RTC 'The Christmas Cheshireman' - 25/11/17

I'm on this one, and timings are already up on RTT and UKsteam. Return is via Crewe rather than Gresford (as mildly expected). It may surprise people that I have yet to do Shrewsbury-Chester and Crewe-Shrewsbury by steam, so whilst the climb would have been nice, for myself, ticking off more of the network is a fair compensation. 70013 is still advertised, so this trip will be a clearance move for 2,000 miles behind it. Arrival at 13:05 for a 16:13 departure.

 

Doubt you'll enjoy the inevitable diesel on the back.

 

Don't really mind; if I did, it would have been a pretty boring decade on the rails. I just manage my own expectations. It will be needed for ETH anyway, unless the WCRC generator car has been fixed.

 

If you end up with 57314 and same set as the Yorkshireman a pair of shorts may be useful as some of the coaches were rather like being in the tropical house at Kew Gardens.

 

Curious as to why ETH would be needed, when the CME's, which run in the depths of winter, seem to manage with steam heat OK once the 86 has been detached. Or maybe this is a different set of coaches which doesnt have operational steam heat?

 

Will have to see what happens on the day.

 

With Abergavenny as a pick up, that all but guarantees a diesel !

 

The first 'Cumbrian' last year saw us moved to first class it was so cold (and not full) and with 2 steam Locos to Buxton in February we were cold in First class. Though winning a litre of Whiskey cheered us up in February.

 

Other than the tour from Manchester all the winter CME's use a rake that is based at Southall, so unless they get swopped for maintenance it could be next years CME set, although the Southall set often seems to go back to Carnforth post the last of the London Christmas tours as there are usually no London tours in January.
I would agree with the term "manage" in its loosest sense but that does not mean the coaches are pleasantly warm. The heat generated by the ETH off Les Ross is normally good enough for the run to Carlisle even after the 30 odd minutes in Carnforth Loop. However after the "cold soak" at Carlisle it can get chilly on the way back, especially if you are towards the rear or the loco needs to conserve water. As a steward we get many complaints about temperature, often from different parts of the same coach and giving conflicting messages about to hot or too cold.

I think all on here (me included) would like to see the CME's ran unassisted as now.

 

Out of curiosity, are the stewards either collectively or individually formally given the opportunity to offer feedback to the 'management' to help inform planning of future operations?

 

Judging by the amount of swaying in the carriage, I think it's fair to say that there has been minimal diesel assistance. The climb to Pontypool Road was very good, and apart from a brief bit of very subtle assistance out of Abergavenny station following some slipping, speed gradually rose to about 36mph on the 1 in 82 (with a fair bit of carriage swaying), then increased to about 46 at Llanvihangel summit, which is consistent with the easing to 1 in 95. So all in all, I'm pretty happy, and the noise from the front spoke for itself. Ray Poole on the handle.

 

No assistance and 46 at the summit? What have they put in the coffee??? Impossible.

 

Interesting. Two steam tours heading for Chester on the same day. One has assistance and the other not. Makes you think about which tour and TOCs to spend on...

 

Firecrackers. Didn't say there was no assistance, just that it was subtle/minimal compared to previous ascents, such as last year's trip from Birmingham to Cardiff. I'm happy with it, anyway.

 

Further to my previous post, no doubt there will be videos, so hopefully we'll get a better idea of the degree of assistance in the fullness of time. But one would have thought that a diesel shoving away at the back would have cancelled out the carriage swaying back and forth caused by 70013's two cylinders to a pretty good extent.

 

Especially as we have 14 on.

 

She sounded and looked wonderful pulling away from the stop at Abergavenny and any diesel assistance was very minor as not much noise or exhaust smoke from the back and you could hear the power of 70013 all the way up the climb

 

Maybe this was achieved with a featherweight load ? - I haven't so far seen a reference to exactly what the load is today. But just for a little bit of perspective, (and acknowledging we are deep inside 1020 Shireman territory hereabouts) our local correspondent did recently report back on what was considered to be another superb (and unassisted) 7P climb of Llanvihangel, breasting the summit at 46 mph, as per today's run, and this might be instructive, for comparative purposes.

The occasion was Earl of Mount Edgcumbe's run back in March on the Welsh Marches Express - and the climb that it achieved (notable for its minimal attrition in speed over the 4.5 miles to the summit) commenced with an Abergavenny fly-past at 57 mph, compared with today's standing start. Thereafter 56 mph after one half mile at 1/ 85, 49 mph after a further 1.75 miles of 1 in 82 (versus today's reported 36 mph) and then 46.7 mph at the summit.

This was achieved with Load 9 + REG (including 3 Pullmans), which I would estimate would be worth about 395 tons gross. I don't want to fan the flames of contentious performance claims and comparisons, but on this basis I think we are entitled to be just a little bit circumspect about the claimed contribution of hybrid power (or lack of it) to today's efforts on Llanvihangel.

 

I was roughly half way up the bank. Incredible bark from Cromwell, but the diesel was assisting. This was however minimal and the minute sound from the 47 was very quickly drowned out by the bark from up front.