RAILWAY REALISM
The new face of Trans Pennine express services are the Vossloh Class 68s hauling Mk 5 ‘Nova’ push-pull sets. These locomotive hauled trains are working between Liverpool and Scarborough/Middlesbrough and the first are now in service. On October 15 2019 Class 68 68025 Superb pauses at York with a Liverpool- Scarborough working. Mike Wild.
The Class 158 two and three-car DMUs held sway on Trans-Pennine services from their introduction in the early 1990s until 2004 when the Class 185s arrived. On September 4 1998 158806 passes through Greenfield carrying Northern Spirit colours. Mike Wild.
THERE ARE FEW LINES in the country that have seen such a widespread variation in rolling stock as the Trans-Pennine route from Leeds, through Huddersfield and over the hills to Manchester. Over the last 75 years the route has seen double-headed steam, diesel locomotives and express multiple units. Now it is going around full circle once again as new locomotive-hauled trains are being brought into service – a change which few could have expected in the late 1980s when the route went over entirely to multiple unit operation.
The line through Huddersfield is not the original route between Leeds and Manchester as when that was open…
