70013 KX - Scarborough 14th April

Bury the cables? Then what do you do when something goes wrong? Spend several hours digging them back up again? Power failures happen, signal failures happen. Nothing will change that. You can minimise how often it occurs, but problems will always happen, no matter how stringent the maintenance. How many times have steam locos failed, even though they now have a thorough FTR exam before every trip, and much more time devoted to maintenance than in steam days?

 

But, Ian, the point is once again a steam hauled railtour has ended up not being 'as advertised' Why bother to buy a product that is almost guaranteed to go wrong?

And in the light of GuyCarr360's posting on the Elizabethan thread and his warning here I shall keep my money firmly in my pocket.

 

Nice shot there at Bempton.
I was just up the line at Buckton and there were a couple of Prats with a video camera on the wrong side of the fence.

 

But you have still not got what you paid for! If you order a new Jaguar but get delivered a Focus because of production delays @ Jaguar's would you be happy. Both will do the same job in the U.K. but you would not have got what you ordered and paid for. Not RTC's fault in this case but the end result is still that the passenger is short changed.

 

Thanks Bryan,sadly there were a few idiots who couldnt be bothered to find a location on the right side of the fence.

 

95% of the fare-paying passengers wouldn't care less what's on the front of the train in this situation. They would care more about getting home at a reasonable time! So the passengers miss out on an almighty 42 miles of steam haulage? So what? This is 2012, not 1952. Putting a diesel on for the entire return journey saves on changing loco's at York & gave the punters a little bit extra time in Scarborough.

We're lucky to have steam traction on the main line period! Just remember, it can all so easily be taken away if Network Rail insists (which we've nearly had, so we can only hope it doesn't get worse).

 

A few points here, where are all the utilities? A. Buried under the road, have to be dug up to repair. As to burying signal cables, they don't have to be "deep" buried, but "shallow" buried or put in trunking or troughing which would make it hard work for potential thieves.
Yes steam locos do fail, the point being is when they do, Network Rail make a big play of it. As has been proven in the past. Yet when their equipment fails, it gets brushed under the carpet & forgotten. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

 

Change the record, if I had £1 everytime someone quotes that, I wouldn't need to do the lottery.

 

Adopt that attitude and you'll hardly ever buy anything. Your choice of course but given that most tours run pretty much as advertised, I won't stop booking rail tours.

 

So you'd rather the train be delayed by up to an hour on departure from Scarborough, miss it's path onto the main line at York, wait for a free 20 minute gap to swap for a diesel (not easy with only a choice of 2 platforms), have a potential slow run down the ECML being ducked in every loop/slow line, and risk getting terminated short due to engineering possessions being taken? Pull the other one.

 

No, however what I do think is that it is up to NR to arrange a (significant) refund to each and every passenger as their equipment failure caused the problem.

 

But if I buy a 52" t.v. that is what I expect to find in the box, not a 21", or if I come into your shop for Cod & Chips I dont expect to leave with a saveloy & chips for the same money!

I think that the statement most tours run as advertised is somewhat optimistic.

I go on main line steam trips for the Steam mileage. other than behind steam (and the odd Deltic) I do not really enjoy rail travel. Given the choice of normal rail travel or flying I would unhesitatingly choose the plane.

 

Does that apply to every passenger for every train that got delayed by the same fault, then? Over 42 hours of delay to the combined number of trains has been caused (both freight & passenger). Is that even worth considering the sheer amount of money that would have to be forked out? Incidently, Network Rail is a Government funded money, so it would only end up coming out of the taxpayer's pockets, so it's immediately pointless. Equipment fails, old or new. It's just unfortunate that it happened at such an inconvenient time for these 2 charters & the weekend holiday traffic.

 

Don't need a refund. Scarborough-York is completely boring IMHO and I for one would much rather be home in time than late just to hear the brit chuffing along........it's hardly the Lickey!

 

Another wasted trip, I wonder if Network Rail will reimburse me for my petrol! :laugh:

 

Not bad though still Stuart.

I was with a mate of yours I believe at Bempton,motorbike fotter,never caught his name but he said you were out on that section.... for some 47 photos!

 

That was Paul, he said he'd bumped into you..........................nice shot by the way. :thumb:

One of these days WCR might clean that oil burner!