35028 Clan Line

At 7:25 is that a 5BEL coach in the background?

 

Yes there is, it’s the one owned by Belmond and has been under slow restoration for a long time.

 

From MNLPS:
All set and ready to go! We look forward to our 1st outing of 2025 with British Pullman on tomorrow's Golden Age Of Travel tour around Kent, running from Victoria to Dover and back.

 

The excellent video below has recently appeared on YouTube. It covers the superb Woking Centenary events of 1995 which involved 35028 hauling several special excursions including a commuter service to London and a schools outing to Salisbury. Also featured is M7 30053 hauling specials to Aldershot. Towards the end of the video there is a wonderful night time shot of 35028 on the Main Line overtaking 30053 hauling a train on the slow line. Brilliant.



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Wow..... if only we could so that sort of thing these days. Forward thinking and great fun for everyone.

It seems that the majority of todays mainline steam operations' are aimed at the well to do winey diney folks. That's why I have given up with them.

 

Woah whats going on there, is that some sort of conjugated brake link?! Did not notice these had that before! Very neat! Does this mean each driver has 2x brake shoes?

 

Yes. All the Bulleid pacifics had brakes like that (i.e. the MNs and the WC/BBs).



Not my photo - source: https://locoyard.com/2013/05/10/340...d-pacific-34051-sir-winston-churchill-speedo/

Tom

 

I can see one downside to that arrangement. There's no individual adjustment. Look how worn the shoe to the right is compared to the other of the pair and how much further it is away from the tyre. Why is it worn unevenly?

 

That is true of Clan Line's trips, the majority of which are with the Pullmans, but most railtours offer a choice of classes.

 

The one on the left is new!

 

They wear like that because of how they move.

Looking at the photo I provided - the loco is facing towards the left, so the lower brake shoes are behind the wheels and the upper brake shoe is in front. When you apply the brakes, the brake rigging moves leftwards and apply the lower (rear) brake shoes. Once the lower brake shoes can move forward no more, any further pull on the brake rigging then pulls the upper brake shoes against the wheel rims. So by adjustment, the lower brake shoes are adjusted conventionally to sit close to the rim when not applied, but the upper shoe is by design well away from the rim when not applied.

(Bear in mind as well the photo I provided is of a loco that is not operational, and is effectively in "as withdrawn by BR condition" mechanically).

Tom

 

The first train of the 2025 Belmond season passing Brixton this morning in less than favourable weather

 

Pretty favourable weather compared to Dorset.

 

At least it wasn't raining, just dull and flat light.

 

Great to see the loco back out after a short break. Seen at Ravensbourne where it was signal checked, and making a sensational climb of Hildenborough bank. Load 13 and wet conditions, but you wouldn't have known!

 

The brake gear is fully compensating. There is no need to adjust any individually. Gravity unfortunately has some effect which means that, in the off position, not all the shoes are pulled clear of the wheel so there is often some slight rubbing of some shoes which leads to unequal shoe wear. That's not unique to these locos, though, and has always been a problem with brake blocks. An advantage of fully compensating gear is that you can simply replace shoes as they wear, you don't have to replace them all. The other advantage of this design of brake rigging is that, when the brake is applied, the shoes provide an equal and opposite force on the wheel so this is not taken by the axleboxes, saving on wear.

 

I was in charge of the planning for this event on behalf of the B.R. Special Trains Unit. It was indeed a memorable three days of operations, and went off pretty well perfectly, thanks to the input of the many people involved. The planning included exactly where Clan Line was to pass 30053 on the Sunday evening, so the presence of the cameraman at Hersham was not just a 'fortunate co-incidence'! Also pre-planned was the photo opportunity of the two locos side by side at the buffer stops at Waterloo, which did not feature in the video. A week later the Special Trains Unit ceased to exist, and charter trains became the province of private operators. So it could reasonably be said that we were all 'demob happy' and 'playing trains' on the big railway, but I couldn't possibly comment! Safe to say that anything similar most certainly will never happen again.

 

That thrash was even better than you thought, I’ve just seen some video taken at Tonbridge where it was signal checked so that performance was from a standing start! The crew was Jim Clarke, Paul Major and TI Jim’s Dad Don Clarke. Both the first two are drivers so I don’t know who was doing what on the footplate.

 

Thanks for sharing that.
It's great to read about the planning of what was a memorable weekend of Main Line steam in my local area. Certainly a much more interesting period for steam on the national network. I found some details on Six Bells junction about the two evening excursions to London. It says that there were no tickets allocated and that the lucky passengers of these un-publicised trains were simply invited to give a donation to charity to travel.
There is also a picture of the two locos at Waterloo:

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Watching the signalling maps we knew it would be an impressive climb. Jim was on the shovel at Ravensbourne with his Dad Don in the fireman's chair, so Paul was driving, assuming they didn't change roles at Dover of course.