The Silver Jubilee Talisman - 26th September

Outline timings for the trip are now being shown on the UK Railtours website: http://www.ukrailtours.com/product/the-silver-jubilee-talisman/

 

You keep on flogging this horse.
The fact of the matter is every tour we ran originating in the North East lost money - even the York-Newcastles on the first weekend 60163 operated. Others find the same thing.
Running the tour in reverse a week later would, in my view, be a very poor use of Covenentors' money as it would lose a fortune.
Operation of steam tours on the modern railway by single loco owners simply do not make money, a way of subsidising the costs of operations needs to be found. In the case of A1SLT that comes from Covenantors amd merchandise sales.
To stand any chance of being self supporting I would expect the hire fee would now need to be of the order of £12,500-£15,000 per trip.
Notwithstanding this, 31st December, 2015 York-Newcastle- York to recreate 60145's fi9nal run in 1966 - let's see what the response to that is otherwise you are flogging a horse which is a non-runner.

 

And with the greatest of respect to everybody local to where it was constructed, what was sold, is not what has been delivered, 3 of us were fed the line at the same time, and asked specifically about it.

However when the "lack of truth" in the matter came to light, I did what anybody else would do, stuck 2 fingers up, and supported something more worthwhile.

Your location may be Jersey, however ask many about the matter locally, and the majority feel the same, used, as for the P2, not happening either....

I am not going to go over the same ground about making it happen locally, its been done to death, however, a York to Edinburgh excursion should be thought about in my opinion, plenty of chimney pots to market to, on one of the York layovers.

Best of luck with 31st December.....

 

The line you were fed by persons unknown to me was never a reflection of a decision taken in a meeting of the trustees I attended and I don't think I missed any post November, 1991.
My location has nothing to do with what we are discussing. I did a great deal of work on the build of 60163 at Hopetown when living in Yorkshire and could have known many of the people you are probably referring to but not one of them ever moaned about trips starting in the north east either before or after completion of 60163.
If you look at the trains 60163 has worked you will see that there has been a great number of opportunities to join trains at York eg the Settle-Carlisle runs, Edinburghs and etc., over the years so your argument the opportunity has not been given just does not hold water.
The trustees often discussed ways of offering trains from the North East without running the risk of losing a great deal of money; the solution, as they saw it ,was to start down south and offer pick ups at York - sorry it didn't suit you.
I have now retired as a trustee of A1SLT so I cannot comment on the current view in the North East about either the A1 or the P2.

 

The line we were fed were by 2 of the leading lights you see in the media all of the time, so it now seems we were intentionally misled????

And, I have travelled to York to do the Silver Jubilee (I think Kings x - Edinburgh) and back, and had a fantastic day.

To see it now running in a shortened format is a further disappointment, as it offered the holy grail of A1 and Deltic.

 

RTT has now posted WTT detail as follows

KGX-NCL http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/U53232/2015/09/26/advanced
NCL-Heaton http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/U53233/2015/09/26/advanced
Heaton-NCL http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/U53234/2015/09/26/advanced
NCL-KGX http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/U53235/2015/09/26/advanced

At first blush, not much of a sign of anything remotely challenging about any of this. If Tornado was a 'plane, I think an apt description for this would be a "glide path".

 

Where are the water stops?

 

Holme Jn 24 minutes and Claypole Loop 17 minutes seem possible. York is only 14 minutes, but I think Tornado's tender has two water inlets each side, so you can get the water in fast provided the source isn't too far away.

 

See the arrival at York is nearly two hours later than expected and I will miss Half a show I had planned... Mrs is furious so that's the Last steam trip we will do probably
Still advertised as a 6 oclock on the A1 website ( which would have been going some admittedly)

 

Northound - Holme Jct. 09:24/09:48 is one that stands out as does York P11 12:27/12:41. Holme is used often as there is a road adjacent for a water tanker and I've seen water taken at P11 at York on a previous Tornado trip. There are other stops but these may be for pathing only. I'm sure someone will provide the full info.

 

I assume it's going to be the Riviera set on this. The so called Royal Scot blood and custard lot. Hopefully it will have been smartened up externally as it was dire on the Clan Line farewell trip. OK inside but scruffy outside. Perhaps it will be something different!

 

You need.........THIS!

 

Does anybody know the loading for this tour tomorrow?

 

Lightweight, if the RTT 'loading' of '420 tonnes' is anything to go by. Loco+POB+8?

 

Load 13 for about 500 tons. Just run sigs stop Langley Jct to Holme water stop in better than even time. Now left Holme 17 early!!

 

Thanks for that, Don. I'm so used to seeing larger numbers on RTT, to presumably allow the system to try & predict slower accelerations. 13 on will test her nicely after her Durham stop on the way south - but I have seen a video of her starting a similar load there back in 2011?, I think. (It was the trip where Alicydon tried to self-immolate on the way north to Edinburgh from the Cross, but recovered to give a spirited run. 60163 did the honours coming back). Not a hint of wheelslip as she headed away up the bank & over the viaduct - superb!

 

Tornado breezing through Arlesey this morning. A rare combination of sunshine and steam on the southern GN.

 

Nice one! Made the best of some good light. Doesn't the apple green look good with the "blood & custard" coaches?

 

Just after the re-start out of the loop at Claypole

https://www.flickr.com/photos/10257146@N05/21729421015/

Simon

 

A bit of a belter taken by someone early this morning darn sarf....LINK