Middleton Railway 4th August 2024 - 'Courage' running!

A month or so ago, my band Indignation Meeting (punk songs about trains) played the Middleton Railway's 'A Taste of Yorkshire' food & ale festival. Naturally, I had to get down a bit early to film some trains - but not only was Brookes No. 1 running, but also Sweet Pea/Courage, the wonderful little diesel featured in one of the most popular 'Lawrie Goes Loco' videos. As a volunteer at Middleton, I was able to get some shots there you wouldn't usually get, along with ‪@CrimRail‬, and here's what I filmed - enjoy! Filming spots: https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?... My band:   / indignationmeeting   My music channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0tl... My flickr: https://www.flickr.com/people/1929153... Engines featured: Brookes No. 1 (Hunslet 14" Saddle Tank) Sweet Pea/Courage (I don't even know) The Middleton Railway was founded in 1758 to carry coal from Middleton Colliery to Leeds City Centre, the first railway to be founded by an act of parliament. In 1812, the world's first commercially successful steam locomotive, The Salamanca, first ran on the Middleton Railway. As well as being the first steam engine to have two cylinders, it made use of a rack and pinion system to increase its tractive effort. In 1960, the NCB had abandoned the section of Middleton track between Moor Road and the colliery, and Leeds Uni's railway club took notice of this. Seeing the opportunity, they ran the first ever standard gauge train on a preserved railway, being a tramcar hauled by the prototype Hunslet diesel 'John Alcock'. They continued running trains over the line, these being industrial trains for the factories along the line. In 1969, they started a passenger service too, and moved to their current operational base at Moor Road in 1983. Now, they run every weekend from April to October, with diesels on Saturdays and steam on Sundays.