As part of our "Last Coals to Leeds" project, this event was held on Saturday 29th and Sunday 30th September 2018, and focused on locomotives and other rolling stock that worked at collieries. Sadly, none of the locomotives that actually worked at Middleton Broom Colliery have survived, but similar ones have, and the ones that were operating were as follows:

HC 1544, representing "Blenkinsop; Nineteen Fifty Three" (HC 1871, which did work at Middleton Colliery);
MW 1601, representing "Forward" (MW 1690, which worked at Yorkshire Main Colliery, Edlington);
HE 3839 "Wimblebury", which worked at Cannock Wood Colliery in Staffordshire, and was visiting from the Foxfield Railway.

Similarly, none of the goods wagons that actually worked at Middleton Broom Colliery have survived, but again similar ones have, and the ones that were operating included:

our five-plank open wagon in pre-NCB Middleton Colliery livery, now numbered 50 to mark this event;
our flat wagon in Middleton Colliery livery;
our "Dogfish" hopper wagon, now in NCB livery; and
our 13-ton open wagon in bauxite livery, as used in the 1958 special train to mark 200 years of the Middleton Railway.

HE 3839 Wimblebury

HE 3839 "Wimblebury",

Picture © Ian Smith, 2018

On both days a special timetable was operated, providing an intensive service over both our main passenger line and the little-used Balm Road branch. Two train sets were in operation, one a passenger train and the other a demonstration freight train. The demonstration freight train made one journey only on each day, and was not carrying passengers, apart from a special party on the Saturday from Leeds City Council, who had sponsored this event.

There was a variety of patterns of operation, including some trains that had a locomotive at each end, but no double-headed operation for this event. The first train departed at 10.00 am and the last one arrived at 4.50 pm.

Full details of the timetable can be accessed as pdf files, which will each open in a new browser tab or window (ready to be downloaded), as follows.

Special fares applied for each day, namely £9 for an adult, £3 for a child and £20 for a family ticket (covering up to 2 adults and 3 children). The various travel concessions that apply to our normal train services did not apply for this event.

As well as our normal range of refreshments, including hot and cold drinks and sweets, we had a range of sandwiches available on each day.

We were pleased to be able to arrange overflow car parking on a site on Tulip Street, opposite the retail car park.