VT - 5043 to Edinburgh - 26/27/28 May

Whilst I was viewing from east side of line, what appeared to be a lineside fire at Shap Wells started just after the Castle had passed.

 

Oh dear....................... Its not as though its the most easily accessible place for fire crew either.

 

47760 now sitting behind 5043 in the train, so now running as Castle - 47 - Tour Stock

 

For goodness sake, if you factored in locos stalling or failing, you'd never have a loco work a tour on its own. VT, quite wisely IMHO, don't exactly overload their locos.

 

Footage of the Earl at Scout Green and Shap Wells and the banking fire after the Earl past.

[video=youtube;i0FzHksKemo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0FzHksKemo[/video]

Hope you enjoy.

 

Just proves my stance of avoiding main line steam is correct. Until such times as you stand a better than 50/50 chance of the route you booked, on the date you booked, with the loco you booked for, running to timings roughly what you booked and until NR behave in general in somewhere near a competent and professional way and until anyone even appears to give a damn about the passengers who have paid their money in good faith, I shall stay well clear of the main line and attend preserved lines galas & photo charters instead.

 

3 pictures each of the Castle & The Duchess taken at Bilsborrow this morning


from here - Mainline Steam & Notable Workings - 2012 - DSC 12578 - Steaming Around the North

enjoy

John

 

Beattock was rubbish. Hoping for down the Clyde Valley is much better.

 

Just an update on events today in the Carlisle area. As previously posted, one of the timber trains failed near Carlisle which stopped all traffic on the wcml. 5043 was held at Penrith whilst 46233 likewise at Carlisle. Once the lines were cleared, there was a procession of late running Virgin/TP trains - more or less running behind one another (especially on the up) on yellows. 5043 & 46233 passed each other at Barrow Mill between Carlisle and Penrith at 1530. I saw it about 500 yards away but unfortunately couldn't capture it. Some photographers did get it though. Class 47 was on the rear of the VT train but was behind 5043 on leaving Carlisle, which was approx 45 minutes earlier than shown on UK steam.

 

I really do wish to apologise in advance of repeating my earlier posting but this really is turning out to be the worse tour of the year. Nothing down to the magnificent 5043 but all of the other ingredients that have made this a tour to FORGET. I for one would be asking for a handsome refund of some kind.

Lastly, I have been forced by my other half to listen to the European Song Contest and as I type this the passengers will be sitting in Abington loop and bored to tears waiting for the road.

Engleburt Humperdink was useless just like those who have contrived to ruin this tour.

The Russian Grannies were great by the way!!!

Long live steam!

 

A photo of 5043 crossing the border at Gretna.

Earl of Mount Edgcumbe crossing the border | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

 

You don't have to be Einstein to work it out, with the events on the CE this week & the current weather (is it hot up North as well?), it doesn't take much working out. Can't believe we were all talking about floods a couple of weeks ago, aka WSR.
How ironic a conked out modern traction goods train held up two steam excursions amongst others. What was it, another class 70 decided to self ignite?

 

An alternative view from Shap Wells:

5043 on the Castle to Scotland - 26/05/2012 - YouTube

Chris

 

Looking at another video on that link, I see "the thing" was shoving for all it's might leaving Penrith Station. I thought it was only there for Beattock? It was still at the back at that point.

 

I think you have a very simplistic view of how the railway works.

 

Do you know better?

 

I'm typing this on my phone in a Edinburgh hotel room so please excuse any typos.

What a crock of s**t so far!, I seem to recall booking on a steam tour with very sociable hours some months ago, not a class 47 hauled marathon!.

I'm not interested in the NR apologuists reasons, network rail shifted the goalposts with regards to timings and fire risk far too late for VT and WCRC to react to the situation, had I known of the fate to befall this trip in advance, I would of cancelled my booking, £300 is a huge amount of money to me, add another £200 for hotels, food and drinks cost, for that amount of money I expect to get what Ive paid for, are network rail going to refund me my £300 ?, I very much think not, my current feeling is I've been cheated out of hundreds of pounds by various network rail imcompetencies, if I knew in advance what a farce it would be, id of never made the trip, but network rail left it far too late in the day for anyone to change their plans, network rail can go swivel as far as im concerned, I'm tempted to take the issue up with VT post tour as this is nothing like what I booked, even.though VT and WCRC has been screwed over as much as us.

Is like to think things can only get better for the fife circle tomorrow, but on this basis I highly doubt it, abington loop bored me to tears as we were held to time despite the last northbound train having passed 20 mins ago

Rant over.

 

I know some on the train tried to claim the 47 was in notch 1 between carnforth and carlisle, my gps bouncing around in the low 50s over shap summit says otherwise....

 

Well enjoyed my day photographing the duchess and the castle around shap, pitty the castle managed to set most of cumbria alight, still the firebrigade provided some thing to watch while waiting for the delayed duchess. I dont think the fires caused too much delay to the service trains compared to the failed log train, but I guess if i had booked on the castle tour i wouldnt be too happy.