Non - Stop BRISTOLIAN 17/4/2010!

Any updates? Still 20 early or back to time?
Standing in the gallery near Hatton awaiting the thrash.

 

Back on time from Oxford

 

5 early through Hatton, video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9CETNgz2nk in low quality at the moment though...

Didn't get yesterday's return run because as she roared through Didcot, I was in the station... just in the completly wrong place to get any decent shots, but she flew through like anything! Look forward to reading steam railway in a few weeks...

 

Are you saying that a non-stop Bristolian run behind a GWR Castle is a run of the mill excursion?!!!

What do we have to do to impress some people!

 

Got a few shots just north of Banbury. Sounded fantastic as she passed!
http://rickeborallphotography.fotopic.net/
All the best..RICK

 

Here's today's video from Slough and Kidlington, lots of noise and whistles :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vvzhBUspEs

 

Back home after an enjoyable day out. The noise as she climbed Hatton Bank was pretty awesome, certainly made the level meters dance on my sound recorder.

 

Lovely photos, nice contrasts too between the colours sunlit and not sunlit. Thanks!

 

We came down to 41 just before the station which was passed at 49.5 mph. Back to 75 mph just beyond Twyford. Brakes didn't come on then until about MP 3.

 

A couple of shots at Winey Manor on the return to Tyseley running about 15-20 up.I think it caught a few out as photters were arriving as I departed.Like Rick lighting a problem,sun,shade and then sun again.

http://michaelsgallery.fpic.co.uk/c1838068.html

 

Looking at the vids it looks like it was awesome,a simply great achievement.

One question,will this CCT(?) be used as a water carrier again in the future,as not only does it look fantastic it also serves a good purpose!

 

What can I say? That was one amazing weekend from start to finish.
Many thanks for all your kind comments about all those who made it happen, and once again seeing the linesiders efforts are very pleasing.......although I must admit that our sense of humour got the better of us on seeing the severe lack of photters once we got beyond Swindon on the Up train.
Those of you who now and again toy with the idea of volunteering either for a mainline group or your local preserved line then do it. Because every once in a while you will be part of something extra special, like yesterdays Up Bristolian.
No one seems to have commented on the strange reporting number we had up on the run back to Tyseley this afternoon....149.....well we are entitled to blow our own trumpet now and again!!!!!!
Yesterday was one of those special days when the close cooperation of all those involved plus excellent weather and seeing the looks on the passengers faces as they got off the train at Paddington, will make it live long in my memory.
Any way I know it's not quite 1.49 yet but I'm off to bed to catch up on my sleep.

 

Photters were there, but you were going so fast you wouldn't have seen them!
Pictures from yesterday and today, when Sod's Law of Railway Photography was invoked by cloud.

Yesterday, White Waltham (just west of Maidenhead)and Lower Basildon (site of Goring troughs)



Just lucky with the westbound HST!

Today, King's Sutton and the footbridge at Hatton Locks



B.

 

We must have been stood next to each other at Hatton, I was the one with the golden Labrador.

 

Knowing absolutely nothing about BR(W) reporting numbers, I simply assumed it was the reporting number for a London - Birmingham job. Top marks the the footplate crew today, the climb of Hatton was brilliant. The gallery on the footbridge at Hatton Locks was showered with cinders - great fun.

 

No wonder you're pleased, that's a lovely shot. :thumb:

 

So, here we go, all 3 days in one video, plus a few still shots and some music :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wn9qzvshdJg

 

I think the early running caught most people out, I personally allow plenty of time-usually half hour before- but some people leave it to around 5-10 minutes before the scheduled time.

 

My intention on Saturday was to see the up Bristolian at Twyford. It was suggested on this forum that it would probably be going through the up slow line but that was fine by me.

I was at Alton at around 5.30pm to drive to Twyford and it was only because I thought Twyford was on the Swindon side of Reading (due to pass at 6.45pm), that I got to Twyford so early expecting it to pass at around 6.35pm when I was later to learn it was due through at 6.50pm!

I plonked myself on the middle platform at around 6.20pm and chatted to a chap with a tripod who was positioned on the down relief platform about the down trip which he posted on You Tube earlier when in the distance towards, I later learned was Sonning cutting. I saw a train approaching with a haze of the train but thought it was probably an HST. Only to realise, almost too late, that it was 5043!! I only just managed to film it roar through the station. Brilliant. I had shouted across to the chap with the tripod to say "Here She Comes" but he didn't believe me and when he realised it was , he simply had no time atall to react.

Dozens of people turned up after that, simply not believing that the train had already gone through almost 30 minutes early.

As some compensation, I showed many of those that missed it, the footage that I managed to get but it only made them feel worse because there is no substitute for the real thing. You can't smell the smoke, oil and steam on a camcorder!!!

I would love to think that this could be repeated again perhaps with the focus on achieving a high speed non-stop run on the down line. But I think that is unlikely. So let's savour the moment. It was historic in preservation and the GWR network has seen nothing like it since the high speed May 9th 1964 special with 4079, 6999, 7025, 7029 and 5054.