70000 & 34067; The Lakelander and Northern Belle 13/04/2024

Britannia made a welcome return to the north west on another wild and windy April day heading the Lakelander, booked for steam haulage from Preston to Carlisle then back down the S&C to Crewe, having been unable to run round the coast due to the engineering work at Grange following the derailment there the other week. The LSL operated tours are usually the only ones to run through Carnforth without stopping so are able to have a full speed run at Yealand bank, and even with the 47 on the rear, 70000 was still running at around 60-65mph as it approached the summit opposite Yealand Conyers; well worth getting my shoes covered in mud for...
You can hear how strong the wind was in that first shot and with Shap being very exposed, combined with me needing a quick getaway due to other commitments, for a second shot I headed for a new spot, at the north end of the Lune Gorge just south of Tebay, which was largely sheltered from the worst of the wind and also one of the few remaining places on the WCML not to have palisade fencing. Under normal circumstances steam locos would be well gassed up and running as fast as possible by this point to get a good run at the 4 miles of 1 in 75 to come, but not so today. It seemed a bit odd when the TPE service which had overtaken 70000 at Grayrigg had the brakes on as it went past but after stopping at the next signal it then didn't move for more than 5 minutes, by which time Britannia had almost caught it up. It turned out that there was a track circuit failure somewhere up Shap so everything was being stopped at Tebay until the preceding train was well clear of the issue. While 70000 was sat at the signal 34067 on the Northern Belle then caught up and was stopped in the section behind, only a hundred yards or so from where I was standing. Fortunately the rails were still dry when Tangmere got underway again and it managed to do so with no slipping and no assistance either...