Cathedrals Express to Oxford - 06/06/17 & 09/06/17

Flying Scotsman on the Bicester to Oxford line after lunch today

 

I share some of the concern about diesels on the back, and largely for that reason nearly all my trips in the last few years have been with railtour promoters other than SD. However I was on this one, mainly for the sake of a steam ride over the new connection at Bicester.

I was in coach B, third from the loco. Only on one occasion could I tell for sure that the diesel was pushing; I forget exactly where but I think it was somewhere on the climb through Saunderton when, looking back down the train on a curve (without needing to lean out!), I could see smoke from the diesel. On the other hand there was plenty of sound from FS for a lot of the time, including many accelerations from (what I presume to have been) slacks through stations.

I don't know how often the diesel was pushing or how hard, but I can honestly say that in this particular instance it made no difference to my enjoyment of the trip. Obviously it would make a nonsense of any assessments of steam locomotive performance, but with FS there will be little of interest in that respect anyway because of the expectation that it will be treated fairly gently.

We did need the diesel anyway, given the reversal at Willesden, but does anyone know the reason for that routing rather than going straight round from Acton Wells to West London Jn?

We had a whistle from something at Didcot (the King?) and on the GWML we had several horn salutes from passing trains. The guard of one GWR train on the up main had his window down and his camera out.

One further pleasure of this particular trip was the short duration, such that instead of coming straight home from Victoria I had plenty of time to go to the Musical Traditions Folk Club for an evening of Irish music and song.

 

Great video and I love the intro but really should be title Scotsman and Class 37 storm Saunderton - you could hear the 37 before 103 even though its on the back of the train!

 

Whereas I hate the loud noise at the beginning and the waste of time with brief clips of other stuff before we get to the relevant part. Apparently all a matter of personal preference.

 

I must say I tend to avoid Steam Dreams as like many on here I would much prefer to have a diesel free trip. However, the chance for a mainline trip with Scotsman was too good to turn down so I went on the evening Surrey Hills run. I was fully aware that there would be a diesel on the back and was a bit disappointed to find myself in coach 11 out of 12. However I can say that I only heard the diesel working 3 times (and one of those was the climb out of Victoria) and I was pleasantly surprised to hear a lot of noise from Scotsman at the front so I am pretty sure it was doing most of the work. I agree that it in no way spoiled the enjoyment of the trip.

I suspect that the reversal at Willesden after the Oxford trip was to save time later. There was less than 2 hours between trips during which time presumably the loco had to be coaled, watered and serviced in the Battersea loop without the extra bother of having to turn it on the Longhedge Jct/Factory Jct/ Stewarts Lane triangle which was presumably pretty busy at 6pm on a Friday.

 

Not wanting to add to the diesel on the back debate but my reading of the situation is that given the much publicised engineering report on FS and the will to not overload it, given a load of 11 plus POB then the diesel was always going to be working.

What is the alternative? Say load 8 plus POB with FS solo and a much greater ticket price? How many would be willing to pay that additional price on top of the premiums already charged?

 

Indeed it is, But as by now you have worked out the length of the intro does not change (15 seconds*) you can easily and accurately skip it


*I upload on average one video a week on here, 15 seconds a week of your life is not a huge sacrifice. Better than 7x24 hours of Brexit, May and Corbyn. Tho Trump does make a good comedy interlude.

 

Don't forget, WCRC does not have the logistical breadth that DB does, and sometimes has to haul the diesel around to alleviate that.

 

Your ears are considerably better than mine then, I couldn't hear the 37 till at least coach 4 had passed.