Cathedrals Express 6233 to Bristol 7th October

Because Waterloo has no calling on signals which would allow a diesel to come down onto the rear of the train when it comes in to take the train out of the station and on to whatever depot.

I think.....I may have dreamt that. But I'm reasonably sure I saw someone mention it on Nat Pres before.

 

A bit of a wheel slip coming off the Portsmouth line at Eastleigh earlier today. Pity the 925 Cheltenham move

did'nt coincideat 12ish. Off down to Guildford station later reported through Romsey on time.

Mike M. (70c )

 

I had hoped to get to Bath to photograph the train on the move back to London, but traffic in Bristol was heavy, I ended up at Temple Meads, at the less photogenic end just as the rain started once again.

http://michael527.fotopic.net/c1904659_1.html

 

still a few minutes late at Westbury, but the 37 doing no work at all, and 60019 going like a er............. train

 

But on time at Westbury this morning

 

Through West Byfleet 20 mins down at 22.42 - 37 pushing furiously

 

and through surbiton, not sounding like it was working very hard. Valves were feathering as she went by with the 37 still giving it some at the back. Heard the valves lift proper as she approached Berrylands.

 

With the weight of an additional tender and 13 coaches in tow, I'm sure that the loco would have been overloaded.
The long and steep incline at Upton Scudamore would have proved a potential problem for the operators. <BJ>

 

its what the Westbury banker would have done in the Good Old (?) days, though they usually started pushing from standstill from the station at Westbury

So seems to have been, apart from the motive power, an authentic re-creation ..........................

 

Was the second tender really required for this tour, there were plenty of water stops?

Mike M. (70c)

 

2010 was going to be my year of a big return to main line steam hauled trips. But the year just keeps going downhill as far as I am concerned, and I have totally abandoned any thought of main line trips at present. I would have detested being on that train with a myriad of checks and the box pushing every so often. It doesn't seem far off now from a German Tour company in the first part of this century. Lovely three cylinder pacific at the front. 15 to 16 coaches. And a diesel shunting loco to push the whole lot round all day at 50 mph!

Just got to hope that when 34046 and 34067 get going again some normality returns. Along with the occasional run behind 35028, 70000 and 70013.

And before the normal nasty and aggressive Nat Pres responses start, (not from you Big Al I know), this is just how such runs affect my own personal plans. And I know full well I am in a tiny minority whose wishes just cannot be catered for under current circumstances. And I have to accept that.

I'm going to start getting runs behind as many types of ex SR locos as I can on Heritage railways, (box free trains!), and also try and get photos of all the surviving classes of ex SR locos I photographed in 1960-1962. To go as footnotes to a web site I am building with those old photos. 1960-1962 SR steam photos

Yes, that's right. I'm going to choose which part of the past I want to live in!

 

the impression of the climb of westbury bank at upton scudamore was that bittern was having a job to keep up with the class 37,it was pushing that hard,i overheard some comments like did the 37 have to work quite that hard or was that a steam hauled train!!assistance was necessary because of the damp weather conditions but i felt every one would have loved to have seen the A4 be allowed to have done a little more work,i wonder how the train passengers felt because i'm sure this very fulltrain the were there for the 'duchess' not the A4.everyone i met all day wre feeling devasted about it not being the 'duchess'some i think feeling cheated.but in the end it was 'steam' and that's what matters.i should say the climb out of salisbury up to tinkerpit was very nice indeed,with the 37 just 'ticking' over.but to go back to the climb of westbury bank i mention once again 35028's climb of this bank back last winter in absolute terrible weather conditions,pouring rain,and strong head wind,although pitch dark,35028 made a superb climb,13coaches+class 67 diesel(DEAD]this must surely be the bench mark for climbing this bank in such conditions,i still wish my sound recorder hadn't let me down on this night.there just three or four there to witness this scene.i had just hoped the A4 might have repeated some of this.

 

It is a shame that the insistance on using diesels is somewhat killing the atmosphere of steam on the mainline

 

this man speaks sense,

come on lads, so what if there is a 'box' on the back, we are bloody lucky to still have mainline steam running on todays network, all be it it hasn't been a fantastic year with a few locos going down with failures and the hot weather we had, but come on they are still on the front and Bittern was working pretty hard it barrelled past us yesterday. so come on just stop this whole anti box thing, its wearing a bit thin.

cheers
Matt

 

I must admit, when I was standing on Bath Spa platform and Clan Line rolled in with VSOE on the back, all the light up in the dark, I didn't care that there was something on the back (infact, I can't even remember if there was) nor did the other people waiting for the next commoners train to Portsmouth, who were in awe of this beast! It makes me smile seeing the faces of normal people when something like that comes in, something quite magical happens and everyone looks and smiles! What was even better was I didn't realise it was coming in either, I was just on the way home from shopping in town!

Steam + Diesel or no Steam at all, I know what I'd pick too!

 

Well of course that's true but you were simply watching the steam train go by and not riding behind it.
The thought of being in coach 13 with a bloody diesel pushing like mad behind does nothing for me at all. <BJ>

 

I was just about to say exactly the same thing.