Waggon und Maschinenbau railbus No 79960
(on loan from North Norfolk Railway) stands at the Ribble Steam Railways
Preston Riverside station.
Today was a special running day raising money for Macmillan Nurses
Coffee Morning Appeal - an excellent cause - fabulous cakes in the cafe!
A feature of this fascinating railway is
the bitumen factory shunt. Loaded bitumen trains run over the main rail
network from Lindsey Oil Refinery in
North Lincolnshire to exchange sidings at Preston Dock. The RSRs diesel
locomotive then fetches the wagons and shunts into the local factory.
Sentinel loco "Progress" pulls empty
bitumen wagons from the factory private siding into the riverside loop.
Steam issues from one of the wagons (load
is steam heated at factory to help unloading?).
Loco has now uncoupled the empties and
runs onto four loaded wagons which had been placed in the centre road
earlier.
79660 crosses the swingbridge at Preston
Dock Marina on an outward journey to Strand Road.
The railbus now seen returning from
Strand Road exchange sidings...
... and crossing the swing bridge, which
is shared with road traffic, having full crossing barriers at each end.
The railbus leaves the swing bridge and
follows the river to Riverside station.