MONTHLY REPORTS

 OCTOBER 2018 - PAGE THREE
 PAGE 1  PAGE 2  PAGE 4

 EAST LANCASHIRE RAILWAY, OCTOBER 21st, 2018

 Heywood and the first train of the day as GWR 2-8-0 2857 ran round its train.

 Bury and pretentious "Gothenburg" waits.

 One train ran beyond Heywood and across the road crossing towards Hopwood, a first for me.

 "City of Wells" at Bury.

 L&Y 52322 at Bury.

 It was a pleasant surprise to see standard tank 80097 in steam.

 The train from Heywood that I was on was running circa 30 minutes late so my plan to watch the Duchess leave Bury was thwarted.
A hurried move down the platform allowed a parting shot. The timetable at this point had clearly run into trouble.

 I was even more surprised to see the standard tank running through the station.

 The Duchess moved cautiously back into Bury.

 34092 was at the head of what was to be the penultimate train to Heywood but, while many people settled into their seat, we were told that the train was being taken out of service and that the Heywood train was on the other side of the station, indicating platform 4. Several people duly boarded the train in platform 4 which, to me, didn't look right.

 Enquiries with a staff member advised that this one was indeed the train to Heywood which was later announced as the last train to Heywood. I had intended to travel to Ramsbottom and back to catch the final train to Heywood which was where my car was parked. Had I done so I would have been stranded at Bury, a situation that was clearly concerning station staff at Heywood. When I finally reached Heywood a member of staff was speaking on his mobile phone questioning whether there was another train scheduled and advising that he had "a car park full of cars"!

 The West Country pacific was removed from the terminated train and coupled to the revised stock.

 An uneventful final run to Heywood and a sigh of relief after what had been a very enjoyable day albeit despite the timetable troubles.

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