Although our Fixtures Secretary, Kev Adlam, had carried out all the detailed negotiations for this tour, due to Kev being away on a 'surprise' holiday, John Cameron was in charge for the Society. We were extremely lucky that two of the Middleton Railway's volunteers who were heavily involved in the operation of the tour are/have been BLS members - Ian Smith, the line's Vice President, had done much of the planning and negotiating, while Ian Dobson was Senior Responsible Officer on the day. Having people on the ground that understand what we try to achieve, and what our members want, makes things much easier!

During his introduction, Ian Smith explained that the train would be running in 'top & tail' formation, using locos MD&HB 45 (Hudswell Clarke D1373/1965) and 'D2999' (Brush 91 & Beyer Peacock 7856/1958).

To ensure the maximum track coverage, at the extremities of lines, the front loco would be detached, with the coaches then being propelled by the rear engine to the line limit - thus giving the 'keen end' of the train that vital extra loco extra length!









With everyone on board, we set off around 09.00 from Moor Road down the Balm Road branch. This line, which links to NR, is normally only used during special events; the connection itself has not had any activity since June 1990 when it was used to deliver a pair of bogies for the EM2 Loco Society. The train ran to the run-round loop, where MD&HB 45 was removed, and then propelled to a few inches short of the Middleton/NR boundary gate. With our second engine re-attached, the other side of the run round loop was traversed before we returned back towards Moor Road.

Back at Moor Road, some shunting had been done. The platform was full of wagons, which had been removed from Bannister's Siding to allow our tour to travel over that line. In this instance, 'D2999' was removed from the train to allow loco MD&HB 45 to propel the tour into the siding. After this had been accomplished, the loco was hooked back on and we headed for Park Halt, the Middleton's southern terminus. Once again, a loco removal occurred, enabling the coaches to be shunted right into the headshunt and we also covered the run-round loop to the buffer stop.

The highlight for many was the traversal of what is left of the Dartmouth branch. This branch once ran to Clayton's Dartmouth yard, the Middleton's operating base until 1983 when the land was sold by Clayton, Son & Co Ltd. It was then that the Moor Road site, which had until that time consisted of little but a track and platform, was developed. The Dartmouth branch last saw any activity in Jul 2015 for 'Hunslet 150'; our charter was to be the last passenger train before the point is lifted this winter.

The last bits of track to be covered were those around Moor Road. Unfortunately, the Middleton's attempts to move the wagons out of the siding adjacent to the running line were thwarted after it was discovered that the couplings had been removed. One for our ninth visit perhaps? There was also some difficulty clipping the point to give us access to the line which runs to the car park, but the volunteers persevered and eventually managed it. The next issue was finding the owners of a couple of vehicles which were blocking the track in the car park - they were traced (and were not BLS members either) and their vehicles moved, so we were able to carry on to the end - which had no stop block - a couple of feet from a car belonging to one of your new Committee Members, Darren Garnon!






Next, the tour visited the running shed, officially opened earlier this year, which I believe might be a 'first'? Lastly, the left of the two lines into the museum was traversed as far as the doors, before returning to the platform to enable everyone to alight prior to the commencement of our AGM.

Verdict: A well-organised and comprehensive trip. Many thanks to the two Ians and all the other volunteers who assisted on the day, in not the best of weather conditions, also Kev and the BLS team.