Tornado

You’re missing the point. People have ploughed money into seeing a P2 in their lifetime. The total lack of progress is the only reason there’s any cash left at all. What’s left is quite probably down to the legacies of those who sadly didn’t last the distance.

 

I have no skin in the game, so to speak, and I understand why people are disgruntled, but I have little to say on that. I’m an engineer. The P2 project is interesting from that perspective.

Yes, like all charities it’s a very fragile financial existence. They need to be careful when spending money, and they need to be extremely diligent in raising it.

Especially at a time when demand for resources is so high and competition for peoples cash has probably never been higher.

 

Yes as I remember approaching the bottom of Hemerdon Bank.

Shown here by one of our members

 

It is highly plausible that a collision with a bit of vegetation could have had the same result on Tornado's train as happened to Clun's train. What seems less plausible is that it could apply the brake on one coach hard enough to lock the wheels without applying the brakes on the rest of the train enough to cause it to grind to a halt. Did the latter happen? No-one has said.

 

Yeah that’s sort of my take on it.

With 7029 on Hemerdon it was enough to cause a slight vac leak on the train, on each vehicle to introduce some drag and slow the train.

Wheras this seems to have affected only 1 vehicle, as the Belle carried on

 

That it was the support coach, makes me wonder, did someone forget to take the handbrake off ?

 

No matter who, if anyone, left the handbrake on, it's the guard's responsibility and he would have been WCR's personnel presumably.

 

They haven't turned work down, quite the opposite - 8 ADDITIONAL tours since spring amounting to an extra 2000 miles.
Extra mileage increases maintenance liability, so the trust's argument would be that a break down as a result of not following maintenance routine would prevent them earning.
I am not taking any side here, but I do feel that there is a tendency to pile on the trust at the slightest opportunity. At this stage we only have their statement given 10A observing their usual right to silence.

 

I wonder if the A1 trust will now be sent a bill for the repaint as WCRC don't appear to want to use Tornado anymore? The fresh coat of paint was part of the initial operating agreement.

I really feel sorry for the RTC as they have been caught in the middle of the ongoing WCRC situation for some time.

It is stressful enough operating a Rail Tour Company in the current economic climate but the hurdles thrown up by the situation with the WCRC no doubt caused further headaches.
Some of the tension for The RTC was relieved by the welcome announcement of the A1/WCRC operating agreement.
Now it seems The RTC are back to square 1 again with an apparently worse situation regarding the lack of available motive power. The trains scheduled for 60163 were probably also longer formations so what else is left to haul them?
The good folks in the RTC office must be doing this after the latest episode of the ongoing WCRC saga................

 

You can't see it but that's a picture of Mr Smith!

 

Pile on's in all directions. We forget amongst all the tribalisms that we all have a shared joy in seeing steam in action in what we consider to be its 'best' form. WCRC - David Smith in effect - have given us 20+ years of pretty authentic BR steam recreations with vacuum braked locos hauling matching rakes of maroon carriages. The A1 Trust have given us an A1. In recent times its all gone sour with WCRC getting stuck in a dead end arguing with the ORR, the A1 Trust getting in a mess with the recent overhaul. WCRC dont want to be running air braked rakes of Mk2's, the A1 people didnt want (or aren't in a position) to become a Riley style operator.

There needs to be some reassessment on all sides I think - WCRC need a rake of CDL equipped Mk1's to make use of their existing and future steam fleet, A1 Trust need a mainline partner but also manageable expectations of how often the A1 runs.

 

WCRC tried to avoid having to run air braked rakes of MkIIs by challenging ORR. Since that attempt failed they have had plenty of time to explore other options. Two obvious possibilities are to fit CDL to their dual-braked MkIs and, until those are ready and they can stop using the MkIIs, to fit air-braking equipment to one or two more of their locos. The option they appear to be taking is to wait for ORR to back down, which is not likely to happen until after Hell freezes over.

 

Well not quite true…..They’ve fitted 2x MK2 A-C coaches with opening toplights windows with CDL. And sent them to Scotland.

 

A castle doing 70 on the Great Western mainline, or Clan Line going through Guildford is a world different to dawdling across some bit of the west country at 15mph. To me, surely part of the whole "I paid £300 to ride this" main line outing is, hearing and smelling the machine doing the work. Aircon and sealed up coaching stock takes away all of that.
In which case there are cheaper ways of seeing the S&C. Better lunches to be had. More reliable ways of enjoying a day out. Easier ways of seeing a steam locomotive- and hearing and experiencing it.
I don't understand the necessity for door locking- one would have thought anyone who could muster the funds for a steam rail tour probably has sufficient intelligence and impulse control to not open a door and enter the Darwin statistics- but if it is a legal requirement, maybe just get on with it? Its not quite as drastic as sawing the top off a King, is it

 

These figures keep on being quoted, can someone please give me a link as I don’t recall seeing them anywhere in my correspondence from the Trust? TIA

 

See #9755 above, which said it was quoting the A1 Trust, and appears to be the source of the 8 additional tours / 2000 additional miles figure:

“Since our return to the main line in the Spring we have enjoyed operating a variety of tours, many helping to cover for the current shortage of available steam locomotives. Indeed, we have run an additional eight railtours, covering over 2,000 miles, to assist the Railway Touring Company (RTC) and West Coast Railways (WCR), in addition to already planned tours.”
​

Tom

 

They were being fitted when Riviera owned the MK2s before the sold them to WCRC, not something WCRC thought about doing....that's likely why no more have been done

 

I wonder what already planned tours have actually happened though.

 

Those are the three Mk. 2F TSOs (air-cons) fitted with sliding windows by Riviera. WCR has a small fleet of air-braked pressure-ventilated Mk. 2, of which a handful were fitted with CDL in the 90s. Another (5229) has been fitted this year. Then there's another small fleet of vac-braked pressure-ventilated Mk. 2s (formerly of the Green Train / the Southall-based Steam Dreams set), which don't have CDL fitted.

 

You mean the ones that were in WCR ownership before yeah? 5229 being one of them.