All aboard the Tin Bath

Railway buffs gathered at the Holmes level crossing on Sunday to catch a glimpse of an annual special puffing past.

And when the mid-afternoon service steamed past an hour later than expected, there turned out to be two engines pulling the coaches and another bringing up the rear.

The crowd looked on as The Tin Bath service pulled by two Jubilee class engines eased through the crossing before heading on towards Aldwarke and Swinton.

Amateur photographer Dave Fisher, of East Dene, took this photo of the steam locomotives after hearing about the Valentine’s Day service on a Rotherham Facebook group.

“It was supposed to come through at about 1.40pm and actually turned up about an hour later,” he said.

“It was pulled by two engines at the front and a Great Western Railway engine at the back.

“There were quite a few people gathered to see it and every time the crossing barriers went down they were out of their cars.

“I took about 130 pictures from the footbridge nearby and managed to get a few good ones.

“The train was packed with passengers.

“It’s certainly not something you see every Sunday.”

The Tin Bath tour \_ pulled on this occasion by the Jubilee class locomotive No. 45699 Galatea and Black V locomotive No. 44871 \_ runs once a year from Preston to Sheffield through the South Pennines and the Peak District and back to Manchester. 

Run by the Railway Touring Company, it is named in honour of the famous scene in Last of the Summer Wine where calamitous character Compo careers down a hillside in a bathtub.