The Cheltenham Flyer

Lets not carried away with the myth that everything the GWR did was wonderful. That was an ugly headboard then and it still is.

 

I've corrected your post for you.

Please take this in the spirit it is intended.

 

What a day! Superb! Many thanks to all involved for pulling this wonderful feat off.

The three of us headed up to London early to capture 5043 coming into Paddington. But as we walked up the steps from the Underground there she was swamped in admirers at the buffer stops. Walking onto the platform it was clear something special had just happened as there were beaming, smiling faces everywhere and much excited chatter about speeds achieved. Driver Churchill and other footplate crew triumphantly posed for pictures in front of the beautifully turned out 5043. The buffers were a great touch. While we were taking pictures I heard a woman from another train say "Ooohhh a steam train! It looks like the Harry Potter one". Not quite I thought but magic had been involved.
After an enjoyable walk along the Grand Union Canal we returned early to Paddington for 5043's return. Once she had arrived we found our seats and settled in for what we hoped would be something special. A slow start prompted the guy sat with us and a steward to say "Don't worry, there will be fireworks soon!" They were not wrong. It was fantastic to listen to 5043 accelerating out of London. We also sat and watched the speed on my GPS rise and rise to a max of 78.4mph. Slowing for Reading caused the powerful recovery through the centre road as 5043 thundered through. Lively running followed to Didcot where we crawled through to allow an HST to pass. Then 5043 was on it's tail, roaring along the line to Swindon. The excitement continued with a great ascent of Sapperton although I lost the signal for my GPS which said 45mph about half way up. The run was finshed off with a sprint along the section into Gloucester and a crawl into the platform to make sure we didn't stop. Brilliant. There was a fantastic atmosphere on the train especially when we were wondering whether we were going to stop or not! There were cheers when we started accelerating again from walking pace.

 

The headboard shows the attitude of the GWR in the 30's to me, never one to pass up any publicity and positive PR, be it a headboard proudly proclaiming worlds fastest train or making west country destinations sound and look like lovely exotic places you have to jet thousands of miles for now (think of all those posters of places like Paignton & St Ives that the GWR made look stunning).

 

We are all entitled to our own opinion, however it truly is a product of the art-deco period.

I hope the person we call tomorrow to say they have won the headboard is a little more enthusiastic about it!

 

my video at sapperton in the morning and afternoon

 

For those that are interested, but Steam and Heritage Railway mags were on board on the day in both directions (we even sat them together...evil aren't we!) so I am sure there will be a full report in both.

SR is out first with a bit of a behind-the-scenes peek, but we spent a lot of time talking to both. Looking forward to hearing the various perspectives.

Can't wait to see Mr Notley's analysis also.

I'm not going to harp on about this too much, but to the detractors and nay-sayers, did we not do what we set out to do? This was just one of approx 30 tours and Shakespeare Express trains we are going to run this year. We put 100% into every one. When something doesn't go to plan, it is not through lack of passion for what we do. The majority of VT staff volunteer their time to run these tours and experience the highs and lows like everyone else.

Working on the program for late 2013 and early 2014 at the moment.......details soon.

 

All I can say is 'wow'. I was a bit peeved when I saw the timings but quietly confident the was something in the bag. Once we started making time that was it, we was off! Would have been nice to have had an earlier path to Tyseley from Gloucester... it was a long 130 mins! Super day out and well done to all. It was a priveledge to be aboard!!!
Steve

 

Ben, Vintage Trains aided by NR and FGW did a brilliant job yesterday and hope the local press in Gloucester, Cheltenham etc cover it as it deserves recognition and would be good of course for business. If you haven't done so you might want to issue a press release.

 

A small selection of photos taken at Gloucester and Paddington can be found at http://paulsimpson.zenfolio.com/p1035192637

 

Thanks for that Bifur01 had a look on RTT and found a duplicate entry!!
Never mind....everyday's a school day!!

 

A glance at the 1953 Western Region timetable shows almost all down express between Paddington and Reading booked 42 minutes start to stop although with much bigger loads of probably 12 to 15 coaches. Paddington to Reading start to pass was probably schedule for around 41 minute.

If 5043 passed Reading in 37 minutes this will not only, I suspect, have created a record in preservation, but will have achieved something which would have been very rare indeed in steam days.

I suspect that the working timetable for the down Bristolian in the late 50's before the 100 minutes acceleration, with a load of just 7 coaches (sometimes 8) that the Paddington to Reading start to pass time would have not been as low as 37 minutes achieved by 5043 yesterday.

All I can say is WOW!

 

Nick

The Yeovil Betrothal 16/06/07 6024 plus a load of 6 or 7( Not sure ) plus water carrier, from a standing start at Reading got to Paddington in 34 minutes from my records. Note : I am not a timer and would have recorded times to nearest minute.

Paul

 

A cracking run from Paddington. But why was it not planned to be timed as such originally? I'm not aware that it was a question of taking advantage of late running of other trains on the day. Clearly it was feasible to time the Flyer to run fast line and not delay the following S Wales HST. So why was this not planned from the outset? Is it because of computerised timing that produces overcautious schedules?

Theer are worrying implications for other steam charters. For example the Heart of Midlothian on 4th May took well over 7 hrs from York to Edinburgh. I believe that faster paths could have been available which apart from anything else would have made the journey time more attractive for the non enthusiast passenger as well as making for more interesting performance for the cognoscenti.

I just hope that the Bittern 90 mph runs benefit from realistic, attractive timings. For example I would think it should be possible to find a non stop path between York and Newcastle (70/75 mins for the 80 miles) in between other trains.

 

No problem!

 

The only relationship between art deco and that headboard is they both appeared int he 30's! Don't get me wrong, if your lucky winner doesn't want it I will find wall space for it, dead flies and all, but it would be for historical reasons, not aesthetics!

 

37 minutes is fine for the preservation era, must have been great experience for all on board. But my fading memory tells me that in the post war steam era "good runs" on that superbly aligned route were between 33 and 35 minutes Paddington to Reading. 36 miles. Start to Stop, not passing the station. I've found several between 33 and 35 minutes, Castles on circa 300 tons. One at least on a 35 minutes schedule to the Reading stop. Fastest I've found was 33.32 start to stop with a 74 max, 310 tons. I've also found a King run on a 31 minute schedule to passing Reading, which did it in 29.44. Just 250 tons and 88 max through Reading itself. Not sure what train it was.

Not surprising as I've always been lead to believe that Paddington - Reading was just about the best start out of any London Terminus. Very gentle uphill grades and some level stretches. So 37 minutes to pass or even to a stop was not an impossible schedule even on heavy loads. I have found some 37 minutes schedule runs with over 500 tons. Schedule not quite kept to passing Reading.

I can only find a very light weight pre World War One run at present. In 1903, a 4-4-0 on 130 tons passed Reading in 33.26, max speed of 73 mph.

The fastest runs must of course have been that by 5006 on 6th June 1932, Reading was passed in 29.02 on the down run. And the up run saw 26.36 from passing Reading into Paddington with a max of 91.5 mph.

 

A stunning day from start to end. We ( father and I ) missed the oportunity of 'The Bristolian' so there was no way we were going to miss out on this. VT were as professional as ever both on the footplate and onboard the train, making for a very special day.
I understand a few passangers were a little perturbed with the time we spent at Gloucester on the return, but to be fair we departed smack-on our booked time, what would you have prefered, an adherence from Pad to Gloucester with the return booked times and not the superb run we experienced? I know where I stand. Gave us all time to reflect on what we had all witnessed.
Our sincere thanks to all involved and now look forward to our trip to the seaside on the 25th.

 

To be fair, I think a sub 35 minute run would of been easily achievable had we been able to get on the power immediately out the platform at Paddington instead of that initial slow mile or so waiting for the down main to clear, either way it was fun watching the Turbo's on relief left in our wake.