Alternate History Worth Valley; Pacers on Bridge 11

I thought I'd pretty much done Bridge 11 on the Keighley and Worth Valley to death this year; from being involved in an ever so small way with documenting the replacement of the structure, to photographing a number of 'firsts' on the bridge (first steam test train, etc).  And then this happened.

The KWVR had been storing a large number of redundant Pacer trains (classes 143 and 144) on behalf of Northern, and as the Lockdown eased, they were to gradually head to new homes, either preservation sites or scrappers.  Anyway, one morning I'd spotted a Facebook post with shots of the trains in use, and me and Elder Child went for a mooch around, to see what was happening.

We arrived at Bridge 11, and the adjacent tunnel, right as the train did, crawling up the valley.

It paused for a while on the bridge itself, allowing me to get a few snaps in the sunshine.

Rail Express liked the image, and gave it a half-page spread in the September issue.  It makes for a pleasant 'What If?' shot anyway- the whole point of the KWVR being preserved originally was to provide a public service, only by the time British Railways had finished arsing about with the legal paperwork, all the regular passengers had switched to the bus.  This kind of shot (especially with the modern housing) makes it look like the railway never closed, and that Northern were still operating the public service, as this is exactly the type of train that could have been running on the line.  It's also a good indicator of the sort of possibilities the line could offer to film and tv companies, given they own one of these sets now too.

As a kind of postscript, I was out to photograph the last two sets leaving the railway, heading for Worksop.  I got them on the mainline at Utley, after they'd been up to Skipton.

I've been photographing trains on the Airedale line for about 15 years now, and it seems a little odd that these stalwarts are gone; this might well be the last run of a Pacer on this line for good now.  I know they have their detractors, but the design philosophy was sound enough, and a lot of train services would have got the chop in the Thatcher/Major years were it not for them.

A surprise late publication of one of the shots, in the Worth Valley's in-house mag in the Autumn of 2020.