg of The Branch Line Society's 'The Garsdale Growler' '1Z64 1710 Carlisle to Derby with 92029 leading though Winwick, Winwick, Cheshire, 27.8.23