Cathedrals Explorer

Hello all,

Pictures here: http://www.blackhatrailwaypictures.co.uk/p340977118

Report here;

Come and see the North East and its sights and scenery! See the Weardale and Wensleydale valleys with their gorgeous vales and panoramic views. You can imagine the brouchure of the Cathedrals Express saying something akin to that when the tour was announced but this was a tour beset with issues and hardships. Union of South Africa had already become the engine to salvage a programme from the tour, with the Cumbrian coast sacrificed for Steam haulage to Carlisle as the consequence, but with the K4 still under repair, and the Britannia sharing the same fate Union, filling in for another failed engine Tornado, was left to convey the passengers from Weardale and onwards. At least that was the plan. Sadly though Sunderland Railway stations equipment and alarms brought added missery for the planners with steam banned from there and under the lower Metro system wires. It meant a trip into the not quite so scenic Tees Yard, at least not now Thornaby depot has been demolished and for 66016 to become the engine of choice to haul the train around the Durham coast.

The weather didnt help. Union set off for Tees Yard from Stanhope in the glorious northern weather of continual perpetual drizzle, spoiling views and flooding lenses with water for those hardly souls brave enough to attempt to capture the A4 streaking eastwards. While the A4 battled the rain and slippery rails, those giving chased dodged puddles, streams on roads and spray from lorries making it like the North Atlantic - my morning not helped by the need to get a flat tire repaired.

With the A4 seen at Wolsingham alongside the rare sight of a Frieghtliner 66 on the coal train, it was time to chase. It was seen close to Harperley, before then at Witton-le-wear Crossing, Etherley viaduct and Shildon where it stopped and took on water. Then onwards for Heighington, the site where Locomotion No. 1 took to rails for the first time, and then Tees Yard. While the tour sped off being the GM powered 66, Union waited for it to return and the rain to clear.

From Tees Yard it was seen near the A19 from the Newport bridge, then at Nunthorpe and finally Battersby. Here 61264 was waiting for passengers to convey them to Whitby, disguised as 61002 Impala a regular North Eastern area B1. The two steam engines were seen alongside each other, more than a rare sight, more so at Battersby a station and junction litterally in the middle-of-nowhere.

While the A4 retired back to Darlington helped by 66016 the B1 shunted the stock over, ran round and then left for Whitby.

All in all, a memorable day for a number of reasons and it was delightful to see many freinds and enthusiasts around for the tour. A thanks to Geoff Longdon, Steve Campbell, Sam Woods and Terry Newman for the feedback and convo.

Hope you all enjoy,


David
aka the Black Hat

 

Very sad news indeed.

No doubt Al will give us a report soon.

 

I'll bet that went down well with the locals!

 

Many thanks for taking the trouble to give a comprehensive report Al, and for the earlier ones. I may not be able to book on trips at present but I still follow them when I can..

I'll get shouted down, yeti again, for my next few sentences. I've said it before and I am convinced it's the only way forward for main line steam to remain viable and allowable. It's my own version from the armchair , only these days it's mainly from an icy cold, wind and rain/snow swept upland moor waiting hours, sometimes several days for any action.

So shout away, I know many will. But it's like water off a ducks back to me these days.

1. Concentrate all main line steam infrastructure and resources into an absolute minimum number of locations. Maybe just two.

2. Operate only on a limited number of routes that will see main line steam quite regularly.

3. Standardise where even remotely possible. i.e the same braking system for all rolling stock.

There will be a cost.

Financially it will need the will and determination to believe in a less troubled future for main line steam. All of us will have to put our hands in our pockets to help finance it.

It will need a tremendous marketing effort to get a viable level of traffic on a reduced steam network.

And some icons and zealously guarded features such as making changes to loco etc braking systems, will either have to accept change or such icons will be left behind.

Without change I am convinced we are now presiding over the slow death of 19th century technology trying to keep it's place on a 21st century railway. With the "downs" like the Cathedrals Explorer 2013 getting more and more frequent than the "Ups" like the recent Cheltenham Flyer.

OK. Shout away everyone.

 

Won't shout you down Mr. Yeti but to concentrate steam in just two centres will leave many parts of the country without steam and thus reduce the potential customer base unless you propose vast light engine mileage to bring other parts of the country within reach of a tour. Another thing to consider is no matter how well locos are maintained, it's sometimes a tiny thing that gets a loco failed - Not always mechanical - and something that not so many years ago would not have resulted in failure at all. I'm not sure how the concentration of locos in a limited number of locations would guard against failure of the electronics now needed, something that does happen.

 

Forgot to add:-

4. All loco to become oil fired.

How many paying customers will be bothered by that I wonder?

But it would cut down the numbers of those wanting to finance the future I would accept.

 

So, if 60009 failed with a bearing problem as it seems at Doncaster, where does it go for fixing. It sounds like it should not have far to go. However, is it back to York? As long as it's towable or even under it's own steam. It was semi pencilled in for next Wednesday as a back up.

 

Usually if accessable they will take the offending parts off, take to crewe, remetal, machine and return.

Potter around the yard to confirm all OK, then back to base, did that up here when she failed in Tyne Yard.

 

Two bearings in the space of a week on the same locomotive, a little strange. I wonder if the oil spec has changed without the end user being informed? It has happened before.
If a 5AT or two (or three) had been built we would not be quite so anxious. And that that tender design proposed for the type could be modified to carry no end of EU driven electronic bloatware.
We get excited about the prospect of three mainline excursions offering 90mph. Quite wrong in a way. We should be able to call upon a locomotive that can achieve this and more on every trip, doing the donkey work so to speak. Our increasingly elderly preserved machines could then feature on specific legs of a tour, on secondary route sections for example, leaving the C21 machine to deal with the ECML, WCML, Western ML, etc.

 

I refer the right honourable gentleman to the answer I gave a moment ago:-

"It will need a tremendous marketing effort to get a viable level of traffic on a reduced steam network."

 

There are a number of season long, regular steam operations from "fixed centres." Tyseley with the Shakespears, Fort William with the Jacobites, Carnforth with the Fellsman and CME runs, Bristol with the Royal Duchy and Weymouth trips and York with the SSE. These seem to run without too many hiccoughs so which ones would be given the chop in the search of fewer centres of operation and greater reliability? I can see where you're coming from but I honestly believe the steam scene could improve on reliability without cutting back to as few as two centres of operation.

 

What is based at Bristol and what facilities do they have? Seems to me at most its used as a brief staging post for locos from elsewhere.

 

If you like the S15 that much... please.... take it with you.

 

Ungrateful so-and-so. The NYMR has not been exactly well-blessed with reliable motive power in recent years, and the S15 has put in some good work.

I like the shot, Al. An interesting comparison of 4-6-0 mixed traffic classes, designed around 30 years apart.

 

Locomotive Services have a two road shed at Bristol Barton Hill DBS depot which is normally used for servicing and maintenance of engines operating in wales and the west country. Engines are sometimes based there for several months at a time. It is currently being used by the 6024 Preservation Society for overhauling 6024's tender.

West Coast operated engines are sometimes stabled at the First Great Western HST depot at St Philips Marsh.

 

Nowt wrong with an S15.