6023

Carmine and cream early BR. Perfectly matched to the loco!

 

With apologies to anyone whose day may have been affected by snow this morning, Shropshire has so far had a reasonably snow free if windy day.
When the sun shone the easterly wind of course made conditions less than perfect.
However as I'm posting this the snow has arrived.

This is 6023 on the second return trip from Highley this morning. Someone may have had a better result from the first run before the sun was west of the line.
6023 seems to have no problems on Eardington bank with seven Mk1s and a Class 50.

 

Lovely stuff, I assume that the class 50 is just for insurance purposes whilst they test the steaming....

More importantly does she have a good bark??

 

The Class 50 towed the train to Highley, saves running round so the turnround was fairly brisk.
I don't think it's as loud as a Castle !

 

Is she not allowed to run the full length of the line then??

 

80-ish tons more proving load over another MKI perhaps?

 

I assume so, she was at Bewdley on Saturday, these are t&t trial runs between Highley and Bridgnorth see post #1156

 

I spoke to one of the crew at Bridgnorth and he said they were experimenting with different cutoffs on the test runs. This was quite clear by the sounds the loco was making on Eardington bank. I saw the second run which jsm8b photographed above. The loco appeared to be working moderately and the bark was noticeable, but not especially loud. On run three, she came under the bridge working very lightly and was then opened up and the bark was much more noticable. On run four, she was working quite easily with, most importantly, the safety valves roaring. I don't think anyone will be disappointed with the loudness of the bark when 6023 is really working hard.

 

The class 50 pulled the test runs from Bridgnorth to Highley. I think that the main test section is Eardington bank with 6023 on the front. It appears that they are only running up to 25mph (on the three runs that I saw). From what I heard today, if they really opened 6023 out, the bark would be really loud. I don't think that Jos Koopman's blastpipe has significantly muted 6023. In fact she sounded much louder (on run three) than I expected.

As I said, the two members of the footplate crew that I spoke to, said that she was steaming and running superbly. Most significantly, their comments were that she was much better than expected.

It looks like it'll be a case of "job done".

If I'm correct from what I've seen today and from the crew's comments, it's "very well done Jos Koopmans!"

.....and of course, the team who have worked so hard to make 6023 the magnificent machine it is today.
Karl Buckingham has posted a video from the cab on his facebook page which says it all.

 

Found this video on YouTube of 6023 blasting through Eardington:


Sent from my D6603 using Tapatalk

 

Apologies for the terrible quality, recorded hastily on my phone, but here's 6023 on test run 2 yesterday.

 

Here's test run 3 yesterday. The loco appeared to be working quite easily when she came into view , but was then opened out. if anyone has any doubts about whether 6023 will have a loud bark with the new blast pipe, take a listen to the sound at around 0:42.

 

Full coverage of 6023 on her loaded runs, worth the wait !

 

Four shots from yesterday. A challenging day at the SVR, but well worth the god-awful snow showers on the M5 and M4, leaving my stills camera at Hampton Loade and not realising for 2 hours and the horrendous cold.

It was also the first time I had tested my new tripod and video camera set up, the video will be going live at some point this evening...



Good to see @LMarsh1987 out and about too.

James

 

Leaking a lot of steam at the front end and the whistle sounded pretty asthmatic.

 

My footage from yesterday's runs. Fantastic to see her out and about, stretching her legs. I hope you enjoy!

 

What a bark! Doesn't it sound eager to get going? Just a bit of fettling needed to get her steam-tight. I really hope we can see and hear this loco over the Devon Banks one day, it would be worth the effort to bring her within gauge.

 

Isn't the SVR allowed to operate occasional non-public trains above 25 mph? Has that facility not been used for 6023?

 

What strikes me is how quickly the reduced height fittings have started to look 'right'. I had posted earlier hoping the full height would be restored but having him in the metal as it were the reduced height isnt an issue for me. Being as mainline is off the menu for a while he could still loose the electrification flashes though .

Magnificent achievement to see this loco restored in any case regardless of whether it ever goes mainline again.

 

KR-BY only.