Class 40 diesel loco heavy freight train

40036 struggling to get out of Earles sidings - 22nd May, 1981. Guide Bridge driver, Mike 'Lover boy' Lowe, willing the sanders to work! I was able to take the photo from a signal post then walk up the ballast and get on the footplate, then get off again with a newspaper folded into a 'cone' shape, fill it with sand from the sandboxes on the loco and 'trail' the sand onto the line in front of the advancing train! Health and safety? Hah! It worked, though! We got going in the end!

I guess the train was just a big old heavy one to start upgrade?,
The tracks look perfectly dry! I bet the thrash was hellfire, I loved the sound when they wheel slipped.I was passenger on a steam special to Buxton just a few years back where hand sanding ahead of the loco, a Black Five, had to be done as the train slipped to a stand on the freight only line between Peak Forest and Buxton. We lost about half an hour or so but made it in the end. The old ways are often the best :-)