The Flickr Tyseleysteamtrustbirminghamnewst Image Generatr

Another 'steam treat' passes through the area as its early Xmas time and on this day its another 'Christmas White Rose' i.e coming into Yorkshire's capital, York itself. On this occasion it turns out, once again, that its been (a) some time since I was last in this area, Thornhill, near Parkgate and north of Rotherham Masbrough Station, August, 2020 in fact, see-
stills Here-
www.flickr.com/photos/vinc2020/50224810576/
and a video, here-
www.flickr.com/photos/vinc2020/50224808986/
and a 'Then & Now' piece from June last year, here-
www.flickr.com/photos/vinc2020/52988672938/

and, (b) its also some years since photographing the loco on the charter today, 'Earl of Mount Edgcumbe', on 10th December 2016, for the same Yule charter run to York, crossing Ickles Viaduct further south along the line and 2 years before that, 13th December 2014, for the 'White Rose' Charter once more, here at Thornhill, amazing... Wasn't quite sure what the site here would now look like however as a 5 year gap since last doing any shots here, meant it could have turned into another dump... though not quite that, it was still challenging to get the shots as N.R. have put mesh fencing up everywhere but have left the 'old portals' in the original bridge mesh.. with 6 of us there, almost all the small 'portals' were being used..
I had watched the coaching stock depart Tyseley at 08:19 on RailCam and on the short 'hop' from there to Birmingham New St. it paused twice, at Grand Jn; and Proof House Jn, for around 10 mins each and so ended up at platform 11 at New Street, about 29 minutes late at 09:12. I had though after this that there may well have been a problem with 'Castle' 5043, and it would result in the steam being taken off.. very disappointing if so. ANyhow, this delay resulted in a late departure of the 'White Rose' of 25mins and it ran with this just about all the way north, picking up a few mins in Derby and thence a 'sprightly' performance on north to this area. Views on RailCam, from the Derby, Wingfield and Chesterfield cameras showed the loco steaming well with plenty of the white stuff in the cold damp air, with some steam escaping from the right side, looking towards the loco, valve chest, also seen in these shots here.
These four shots show the excellent performance provided by 5043, after a brief pause at Masbrough it is seen 'doing very well' on the slightly up-grade towards Parkgate ... This is 'Vintage Trains' with 'Castle' class 4-6-0, 5043, ex-98743, the 'Earl of Mount Edgcumbe' on the 1Z15, Birmingham New Street to York, 'Christmas White Rose' charter. It all started out that morning with the 3Z15, E.C.S. move from the Tyseley Steam Trust to Birmingham New Street, platform 11, with two-tone green class 47, 47773 at the back. There were 10 coaches, and these have now been entered into the 'additional info' on the RailCam 'Livetrain' list-
W96100, W5177, W5212, W5198, W9101, 99971 'Eagle' Pullman, 99361 Pullman2, 99349 Pullman3, W3110, W35470
The charter was running only a few minutes down here and ran almost to time arriving in York just 4mins late at 12:46 .. The return service 1Z17, left York just 4 hours later at 16:41 and arrived back at Birmingham New Street, 11mins late at 20:41...

After the 'White Rose' charter headed off north to Yorks, there were other workings in the area and 2 of them, which turned up pretty soon after the 'Earl' had departed are shown here..
In a composite at top left, a set of 3, class 66, D.B.C. locos are seen heading south in sunny conditions on the 0Z54, Doncaster Belmont Down Yard to Toton T.M.D., on what one assumes is 'return to base' working. The locos in the ensemble are 66011, 66128 & 66135.
At upper right, the trio of 3 class 66s are heading towards Masbrough's S0424 signal with the divergence 'feather' lit at the top, for the move left, onto the 'Old Road' south to the Chesterfield area and beyond. Walking back along the old two-line track-bed at left, 3 N.R. personnel on 'surveying' duties, one of them told me.. The formation here was once a 5-track assembly with up and down fast line and up and down goods lines, with along a goods line running from Holmes West Sidings, along the back of the station next to platform 1 and then up to here, for slow moves out of the sidings an on north to this area..
At lower left and now in the right timing sequence, compared to the upper left shot, another of the local services now passing through here, at about the same time as this, another container train gets away north from Tinsley through Aldwarke Junction behind the camera, so its a moderately busy area at this time of day. This one however has come out of the local Newell & Write container terminal on the land once occupied by the Masbrough Sorting Sidings, a shot distance away. This is G.B.R.f. 66787, 'Three Bridges A.S.C.', on the 4L11, Masbrough Newell & Wright Felixstowe working, and on time, as they usually are.. The naming of 66787 took place on 30the June, last year, see-
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJ5g1EJoX8Q
A.S.C. being an 'Area Signalling Centre'.
In the lower right shot, the 'Eagles are Landing' or just coming to have a look at what all the fuss was about, think they are actually gulls scurrying about looking for another refuse dump to poke their nosey beaks into ... still, a colourful interesting shot with the background businesses now having changed yet again from what they were 8 and 10 years ago...