Steam hauled footex - 15/05/16

While I was up in Scotland seeing 60103, Dad offered to see 34046/34052 on his way in to see Saints beat Palace - this is his result, taken at Northam Junction, as the train passed St Mary's Stadium...



James

 

If a professional railwayman writes clearly, concisely and honestly about mainline steam, he receives no opprobrium but is appreciated and thanked by all NP members.

There's a lesson there for others.

Thank you, Wayne.

 

Ah, so who did I speak to at Buriton then? Great video by the way, really liking the shots at Liss in the evening!

Must have been you in the orange vest on the road bridge then John, nice pics!

Really enjoyed seeing steam over the direct for a change, it's been a while and wish it could happen more! Braunton looked and sounded on top form and my 2 1/2 year old son had a great time seeing "Braunton, going fast" at Chalton, on the climb up to Buriton on Sunday evening.

Who were the crew on the return Wayne?

 

Thanks, I was on the bridge but not wearing orange vest.

 

Ah, so you were the chap in the cerise mankini then.

 

You shouldn't have been looking!

 

Impossible to miss you cavorting along the Queen's highway, blocking the traffic.

 

Rob Binsted was the driver, Tim Stedman was the fireman and Tom Rees was the TI. Also, probably doing most of the firing, was trainee fireman Matt Hunt.

 

Clearly as far as DBC are concerned the rules as understood by the 'old school' still apply. Thanks for such a clear explanation.

I would suggest this train was of great significance as it is a first glimpse of the vision of the future held by Mr Hosking. This train I believe was the first to operate formed of carriages entirely from his fleet. The actual formation was 35451 (support coach), 3148, 310, 3100, 3330, 3348, 3384, 35465 (support coach). Although 67023 was used to supply ETS I would suggest the fact that Generator Coach 6311 is currently at the LNWR Heritage Company workshops at Crewe is an indication of what is planned.

 

Maybe, maybe not - because I am not sure that 6 full pax carrying coaches is a load commercially viable enough for a tour promoter.

 

That seems to assume that they are going to stop at six...perhaps that just happens to be the number that are done so far

 

Indeed that is a possibility, and I agree you have to start somewhere.

 

According to the latest issue of Steam Railway (or The Beano...), the coaches that used to belong to Railfilms have just arrived at LSL Crewe, so looks like the set used last weekend was a work in progress.

 

There are many more at Crewe progressively being done.

 

I'm not going to pay a premium price to sit in a hermetically sealed coach.

 

Wouldn't pay even a bargain price for that.

 

I presume as is the norm with Steam Railway actual carriage types and numbers are not quoted. It would though appear that Mr Hosking has acquired the rolling stock assets at least from Railfilms. It is not clear though whether he has acquired anything else, in particular the associated 'Statesman Rail' business.

Currently nine of the carriages are used by Statesman Rail (1211. 1659, 3188, 3231, 3312, 3438, 5912, 5991, 17080) augmented by three from WCRCo pending completion of work on three others. As far as I am aware these are still berthing at Carnforth. Two at least of those intended for Statesman use (3223, 3240) have now moved to Crewe along with at least saloons 99884 & 99993 and 6412 & 977169 intended as donor vehicles. Others in the fleet 4362, 5797, 13508 & 35511 will presumably move to Crewe if they haven't already but all need work doing on them. Even then less than half the fleet will have moved to Crewe so it does look like Steam Railway were a bit premature.

When I said "glimpse" I was not implying future trains would be of such short formation but that was the type of carriage / train to be expected in the future. Indications are though that at least one full set of Mark I stock will be created but this will not happen overnight.