CVR's 'Gronk'

John Stein's superb picture of the Churnet Valley Railway's 'Gronk' at Leekbrook.

The loco looks excellent after its re-paint at Cheddleton from faded EWS livery, but it could do with a bit of mechanical TLC.

When I was Consall signalman some months ago the loco was rostered on a service train. The practice, for 'down' trains coming to Consall from Froghall, is to hold the Consall home signal 'on' until the train activates the outer track circuit. The signalman then knows that the driver has that 'on' signal in sight, and that it can then be cleared to 'off'' and the driver will see this. This is 'approach control' and informs the driver, in the absence of 'distant' signals, that although this signal has been pulled 'off'', the next one (the Consall station starter) WILL be 'on'.

That day, the 08-hauled 'up' train arrived at Consall. As I performed the token exchange the driver said "don't bother with approach control when we return from Froghall" (as the 'down' train but UP the valley, so uphill). "If I have to stop at the signal we'll never get going again. I'm supposed to have 360 horses under the bonnet but 275 of them have escaped".

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