Flying Scotsman

I’m a tad confused here. AFAIK, 60103 is an air braked loco but can create vacuum. If it couldn’t it wouldn’t be much use on most heritage railways which only have vacuum fitted stock. It certainly couldn’t do anything on its forthcoming visit to the NYMR. As such it must be fitted with an air/vac proportional valve. Based on this supposition there should be no need for a diesel to act as a brake translator loco. If the train is air braked it just runs on air. If the train is vac braked it requires both vac and air operational but that is possible with the existing set up. It was certainly the case when it was at the NYMR a few years ago.
A diesel certainly can’t act as a brake translator if it is at the rear of the train.

 

All I can add is that that the time of working with a "translator" loco 60103 was air-brake only as its vacuum brake hadn't been fitted. Interestingly on SVR visits any air-brake only diesel loco is paired with a "translator" locomotive to allow its working with vacuum- brake stock for - presumably - the same technical reason. In all cases the "translator" loco is always next to / immediately behind the train engine.

 

For a while, after 60163 had been converted to air braking of the loco and tender themselves, its erstwhile Chief Engineer refused to fit a vacuum brake ejector, because he did not want the loco to operate on preserved railways. At the time not many preserved railways had dual braked or air braked stock.
The vacuum ejector etc was eventually fitted.

 

I think when Marchington owned it the vacuum ejector was dispensed with. I assume that a second loco with a proportional vac air brake such as 5407 could be used to brake a vac only train but I’m not sure.

 

IIRC and IIRC it was discussed to death on here at the time, those initial runs with 45407 and then then class 31 were due to the air pump on 60103 being found to be faulty immediately prior to the lunch event thus I assume both were just acting as a rather large air pump whilst Scotsman’s was sorted, whilst also ensuring that she met her launch commitments and dates.

 

!!

 

Auto correct has a mind of its own again!

 

As well it didn’t go all the way to lascivious!

Tom

 

Eastern Rail Services have made their own post about the upcoming Flying Scotsman trip. If this post is anything to go by they are heavily hinting at more Steam Hauled trips to follow in 2026. Likely more trips for Flying Scotsman, hopefully Tornado can get in on that action too.

 

That first weekend the A3 ran on the ELR the NRM overhauled air pump didn’t work. The second loco was there to supply air to both Scotsman and the train so was just a big compressor on rails. When running the loco round drivers had just enough air to release the brakes, use the straight air brake a couple of times and then wait for the second engine to recouple otherwise low main res protection would kick in.
A working spare pump was sourced and then fitted during the following week.

 

For a start, you paint a very rose-tinted view of the way the National Collection was assembled in the '50s/60s. Yes, we were very lucky to have a truly dedicated man like John Scholes to assemble the collection of 'historical relics', as it was then called. But he often had to work in the face of indifference, or even outright hostility, from other people within BR. Many 'preserved' engines were being pushed from pillar to post, moved between various BR sheds where conditions were far from suitable for their long-term conservation. They were in BR's way and there was a real danger that somebody would lose patience and send out an edict from them all to be scrapped. Some of them, in fact, were--witness Ben Alder or the Wisbech tramway coach. By contrast, today's NRM has a very constructive working relationship with the rail industry--witness the collaboration on the Rail 200 'Innovation' train for example.

You draw a comparison with the National Gallery. The problem here is that the ignorant civil servant in Whitehall will look at the balance sheet and say, "OK, art gallery...that's fine, art is a 'mainstream' interest. But why are we funding TWO national railway museums?! [I.e. York and Shildon.] Surely these will only be of interest to a handful of trainspotters?"

Yes, it's sad, and I wish it weren't so. You and I know how important railways were to our history, because we're enthusiasts. But the reality is that there is still a lot of ignorance and prejudice towards railway enthusiasm, and that means we still have a credibility challenge. If you'd been on Twitter a few years ago you would have seen the really nasty rubbish being spouted by the anti-HS2 lobby...their stock response to anyone with any knowledge of railways trying to call out their fallacies was to label them a 'trainspotter', and thereby shut down the debate. It's appalling, but this is the reality of what we're up against.

Given this prejudice--coupled with the wider economic climate, in which ALL museums and galleries are fighting for survival--can you not see how incredibly ungrateful it looks for the enthusiast community to endlessly 'bash' the NRM? We still have two publicly-funded national railway museums, and probably the finest national collection of railway artefacts of any nation in the world. Maybe that's something to be thankful for? But no...all anyone can do is grumble because Flying Scotsman wasn't in a particular place on a particular weekend. I don't think you even realise how out of touch you are with the real world.

One final point. Even the National Gallery isn't allowed to just hang its paintings on the wall and hope that some art lovers might wander in to look at them. They're expected to run education programmes, events, etc., to show that they are attracting a wide range of people, fulfilling a social purpose and delivering value for money. The NRM is no different in that respect.

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In fact...one more point regarding museum audiences. It simply isn't true to say that "70-80% of the population aren't interested in railways and therefore don't visit the NRM". If you'd actually spent any time in the NRM lately, you would have realised straight away that 90% or more of the NRM's visitors are not enthusiasts. Most of them are either tourists looking for something to do whilst they're in York, or families trying to keep their kids entertained. And I'm sure the vast majority of museums could tell a similar story. I once worked in a natural history museum...most of the adults who came through the door weren't the slightest bit interested in natural history; they just had a toddler who loved dinosaurs. So, to everyone who complains that the NRM has too many cafes and play areas...does it make sense now?

 

Of course it does. But that won't make it any more popular with enthusiasts.