Cheaterfiddle in Cumberland

Greetings strange or sad people who choose to read this.

First off, I make no promises for this to be a sign of this becoming a more regular occurrence, I  shall write entries when I have the inclination to.

Yesterday started off as a straightforward move. Northern £10 offer, collection of bog carts over to Carlisle via a shack tick or two, whip in tractors on the Cumbrian Coast, laugh at inevitable farce, go home. Then two things happenned:
1) The S&C collapsed into the valley below. Not a problem, I'll suffer the bus which will inevitably be slackly timed, thus the plus 1 into the southbound 37 will most likely make. Nothing better to do now is there.
2) On Friday evening, I saw the gen that very much required 08924 would be working at Barrow Hill. That about qualifies as better to do as a decent beezer to somewhere I've not been before with a loco that will be hard to achieve.

So, booked 05:12 out of Grimsby. Into Doncaster 06:23 (actually a bit later due to a minor signalling farce), gronk due to work at 14:00, thus a desire to be a Barrow Hill by13:30 to have a solo run off the dud 02. That means 12:35 from Cheaterfiddle, so 6 hours to do an hour's journey. Over to Manchester using a couple of Northern stoppers as a punt at scooping a unit or two. Usual leap out to Salford Crescent on a train of unspecified operator for legal purposes, you never know who's reading, then a short fester while we see what turns up. A short while produces 150118, so bus stop leap to Salford for the first unit back to get the first score.

150118 at Salford

So back to the right side of the hills on a stopper, an hour at Sheffield to achieve nowt, then down to Cheaterfiddle. Certain readers will appreciate the fun of finding a bus stop. I followed the directions on the Shunterspot site from memory, found one that about matched the description but the signage showed I was wrong, then find the right one up the hill. Usual farce of 'bus showing up a few later than expected - not too worrying on a half hourly service.

Now this is the bit that inspired me to write this. Simon's website and conversations with him have taught me that some towns we have found to be crap on football, Luton for example, days have their positives. I went with an open mind, wondering if this would apply here. It didn't. Cheaterfiddle and the surrounding villages I passed through are all complete shitholes from what I could see. The ground, from what I could see, looked crap and one stand down the side reminded me of the stand behind the goal at Lincoln, only with a few more rows of seats in front of the executive boxes.

The 'bus which transported me through the town and surrounding villages

So into Barrow Hill. Stage 1, whip kettle in with the dud 02, just to make sure of getting it in the book. Good solid thrash off the Peckitt up the short branch and roll back down the hill. Job done. A quick walk around the depot showed a proper roundhouse, full of atmosphere, still being used for something resembling its original purpose. A far better effort than the NRM.

How to make a museum out of a depot.

Onto the main event. The train was now somewhat busier, I can't think now, for the kettle top n tailing the triple heading of aforementioned rather loud 02, embarrassingly still required 03066 and the rare 08924. The 02 and 03 bank at various points uphill, it was deduced that the 08 did provide power for at least a little bit downhill, indeed it did a fair bit on the last trip.

The bizarre triple header. They all worked.

Bus back to Cheats, dropped off from bus near the church with the spire that characterises the town. To avoid spending longer there, I went to Alfreton to come back north, then whipped in the shack tick at Gainsborough Lea Road with its delightful waiting shelters. Goole Boothferry Road end crossover was attempted but failed as the evening terminating unit shunted empty.

Gainsborough Lea Road, with nice wooden shelters

All in all, a good day, scored everything expected plus the bonus 03 and the punt coming off for the 150. See you when I next have something interesting or otherwise to write.