Steam Trains Working Very Hard at Shap Summit

Steam trains Shap Bank, Shap gradient, Steam locomotives, UK Mainline Steam, Duchess, Black Five, Britannia, Shap Cumbria, Tebay, Lune Gorge.

Footage of preserved steam trains at Shap Summit on the West Coast Mainline, filmed between 2011 and 2019. Locomotives featured include:

46233 Duchess Of Sutherland (LMS Princess Coronation)
6201 Princess Elizabeth (LMS Princess Royal)
46115 Scots Guardsman (LMS Royal Scot)
45690 Leander (LMS Jubilee)
45699 Galatea (LMS Jubilee)
45407 The Lancashire Fusilier (LMS Black 5)
48151 (LMS 8F)

70000 Britannia (British Railways Standard Class 7)
70013 Oliver Cromwell (British Railways Standard Class 7)

60163 Tornado (LNER A1)
61994 The Great Marquess (LNER K4)

5043 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe (GWR Castle)

35018 British India Line (SR Merchant Navy)
34067 Tangmere (SR Battle of Britain)

The locomotives were hauling a variety of workings including:

Cumbrian Mountain Express;
Winter Cumbrian Mountain Express;
Cumbrian Coast Express;
The Lakelander;
The West Highlander;
The Border Raider;
The Cumbrian Fells Express;
The Pennine Blackpool Express;
One-off excursions.

Thanks to Peter Ainsworth (https://www.flickr.com/photos/peterai...) for the shots of 34067, 6201, 46233 southbound (1) and 70013 southbound (1).

Shap Summit is situated on the West Coast Mainline, between London Euston and Glasgow Central, around 35 miles south of Carlisle, in Cumbria (formerly Westmorland). It marks the summit of the original Lancaster and Carlisle railway, the route of which was determined by Joseph Locke, and which opened in 1846. Regular steam working often involved banking from Tebay up the infamous 4-mile 1-in-75 northbound gradient, and ended in 1967. Preserved steam returned in September 1995, and continues to run occasionally over the bank to this day.