Cath Ex - Flying Scotsman - 21/05/16

BBC South news report about 60103 from Yesterday:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b07bgkzw

 

Here is my video from a very wet Mortimer last night:


It also includes a Class 66 Diesel for those of you who don't like 60103

 

It's not going to happen. Get used to it..................and try to be a bit more mature.

 

Just in front of that chap in the undergrowth is something that might be a fencepost. Is there perhaps the remains of a fence that has been neglected because of the dense vegetation on the non-railway side? If he was the wrong side of an intact fence that is further from the line, why is it so far away? (And BTW, the station nameboard says "Whitchurch".)

 

A couple of shots from me taken at Savernake and Andover. Hardly a soul at Savernake, but very well attended at Andover, despite the pouring rain!

 

The problem is that trespassers are like sheep.....when one trespasses then there is a good chance that others will follow suit.
Where I was yesterday there were 4-5 on the wrong side of the gates but when asked politely they moved to the correct side.
NR/SWT/GWR spent a lot of time and money yesterday trying to make sure that nowt went wrong.
At the end of the day is that one photo really worth having someone hurt or injured.

 

In answer to some of the questions posed on here.

I was on duty yesterday from around 3pm arriving at Salisbury from Romsey in the cab of 2S35. All stations and footbridges were well occupied and those spoken to at the stations were in very high spirits and well behaved. Unfortunately as usual there are a minority that can spoil it. At a foot crossing, there were in excess of 20 people including young children and infants trespassing.

On arrival at Salisbury, I met up with BTP and we attended 4 areas where there were reported problems. A colleague got verbally abused by a male carrying an infant who saw it as an infringement of his freedom to not being allowed to walk down the line! His wife also thought that the reason the passing trains (that were under caution due to their antics) were sounding their horn was in support of the "party"! These people really do not see a problem in trespassing and to take young children is setting a precedence that it is ok to play on the railway. Remember, this is the south and we have rails that bite and bite hard! So what are the BTP doing about this? Those caught trespassing were removed from the trackside and their details taken pending a decision. In all, over 20 people were removed. It should be noted that those who's details were taken would not normally go out to see a train and wouldn't normally wish to be known as a railway enthusiast. It is understood that the enthusiast fraternity on the whole are very well behaved and the problems are generally caused by those who wouldn't normally go out.

Additional staff were brought in on a voluntary basis by both Network Rail and SWT to manage stations and crossings. GWR supplied staff at their stations as well. The Network Rail helicopter was brought down to cover the area but due to the low cloud was grounded. It will however remain in the area this week to cover the other southern trips.

On arrival back at a very damp Salisbury, I joined the train in the support coach for the run to Reading along with the travelling BTP officers and West Coast staff. The run from Salisbury to Andover was loud with the haggis doing all the work and the 47 just ticking over. The run through Andover was fast as has been noted by the photo posted on here but that soon ended as we were brought to a stand to be cautioned for another trespasser at Whitchurch. Once again, a male with 2 young children were standing adjacent to the 90mph down line with back to traffic watching and photographing the train at speed through the station. Unfortunately we came to a stand with the loco on the platform and the rest of the train hanging off the end. This was the end of the steam only day as the injectors had failed again. From here it was Brush type 4 power as we were pushed through to Basingstoke where the decision was made to continue in this manner. The driver made a wonderful comment saying "we could have had a Coronation on the trip and avoided this problem!" It appeared that the fault was intermittent (and can therefore be easily rectified at Southall) as there was a definite sound coming from the front end when we departed but once out of site of the station, quiet once again ensued from the front end.

Anyway, I bailed at Reading so what happened after there I do not know.

 

I wonder what the cost of all the security measures is, and who foots the bill. That, as much as the trespass itself, could be what kills the spectacle of steam on the main line.

 

The cost falls to those providing the staff. NR, SWT, GWR and BTP. There was a lot of goodwill from staff who gave up their day off to volunteer in assisting the smooth operation of this tour. If they receive abuse then this will be lost and additional costs will be incurred. Add to that the cost of the delays caused by trespass which is currently in the region of 160 minutes. Idiots will kill mainline steam if they don't kill themselves first!

 

Opps yes, I was planning to go to Overton, and ended up at Whitchurch! Apologies again!

 

That's rather scary, as SWT and GWR are incurring costs that have nothing to do with their business. Just hope they are happy to continue doing this until the show moves on elsewhere....

No doubt NR and BTP would rather be spending their limited resources in other directions too.

 

It's not mainline steam that's the worry it's just this loco until all the press hype dies down, I think it was put out on local Radio. Perhaps BTP and NR could persuade the local media to agree to a news blackout on safety grounds until after the event in future.
It will be interesting to see what happens on Wednesday with two trips in a highly populated area with most of it over the third rail. As for the cost, if they are treated correctly those stopped on Saturday will be contributing £20,000.

 

It was on local radio, with progress reports through the day, it had been published the previous days in local syndicated papers, it was on Facebook, whats app, twitter and every other social media. Its not possible to keep this thing secret, secrecy makes it worse. The way to run this is to publish details, for all the media, giving times and locations where it can be seen and where you can control the public, telling them that access anywhere else will be denied and prevented

 

Its a week day, which will be a help and lineside access is severely restricted until it gets out into the country past Addlestone. I am out to film this, but will avoid my favourite foot crossings as I suspect access will be denied.

 

Got lucky at Royal Oak yesterday morning as despite being on the far side managed to avoid anything else in / out (thanks to a sluggish starting Turbo) and nothing going westbound on the H&C. Salisbury and Eastleigh were mental though.

Photos here - https://railwaygalleries.smugmug.com/MainlineSteam/Steam-Tours-in-2016/

 

Don't know if it's due to the trespass problem but I just had a look at the Steam Dreams website and it seems the rest of 60103's programme in the South has been confined to the Surrey Hills Circuit except for next Saturday.
There are now four trips going round the Surrey Hills, two on the 25th May and two on 1st June. So has the original route to Bicester and Oxford for the 1st June has been abandoned?

 

Here is my shot of Scotsman in the gloom at Mortimer last night. It really was crap light for pictures:

 

Although I don't disagree, how is access to other areas going to be denied and prevented?

 

They would only be denying access if you intended to be the wrong side of the fence, or standing on the crossing itself which as the name implies is for crossing not standing and viewing...