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

Carlisle update

The 37 and 47 have swooped round, 37 inside 5043 comes off at carnforh, 47 on back till tyseley seems to be the plan.

5043 just a showpony again I'm afraid.

 

That's codswallop ABD, network rail can see the weather forecast the same as us, hoping for none forecast rain on Friday is a very foolish way of running an organisation like network rail.

It's easy for some to take NR's side when its not their huge amount of money wasted on a class 47 tour.

 

Hi David,

I feel your pain, and obviously your an unhappy passenger on this tour.

However it's ok.. I just checked national rail..
National Rail Enquiries - Journey Planner - Trains Times and Fares
There is a 16.07 gets to Birmingham at 18.55 if you want to leave the 47 railtour, obviously this service train could be delayed by the railtour your on.

It's known that some senior people from WCRC and VT are on board the train and also reading your posts, why don't you go look for them and make your points known directly to the main men, what better opportunity do you have to play for a refund ?

As I said before, diesels in hot weather are a safe measure, after all on your descent of Shap, why not look out of the left side window and see for yourself why that is.
Think on the bright side, in Germany there wouldn't be a steam locomotive in steam, let alone 2 passing on shap, with or without a diesel.

 

Are you suggesting that the tour operators / NR take the conservative step of not running any steam whenever there is a possibility of a fire risk situation? Or perhaps this could be left to those choosing to book tours over the summer months? If fire risk is something you're concerned about, it may be wise not too book on any tour from March through to October. Similarly, you may also wish to avoid booking tours between November and March in case heavy snowfall causes major disruption to your tour. I'd suggest that if you want to travel, you're going to have to pay your money and take a chance. Unfortunately, on this occasion, luck hasn't been on the side of the paying punter and I do really feel for them, but sometimes in life, s*** happens!

It's worth remembering that 46233 ran over the same route on Saturday without (as far as I'm aware) causing any fires and with no diesel assistance. In such circumstances, how on earth are NR supposed to predict which steam locos will cause fires and which won't? You could enquire whether there was a fault with 5043's spark arresting equipment as that may give you grounds to claim money back if you could demonstrate that VT/WCRC were negligent in their maintenance / inspection of this equipment. Not sure how you'd get on with that. I'm not aware of 5043 having a track record of causing fires, so if there is no fault found, perhaps it was just bad luck that a bad round of coal went on at the wrong time, or whatever? Unless an obvious fault was found that was later rectified, I can't see how NR have any option but to insist on measures to minimise further possible incidents as they have a responsibility to all the other operators on the Network. Otherwise, it seems to me that what you're asking for is no late spring and summer steam workings when there may be a fire risk possibility. I'm also pretty sure that a Castle to Scotland tour would not be anywhere near as appealing in the winter months when much of the journey is in darkness, so it probably rules out many of the longer tours that have successfully taken place.

 

If its true that senior people are present, why dont they strap a pair on, and try and explain the situation to all passengers, instead of hiding and hoping the situation will end after the tour terminates. If that means dropping NR in it, do it, its about time people stopped treading on eggshells with this crowd.

They would be more thought of if they did this, rather than be fed a diet of mis-information that david mentions.

 

A couple of photos from the past few days. Really do hope the tour can be repeated with better fortunes! :


The Caledonian - Castle Takes On Shap by JonathonAG, on Flickr


The Caledonian - Earl Of Waverley by JonathonAG, on Flickr


The Caledonian - Castle In Lumphinnans by JonathonAG, on Flickr


The Caledonian - Swindon Forth by JonathonAG, on Flickr


The Caledonian - Float Viaduct by JonathonAG, on Flickr

 

Ah, yes your majesty. I accept the title of "KEYBOARD WARRIOR" and I am indebted to you King Stephen for bestowing it to me; a humble, shy and reserved person of the realm.

At no time have I ever claimed to have been on the tour and although Ben at Vintage Trains offered a refund, even if I had been travelling, I would not have applied for one. I never have and never will. I am pragmatic enough to know that things do go wrong but on this occasion not only do things seem to have gone wrong but badly wrong. What is more, passengers are "locked" in for a few days.

Based on further information coming out today, on the last day of the tour, and from all of the postings made, I repeat and I am very sad to do so, that this will rank as the worse trip of the year.

Even you, your majesty must agree with that sentiment.

I humbly request that you reply to this submission.

 

The situation was explained to us all on Friday after departure from Crewe......
whilst I would expect nobody is very happy wiTh the outcome of this tour, there seems to be a lot of moaners that just smile sweetly and don't say anything to anybody from vt!! Peraphs it's them that could do with strapping one on as you say... Nobody seems to be hiding, unless people have the balls to speak up how can they sort it!
I guess that just like yourself who is obviously a poo stirrer, people will be writing letter after letter to vt next week!!

 

I really feel for the people on this trip. I have suffered the disappointment of diesel haulage in hot weather a few times, the most frustrating run being the one where 30777 was shoved around all day by a Class 37 even when the formation was running downhill.
It must have been very frustrating to hear about 46233 running without assistance and not causing fires. I find this aspect interesting. From videos I have seen on YT it appears that 46233 was not worked very hard on up hill stretches such as Shap but in other places she was being driven hard.

I then thought about this night time video of 5043:Earl of Mount Edgcumbe thunders through Hatton - YouTube
If 5043 was shooting sparks like this from her exhaust I am not surprised there were some line side fires.

 

At least Angela Merkel has the common decency to buy Europe and not just take it.

Well sort of!

SG

 

You're obviously an expert on spark arrestors green five, whatever the reasons for the sparks in this video it was one of the earls very first runs after rebuild,it was in the middle of winter and it has surely been improved since then or else it would not be allowed to run at all!!
No spark arrestor in the world will ever stop everything coming out, that's why engines have been oil fired overseas. One major difference between the duchess and edgcumbe is surely the blast from the chimney, which undoubtedly draws far more sparks through from the fire.
A4's seem to be quite sparky as well..... Didn't a certain one start several fires earlier in the week which obviously started NR getting twitchy??

 

I have been watching over the last weekend the proceeding with interest and feel that my decision not to travel on either of the two northwest steam jobs has been vindicated.
Weather does happen,but certain engines do have a tendency to throw more than others,even with arrestors fitted.
The customer,ie the traveller on each of the trains,has in my opinion been short changed but I do not think that what has happened will change the view of certain parties involved in the running of these trips.
I am afraid that in my opinion its part of the Rip off Britain tag that you hear from time to time.
They wont be able to do this to many more times because the market will start to shrink.Then they,the certain parties, will start crying foul.So be it.

 

I am not an expert Argus and don't claim to be I just wanted to see what others thought about that video.
You have made some good points there. I have seen another recent video of 5043 at night and she was doing pretty much the same thing with the same amount of sparks. And yes, you are right about a certain A4being quite sparky! I am on a run with the A4 next week and I am praying for plenty of rain before the 7th June......

 

Quite the expert with your 15 postings then????

What you have to think about is that a great majority of people on this "tour", are not getting what was sold to them, yet again.

Many people now keep their £££ in their pockets due to the persistent late changes to tours.

Would the tour have ran if the situation that was explained on friday, if it was explained to everybody 2 weeks ago???

Doubt it, loads would have cancelled, making it uneconomical to run, but after the participants set off, they had parted with their dough, and were royally dumped on.

Somebody somewhere needs to take a stance with NR, as mentioned earlier im sure GB at Steam Dreams would not have put up with this.

David is a highly respected poster on here, i prefer his view of events to yours as well.

 

Actually, reading the subsequent posts, I think Argus's "poo stirrer" is a more suitable title, so I hereby cancel the bestowal of keyboard warrior and appoint you common poo stirrer. (Copyright Argus)

 

Video footage of days 1&2:
[video=youtube;yRKenH616F8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRKenH616F8[/video]

 

The train (with 37516 inside and working) passing Norton Crossing near Daresbury:

5043 and 37516 on the Castle to Scotland - 28/05/2012 - YouTube

Chris