When 47443 North Eastern arrived at the Liverpool Lime Street buffer stops with the 1M48 18:07 Newcastle-Liverpool on the evening of 20th January 1991, in doing so she brought about a dramatic change. For the first time in over 145 years the West Yorkshire "Wessy" - the line between L&NWR Junction at Ravensthorpe and Leeds - was left bereft of loco-hauled trains. With freight trains long since diverted via the old L & Y route through Healey Mills and Wakefield Kirkgate the Newcastle to Liverpool trains were the last diagrammed loco-hauled passenger trains to ply their trade, on this the busiest of the Trans-Pennine routes.



Immediately after the cessation there was a long barren spell, but over the years, especially since privatisation some workings have returned to the route, but these are by no means regular occurances. Today the only loco-hauled trains the route sees are the occasional charter train, (although most of these are diverted over the less busy L&Y route via Wakefield), Network Rail Test Trains or route learners and the occasional loco movement between L&NWR Crewe and Midland Road for Freightliner.



This book does not intend to provide a definitive record of these workings, merely just my own personal pictorial record of a selection of workings captured over the last decade or so at various locations along the route.



Mark Allatt