Enjoying retirement
In The Red Rose County
Due, presumably, to an error by me we were catching the 6.20am train from Clitheroe. No catering at all. Fine moorland scenery on the way. It was good to see the daffodils still out in York (although we noted later there were none on Cliffords Tower any more). Historic bridge building now a cafe and cocktail bar. It's sometimes easy to forget York isn't just medieval...... A lovely coffee and almond croissant in 20CC opposite Mad Alice Lane which we then wondered down..... We missed the JUdges' Lodgings last time. Beautiful building and setting. Ropey old menus out front didn't raise the spirits........ Still loads of Indies in York and some great windows. This time we noticed a profusion of boojee plastic flower displays. The boojee fashion has spread from Manchester everywhere.....one of its very worst exports. As 10am came round we could enter the National Railway Museum. There are actually three large buildings closed at the moment for re-development, but what remains is pretty impressive. These were the gates for the Euston Arch - not quite as impressive as Warrington Town Hall, but still...... Coppernob – a rare example of a Bury locomotive – was one of a set of four A2 locomotives built by Bury, Curtis and Kennedy Ltd. as the Furness Railway was formed. No.s 1 & 2 were built in 1844, and No.s 3 & 4 in 1846. Due to the domed shape of the copper firebox (characteristic of Bury engines) the class came to be known as the “Coppernobs” with No. 3, the survivor of the original four, later referred to as “Old Coppernob.” Steam locomotive and tender, Liverpool & Manchester Railway, replica, "Rocket" 0-2-2, designed by Robert Stephenson, built 1979 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Rainhill Trials. BR Standard Class 9F number 92220 Evening Star is a preserved British steam locomotive completed in 1960. It was the last steam locomotive to be built by British Railways. It was the only British main line steam locomotive earmarked for preservation from the date of construction.[1] It was the 999th locomotive of the whole British Railways Standard range. It was spotted by me during my train-spotting days! Steam tank locomotive, Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway, 2-4-2T No 1008, designed by John Aspinall, built at Horwich in 1889, withdrawn in 1954. 55 tons 19 cwt: weight kg Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway 1008, nicknamed Lanky Tank, is the only remaining example of Sir John Aspinall’s L&YR Class 5 tank engines. These locomotives were designed for passenger work and proved successful, with 330 being built between 1889 and 1911. John Aspinall was made the L&YR’s Chief Mechanical Engineer in 1886 and he designed an entirely new range of locomotives which would be built in-house at Horwich Works. Many famous engineers of the future worked at Horwich Works under Aspinall’s leadership, including Richard Maunsell and Nigel Gresley. On 3 July 1938, 4468 Mallard - the first of the class to enter service with the Kylchap exhaust - pulling six coaches and a dynamometer car, set a world speed record (indicated by the dynamometer) of 126 mph (202.8 km/h). Gresley never accepted it as the record-breaking maximum. He claimed this speed could only have been attained over a few yards, though he was comfortable that the German speed record of 124.5 mph (200.4 km/h) had been surpassed.[7] Close analysis of the dynamometer roll (currently at the NRM) of the record run confirms that Mallard's speed did in fact exceed that of the German BR 05 002. London Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) Coronation Class 6229 (British Railways number 46229) Duchess of Hamilton was built in September 1938 by the LMS Crewe Works and operated until February 1964. It was the tenth member of its class and the last in the second batch of five red streamliners, complete with gold speed cheat stripes (the original five 6220-4 having been given a unique Caledonian blue livery with silver stripes). Shutt End Colliery steam locomotive Agenoria built by Foster, Rastrick and Company in 1829. Pullman Car Company First Class Parlour Car "Topaz".; Built in 1913, Topaz is a 1st Class Parlour car built at Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Works Co. Ltd., Smethwick in 1913 and entered service with South Eastern & Chatham Railway in 1914. It ran on services between London and the South Coast, on pre-war continental boat trains and the Bournemouth Belle. The carriage was withdrawn in 1960 and restored by the Pullman Car Company. During this restoration Topaz s livery was reverted from umber and cream back to its original pre1920s crimson. The carriage was then presented to the British Transport Commission at the Clapham Museum of British Transport in 1961. ; Topaz ran in the Travellers-Fare Centenary Express in 1979 which marked the 100th anniversary of on-train catering and the Rainhill Rocket Cavalcade in 1980.; The Pullman Car was an American invention, and even forty years after the first introduction of these vehicles in this country they still retained many different features. Most important of these is the integral construction of body and underframe, all of which are built principally from wood. At least six different woods are used for the main construction, excluding the decorative inlaid marquetry panelling used in the interior. Power car, Shinkansen Leading Car 22-141, 'bullet train', built by West Japan Railways, 1976, withdrawn from service in October 2000. Length 82'; width 11' 8"; height 14' 6 1/2". The Shinkansen power car 22.141 is the last to be withdrawn of the first series of cars in service. It is the first rail vehicle built and operated outside of Britain to enter the National Collection, telling the story of a railway which shaped the future for railways around the world. With the 1964 launch of the Shinkansen - which translates as new main line - Japan reinvented passenger railways. This was the first route dedicated to moving large numbers of people in comfort and at high speed. The Shinkansen in the National Collection is the only bullet train outside of Japan. South Eastern & Chatham Railway Class D 4-4-0 steam locomotive No 737 I remember there being a bigger model railway here....perhaps I'm wrong. One for the Manchester book perhaps. An omen? We are looking at flats there.... The Catholic church which appears bigger than the MInster may have been built deliberately as an optical illusion (see 'Secret York'). Whilst waiting for our lunch time we discovered the secret garden of the Fat Badger. Very pleasant. We lunched in the pub opposite - the Eagle and Child, built in 1640, a Grade II* listed timber framed pub....interesting menu and quirky inside. We then made our way down the snickleway next to the Fat Badger, barely visible. But we knew what pleasures awaited, views unseen by 99% of visitors. Turn round from this interesting little courtyard, and the magnificent sight of the Minster. As there were queues to get in we decided to have a little wander. The cafe at St Crux was closed but the owner let us have a look. In 1888, a parish hall was built on the site of St Crux, reusing materials from the church which those vandals the Victorians had demolished (they had to dynamite the tower), including much of its north wall, and the Perpendicular east window. Inside are many of the monuments and fixtures from the former church. Burials include Thomas Percy, 7th Earl of Northumberland, Sir Thomas Herbert, and two Lord Mayors of York: Thomas Bowes and Robert Welles.[1][4] Location within York The building was grade II* listed in 1954.[5] It is used as a tea room, and for charity markets. On return we walked straight into the MInster. Frances got this one....a storage vessel for copes. Other garments are just hung somewhere convenient....! York Minster’s Great East Window is the largest expanse of medieval stained glass in the country, a masterpiece in glass and stone depicting the beginning and end of all things. All 311 stained glass panels were removed from the 15th-century window, which is the size of a tennis court, in 2008 so York Glaziers Trust could begin the mammoth task of restoring the fragile masterpiece. The project, which also involved the conservation or replacement of nearly 2,500 stones by York Minster’s stonemasons, was part of the cathedral’s £15m York Minster Revealed project, which ran from 2011 to 2016. York Minster’s St Cuthbert Window is one of the largest surviving narrative windows in Europe. Located in the cathedral’s South Quire Transept, it tells the story of the life and miracles of one of Northern England’s most significant saints. It is thought to date from c.1440 and is the only surviving whole stained glass window dedicated to the life of the saint. It is one of three great windows in the cathedral’s East End, which include the St William Window (c.1415) and the Great East Window, (completed in 1408), both of which have undergone major conservation and restoration projects in the last two decades. Now, after centuries of exposure to the elements, the stonework of the St Cuthbert Window and the wider South Quire Transept needs urgent work to replace and repair eroded and decaying masonry. The conservation project is the subject of a major exhibition at the cathedral which opened in summer 2021 – Light, Glass & Stone: Conserving the St Cuthbert Window and we could see some of the original panels at close quarters (complete with some graffiti). York at night on our way back to the station is even more enchanting.....
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